Havering - Broadband more down than up

[David]

Anybody else having problems in the area. Broadband only seems able to stay up for a few hours before going down again. The last two weekends and last week it has been down most of the time and yesterday. Every time it goes down I have to switch my pace box off and on in order to get it back, now.

The pace box still has the second light on, indicating broadband connection and the info popups show an IP address.

I have made no changes my end.

Having to send this from work as it still wasn't back this morning. :D

Thanks in advance,
David

[IanUK]

Hi,

I'm in Havering, no problems here.
(Just one with the TV last Friday but Broadband is fine)

Now I've said it.....

[David]

Thanks IanUK.

When it comes back I will do some testing if I can, to try and see where the problem is.

David

[Chimaera]

No probs here - been away for a week but it's been ok since Sunday, browsing a little slow at times but nothing major. :shrug:
Where in Havering are you, David?

[David]

Hi Chimaera,

I am in Upminster. It looks as if my box is on its way out, though. It is finding it increasingly hard to pick up the TV channels. When it does the pictures are jumpy and pixelated and the sound keeps going off and on. Fortunately I have two boxes, so tried the other one in its place last night. It had no problems with the TV picture or sound.

Time to get in touch with customer support I think.

Does anyone know if the Samsung box is available in our area ?

Thanks,
David

[Paul K]

Definately looks like you need an engineer out, you could ask them to enable the second stb and disable the broadband on the faulty box while you are waiting for the engineer to replace the faulty STB. That way you can still use your connection and tv while you are waiting for a replacement, they only have to get you to read them the number on the card in the slot and then packet hit the box to enable it, doesn't take long and it will keep you happy too ;)
As to the new samsung I don't know if it's in use yet in this area, sometimes you just get a refurbed or new STB as a replacement, it all depends what is in the engineers van when he arrives.

[David]

Good idea Paul.

I'l try and get it swapped over. I meant to say before that the problems with the TV channels only started last night really. I had had a slight jumpyness/pixelation for some time but it has suddenly got far worse.

I used to think it was just a problem with the transmission.

Regards,
David

[Paul K]

Well if they can enable the working STB for you at least you will have full use of the service that you are paying for while you are waiting for the engineer to replace the faulty unit. It might be an idea to ask the engineer to check your signal levels too while he is there as sometimes they can be tweaked to improve things.

[David]

Have asked Customer Services to switch broadband to the other box. I'll reboot it tonight and see.

Unfotunately I cannot report a fault unless I am standing next to the box (they need to run some tests and have someone tell them what the display on the box is saying), so hopefully I will be able to do that tonight as well.

Thanks again to everyone for the help,
David

[Paul K]

Good luck on the phone tonight ;) Don't forget to ask the engineer to check the signal levels in case anything has caused them to deteriorate since the initial installation.

[David]

I rang up and reported the fault last night.

This time they said they could not do the tests themselves but would pass my details on to another department who would ring me back last night. Rang them back at 19:55 and was told that they would ring me back the following day. I said that I would be out until this evening, and they said not to worry as they would leave a message on the answer phone telling me what to do. I live in hope.

Tried rebooting my other box several times last night to get broadband working. The box has both lights on, an IP Address and a silver QOS.

I can ping by name/IP Address. The name is resolved to an IP address and I get replies that averegae between 35-40ms. I cannot traceroute to that name or IP address, though. I only get packets coming in when I ping. Nothing else returns packets.

I suppose it is time to call customer service again.

Ho Humm,
David

[Paul K]

My parents had a problem with their connection recently and it was displaying the same symptoms as yours, they finally got an engineer to visit and he had to replace the STB and cable for the connection to work correctly again.
I would puch CS to send an engineer out, remind them that you are paying for a servuice that currently you are not receiving and that you may have to look elsewhere for a broadband/ ADSL provider if they cannot get an engineer out to rememdy the connection. Sometimes it pays to remind NTL that they rely on your money to survive.

[Andrew_S]

I'm in Rainham and we've had a problem for very nearly a month now. In all likely hood it will crash very shortly and it'll be down for the rest of the day.

We've had 3 different engineers to our house all telling us different things, 1 network engineer out who did nothing after saying that he'd already fixed a problem round the corner, so there's no problem with it, which is a complete lie! We've had to wait on the phone for 50 mins 5 or 6 times trying to get someone to sort it out, ending in yet more lies from NTL. We're now waiting for one of the managers to try and sort it out for us, and she says that she will phone today. What are the chances!? :mad:

The incompetence that they've shown over the last few weeks is beyond belief. I registered on here previously when we were having it installed 2 or so years ago, I've now forgotten my password for that account! The 'techies' seemed to be very helpful then. Is there anyone around who knows anything as to why we've had no service for all this time now? Cheers, although I might not be able to read it for a while yet!

[Paul K]

I'm in Rainham and we've had a problem for very nearly a month now. In all likely hood it will crash very shortly and it'll be down for the rest of the day.

