Good old BT

[catgate]

I switched to BT as my ISP in May of last year after several years with Onetel and a very brief and unhappy sojourn with Tiscali. This was done in the belief that if thet wires belong to BT they should be better than those renting them. The package is up to 8 Mb/s "but we can only really do 2 Mb/s in your area". For the first couple of months I was getting 3 ish. Then it dropped to 2 ish and since then it has rarely got above 2 Mb/s, often getting down to 1.5 at peak times. The upload speed is a falways between 0.31 to 0.37 Mb/s.

I realised yesterday that things had gone bad and instead of a download speed of 2 Mb/s I was getting 0.5 ish, with the upload speed unchanged. This morning it was worse I was getting only 0.13 Mb/s download, but still 0.37 Mb/s upload. So I rang BT

The first call was to find the state of the network. A male English voice told me that all was Peace and Joy and all was well with the entire network....for the time being. All hell was to break loose because they were preparing for improving the service. Lots of geeky jargon promising better things ahead (much like the output of a well known PM).

The second call was to customer service where a few English female voices and a few "pressings" resulted in me getting through to Sanjeev's sister again.

She was very pleasant, and much of what she said was understandable, without having to ask for her to repeat it. We went through the whole gammut of filters, routers, incoming boxes,switching wires and then she said she would test the line between the exchange and our box on the top of the post and then ring me back.

Of course, as one would expect, there was fault on the BT equipment or line, but she would leave the report "open".

I tried the connection about an hour ago and the download speed had gone up by a factor of 21x to 2.85 Mb/s !!!

I reckon it is something to do with the fact that I am just about to make a chicken curry and some Naan breads.

[rong]

I switched to BT as my ISP in May of last year after several years with Onetel and a very brief and unhappy sojourn with Tiscali. This was done in the belief that if thet wires belong to BT they should be better than those renting them. The package is up to 8 Mb/s "but we can only really do 2 Mb/s in your area". For the first couple of months I was getting 3 ish. Then it dropped to 2 ish and since then it has rarely got above 2 Mb/s, often getting down to 1.5 at peak times. The upload speed is a falways between 0.31 to 0.37 Mb/s.

I realised yesterday that things had gone bad and instead of a download speed of 2 Mb/s I was getting 0.5 ish, with the upload speed unchanged. This morning it was worse I was getting only 0.13 Mb/s download, but still 0.37 Mb/s upload. So I rang BT

The first call was to find the state of the network. A male English voice told me that all was Peace and Joy and all was well with the entire network....for the time being. All hell was to break loose because they were preparing for improving the service. Lots of geeky jargon promising better things ahead (much like the output of a well known PM).

The second call was to customer service where a few English female voices and a few "pressings" resulted in me getting through to Sanjeev's sister again.

She was very pleasant, and much of what she said was understandable, without having to ask for her to repeat it. We went through the whole gammut of filters, routers, incoming boxes,switching wires and then she said she would test the line between the exchange and our box on the top of the post and then ring me back.

Of course, as one would expect, there was fault on the BT equipment or line, but she would leave the report "open".

I tried the connection about an hour ago and the download speed had gone up by a factor of 21x to 2.85 Mb/s !!!

I reckon it is something to do with the fact that I am just about to make a chicken curry and some Naan breads.

I reckon it's that they were trying it on, because you complained they put it back up. I had the same thing with tiscali

[Gandalph]

I've been with BT for about 12 years now and never had any reason to complain to them. I may have some day, but up to now they have been the best. :D

[andsome]

From the trouble that some seem to get I'm glad I'm on cable. :D

[-pops-]

I've never had any problems with BT either. I don't use their rubbish Yahoo software though.

[andsome]

I once had Yahoo messenger installed so that my son could keep in touch when he toured the world. NEVER EVER AGAIN. It was a complete pain in the backside.

[Gandalph]

I've never had any problems with BT either. I don't use their rubbish Yahoo software though.

Likewise pops, I don't use the Yahoo software either. I think it's really designed with kids in mind.

[ranger]

I've never had any problems with BT either. I don't use their rubbish Yahoo software though.

Andsome i've got cable as well (up to 20mb) it goes from being terrible to really good, it has been so slow at times that dial up would be faster and other times it whizzes, I have complained on several occassions and in fact asked to get out of the contract at one point as they were not delivering the service I paid for, to give them their due they did give me a months payment back and a credit for £10 for my phone calls but it aint all sweetness and light with cable

[andsome]

I've never had any problems with BT either. I don't use their rubbish Yahoo software though.

Andsome i've got cable as well (up to 20mb) it goes from being terrible to really good, it has been so slow at times that dial up would be faster and other times it whizzes, I have complained on several occassions and in fact asked to get out of the contract at one point as they were not delivering the service I paid for, to give them their due they did give me a months payment back and a credit for £10 for my phone calls but it aint all sweetness and light with cable

Sorry to hear that you get problems with cable. Certainly, in this area the service is excellent. :D