Not Telco - BT :(

Apparently our current hot weather is to blame for a recurring major broadband fault in our area... every time it's "fixed" within a few hours, it isn't :/

Oh - and while I'm here - just a warning to anyone who IS a BT customer...

Received a very disturbing call today from someone claiming to be from BT. They were not. They slipped up by assuming I shop online. I don't. They were very convincing and if I was an online shopper I would have been very very worried by what they were saying... and could have got badly burned. Be careful everyone... :(

Edit: The call may not have originated in the UK. With phone companies selling our data to marketing organisations worldwide - many of whom pay their call-centre staff poorly - the opportunity/incentive for our personal information to fall into the wrong hands is growing daily. Customers of other telephone and broadband service providers could potentially also be at risk. I'm not generally paranoid but... :/

Cold calling bar stewards, the single reason I never answer my landline.

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Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

Cold calling bar stewards, the single reason I never answer my landline.

So why have one? If you don't answer it, wouldn't it be better to save the money?

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Cold calling bar stewards, the single reason I never answer my landline.

So why have one? If you don't answer it, wouldn't it be better to save the money?

I didn't say I don't make calls.

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Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

Cold calling bar stewards, the single reason I never answer my landline.

So why have one? If you don't answer it, wouldn't it be better to save the money?

With the correct hand set, A landline will work through an extended power outage. You can use an answering machine to prescreen the calls and most important for me is my DSL comes over the same pair of wires. My landline is forwarded into my cell phone because I am on call 24/7 and because of my cell plan, I don't want most people to have the cell number. At some point in the future when I no longer need to provide support, I may break off the connection my cell phone and my landline.

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Like many people here, I have ditched the landline and have only a cell. I ported the landline number that was assigned to my parents when they first married in 1962, because most of my friends and relatives know that number, and just for nostalgia.

Generally, if an incoming call is from one of the Chicago area area codes, I'll answer it, although some of those still turn out to be junk calls. If it's a live person, I'll say I'm going to report them for violating the Do Not Call List, but I usually don't.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

We keep our landline as a wired phone near our bed for emergencies but I can hear better on it then on my cell.

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Did you have this problem before you blew your monitor and the roadway up and singed your hair Annie? :-D

Cheers.

:))))))))))) erm... could I answer a different question please...? :)

@Chris - thanks for the link :)

I converted my land line to Vonage years ago. Now, through Vonage World, I can call 60 countries free; included in my plan. I also signed up to pay annually; and I get a discount from Vonage for that. Currently, I pay $363 a year for my plan. ($30.25 per month broken down monthly.) That includes all taxes and fees; and comes out cheaper than AT&T land lines that would just give me local, local toll and long distance within California; NOT nationwide, and NO international calling.

I routinely call the UK and Australia. I look forward to calling my international friends; adjustments for time permitting. Vonage was the best decision I've made for phone calls.

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

I'm going to report them for violating the Do Not Call List, but I usually don't.

mm you have that too works most of the time otherwise do what i do and say something like what i say to them

"oh F%^k a bloody Indian i can't understand "

"that not nice sir you swear again i will have to hang up "

"F^&king i'm a Australian we all ways swear so don't get ya F&^king knickers in a not."... click

they soon stop calling as you will be known as a bad customer ....yippppeeee so long as you don't call i don't give a F

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When I first dropped the landline, I got a Magic Jack just so I would have a backup way to call 911 if I needed it and something was wrong with my cell. But last year, when my annual payment was due, the City of Naperville had added a 911 fee, and my cell had proven to be much more reliable than my old one, so I just let it drop.

I have a household cordless phone with three handsets that both has a landline connection and also connects via bluetooth with my cell, so I can let the cell sit plugged in (and crunching Beta).

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Cold calling bar stewards, the single reason I never answer my landline.

So why have one? If you don't answer it, wouldn't it be better to save the money?

With the correct hand set, A landline will work through an extended power outage. You can use an answering machine to prescreen the calls and most important for me is my DSL comes over the same pair of wires. My landline is forwarded into my cell phone because I am on call 24/7 and because of my cell plan, I don't want most people to have the cell number. At some point in the future when I no longer need to provide support, I may break off the connection my cell phone and my landline.

