BT Connection gone to hell

[McSasquatch]

Hello all.

I've been a BT customer for about 16 months now, and apart from some serious billing @#%$ ups on their part, I was quite happy with the actual service.

However, in the last six weeks or so, my internet connection has gone to hell. On the 2Mb service, I was consistently getting a dl speed of around 1.75 Mb. After the recent upgrades, I get about 2.65 Mb.... when it works!!!

This is an intermittent problem, but every other evening, my connection is continually dropped. My router will connect, I'll notice terribly slow loading times, and a minute later the connection will drop. The router then attempts to connect again, succeeds, only for it to drop again within 30 seconds to a minute's time. For the minute or so that I am actually connected, my dl speed is anywhere between 200 and 800 kbps.

I called BT technical support a few weeks ago and was told to disconnect everything for 15 minutes, as this would "reset my connection at the digital exchange". It didn't work, but by the time the 15 minutes had elapsed, their tech support had gone home for the weekend. Bah.

Anyway, I had another few days of acceptable service before the problem would happen again. Unfortunately, due to a lot of overtime being worked by myself, I wasn't able to call BT back straight away.

I finally got them earlier this week, and the guy seemed very helpful. He said he checked out a few things, and they came back okay. So he said he'd send an engineer out to the exchange to check the connection there. I got a call back today from the same guy, claiming that the Eircom engineers said everything was okay with the line. When I got in from town, I tried again.... and still the problem persists. Now I'll have to wait til Monday before I can contact them again

Before I run amok though, I wanted to ask anyone with similar experiences or technical know-how, for feedback. Any ideas anyone?

I DID notice an old junction box in my hallway. There was an extension there many years ago. It's an old type box (don't ask for any technical terminology). Basically, the phone line from outside comes into the hall beside the front door. It enters this old box, and a different cable comes out the other end. This second cable then goes along the skirting board where it meets the only point in the house. All phones and the router are connected correctly, and this set up has given no trouble with my broadband for over a year....

But it's the only thing I can think of that is out of place, this old style junction box. I've heard of other people being told to reformat their HDs in an attempt to solve their connection problems, but my spyware and anti-virus software is up to date and used frequently.

So I'm at a complete loss. This is just so frustrating. I have dozens of close friends and immediate family members all over the world, and the internet is the only way of keeping in touch with many of them. But most evenings, my connection is unusable. It's taken me three attempts to post this one message (thank feck for copy and paste). Anyway, any ideas, feedback etc would be most welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[ellardm]

You are lucky with the top speed. Since the upgrade max I have received is 1.75mb and have also lost service on a number of times

[McSasquatch]

Well, at this stage, I'd settle for 1.75 and a reliable connection. Would be a hell of a lot better than 2.65 Mbps some nights, and nothing on other nights

[vitalIrish]

I have the same problem but to a lesser extent. My speeds are EXTREMELY consistent at 2.56 Mbps (im on the Broadband 3 option 3mb)

my connection drops every ~15 minutes consistently after 6pm every night. I notice my browser fails to load pages, my online game freezes and 1/2 minutes later it disconnects. The odd disconnection and then subsequent reconnection also results in pingtimes > 150ms.

I have suspicions about my ancient adsl modem (Zyxel Prestige 630). This is the modem given at the start of BT's (then esat) BB service.

However I also have been ringing customer service and was also told an engineer would be sent to the exchange in sutton. a few days after this, my problems went away 100%. after a week, everything resumed as they had been before. pathetic ****.

this incident is what has led me to believe it is not my modem. if the problem can disappear for a week, is it just a "switch" that my ISP must flick on/off to solve my problem?

Will I buy a new modem or wait for eternity for this 40E wireless modem from BT which will probably be **** anyway?

[McSasquatch]

Hmmm, interesting.

BT are sending me out a new router (currently have the ZyXEL Prestige 6-something or other), and will hopefully reach me by the long weekend.

I'm a little sceptical that this will resolve things, as in the last few weeks, some (but not all) of BT's tech support team have been less than knowledgeable. To be fair though, I don't know what else it could be...

For example, I've tried to get a connection with new cables from the modem to the dsl filter with no luck. Also, BT say the dsl line check from Eircom came back okay. The phones in the house work fine, and even with them disconnected, I still can't get a stable connection. My spyware and antivirus software is good, up to date, and used often.... So (although I'm no expert) I reckon it's either the modem, or the actual phone line coming into the house (which has probably been there since the early 80s).

Anyway, I'll let ye know if a new modem/router does any good

[DonkeyStyle \o/]

I've been having similar problems... disconnections... poor performance.
Even as I type my pings are all over the place and download speeds are a third of what they should be (and under normal conditions are).

I've emailed them but have gotten nothing but a basic one-size-fits-all acknowledgement with the promise of a "full investigation"... I haven't heard a single word from these monkeys for two weeks.
I'm also using the old Zyxel 630, but I'm not going to splash out on a new router on the off-chance that it might fix the problem... this is a service I'm already paying good money for, and if they're unable to support me and find out why their service isn't working properly, then I'll find a provider that will.

