Beyond A Joke

[JonnyRingo]

Have had cable since the NTL days & never been that satisfied with the service but stuck with it because of the competitive price but this last year has been hell.

Internet just drops out randomly for no apparent reason.. Engineers been out & replaced the modem.. That was after I was practically accused of stealing the modem.. Funnily enough they sent it out to me in the post & I rang them when it arrived... Anyway... Since Aug 08 the problem has got considerably worse.. Engineers have been out & replaced cables, the modem.. the box outside & still the problems persist. They have seen the problem 1st hand & still can't explain it... or solve it.

No matter how many times I ring up.. I get the same old answer.. The report was closed down as solved... really..? Then why am I ringing up....?
This is closely followed by well i've checked your modem & it seems to be working... Yes that's right.. by the time i've got through all the options.. the fault has cleared...

IP address goes to 0.0.0.0 followed by 192.168.10.100.... & yes you are all going to say have you got a router.. the answer is no... but try telling that to VM.. They insist I have a router... I'd be better off talking to my grandma.. & she's been dead for 13 years.

They told me to report it everytime it happens... I'd never be off the phone to them.... 6-7 times a day.... Then one day when I had been offline due to the problem.. They had the cheek to tell me I had been in the top 5 downloaders & my connection had been managed... I say managed in the loosest sense of the word... Granted when I rang up & complained they sorted it on the spot.. shame you have to tell them what's what... I thought they were there to help me...

& let us not forget the tv fiasco... They told me I could have it along with the phone & internet... Great... all the basic channels... BBC1, 2, ITV, Ch4 & 5... Not that I watch tv but always handy in cast football is on terrestrial. It's only when I speak to an engineer who came out in Aug that I should be getting BBC3 & a few others + TV Choice etc... The engineer sorted it all out when he installed it.. or so I thought.. He rang up to register it... I just took it as gospel that he knew what he was doing...

Oh dear... Now who to choose as a replacement ISP...

Rant over... Well no.. I will rant tomorrow no doubt when they hit me with the same excuses i've heard for the last 4 months...

[Graham M]

IP address goes to 0.0.0.0 followed by 192.168.10.100.... & yes you are all going to say have you got a router.. the answer is no... but try telling that to VM.. They insist I have a router.

Nope I wouldn't say that at all, are you sure the IP isn't 100.1 or whatever as that is the Modem's autoconfiguration address for when it's not connected to the VM network for whatever reason.

[whydoIneedatech]

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Post what modem you have and your power levels from your config pages of your modem. The should be a sticker on the bottom saying what model.
Open a browser and in the address bar put or click the link > http://192.168.100.1/ the password and username are both root if required.
What I want you to post is the Downstream power levels including the SNR and the Upstream power levels for me thanks.
DO NOT POST YOUR MAC ADDRESS OR SERIAL NUMBER
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[General Maximus]

it is a shame you are having so many problems with your broadband. If you are going to change I would go for Sky TV and Be internet as the best performance option, if you want a package thing like virgin you can get your tv, internet and phone through Sky as well. I have never been a huge fan of adsl but I have got a couple of friends on Sky and they are happy enough with it. They can only get 6mbit max.

[JonnyRingo]

First TimeLast TimePriorityDescription
Thu Nov 20 03:34:46 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:46 2008 Information (7)CableModem software upgrade failed
Thu Nov 20 03:34:46 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:46 2008 Error (4)SW upgrade Failed after download - Incompatible SW file
Thu Nov 20 03:34:46 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:46 2008 Information (7)SW dload: Invalid image signature!
Thu Nov 20 03:34:44 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:44 2008 Notice (6)SW Download INIT - Via Config file cmreg-ntlhm250-bas.cm
Thu Nov 20 03:34:44 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:44 2008 Information (7)CableModem software download started
Thu Nov 20 03:34:44 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:44 2008 Information (7)Software upgrade has started.
Thu Nov 20 03:34:43 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:43 2008 Information (7)A software upgrade filename was specified in the config file.
Thu Nov 20 03:34:43 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:43 2008 Information (7)Authorized
Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Information (7)Registration complete!
Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Information (7)We registered with a DOCSIS 1.0 config file!
Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Information (7)Received a REG-RSP message from the CMTS...
Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Information (7)Sending a REG-REQ to the CMTS...
Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:42 2008 Information (7)CableModem SNMP configure complete
Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Information (7)IP init completed ok
Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Information (7)CableModem TFTP init ok
Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Information (7)CableModem DHCP client init ok
Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:40 2008 Critical (3)DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Thu Nov 20 03:34:03 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:03 2008 Information (7)MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Thu Nov 20 03:34:02 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:02 2008 Critical (3)No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Thu Nov 20 03:34:02 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:02 2008 Information (7)MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Thu Nov 20 03:34:01 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:01 2008 Critical (3)No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Thu Nov 20 03:34:01 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:01 2008 Information (7)MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Information (7)Downstream sync ok
Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Information (7)Beginning initial ranging...
Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Information (7)downstream time sync acquired...
Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Information (7)Downstream sync ok
Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:34:00 2008 Information (7)starting ds time sync acquisition...
Thu Nov 20 03:33:57 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:33:57 2008 Information (7)Locked on the downstream. Waiting for UCDs...
Thu Nov 20 03:33:57 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:33:57 2008 Information (7)Downstream lock ok
Thu Nov 20 03:33:52 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:33:52 2008 Critical (3)SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Thu Nov 20 03:33:40 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:33:40 2008 Critical (3)No UCD's Received - Timeout
Thu Nov 20 03:33:38 2008 Thu Nov 20 03:33:38 2008 Information (7)Downstream pulse failed

---------- Post added at 11:51 ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 ----------

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 6
Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5360.537 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 10.3 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 39.9 dB

---------- Post added at 11:53 ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 ----------

Ambit 256 E08C013.00

---------- Post added at 11:55 ---------- Previous post was at 11:53 ----------

& yes Graham.... it definitely says 10.100... I should see that number in my sleep...

GM.. Thanks for the ideas

[JonnyRingo]

And after todays phone call I will not be staying with them....

The lady I spoke to insisted I spoke to someone consultant called Steve.. In her words...

'It's a shame all our technicians aren't as technically minded as he is'
(I hope that phone call was recorded & used for training purposes)

I told her on no less than 4 occasions that I wasn't interested in speaking to anyone & wanted to be disconnected.. She wasn't having any of it.. So I told her I was hanging up & would ring back & speak to someone who would do as I asked.

And when I did... The person who I spoke to this time told me the system had already been updated to say that I was being disconnected on 20/12. (this person couldn't be more helpful)

So I had been driven to putting the phone down & the silly sod had done what I asked anyway... infuriating....:mad:

So here I am... still looking for an ISP!