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View Full Version : Known fault in Ipswich area - can anyone help?


BeckyD
19-03-2008, 23:40
Hi folks, wondering if someone from VM (or any customers "in the know") can give me some insight. I live in Ipswich and there has been an ongoing local fault across IP1, IP2, and IP3 for nearly a week (I'm in IP1). The VM status page (ticket number 668341) is updated sporadically and only ever says that VM are aware of the problem and the Estimated Time is 4 hours. I've phoned tech support twice only to be told that the fault will be fixed within a matter of hours which never happens. The telephone status helpline doesn't appear to have been updated since the first day of the fault.

I understand that faults happen, but I'm feeling incredibly frustrated by the lack of progress and the fact that nobody will tell me what's going on. My internet connection regularly comes to a complete stop several times throughout the day and browsing is generally slow. Sorry to be a nag, I'm not generally a complainer, but can anyone shed some light on what's going on?

Many thanks. :)

tt1
20-03-2008, 00:28
Your not alone - ever since an complete outage on the evening of the 12th March the service has been hanging at various times and sometimes not available

Downloading is painful and Im just holding back on any downloads untils its fixed

I guess we just have to wait till they do

The 4 hour fix mentioned in the ticket way overdue now

Fingers crossed that its fixed in time for the Easter weekend at least

Gizmo1
20-03-2008, 00:28
Hi

I'm in IP4, we lost all services TV and Broadband last Wednesday (12/3) at about 22.10 hours and did not get it back until sometime later in the night. I then saw the note of problems in IP on the VM site.

Browsing (on 20mb) was very slow most of the time before the outage and seems much the same since.

I have been told by an engineer that the Ipswich UBR are heavily overloaded and so we are unlikely to full speed until these are upgraded, but no one knows when that will be.

I would love to know when they are going to sort things out!

Regards

G

tt1
25-03-2008, 00:33
Is this fixed now?

the Service status ticket has disappeared despite no "fixed" type update

and the speed as at Sunday night is as bad as before

Anyone in Ipswich confirm whether VM have tried to pull a fast one here?

BeckyD
25-03-2008, 00:40
tt1 - I can confirm that the problem hasn't been fixed for me either. It seems to be particularly bad during the evening, but is still slow thorughout the rest of the day. I actually experienced a complete loss of connection for severl minutes just now.

I hadn't actually looked at the ticket status for a couple of days as I assumed it hadn't been fixed. That's how bad things still are here.

I'll get my hubby to give TS a bell when he gets home in an hour and see if they admit a problem or try to fob us off.

---------- Post added at 23:40 ---------- Previous post was at 23:39 ----------

BTW, forgot to add that the ticket can still be accessed here, and it's considered closed:

http://status-cable.virginmedia.com/vmstatus/serviceissue.do?ticket=668341

tt1
25-03-2008, 01:08
Thanks for the confirmation LadyM!

That ticket link you gave mentions "A configuration issue in the area caused this outage"

What 10 days worth? Are they trying to be funny d'ya think?

Your right though - its exactly the same performance for me as on the 12th...waiting for connections, complete loss of connection and seriously bad downloads

I aint gonna pay for 20Smegs of this dire service..that ticket may just be reopened if enough people like us complain enough tomorrow

BeckyD
25-03-2008, 01:19
My thoughts exactly tt1, I was expecting something a bit more complex than a config issue. When my husband spoke to TS over a week ago, he was told they didn't know what the problem was, but that it was definitely something major.

I'll update here with any progress after contacting TS.

mrk2y
25-03-2008, 11:10
maybe i will wait before I get virgin BB
at least I get a reliable (if slow) connection with BT

BeckyD
25-03-2008, 16:53
mrk2y - can't say I blame you for being unsure. I know I'd stick with an ISP that was consistent compared to one that offered higher speeds but was up and down all over the place. Hence why I'm seriously deliberating moving to Sky....

I haven't called TS yet as *touch wood* the connection seems to be much better at the moment. I'm getting up to 19Mb at times, but it's the cutouts that annoy me most. I'll see how the evening goes, as that's when it's usually worst, and if I'm still having trouble I'll give them a bell.

tt1
25-03-2008, 17:18
Thanks for the update LadyM

I'll see how it fairs tonight when Im back from work before also contacting TS

mrk2y
25-03-2008, 17:20
mrk2y - can't say I blame you for being unsure. I know I'd stick with an ISP that was consistent compared to one that offered higher speeds but was up and down all over the place. Hence why I'm seriously deliberating moving to Sky....

