So, what gives?

[Niall]

Couldn't say, although it's a possibility I suppose. I did get the automated reply from the page, but that took a while, so it's possible there's an issue. Ironically I used the contact page incase there were email problems Still, at least I have a record of contacting them to say the line has sorted itself out, so if BT to apply a charge I won't be liable for it. That being said, the engineer seemed very understanding of the situation and said that they wouldn't charge me even if there was a charge, but he said it in the way that the ISP would be liable for the charge if there was one, so I'm not sure if they'll apply one or not. Either way I'm safe and have a seemingly working line again.

I've downloaded a couple of files and it seems fine. Where before msn messenger would drop out when I maxed the download speed, now it seems fine. The engineer confirmed there wasn't a single error on the line either. He even stripped back the wiring outside and confirmed that when they'd fixed my mums phone they've replaced the box and all the wiring with new cables by the look of it, so all is fine. We (he) also confirmed once again there is nothing wrong with the setup in my room. He asked what the HD freeview box was that the router was on, so I calmed his fears by pointing out it wasn't/hasn't been connected and was just sitting there out the way for his visit.

I also asked him about the things that can effect line stability and he reeled off volumes of things. It's quite worrying, the amount of things that cause issues for the line quality.

[Simon_idnet]

I also asked him about the things that can effect line stability and he reeled off volumes of things. It's quite worrying, the amount of things that cause issues for the line quality.

We had a case a while back where a customer complained that his once good service had deteriorated badly. After checking everything several times over it transpired that his line ran past a water treatment works, on its way to the Exchange, and that the water company had built a new building right by the road to house a new water pump. That water pump was generating electrical interference so much that it was badly affecting the ADSL signals in the phone lines. The water company was not going to move their pump house and BT were not going to move several hundred yards of phone poles. So, our customer, who once had great broadband, now has rubbish broadband and we are powerless to help him.

I relate this story just to point out that sometimes there are situations beyond anyones control that can adversely affect broadband performance.

I'll get someone to search for your contact form message.

[Niall]

*sigh*

Sat 13 Oct 2012  13:38:18,    Noise Margin= 9.0, Sync Speed= 12759, Upstream NM= 9.2
Sat 13 Oct 2012  13:38:33,    Noise Margin= ., Sync Speed= 0, Upstream NM= .
Sat 13 Oct 2012  13:38:48,    Noise Margin= ., Sync Speed= 0, Upstream NM= .
Sat 13 Oct 2012  13:39:03,    Noise Margin= ., Sync Speed= 0, Upstream NM= .
Sat 13 Oct 2012  13:39:18,    Noise Margin= 12.1, Sync Speed= 11031, Upstream NM= 9.2

This is how it starts. Every time. NM jumps up and line resets. If this follows the pattern from previous experience, in 3 days this will drop to 9mb, then 6. Odd that just before an engineer arrives it fixes itself, now when he leaves the problem returns. Seriously, what are the odds of that happening? 

Just checked heating timers, etc, in the house and nothing was on at 1:30 and no one else was here. Dunno why I checked really, as we'd already ruled out stuff in my house God this annoys me no end. The engineer did say to me that there could be something like 200 connections between here and the exchange and any one of those having issues could cause problems. I'm wondering if the fact it poured down earlier has caused an issue on the main road or something. Bah.

Oh, the only thing I was doing at 1:30 was downloading a new game through Steam, so it seems maxing the line caused errors and the speed dropped. Can't see how that generates noise though, so it's probably a combination of things. I just can't get beyond the MASSIVE coincidence of the line conveniently fixing itself before the engineer visit and going wonky after he left

[pctech]

I don't think you are likely to get it fixed Niall

[Niall]

Well the connection is back to complete cr*p again, to be exact it was actually last week around wednesday it went but I thought I'd leave it for a bit to see what's what. 6mb and msn drops if I'm downloading anything at the max speed of the line. Awesome.

[Simon_idnet]

Hi Niall

I see that your area is due to get FTTC in the New Year. Hopefully, that might help your line.

[Niall]

Yeah I'm hoping that too. This is annoying as hell and I'd love to know what's causing the issue, especially when it's been confirmed that the line is fine and nothing at my end has a problem.

What else could there be? I'm guessing its BT doing work to implement FTTC as nothing has changed. And changes on the road from mine to the exchange would stand out a mile. The upgrades are the only changes around here. Cabinets are popping up for fibre but that's it.

Does anyone happen to know if there's an actual difference to the old standard cabinets when try change from the big 4ft wide ones to a 1ft wide/2ft tall one? That's the only other thing I can think of that's changed here. No new houses, no new buildings, no new work, roadworks started for fibre after I had problems.

Personally I think BT are lying through their teeth.

[Den]

I've had a email today telling  me that Infinity has been activated on my exchange. Starting to twitch, I don't want to leave Idnet but BT is so much cheaper for broadband infinity and inclusive calls. Help, what should I do?

