Outage in Manchester

[Florence]

I lost the internet last night at around 9.38 I phoned tech support on the 0845 number and this had a message telling me to use BBmedic.. (sure thing I have it on the pc but it will not cure a dead connection) so I hang online, next message tells me that there is a 60 min wait for tech support
After almost 60 mins I got through.. This is where the fun starts..
tech support said he was waiting for the modem to reply, then said it was taking a while. Then said the levels was fine just 100% pocket loss to the modem. He then said an engineer would need to come out looked like the modem had died. I explained the modem was trying to find sync but couldn't... His reply it’s stuck in a loop. He puts me on hold while he speaks to the supervisor to SEE if he can arrange a visit from an engineer. when he came back it was have you got a mobile then someone will call in the next 24/48hours to arrange the engineer visit. so I was left high and dry..

sent a text to a good friend next thing I had a replacement modem guess it wasn't the modem after all. Back on to tech support 0845 number same messages but not the 60 min wait. I explained what I was told but this time she said we have 230 users from that box and 213 are online now so it can't be that.. You still need the engineer out first then he sets up for the network guys to come out.

There was no way the 213 users could be online.
Today at 12pm the fault was repaired it could have been fixed quicker had the tech support acted on what I had told them!!!

NTL have forced good staff to leave and today I am told they are recruiting why make good staff redundant then take on new staff unless NTL no longer want customer focused staff but those who like last nights tech support have to clear everything with the supervisor first. I would have thought if the customer has no service then its the engineer out not ask if the engineer can come.

I know NTL think the customers are dumb but a large percentage are not and dislike being treated like they are.

Its time the chiefs was cut so they could employ more of the people who meet and work with the customers.
Rant over

Thank you to the one person up north that makes staying with NTL worth it.

[Florence]

It is interesting 49 views but no answers yet there are blatent lies in that post.

1. how could he get a feed back from a modem that isn't synced with the network coz the network is down?
2. why did he have to get authourisation to send out an engineer?
3. why did he not arrange a time for the visit instead of giving a 24/48 hour slot for someone to call to arrange the visit?
4. why did she say there was 230 on my box when the box only takes 48 in the street cab?

MPO they didn't get any feedback and due to the time wanted me off the phone as quick as possible without a satisfactory conclusion.
On the recall tried to pass it off as still the modem.
Didn't know what the amps was in the box? personally I think she looked at the UBRs when she said there was 230 on mine and 213 where still online..

I now await a large phone bill 60mins waiting until I was answered then the time explaining and receiving help, the recall and another 15mins wait plus tine talking.

This morning I used the free number and had CS do the talking to faults and was told it was an area fault. If they had listened to me my downtime would have been less than the 16 hours.

Originally Posted by Kits

This morning I used the free number and had CS do the talking to faults and was told it was an area fault. If they had listened to me my downtime would have been less than the 16 hours.

1) That would make sense

2) They like to think customers are stupid ICT wise

3) I worry with all the cuts and new staff if anyone knows what they are doing there

[carlingman]

Originally Posted by Kits

It is interesting 49 views but no answers yet there are blatent lies in that post.

1. how could he get a feed back from a modem that isn't synced with the network coz the network is down?
2. why did he have to get authourisation to send out an engineer?
3. why did he not arrange a time for the visit instead of giving a 24/48 hour slot for someone to call to arrange the visit?
4. why did she say there was 230 on my box when the box only takes 48 in the street cab?

MPO they didn't get any feedback and due to the time wanted me off the phone as quick as possible without a satisfactory conclusion.
On the recall tried to pass it off as still the modem.
Didn't know what the amps was in the box? personally I think she looked at the UBRs when she said there was 230 on mine and 213 where still online..

I now await a large phone bill 60mins waiting until I was answered then the time explaining and receiving help, the recall and another 15mins wait plus tine talking.

This morning I used the free number and had CS do the talking to faults and was told it was an area fault. If they had listened to me my downtime would have been less than the 16 hours.

Hmm as you say 49 views and no reply what did you expect then as this forum as you know is not monitored by NTL.

Im guessing you could have had 49 replies saying typical NTL bullsh1t

Point 1 - who knows this is NTL after all maybe nowadays they can get some sort of reading remotely as people can when the modem dies i.e. that is a snapshot of the levels from the diagnostics when the connection dies.

Point 2 - Same old NTL procedures back in the ole days when I worked there as at some point only a Senior like myself or a Team Leader could authorise engineer bookings.

Point 3 - Again not sure of procedures now but in my days we had to phone and book the engineer visiti after the call had finished.

Point 4 - I think you will find that the box takes more than 213 as they were probably referring to an upstream 1 rather than upstreams 1 to 6 and each upstream can take from memory 1 to 200 users per channel.

All in all though looks like NTL are still offering the constant flow of bullsh1t and anything to get the customer off the line so they can move on to the next call and keep the KPI stats flowing.

Pretty abysmal KITS the way you have been dealt with but after all this is NTL we are talking about so I myself am not surprised.

Originally Posted by carlingman

Point 4 - I think you will find that the box takes more than 213 as they were probably referring to an upstream 1 rather than upstreams 1 to 6 and each upstream can take from memory 1 to 200 users per channel.

The street cabinets on average here in the north west take 48 users. I agree with Kits here that the check was done on the ubr not the modem.

Would love to see the size of a cabinet that takes over 200

[Swipe]

For the last week or so the light on my STB has been flashing for 2 minute intervals then regaining connection. This seems to happen every 2 hours or so. Is anyone else in the Stoke area getting this?