Though I think a phone on a cable tv system would be dead when the power goes out in an area wide outage.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I ask the phone company to connect me with Naked DSL they then try and tell me i need a home phone as i need a no. However the company that gives out the numbers is not the save company i use for the mobile (cell) or internet . When they connect it it doesn't work , why there is a phone no. on it and the tec had to turn the number off before it worked .

Now i only have the DSL no home phone no line rental which is what the other company was trying to screw me for and now i just use a pre paid mobile and if it runs out to bad i can still get incoming calls just can't make them unless i recharge .

And the other day they phone up and tell me i can get a better deal .. oh yeh what that all about .

"well mr savill you will get BLAH ,BLAH ,BLAH ,BLAH "

" oh what's the catch ?"

"no catch sir we just put you on a billing cycle each month your not on a plan and can cancel anytime "

"all we need is you debt card no. and you can pay electronically "

my answer was very polite seeing as he had a ozzy acsent .... "sorry mate i can't afford to pay that much every month so i'll stay on the pre paid.

Bastas they have tried at least 4 times now to get me to give them my debit card details all legit but just sneaky the way they have tried.

I wasn't born in a field mate bugger off .

They have even tired to slow my connection down as the contract i was on has now finished and a new contract is a extra $11

So i played them at there own game and it works .


screen shot after using there speed test then go crazy on twitter and post the pic's every hr to the most popular trends and a tv channel that does current affairs news story's
just remeber to do the speed test every hr so it is differant each time as they have a time stamp on it

less than 24 hrs later i get a call from a tech not a call centre mr savill your having problems with your connection and it was fixed and now if i have a slow connection i send a screenshot straight to them and others on twitter they do not like the bad reaction they get others start to do the same thing and all of a sudden the network speeds up .

So don't get angry get even play them at there own game

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BT apologises.

BT

Yes folks, your calls are important to us

BLEUCH!! :(

Good grief! Locked into my contract for another 8 months and I'm already paying through the nose for a service that resembles a field decorated by the rear ends of a large herd of cows!

Ooooooh... who can I bite!?

BLEUCH!! :(

Good grief! Locked into my contract for another 8 months and I'm already paying through the nose for a service that resembles a field decorated by the rear ends of a large herd of cows!

Ooooooh... who can I bite!?

But look at the bright side. You are getting your moneys worth in service calls. Most of us never see the face of a service man after the initial installation. Just think how lonesome you will be if the service man ever gets things working right.

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BLEUCH!! :(

Good grief! Locked into my contract for another 8 months and I'm already paying through the nose for a service that resembles a field decorated by the rear ends of a large herd of cows!

Ooooooh... who can I bite!?

But look at the bright side. You are getting your moneys worth in service calls. Most of us never see the face of a service man after the initial installation. Just think how lonesome you will be if the service man ever gets things working right.

They're only a voice so far... but next one I find down a hole I'm kidnapping!!! AAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH - averaging less than two minute's every 45 minutes at the moment - this post too will no doubt disappear into the "never to be seen on seti's board ether" along with the others I've tried sending... *sob* *tear out hair* BYE... BYE EVERYONE... I DO MISS YOU! :)

In the early hours of Saturday the 23rd of August, towards the end of a phonecall lasting one hour and thirty-seven minutes, BT requested that I start a 48 hour diary documenting the quality of my Broadband service *choke* *snort* *heap ridicule upon them*

This is the halfway stage... Would anyone like to see it...? :) For those that do, a key will probably help :)

Blue is the time my connection window "opens".
Orange is when it closes. "Closes" is a euphemism for "stops working" *sweet calm anniet smile* :)
Anything you see in red was when I resumed crawling around the floor unplugging and plugging and cabling and re-cabling and pressing buttons etc etc as I was instructed to do if my "service" did not resume within 20-30 minutes of it having failed :)
Green is the gross amount of time my broadband was working. I have not adjusted to take into consideration that the first thirty seconds of each "window of opportunity" did not in fact result in anything other than one of those little circles that spins merrily round and round before telling you that "there was a problem loading the page" :) I will adjust for that later when I total up :) Oh... the times given are those on my computer's taskbar...