I haven't called TS yet as *touch wood* the connection seems to be much better at the moment. I'm getting up to 19Mb at times, but it's the cutouts that annoy me most. I'll see how the evening goes, as that's when it's usually worst, and if I'm still having trouble I'll give them a bell.

I tried SKY, they have a good offer, but at the end of the day, you get what you pay for !
I was not happy with SKY at all. Slow connection speeds, some days I could not even get a connection and at times it was under 500kbs. They also promised the upto 24mb, but do to being over subscribed at the foxhall exchange, offered me the connect service (only £5 a month) but as I say, you get what you pay for

BT is much better, but now I have Virgin TV, i was looking at getting the broadband as well, please let me know if the connection issue gets resolved, I am still interested

tt1
25-03-2008, 23:52
There is absolutely NO way this problem is resolved

I've just waited 90 seconds for this cableforum page to finally load. A constant 'ping' gives me more 'Request Timed Out's than hits. Its exactly the same as a week ago

If its good performance during the day as LadyM gets, then this quite obviously has all the hallmarks of Oversubscribed UBR - which is exactly what someone tipped earlier in the thread was the problem

At this point I dont think it may get better unless we let them know - although i suspect they well know about it and just cant give a firm date when it may be fixed

The old IT support trick of closing a call and opening a new one (looks better for stats) aint fooling me...

Would be interested to know any other Ipswich performances - Im in IP1 district btw

BeckyD
26-03-2008, 00:26
tt1 - my service is awful as well this evening. The last hour or so has been particularly bad. I would suggest you call TS as I've done so and they've arranged an engineer to visit me tomorrow afternoon. I don't think they believe it's an area fault at this stage.

Unfortunately, because the problem presents itself in the evening and night, I'm concerned that the engineer won't find any problems when he visits. Hence the need for more people in the area to contact TS if possible.

I am certain this is still the same fault that's supposedly rectified, as my connection was pretty good up until the fault first happened. Something has definitly happened in the last fortnight and it's showing no sign of letting up.

BTW, I'm in IP1 as well - handford/london road area.

tt1
26-03-2008, 00:58
Will contact them to

The galling thing is that up until the 12th I can quite safely say my 20M had been fantastic for months and months. I would always hear the horror stories of BT and other ISP's and the myriad of problems friends and colleagues at work had

And often gloated at the rock solid performance I always had with VM

Until "the 12th of March" !!!!!

Anyway will let you know how it goes aswell

---------- Post added at 23:58 ---------- Previous post was at 23:33 ----------

Now I am abit peeved

Raised a call - they insist its likely a problem with my - and get this - virus software and/or PC but will send an engineer on Thursday which - I am also informed - if I miss will get charged £10

Despite all my attempts to tell him that the problem started exactly same time as the original ticket and the symptoms are exactly the same, he assures me the engineer will fix when he comes

Ah well - what can you do......???!!!

BeckyD
26-03-2008, 01:20
Looks like you spoke to a less helpful person than me. The woman I spoke to only checked that we were connected directly to the modem, then booked an engineer. No queries were made about whatever software we might be running. She did mention a £10 charge if we miss the engineer, but also said that we would be refunded the cost of the call regardless of the outcome.

I'll let you know what the engineer says tomorrow. :)

Rich153
26-03-2008, 10:40
I am in Ipswich , I used to live in ip3 now living in ip2 and have been with ntl/virgin for 18 month's + on 4mb and apart from the outage on the 12th march have never had a speed problem apart from a couple of times I've been stm's.
In fact the speed test's I have run since the 12th have shown speed's above 4mb.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/03/13.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

mrk2y
26-03-2008, 11:48
isnt this the upgrade, from 4mb to 10mb ?
looking at the speed, you are getting faster speeds than I am (currenty on BT Broadband) - contracts ends soon
(upto 8MB)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/03/12.png
I have been watching this thread, to decide if I should wait, and get cable or go to another ADSL+ provider, I think I will take the pludge !