We've had 3 different engineers to our house all telling us different things, 1 network engineer out who did nothing after saying that he'd already fixed a problem round the corner, so there's no problem with it, which is a complete lie! We've had to wait on the phone for 50 mins 5 or 6 times trying to get someone to sort it out, ending in yet more lies from NTL. We're now waiting for one of the managers to try and sort it out for us, and she says that she will phone today. What are the chances!? :mad:

The incompetence that they've shown over the last few weeks is beyond belief. I registered on here previously when we were having it installed 2 or so years ago, I've now forgotten my password for that account! The 'techies' seemed to be very helpful then. Is there anyone around who knows anything as to why we've had no service for all this time now? Cheers, although I might not be able to read it for a while yet!
If you don't get any joy from the phone then there are a number of far more helpful/ resourceful/ knowledgeable members of CS/TS etc on this forum that would be more than happy to help or look into it for you. We are in the same area as you and have had no problems lately with the connection. Are you on a stand alone cable modem or Set Top Box?

[Andrew_S]

Stand alone Modem. First of all they blamed it on a problem all the way over in Seven Kings, that's now been fixed so they're just making up excuses now. We'll have to see if today brings anymore news! One things for sure, we'll be doing our hardest to get this months subscription back!

[Paul K]

They can tell through your account how much connectivity you have had so if it's been very poor this month I would tell them that as far as you are concerned they have not fulfilled their side of the contract agreement as they have failled to provide the paid for service.
Have they checked your signal levels etc?
Do you have a new/ fully working ethernet lead you can try to rule out damaged cable causing it?
Are you connecting directly to the SACM or through a router and is it straight to an ethernet connection or via USB?
Do you have a firewall installed that may be causing a problem with the IP address renewal?

[Andrew_S]

All the engineers have checked our signal levels, one changed them to 'what they should be' but it made no difference. It's a straight forward ethernet connection. We do have ZoneAlarm installed but we've had it since we got broadband and it hasn't caused us any problems. I've tried switching it off to see if it makes a difference, but no joy. We don't have another ethernet lead though, is this something that could affect it then? I would say it's doubtful but I suppose it could be worth a shot.

[Paul K]

If the ethernet lead is damaged you will see problems with the connection, drop outs being one of them. How often do you lose connection and how long does it stay lost?

[Andrew_S]

From about now, and then it's down for the rest of the day. It used to just drop out in the evening and weekends, which lead me to believe that they had a fault, and when the busy times arrived, it went 'bang' so to speak. We can only use it for 20 or so minutes a day, and that's first thing in the morning.

[Paul K]

So basically it's dropping out every 24 hours at near enough the exact same time? This does look like a problem at NTL's end but one thing I want to ask is (apart from the USB conection question that you missed lol) how did you switch ZA off and what operating system are you running?

[Andrew_S]

I turned off ZoneAlarm by right clicking on it and using the 'Shutdown ZoneAlarm' option. What was the USB question I missed then? lol

Thanks for all your help though.

[Paul K]

Nope that won't work properly with zone alarm, the only way to truly make sure it isn't running is to de-select the option to start ZA at startup and then re-boot. Probably not the problem but if you try that then you will know for sure if ZA is helping to drop the connection.
THe USB question was about how you connect to the SACM ;) Ethernet to ethernet or ethernet to USB dongle :)

[Andrew_S]

Ethernet to Ethernet then! ;)

[Paul K]

Aha that's ok then :) One thing you could do next time your connection is dropped is to point the browser at
192.168.100.1
and use
root
in the user name and password lines. This will open the CM diagnostics page, write down the settings/ readings from the configuration, status and operation configuration pages. Post them here and the techs can look at them to see if anything obvious is happening when the connection drops :)
Do NOT change anything within these pages as it can make the problem even worse and if an engineer came out and found settings tampered with you can be charged the call out fee which is around £70 I think.

[Paul K]

Aaaaargh :mad: After my last post OUR connection failled, we have an engineer booked for tomorrow (may not be needed now but who knows) and the connection has only just returned :(
Will wait till morning to see if it's back to normal before I try to contact NTL to call off the engineer that they said we needed as they couldn't figure out what was up with the connection.

[Andrew_S]

We must be in unison! Shortly after my last post this morning, the connection dropped and has been out all day. I've just stuck my head round the corner to see the modem proudly flashing away as it should do.

We've got another Network Engineer coming out tomorrow to check the cable from the green box to our house as he's adament that there's no problem with any of their equipment in the street. I await with baited breath!

Cheers once again for all of your suggestions! :)

[Paul K]

We must be in unison! Shortly after my last post this morning, the connection dropped and has been out all day. I've just stuck my head round the corner to see the modem proudly flashing away as it should do.

We've got another Network Engineer coming out tomorrow to check the cable from the green box to our house as he's adament that there's no problem with any of their equipment in the street. I await with baited breath!

Cheers once again for all of your suggestions! :)
Don't delay him too badly, looks like he is coming here afterwards :rofl: Thought your connection had died this morning, think we lost ours about 30 mins later :(

[Ignition]

Anyone need a hand while I'm feeling helpful?