View Full Version : FAO - Hemel Hempstead 10mbit Users
Spike_UK
28-08-2006, 16:17
I'm not sure if this will cover Hemel Hempstead Users as a whole of if it's purely people in the HP2 area, but anyway. If like me you have suffered from intermittent connection problems since upgrading I have a solution for you.
I'll briefly explain my situation first. My connection is dire. I cannot use it for more than an hour without it dropping at least twice. These are not your usual modem reboot dropouts as the modem lights remain on. This is just a full stop no throughput dropout. After 6 months of phoning technical support and getting replacement modems and being told it's everything from my Network card to a (non-existent) software firewall I was starting to lose the will to live. Today I had another engineer come round and although he couldn't even manage to load up Internet Explorer, he did inadvertently point me in the right direction.
He left me the Engineer Technical Support Number. This is only to be used by NTL Engineers :p (I wont post the number here, but if you want it let me know).
Anyway, after a phone call with these nice techy people it turns out that the cable that I am on doesn't have the bandwidth capacity to support 10mbit customers. The drop-outs occur when the bandwidth peaks beyond the maximum capacity of the cable. The only way to solve this is to downgrade to 4bit until the line is upgraded (which could happen in the next month or the next 6months). He also told me there are another 29 people on this same cable as me with a 10mbit connection who will most likely be suffering the same degraded connection.
I've since made yet another phone call to NTL and had myself downgrade to 4mbit (half price - £12.50 for 6 months). I'm currently in the process of writing a snot-o-gram to seek some sort of compensation, as I have been paying £40 for a connection that they physically can't provide.
Anyway, after a phonecall with these nice techy people it turns out that the cable that I am on doesn't have the bandwidth capacity to support 10mbit customers. The drop-outs occur when the bandwidth peaks beyond the maximum capacity of the cable. The only way to solve this is to downgrade to 4bit until the line is upgraded (which could happen in the next month or the next 6months). He also told me there are another 29 people on this same cable as me with a 10mbit connection who will most likely be suffering the same degraded connection.
I've since made yet another phonecall to NTL and had myself downgrade to 4mbit (half price - £12.50 for 6 months). I'm currently in the process of writing a snot-o-gram to seek some sort of compensation, as I have been paying £40 for a connection that they physically can't provide.
mandrake
28-08-2006, 18:37
I wonder if this explains why the majority of 10 mbit users are constanly having problems(and before i get shot down in flames by all and sundry) this has been an ongoing debate for many month now.
Spike_UK - I'm not sure if this is 10Mb related as I live in Hemel and have 4Mb.
Since the 2Mb - 4Mb upgrade I've been getting the same dropouts. After suffering for far too long I got onto tech support last week.
I went through 4 phone calls that ended up with a engineer visit yesterday.
The dropouts I get are pretty much most evenings and weekends. During the day I'm fine. This to me would mean at peak usage I would be getting dropouts.
Well the engineer tested the line and said all was fine. He also said my old Terayon TJ210 cable modem was fine too. He wouldn't replace this as I owned it and it was working fine anyway.
Then he hit me with a nice shocker.
He said, if I remember correctly:
"This is happening for a lot (and I assume all) Hemel Hempstead NTL broadband customers. The dropouts are only occuring during the hours when the NTL office in Buncefield is unmanned. (Is some bloke holding the wires together in the day then? Sorry, I just occured to me :D )"
He also said that the manager is aware of this issue and they are just collecting data on the problem so they can action it.
and the cause......
"This was caused by the Buncefield explosion. There still are areas that need ammending to bring back full service."
So that's since December 2005!
The 2Mb to 4Mb upgrade added a load more bandwidth usage and just highlighted the problem to more users. I really feel for you 10Mb users as it must be worse.
So how many other Hemel Hempstead users are still experiencing dropouts during peak times?
and the cause......
"This was caused by the Buncefield explosion. There still are areas that need ammending to bring back full service."
So that's since December 2005!
The 2Mb to 4Mb upgrade added a load more bandwidth usage and just highlighted the problem to more users. I really feel for you 10Mb users as it must be worse.
So how many other Hemel Hempstead users are still experiencing dropouts during peak times?
In fairness to NTL, they had a lot of network hardware that was in the building next door to the refinery. Some of this hardware was badly damaged, and it is not a quick job to replace it.
:welcome: to the forum, BTW.
Stuart - I regularly drive through the industrial estate, as I live very close to it, and I have seen the damage. I know there are still a lot of damaged buildings, but I would have assumed that 9 months would be sufficient time to rectify this, especially for a company the size of NTL. However, the engineer seemed to imply that the work did not come as a priority as they did not have enough complaints about it.
Maybe more time is being put into VOD than getting the broadband back up to 100%. i.e. Invest time into another service to sell, rather than fix a current service for a smaller number of users.
In fairness to NTL, they had a lot of network hardware that was in the building next door to the refinery. Some of this hardware was badly damaged, and it is not a quick job to replace it.
Where did you get this info from?
