BT Broadband!!!

[jovi]

Just wandered if anyone on here, is with Bt for their internet connection?
We are, we have so many problems too!! We have a wireless router, which works well and everything was going fine, until last Wednesday, when I noticed that our internet speed was very, very slow!! After a while, I got onto Bt to explain our situation, they tried to say, it was the wireless router and we should contact Belkin, By the way, we had been on the phone to them for nearly an hour for them to figure this out!!
Then we get a phonecall back, from Bt, explaining, that it seems to be a problem with their line and nothing to do with the router!!

Anyway, it went fine the next day, eventually getting, slower and slower.
So we took the plunge and phoned again yesterday, I was on the phone for a good half hour, with no luck, I was told to unscrew my phones external socket and plug the router, directly into the internal socket, I refused to mess and told them I would get hubby to do it later. Hubby did this when he got in from work, still no better, so he then phoned, he was on the phone for 2 hours!! It seemed to be working again, until he put the phone down. So I have had to phone again today[msnmad] I was on the phone for another 40 minuites, I have lost track of hours wasted now!! I have other things to do with my life. What annoys me most of all is, that I have to pay for these phone calls[msnmad] 3p a minute, plus I cannot hardly understand a thing that any of them say. I have now been told to try my internet speed every 2 hours and if it gets no better, to ring them back!!
Has anyone else had this problem?

[jackie greaves]

Hi Vicky,
I am with BT Broadband and have a wireless router, and so far so good. Touch Wood. On the two occassions I have had to phone BT I have always found them helpful. 100% better than AOL who we were with before. Not sure if we are phoning the same helpline. I ring 08702 404650, hope this helps. Good luck[lucky]

[ellie]

Vicky, try [website link edited] They list alternative numbers for many companies who demand that you use 0870 numbers which are very expensive.

Try these numbers - not sure if they will work - ask for the department you require and don't be fobbed off if they give you a premium rate number instead

0800 800060
0800679905

Companies are making mega bucks out of us having to use these premium rate lines when we have a problem.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

We're with BT Business Broadband at home and have found it very good. The service is very reliable and the phone support is first class.

[Robert5988]

If you want to know your speed go to www.speedtester.bt.com - this is the approved BT site.

You can only do this from your own BT line

[jovi]

Already tried, unfortunately I can't download the page as it says I have plug ins missing[msneek] I then click on the line, to download the relevant plug ins and get a message saying
<span style="color:red">The Installer cannot proceed with the current internet proxy settings. Please check the installation quotes for more information</span id="red">[msnscared]

Looks like me spending my evening on the phone to BT, AGAIN[msnmad]

[sunseeker]

i too have BT broadband. i dont have any major problems with it altho it isnt as quick as my old NTL broadband.
i bought the BT wireless hub and it seems ok.

Dave

[Robert5988]

Jovi,

I suppose BT will have covered most of these things. The suspects are your router, or something 'loading' your line. To eliminate possible causes in your house( I am assuming you have eliminated your PC as the cause) I would try.

1. Connecting your PC via ethernet/usb cable to the router.

2. ensure all other phones/faxes/sky boxes are disconnected to see if it speeds up.

[DaveL]

I advise a friend who runs a small 10 person business and uses BT Business Broadband. He has two 8MB lines both linked to the local BT exchange which is about half a mile away.

One lines runs at 8MB all the time, the other runs at 2.5MB max and most of the time only reaches 2MB. I have spent many hours on the phone to India before getting the call transfered to a more senior person in the UK. The outcome was finally a statement to the effect that they only say it can go 'UP TO' 8MB and will only send out an engineer if it runs below 2MB all the time. This is dispite the fact that we have two BT ADSL lines on the wall next to each other.

We did get an engineer out to look at the line and he said that some lines are just rubbish or the routing into the exchange is bad. He also said that he could not reroute anything in the exchange as this was maintained by another group. His advice was to order a third line so that they had to run a new connection in the exchange and then cancel the bad one.

Like most ISP's it seems if your working well you are OK but if you have a problem your in it up to your neck. If their computerised check list does not solve the problem then you are going to be out of luck.

Dave

[Tonish]

Jovi, I have a similar problem - I don't notice any difference between my broadband speed now and prior to having it upgraded. BT have been hopeless, to be honest.

Thanks Robert for the speedtest site. I didn't know it existed - I've run it, but don't understand the result. It says:

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 5000 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 5888 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 4513 kbps

I'm supposed to have 8MB broadband - I have no idea whether the result above is good or bad. Anybody help?