Rich153
26-03-2008, 12:34
the 4-10mb upgrade is still TBC for Ipswich. http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/existingcustomers/faster/schedule.html

BeckyD
26-03-2008, 13:52
OK, the engineer has just been and spent over half an hour with us. Basically, he believes there is definitely a network fault as he has attended several calls this morning in our area (IP1) with exactly the same problem. However, the people he reports to are still blaming the individual users and refusing to take responsibility!

While he was here, he did witness the cutouts and intermittent speeds, so it appears the problem isn't exclusive to evenings and nights (I and my husband work late/night shifts, so usually have no idea what performance is like in the morning). We ran the computer in safe mode, and the engineer tried downloading a 500Mb file from VM's servers which varied wildly between speeds of 40k and 600k.

The only thing he was allowed to do for us was swap out the modem and power adaptor, which he felt was pointless but had no choice. He told us he would be placing a note on our account stating that, in his opinion, there is an area fault and that we should contact TS as soon as it happens again. That will probably be this afternoon, as it's already cut out once more already.

It's pretty appalling that even the engineer's own advice is being ignored. Unfortunately, that leaves myself and other customers having issues between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to turn. tt1 - I wish you better luck tomorrow.

Rich - glad to hear you're having a more reliable service. Interesting that you're getting higher than expected speeds, does the modem say you're on the 4Mb tier?

BeckyD
26-03-2008, 16:28
Update: Called TS again, during the phone call the connection went up and down like a yo-yo as usual. Eventually, the chap decided he was going to speak to a superior and call us back.

About 20 mins later, another engineer arrived. Apparantly, this was one of the guys who dealt with the original fault and he was still investigating problems in the area. It seems that the incident on the 12th was caused by a power outage to VM equipment (Tesco Copdock area). Although power was restored later that night, it led to a configuration issue which took nearly a fortnight to resolve.

Around that time, VM engineers installed a piece of hardware which it turns out is clashing with existing hardware. This is apparantly what's been causing the cutouts and varying speeds. The conflicting hardware was being removed while our engineer was doing tests on our line and so far *touch wood* I'm getting about 10Mb pretty consistently.

Here's something funny - as my husband was answering the door to the engineer, a neighbour walked by and asked "Are you here to sort out the internet? It's been all over the place lately." So looks like our immediate neighbours have noticed the abysmal service too! :D

tt1
26-03-2008, 19:10
Thanks and well done LadyM!

Armed with this info I will be sure to give the guy some s*** tomorrow if he tries a fob-off

Unless there is a miracle and they do remove and fix it today

I'd love an update tonight LadyM if you can - I will do the same

If all goes well I may be able to cancel the visit tomorrow

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 16:22 ----------

An update - as at 6:09pm the service is absolutely unusable

That engineer had better have earplugs tomorrow....

mrk2y
26-03-2008, 20:19
I hope all the problems get resolved, I am having XL BB installed next thursday! I am in IP4 so HOPEFULLY no such problems, but hope you get the issues resolved soon.

sollp
26-03-2008, 20:44
Thanks and well done LadyM!

Armed with this info I will be sure to give the guy some s*** tomorrow if he tries a fob-off

Unless there is a miracle and they do remove and fix it today

I'd love an update tonight LadyM if you can - I will do the same

If all goes well I may be able to cancel the visit tomorrow

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 16:22 ----------

An update - as at 6:09pm the service is absolutely unusable

That engineer had better have earplugs tomorrow....

Hi, can you PM me the road you are in, don't have to give a number. Also the Service Tech who will visit you tommorow is there to fix the fault within his limits/boundary's, So giving him an earful is totally unfair and unescesary and will not help. Give him the information, without exagerating either, and hopefully you might have a fault within your installlation in the house that is specific to you and he will be able to fix it there an then.

Ladyminion, how is the Broadband now?

BeckyD
26-03-2008, 21:12
tt1 and sollp - I'm afraid it's bad news from me as well. Speed is intermittent once again and the cutouts are still occuring. To top it off, the modem itself failed to boot about 20 mins ago and has only just started working again. Unfortunately, I have a busy evening planned and can't keep phoning TS, but I will do so later if I can.