Ready everyone? :)

(05.37 06.12) 35 minutes

(06.45 07.15 09.30 10.15 11.05 which included a two hour slightly grumpy nap 11.12 11.12) 21 seconds

(12.00 13.15 14.02 15.09 16.23 17.37 17.44 18.58) 1 hour and 14 minutes

(19.00 19.20) 20 minutes

(19.35 19.55) 20 minutes

(20.40 21.50 21.53) 3 minutes

(21.57 21.58) 1 minute

(22.00 22.00) 13 seconds

(22.02 22.03) 1 minute

22.13 22.18) 5 minutes

(22.38 22.43 22.45) 2 minutes

(22.58 23.08) 10 minutes

(22.38 23.30 00.15 00.58 01.35 01.41 01.49) 8 minutes

(02.05 02.21) 16 minutes

(02.23 02.31) 8 minutes

(02.32 02.38) 6 minutes

(02.39 02.40) 1 minute

(02.41 02.41) 6 seconds

(02.43 02.52) 9 minutes

(02.54 02.57) 3 minutes

(03.27 03.32 03.34) 2 minutes

(03.54 03.58) 4 minutes

(04.37 05.02 05.30 05.57 06.23 06.27...

I did of course prepare this post in microsoft office - just in case :)
So! 3hrs 48mins and 40secs take away approximately 8mins 40secs for all those spinning bits, gives me a grand total of a COMPLETELY rubbish broadband service! :)

I believe I may start paying only one-sixth of my monthly charges as of about five weeks ago :) YAY!! :)

EDIT: Ooh - I see I have a pm... lets hope I can grab it before I disappear in a cloud of... orange again...

Anniet have you tried what i have suggested you do i have done it it does work

screen shot after using there speed test then go crazy on twitter and post the pic's every hr to the most popular trends and a tv channel that does current affairs news story's
just remember to do the speed test every hr so it is different each time as they have a time stamp on it

I have done this and it does work the more you do it the less problems you get and it will even get to a point where they check that you have not done a speed check as it will be logged at there site and you will find if it's slow all you will have to do is a speed check and it suddenly speeds up without posting it to twitter . THEY DON"T LIKE THE PUBLIC ATTENTION

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In the early hours of Saturday the 23rd of August, towards the end of a phonecall lasting one hour and thirty-seven minutes, BT requested that I start a 48 hour diary documenting the quality of my Broadband service *choke* *snort* *heap ridicule upon them*

To solve this type of problem you need to divide and conquer. The best way to eliminate your computer is if you have a second one running on the same network that you can compare failures. In my case, because it's so handy, I use my Iphone that has been paired with all the networks I use. Because some of my software is very out of date, my Iphone has proved the problem was in the computer and not the network. In my case, my response problems are caused by Flash and pop up windows that appear behind my working window.

The cable leading to your router/modem can be checked two ways. The first is the telephone company should be able to read the diagnostic information from it and they should be able to loop data between your box and the telephone company.

From your end, you should be able to connect to the diagnostic menus and read the information out. Not knowing your hardware I can only tell you how I get into mine. I connect to 192.168.0.1 and my password is on the bottom of my box. Your address may be different and the procedure could be different.

If you are unable to get into the box, the next best thing is to record the indicator lights on the front of your box. If you are having line issues, they will change between failure and operational mode.

One other warning and that is make sure you have free air flow around hub. Heat from a single sheet of paper on it will cause it to fail. The other failure is not real common but extreme cold will also cause hardware to fail.

If you can get back with the manufacturer and model of you box, it's possible somebody here can give you more detail information on what to look for.

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Anniet i looked at your system and i noticed your running a old 9500 gt .

I used to own a 9800 gt and when it was running seti on the GPU i had trouble doing anything else with the computer like what your times are showing .

So how many units are you running on the CPU and are you doing any on the GPU if you are running say 3 units on the CPU and 1 on the GPU you may well get some hanging when opening new pages and things in fact you will have trouble doing just about anything else with it .

You could try doing less on the CPU and suspend the GPU and see if that improves your internet otherwise you may need to get a later GPU

If none of the above apply's then sorry i will climb back down my hole and be quiet

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