The buildings right next to the Buncefield Depot were the Fujifilm warehouse (flattened) and the Northgate headquarters (still standing but structurally written off). 3Com also had a building fairly close, but I believe that wasn't completely wrecked. I am fairly certain there is no NTL building close to Buncefield. I know the area well - used to work in the Northgate building when it was still MDIS, and my wife was working for Northgate until July. (Had the explosion happened during office hours, she would probably now be dead - her desk was buried under two feet of rubble). It's vaguely possible that Northgate were hosting some of NTL's back office systems (since hosting is one of Northgate's core activities), but they had pretty much all their clients' systems up & running at a DR site within a matter of days.
Where did you get this info from?
The buildings right next to the Buncefield Depot were the Fujifilm warehouse (flattened) and the Northgate headquarters (still standing but structurally written off). 3Com also had a building fairly close, but I believe that wasn't completely wrecked. I am fairly certain there is no NTL building close to Buncefield. I know the area well - used to work in the Northgate building when it was still MDIS, and my wife was working for Northgate until July. (Had the explosion happened during office hours, she would probably now be dead - her desk was buried under two feet of rubble). It's vaguely possible that Northgate were hosting some of NTL's back office systems (since hosting is one of Northgate's core activities), but they had pretty much all their clients' systems up & running at a DR site within a matter of days.
Actually, someone (an NTL engineer IIRC) posted it on this forum.
Also, Digital Spy have a story about an NTL statement on the disaster.. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds27289.html
---------- Post added at 15:33 ---------- Previous post was at 15:29 ----------
Stuart - I regularly drive through the industrial estate, as I live very close to it, and I have seen the damage. I know there are still a lot of damaged buildings, but I would have assumed that 9 months would be sufficient time to rectify this, especially for a company the size of NTL. However, the engineer seemed to imply that the work did not come as a priority as they did not have enough complaints about it.
TBH, I would personally be surprised if it took nine months to repair the damage. I was just pointing out that I was told they do have a facility near there that was damaged by the blast.
Actually, someone (an NTL engineer IIRC) posted it on this forum.
Also, Digital Spy have a story about an NTL statement on the disaster.. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds27289.html
Interesting. The Digital Spy article seems legit, so maybe NTL did have some damage. But they were certainly not right next to the Buncefield Depot. I've never noticed an NTL building on the industrial estate - perhaps it's a lights-outs facility without any external signs?
The digital spy post is dated 13th December 2005.
NTL's headend in Hemel Hempstead was severely damaged by the explosion, and the cable operator is "awaiting permission from the local police force before we can enter our Hemel Hempstead site to fix current outstanding faults."
The permission was regarding the phone system. Emergency calls were not getting through at the time, so eventually engineers were allowed in to get this up and running at the time.
We are now 9 months on since that bit of news. Structurally the building must be safe and secure by now considering the equipment that is located there. Therefore, I am amazed that NTL know they still have things to fix that are degrading the service to its customers, but do not find it a priority to fix it. Surely any cost involved would be claimed back via their insurance, so why not get it fixed? They must be insured. ;)
Interesting. The Digital Spy article seems legit, so maybe NTL did have some damage. But they were certainly not right next to the Buncefield Depot. I've never noticed an NTL building on the industrial estate - perhaps it's a lights-outs facility without any external signs?
It's possible. I live near the Bromley head end, and TBH, apart from a sign above the main entrance, I don't think there is much evidence NTL is there at all.
Spike_UK
17-09-2006, 10:18
Interesting :D
The only NTL facility I'm aware of in the Industrial Estate is right next to the Wtaer Tower by Bury Way Park. It's a small complex with three big dishes outside and a small maintenance hut full of server kit.
I've since had some news from NTL that this is indeed a well known fault in the area, but they have no dates when it will be resolved.
Mine seems to be a little bit better this weekend, but I'm not getting my hopes up for it to be have been resolved just yet.
Spike_UK
17-09-2006, 15:57
Interesting :D
The only NTL facility I'm aware of in the Industrial Estate is right next to the Wtaer Tower by Bury Way Park. It's a small complex with three big dishes outside and a small maintenance hut full of server kit.
I've since had some news from NTL that this is indeed a well known fault in the area, but they have no dates when it will be resolved.
Mine seems to be a little bit better this weekend, but I'm not getting my hopes up for it to be have been resolved just yet.
I spoke too soon, this afternoon my connection has been rubbish.
NTL indeed do have an office just a min or so away from Buncefield as well as those lovely dishes, my connection was down for about 4/5 days after the Buncefield Explosion and would have been fixed a lot quicker if NTL engineers had been given access quicker, but obviously Police had to make sure area was safe.
I think NTL did a blinding job getting all services up and running soo quickly.
Well done to them.
I am interested to here about the Fibre not having the Capacity to supply a 10meg service to customers in the area, and to be honest i dont really believe that, i would be more inclined to think its the UBR that cant cope more than any problems with Fibre, but hey im no expert in that field.
I would be interested to know what type of fibre NTL use in Hemel Hempstead or indeed over the whole network, is it some kind of Single Core Fibre or Multi Core? any geeky info would be much appreciated.
Im very happy with my connection as well, apart from when running bittorrent the whole connection dies, i have to reboot my router and all is well again, very strange, perhaps my router is not up the job, but a lot of people have had this trouble apparently, lights stay on but connection just dies.
Doesnt happen very often but is very annoying.
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