One thing I will say is please don't give the engineer any grief, I've actually found them to be stellar guys. They agreed with me all the way that the problem is within the network, but nobody wants to listen to them either. I'm sure when yours visits tomorrow, he/she won't make any attempt to fob you off. I can only hope that enough people contact TS and whoever is in charge starts taking things seriously because this really is getting beyond a joke.

I will update later if I have any news, if not then good luck tomorrow tt1. :)

tt1
26-03-2008, 23:59
- Re Engineer
I'll go easy on him as I agree in the past they are OK guys whose hands are tied
Why those muppets in India are sending him anyway is a mystery but I suppose
they need to build up a picture of problem calls and investigate them
;)

As for "might have a fault within your installlation in the house that is specific to you" ???
I'll pass on a comment on that one - I think the thread speaks for itself though

Also tonight is def the worst so far given the glimmer of hope today with the update from those engineers earlier.If they have changed something again - they've made it worse!

Ah well early night as a result - will update tomorrow evening following my engineer visit

Rich153
27-03-2008, 00:00
Ladyminion modem con fig is what it has always been for 4mb but this extra speed I am getting might be something to-do with the area fault.

peanut
27-03-2008, 01:22
The IP2 area was a bit off yesterday but seemed fine today. I'm on 20mb, and it's pretty much like the graph shows attached 24/7.

BeckyD
27-03-2008, 06:54
I spoke to TS again after getting home about 4am. I'm afraid this time the chap was quite argumentative and insisted that it was either my (non-existant!) firewall or that I must have malware on my system. I explained the events of the day and the opinion of the engineers I had spoken to over and over until I was blue in the face, but he would not listen.

When I told him the problem is evident on all 3 of my PCs, he then asked me to connect one of the others to the modem and go through the usual checks with him. Unfortunately, I cannot do this as the other two machines are in a different room and can only connect through my wireless router, which will obviously get blamed instead. I really feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall, TS are doing all their utmost to avoid taking any responsibility for this problem.

I will try again tomorrow. Failing that, I really am thinking of throwing in the towel and paying BT to fit me a line so I can switch ISPs.

tt1
27-03-2008, 09:45
I will try again tomorrow. Failing that, I really am thinking of throwing in the towel and paying BT to fit me a line so I can switch ISPs.

At the very least if nothing seems to improve or get done in the next week I will firstly switch to 4M as I refuse to pay a premium for a service thats not up to it (20M) until such a time that I am confident that its worth switching back to 20M

As for another ISP - well I have no BT lines at present so it would be hassle and I believe BT may be no better (significantly slower for sure)


Actually today I am working from home (due to the planned engineer visit later today). I will be seeing if the service is better during the day as a result

Report back tonight when engineer has called although everything that you have reported back LadyM doesnt fill me with too much hope

---------- Post added at 08:45 ---------- Previous post was at 08:42 ----------

The other thing I will add to a couple of people who have commented on this thread - its not a case of getting 20M its the fact that the service is slow, hangs, stops and is all over the place. Whilst I could run a speed test and get a good speed - that speed test is only as good as the 30seconds it takes to run it

Its no indication of the problem here - a continuous ping would be more accurate

I should know I work in IT !!

tt1
27-03-2008, 12:56
Update
Its just as bad during the day it seems

TheBeard
27-03-2008, 13:19
I spoke to TS again after getting home about 4am. I'm afraid this time the chap was quite argumentative and insisted that it was either my (non-existant!) firewall or that I must have malware on my system.


Hmmmm sounds familiar!

I've been having problems with my 4meg speed for a while now, so i had an engineer over this morning to replace my modem and power cable which sorted the problem for about an hour and a half and then hey presto! the old problems resurfaced so i called ts and got the same cowplop as the Lady had about it being a problem with my firewall (again non existent!) or antivirus software.

I've gone and made a complaint about this terrible level of service and am waiting for them to call.

I'll keep you all posted

p.s i'm in the IP1 area and my house is 15-20 feet away from the big green exchange type box thingy and have 3 suppressors on my cable as i was told by the engineer that my signal is too strong as i live that close, does anyone know if this is true or is it more cowplop from virgin?