I've long since given up trying to reach them by phone, so as soon as I finish looking at packages from other providers I am outta here.

[adbvfab]

Hey there,

I had the exact same problem with my BT connection a while back. After going through the same pain as yourself (I even re-wired all the telephone sockets in the house to ensure the broadband connection was the nearest one to the exchange).

I asked a friend if I could borrow his Broadband router. This fixed the problem for me straight away and I got BT to send me out a new router. Hasn't given me an ounce of trouble since.

Saying that I get about 1.8MB downstream and 215k upstream, which is what I expect considering the quality of my line and the overhead that TCP networking protocol takes from the connection.

Mick.

[McSasquatch]

Well, got the new router from BT and my dsl connection is still dropping all the time. Must be the actual phone line or wiring, which means I'll have to call feckin Eircom

[netman]

Originally Posted by McSasquatch

Well, got the new router from BT and my dsl connection is still dropping all the time. Must be the actual phone line or wiring, which means I'll have to call feckin Eircom

hi

What's the brand name and the model no. of it . If it's the ZYXEL PRESTIGE 600 series one try to upgrade the firmware, as this worked for me.

Good luck

[McSasquatch]

Thanks for the advice netman, I'll check that out as both routers, new and old, are from the Zyxel 600 series.

I have been investigating a little myself also. Apparently the noise on the line is around 75% when the connection drops. When it's reasonably stable, it's only about 40%....

Anyway, I also discovered that one of the phones in the house may not be Eircom approved (Eircom are my telephone provider). They're supposed to have an Eircom sticker/logo on them apparently! Anyway, this can cause the noise on the line, so I'm following that line of investigation at the moment.

Will let ye know

[clicker]

Hi guys,

I replied to a post over on the AAM website re my broadband connection and was kindly directed to this forum by another poster.

I have to say I was a little relieved (sorry! ) to see that other BTIreland users are experiencing similar problems to myself with their broadband connections, i.e., the line/connection keeps dropping and I get a message to say that it "Cannot find Server".

Last summer BT got Eircom to check the line (which they said was fine) and they also sent out a more up-to-date modem (the Zyxel 600 series) etc but none of this helped and I got so fed up ringing technical support that eventually I just put up with it.

As far as I can see my problems seemed to start around the time they doubled the broadband speed last year. Since they've increased the speed again in January my connection goes down constantly with the "cannot find server" message. I finally got so frustrated last week that I rang the technical support again. I was told that my problem was my firewall and that I should switch it off !. Now, I'm not too good on the IT front but I was a bit gob-smacked when they told me to do this. When I queried it with the technician (I only have the standard XP firewall that came with the computer) I was told (rather rudely) that it was up to me and that it's my problem if I don't want to switch the firewall off!

I was beginning to consider changing to NTL to avoid relying on telephone lines but I might try downloading the new firmware as suggested by netman.

In the meantime, if anybody has any other suggestions ...........

Many thanks,

[hellboy99]

i was on the phone the other day to tech support about the whole dropping connection issue and this is what was i told, word for word :

"to be honest with you the majority of lines in the of the country are ****e and can't take the upgrade to 3MB, eircom know this and we've told them this before the upgrade happened. you'll just have to go back to 2MB i'm affraid".

least he was honest. so why on earth are they advertising a 3MB service when it doesn't work.

[anoble66]

recently moved over from IBB to BT 3MB service and it runs like a dream, constant 2.56Mbps. I am on a new eircom exchange though so i think this is probably why..

[martie]

have no idea why,but when the upstairs phone extension is picked up,
the BB disconnects straight away!the other extensions are no problem.
but it is an easy problem to fix.
Now time to start on the next one

[bilbobaggins]

Hi,

I joined BT in the last month. Before that I had been with Eircon and everything was working fine. Then with BT kept dropping my connection every hour or so. I updated the firmware on my netopia modem and the problem seems to have gone.

Hope this helps,
Sean

[rotorua]

Hi Folks. BT informed a friend of mine who lives in Swords that they could re-connect a line to his house at a cost of €150 but couldn't guarantee that it would be Broadband enabled! I thought that they should know this! Can any of you living in the Swords area shed some light on this issue?

[vitalIrish]

Linksys WAG354G wireless broadband/adsl2+ modem router. Fixed all of my problems!

2.56 kbps download, and one or 2 dropped connections a week maybe.

[adbvfab]

I had the same problems a week ago with my old Zyxel 623, I went back to my spare ADSL modem and the problems disappeared.

I rang BT support and they sent me out a shiny Zyxel 660 and that works perfectly for me.

[rotorua]

Fair play to you for getting through to BT Tech. Support in the first place! I rang the other night and was - not unsurprisingly - put on hold. In the background they played a piece of music with which I am familiar; to wit The Grieg Piano Concerto. A splendid work; melodic and stirring. And I was reminded of those qualities as I was able to hear it in it's ENTIRETY...albeit with the odd irritating interruption to thank me for holding and that my call would be answered shortly. It wasn't. I hung up before the next piece started

[martie]

2 weeks waiting for a reply about my bill
BB is fine, but speeds vary a lot,
to put it another way,from ok to very slow,
but never ever great