paulh
17-08-2006, 10:59
Hi, I've had big problems with my NTL internet over the last couple of months, and I wonder if anyone can help.
My setup is as follows: a white box in on the wall with 2 wires coming out, one to a cable model (it says NTL:250 on the bottom) and a settop box for my telly. I'm in Cambridge.
Firstly, about 2 months ago my internet disappeared. The symptoms I got then are common throughout all the faults I've had: ready light flashes slowly and no amount of power cycling the modem helps. In addition, the 'on demand' section of my tv stops working (although the rest of the tv works fine).
Engineer 1 comes out (I have to wait 2 weeks for an appointment). He diagnoses the problem as faulty cabling - between the white box on the wall and the modem, and the white box on the wall and the set top box. I have my doubts that 2 pieces of cable can simultaneously fail, but everything starts working again so I assume it's actually fixed.
A few weeks later... exactly the same. Another call to tech support and another engineer appointment (2 weeks again). After one week I manage to get a connection again; powercycling the modem was ineffective, but I unplugged the other end of the coax from the ntl box and that seemed to work. A day before the engineer arrives I ring to cancel the appointment - but the guy at tech support checks my power levels and tells me they are too low and I should take the appointment. So I comply, and the engineer comes out the next day. He tells me that the tech support guy can't actually test the levels and there's nothing wrong with my connection. He says he will change the tap(?) (port?) at the station because it might fix my return path. He notes that sometimes connections can come and go throughout the day even though noone understands why that is, and changing the port might improve matters.
Of course, 2 days after the engineer's visit my internet drops again, and has now been down for 4 days.
Now, my plan is to ring tech support again, but I wonder if anyone has any advice in actually getting this problem fixed. I don't want to have to go through another wasted 2 weeks waiting for an engineer unless there's a good chance they can actually sort the problem.
Thanks!
Paul H
My setup is as follows: a white box in on the wall with 2 wires coming out, one to a cable model (it says NTL:250 on the bottom) and a settop box for my telly. I'm in Cambridge.
Firstly, about 2 months ago my internet disappeared. The symptoms I got then are common throughout all the faults I've had: ready light flashes slowly and no amount of power cycling the modem helps. In addition, the 'on demand' section of my tv stops working (although the rest of the tv works fine).
Engineer 1 comes out (I have to wait 2 weeks for an appointment). He diagnoses the problem as faulty cabling - between the white box on the wall and the modem, and the white box on the wall and the set top box. I have my doubts that 2 pieces of cable can simultaneously fail, but everything starts working again so I assume it's actually fixed.
A few weeks later... exactly the same. Another call to tech support and another engineer appointment (2 weeks again). After one week I manage to get a connection again; powercycling the modem was ineffective, but I unplugged the other end of the coax from the ntl box and that seemed to work. A day before the engineer arrives I ring to cancel the appointment - but the guy at tech support checks my power levels and tells me they are too low and I should take the appointment. So I comply, and the engineer comes out the next day. He tells me that the tech support guy can't actually test the levels and there's nothing wrong with my connection. He says he will change the tap(?) (port?) at the station because it might fix my return path. He notes that sometimes connections can come and go throughout the day even though noone understands why that is, and changing the port might improve matters.
Of course, 2 days after the engineer's visit my internet drops again, and has now been down for 4 days.
Now, my plan is to ring tech support again, but I wonder if anyone has any advice in actually getting this problem fixed. I don't want to have to go through another wasted 2 weeks waiting for an engineer unless there's a good chance they can actually sort the problem.
Thanks!
Paul H