BeckyD
27-03-2008, 15:29
Just got up and service seems to be OK at the moment. That said, the husband is on the phone to Sky right now asking what services would be available to us. I'm still reeling from the conversation I had with TS last night.

tt1 - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you this afternoon, though I suspect you won't have any problems with the engineer anyway. I'm going to PM you my street name in a sec so you can have an idea where the problem is occuring.

TheBeard - welcome to the forum. :) Sounds like you're having as much fun with this as me (i.e. none). I hope your complaint is given serious attention, do let us know what VM say. I'm afraid I don't know anything about the signal being too strong, but I am quite close to the local green box as well.

I've decided to switch to the 4Mb service for the time being as I'm b**ggered if I'm paying close to £40 a month when I'm lucky to get half the speed advertised. I know the cutouts will still occur, but at least I won't be paying so much.

TheBeard
27-03-2008, 16:01
Just had the engineer pop back round after doing another job just up the road and that customer had the same problem as we are having. The engineer has told his area manager who admitted there is a major problem with the network in the IP1 area and it SHOULD be sorted within 48 hours. so we'll have to wait and see what happens!

if only virgin's telephone support network were as helpful as their engineers!

tt1
27-03-2008, 16:07
Another glimmer of hope I suppose !!!

Perhaps my visit in about an hour or two will confirm once and for all!!!

LadyM! Hold onto that 20M for a few more days !!!

;)

BeckyD
27-03-2008, 16:13
TheBeard - that's great news! Let's hope they really have found the fault this time.

tt1 - My husband did ring CS to get a package downgrade, but they offered us a better price on the 20Mb because of the tech problems so we've gone with that instead. :)

tt1
27-03-2008, 18:22
OK the engineer has been - apparently this is the first of this sort of problem he has attended BUT he is aware of everything listed in this thread (ie the power outage and subsequent problems for last two weeks)

He replaced my modem power adapter LOL !!! But it was using an old Terajon one from when they replaced that one about a year ago, but he agreed thats just an obvious thing that should be changed

Anyway luckily I was able to show him an absolutely dire performance so he rang his manager who seemed to be aware of issues in this area and that it may be stemming from the original ticket problem

It looks like these sort of engineer visit calls for this area may be routed straight to the Networks team as the engineer agreed there is nothing he can do (a nice chap!)

Apparently this issue which may be quite isolated to IP1 (or Node 7 as he mentioned) and it will be raised at their morning meeting whereupon his manager will see if an official ticket can be raised again. This would seem to imply if it happens they are finally agreeing there is an issue.

So I guess theres not much can be done further until they do this but I sensed that the other calls in this area with similar problems seems to be having some effect

I'm going to ponder on how long I will give them to fix this before I've had enough

Interestingly I also checked with a work colleague who works from home at an IP4 address on 4Meg and it seems to have been fine for him. I really think its an unfortunately isolated area of Ipswich thats affected - and unlucky for us we are in it....

sollp
27-03-2008, 20:50
As annoying as this fault is,(and i agree it is) please be patient as i and others are working to resolve this problem.

tt1
27-03-2008, 20:57
We will - Id just like it officially to be recognised by VM (Mgt)

The Engineers and their managers seem to be aware but its just that 'official' ticket would be nice

Thanks for the update sollp

LadyM - I PM'd ya!

BeckyD
27-03-2008, 21:37
Got your PM tt1, glad that VM seem to be taking this issue a bit more seriously now. :)

sollp, I greatly appreciate all the help the engineers and yourself are giving. I imagine it's been just as frustrating an experience for you as it has for us. :)

tt1
29-03-2008, 18:51
A veritable bump

Does anyone have any more info? Are the speeds as bad still or can someone in the know advise what may have been done

I thought it may have been better but this evening is starting to prove otherwise....

Time to get back on the phone again???

TIA

BeckyD
29-03-2008, 19:43
It is going up and down for me a bit today tt1, but I'm not having cutout problems like I was before. You may want to contact sollp (though he's probably keeping an eye on this thread anyway) as he was making some config changes last night.