[BBKing]

Looking at your UBR, card 5 had a drop of a few modems late on the 3rd, came back around 11am yesterday. Can't remember off the top of my head what card you're on, Kits, if you drop me your new modem's MAC I'll have a look.

What is certain is that there hasn't been a major outage with hundreds of boxes offline in the last few days in your area, I'd therefore suspect an outage local to you - if you still had an STB I could tell in more detail...

1. how could he get a feed back from a modem that isn't synced with the network coz the network is down?
2. why did he have to get authourisation to send out an engineer?
3. why did he not arrange a time for the visit instead of giving a 24/48 hour slot for someone to call to arrange the visit?
4. why did she say there was 230 on my box when the box only takes 48 in the street cab?

1. Assuming he was using the usual tool, he was looking at your connection from the UBR end. Now we know the UBR was there, so he could get a feed back from that. One of the tests is a ping to your modem on the last IP address it had - this evidently failed with 100% packet loss (he could also have seen the online status of the modem, which presumably showed offline). There isn't (currently) a way for the tech to probe the modem directly - after all, when teching an offline modem, it would be pretty stupid to make the tool dependent on the modem being online!

2. No idea - Mark B might know better

3. Ditto - not my area of expertise

4. He was almost certainly talking about your upstream - about half the upstreams on your UBR are in the 200-250 range (remember the 200-per-upstream thing is out of date and misleading in areas with STBs or 3.2Mhz upstreams, what matters is the absolute usage)

[raimundo]

The reason I joined this forum is that for about a month now I have had continuing interrupted service (Manchester area). The symptom is that the connection can just drop - I lose my fixed IP (1.5mbps connection).
I have tried everything including moving from USB to Ethernet, calling an engineer 3 times (never find anything wrong), rebooting, switching modem on and off, disabling/enabling it.

Sometimes this works - since going to ethernet and a proxy server, the line still drops (All the lights on modem are as tey should be - so the connection is there, it just can't resolve URL's or the IP changes to all zeroes etc etc), but I can usually get things back up after a few minutes.

This problem can happen daily, hourly. It's unpredictable and very annoying. I have XP(SP2), I use the XP firewall.

Can somebody tell me if this is likely to be a problem with my PC or is it just the NTL servers/routers or whatever.

I am pretty close to calling it a day and moving to another ISP. I just can't seem to get NTL NOT to send an engineer who is only allowed to look at my PC when I need someone at the business end of the Manchster area NTL network to check out their equipment.

[Florence]

Hi raimundo I had a similar proplem for ages the internet would just suddenly drop then come back, webpages loaded like 56K connection... I should PM BBKing your modems mac he has a great program he wrote that can spot things. Shame NTL don't use it in every area it could solve a lot of wasteful engineer appointments when its the network.

Mind it all the network engineers was put back looking after the netork and not going out dealing with faults then network would run better.

[Chris W]

2. Without being able to see the report that the tech you spoke to was looking at, it is hard to know. If it was a channel SNR issue, rather than an individual issue, it will be escalated in a different way to a normal single customer fault. It may also have been that the tech did not require authorisation, but needed a fault ticket raised on a different database that first line support do not have access to (nb this only applies in Bromley areas). Or perhaps FMT were investigating a possible issue, and the agent wasn't sure whether he should requesst an engineer, or advise you that it was a known fault..... As you can see... could be a number of reasons.

3. Technical support is a national call centre, and will collate details and assess if an engineer request is necessary. If it is, then they will send details to the local faults offices. The engineer appointments are booked from here- as it would be an administrative nightmare to manage all of the countries network engineers from one place. And also it doesn't require someone technical to agree a time for an appointment.

In some areas, customers are transferred to faults to have the appointment booked immediately, but if you are in an area where this doesn't happen, or call out of hours (8-8 mon to fri or 9-6 sat) then obviously the booking will not be possible and you will receive a callback.

[BBKing]

he has a great program he wrote that can spot things. Shame NTL don't use it in every area it could solve a lot of wasteful engineer appointments when its the network.

Going live this week, although aimed at the DTV guys for finding problematic STBs. Anyone ntl related who's interested, PM me.

raimundo's problem sounds like a modem on the edge - little fluctuations can push it offline. Can check if I get the MAC.

[jingleman]

BB King - I have just posted you an e-mail to you. I too am getting frequent dropped connections here in Stoke.

One thing I have noted is that each time signal drops, get new
Lease obtained info:

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 05 September 2004 20:38:59
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 05 September 2004 20:46:33

[Florence]

Here is a thought that NTL should consider as high priority.
Every BB account has a unique number which if BB is down will allow them access to the 56K free calls internet. After all we are paying for 300k, 750K or 1.5mb to have access only @56K for 16 hours or as in the time before 4 days before the service was restored this would place NTL upfront with all Internet service providers as supplying the complete service plus backup.

[Swipe]

My BB has been up and down all evening tonight. I've had about 10 3-5min outages now. This happened last night too but not quite as frequent. Any ideas anyone? I think I'll log a call tomorrow from work. Any others in Stoke getting these probs?

[Mick]

Originally Posted by Swipe

My BB has been up and down all evening tonight. I've had about 10 3-5min outages now. This happened last night too but not quite as frequent. Any ideas anyone? I think I'll log a call tomorrow from work.

They probably will not be able to help you its best to call them when you are at your PC.