I'm really just waiting to see if things are resolved over the weekend. If there's no real positive change, then I'll have to re-think my options next week.

tt1
29-03-2008, 20:23
LadyM as ever thanks for more info

I swear it seemed to be abit better last night and this morning - I was making up for lost time with some downloading and..yeah..it really did seem better

Then this evening The up and down started again so I wasnt sure

I'd really appreciate any update sollp can give

I have patience to get this resolved as its not like its completely down...but my fear is that problem is overlooked (as there is still no official ticket) and I end up paying
for a service that isnt uptospec...

Thats my only concern - its overlooked or forgotten....

Like you LadyM even though CS have contacted us...time is ticking for me also

Contacting TS seems a complete waste of time ...especially in evening when we are routed to the other side of the world..But CS informed me that may change in the future (??)

sollp
29-03-2008, 23:32
LadyM as ever thanks for more info

I swear it seemed to be abit better last night and this morning - I was making up for lost time with some downloading and..yeah..it really did seem better

Then this evening The up and down started again so I wasnt sure

I'd really appreciate any update sollp can give

I have patience to get this resolved as its not like its completely down...but my fear is that problem is overlooked (as there is still no official ticket) and I end up paying
for a service that isnt uptospec...

Thats my only concern - its overlooked or forgotten....

Like you LadyM even though CS have contacted us...time is ticking for me also

Contacting TS seems a complete waste of time ...especially in evening when we are routed to the other side of the world..But CS informed me that may change in the future (??)

There is a ticket raised for this problem, and it hasn't been forgotten.

Just had a look at the UBR you are on, and it looks alot more stable now, Downstreams aren't losing connectivity as before.

what?
30-03-2008, 20:54
hi, just checked up on the vm internal status page with the reference number you gave in the original post and the ticket status is set to closed.

unfortunatly i cant see what ubr your listed on from that outage to check up on any other issues listed. also as your area is former ntl i work on former telewest side so have limited access to ntl faults, if you speak to tech support get the remedy number from them though and next time im in work if your still having issues i can have a check up on it for you.

sollp
01-04-2008, 23:28
Ok, Can anyone in the area affected give me an update?

BeckyD
02-04-2008, 01:01
sollp, things have been pretty good here over the last couple of days. Haven't noticed any cutouts and general speed seems fine - still fluctuating a bit, but nothing you'd really notice with regular browsing. Basically, everything seems to be back to normal. :)

mrk2y
02-04-2008, 18:06
thats good :)
right ready for my install in the morning (IP4 area)
hope I dont experience any problems.

sollp
02-04-2008, 19:50
sollp, things have been pretty good here over the last couple of days. Haven't noticed any cutouts and general speed seems fine - still fluctuating a bit, but nothing you'd really notice with regular browsing. Basically, everything seems to be back to normal. :)

Good.

mrk2y
03-04-2008, 17:27
Got my XL BB installed today
cant use it until sunday, they said the network was done, excisting people can use it but not new installs !
great, roll on sunday 8am

sollp
03-04-2008, 19:47
Got my XL BB installed today
cant use it until sunday, they said the network was done, excisting people can use it but not new installs !
great, roll on sunday 8am

Yes, they are transferring more accounts onto the ICOMS billing system, so they are unable to a basic few things on the account at the moment.

tt1
05-04-2008, 01:17
sollp

Thought Id update aswell. End of the week is when I do most downloading and I can confirm that certainly tonight and yesterday (poss even Wednesday) it does appear to be back to normal

If you were involved in the fix - many thanks! Great to have someone listening on this forum aswell

Rgds

tt1

Plums
21-05-2008, 19:05
Apologies for resurrecting this thread from the dead, but it describes my problems perfectly so it seemed a better option to starting a new one.

I've recently (around a month ago) moved into Ipswich IP1 and right from the start my 2Mb VM broadband has been really awful. Download speeds fluctuate wildly, and if I do a constant ping (e.g. ping www.google.co.uk /t) I'll get masses of packet loss. It seems worse at weekends where the packetloss has been as high as 30%. Here's an example (1st post on here so I'm not familiar with the forum etiquette, I can link the picture if necessary):

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/05/32.jpg

I've gone through all the usual troubleshooting, connecting direct to the modem etc. I haven't spoken to TS yet - reading through this thread makes me wary of doing so! Is anyone else having issues in Ipswich?