[zappaDPJ]

You generally get what you pay for and with BT you don't pay a lot...

Or to put it another way if I was to leave IDNet in favour of a cheaper, unlimited service subject to fair use, BT would be at the bottom of my list.

In my view it's a gamble. It might pay off it might not. I've seen a lot of complaints recently from people left with no service at all because the current weather situation has created a lot of faults leaving new connections delayed by weeks and in one case I read about, months.

[pctech]

BT maybe fine until something goes wrong.

Firstly you do about 50 loops of their IVR system then if you are lucky you'll get to talk to someone who actually knows what they are talking about, if not you'll get a script monkey.

Question is, do ya feel lucky, punk?

[Steve]

I think FTTC is a very stable product and in terms of reliability I wouldn't have thought there's anything to choose between any of them. We 've had members here gone to BT and as far as I am aware they are happy, it is a question of economics, customer service,network quality and possibly contract length, only you can decide which is your main priority.

[Den]

The problem is with BT I can have infinity plus phone calls for £18 with a 40gb download allowance. Just checked on Idnet website and it's at least £10 more every month. I either stay on ADSL+2 and have 8.3mb or Infinity and get 20mb+ for the same price. I do NOT want to leave Idnet as I am very happy here but I am twitching. 

[Rik]

IDNet will offer fibre as soon as it's available to them, Den.

[Gary]

I have a few friends on FTTC in my nearest town, they switched to BT and seem pretty happy, considering how little time you spend on calls to support in reality I think if cost is a factor or a deal can be had go with what's best suited for you, Den. Brand Loyalty does not mean much in this day and age. (no offence to idnet) but its the same with most companies, you have to look after your own needs at the end of the day.

[Den]

IDNet will offer fibre as soon as it's available to them, Den.

It is on the Idnet website right now but they want about £27 including VAT  (25 gb download allowance) and without the phone calls, or am I misreading it?  On that basis it's a no brainer, or I stay as I am of course.   

[Rik]

There's price and then there's quality.

[Steve]

Plus of course there's a variety of connection/activation charges to take into account. I possibly worth checking how much of an uplift you'll get with FTTC compared to your adsl2+

[Technical Ben]

Currently IDNet are more expensive on the ASDL2+ Route AFAIK. I'll stick with them a little longer (increased allowances really help). But I'm still undecided as there are some good deals that other business broadband resellers offer.

I've had no problems with IDNet though, so they have built up my customer loyalty.

As to FTTC, it's early days still? So hard to call unless it's compared price alone, and to be fair that's not really where IDNet compete.

[Gary]

Im perfectly happy with idnet and adsl2+ all is happy days. Compared with other peoples providers  life here is good. If however FTTC comes to town (we are not in any roll out plans right now) I'll look around. Maybe by then peeps that have moved to BT may be seeing a different side to the service, who knows. Also as far as price and quality, well sometimes those lines seem more and more blurred these days and I can see that maybe becoming a moot point at some time in the not to distant future.

[mervl]

From my experience on VDSL2 (FTTC) over 15 months, the two most significant factors are the length and quality of the local loop between your property and the cab (which in my case "limits" me to about 40/6 Mbps sync (actual measured speeds max out at 90%) - not that I find it very limiting, in fact not at all); and the ISPs own network. However, I don't really derive practical benefit from IDNet's network because of the limitations of my local OpenReach loop. However, both the network and local loop are stable - the only rare loss of service (once to twice a month or less, normally of a few minutes duration) are due to faults or upgrades at the BT wholesale PoP where I surmise BT connect to IDNet's network. Both the cabinet DSLAM and OpenReach DLM  are hugely more stable and less much restricting of performance than my former experience of the ADSL/2 equivalents (which I gather have been improved since anyway). The roll-out OR spreadsheet showed an expected uplift of 8x over ADSL for my line, in fact it's over 9x (due to the excess of the exchange distance where the copper is now replaced by fibre over the cab distance which remains copper/ali). It has not deteriorated as take up has increased, and quite frankly I can't see why it should, in the absence of a line fault - for as far as I can see the OR local loop is managed to avoid crosstalk problems.

My ADSL line was so abysmal (i.e. capable of 5.5Mbps but ran at under 2-3.5Mbps, latency in the hundreds usually) that to manage VOIP and homeworking I invested in a fixed wireless service. It gives around a 10Mbps symmetrical service and latency under 10ms - good enough for everything I want to do, so there was no "need" case for my FTTC upgrade. The FTTC "local loop" factor is shown by the minumum latency on VDSL2 being 16ms - 8ms just to the cab according to the modem, with INP set at 3 and high levels of FEC, showing that interleaving is necessary. Whilst the fixed wireless service is unmanaged and has the odd off-day, the FTTC never does. To be fair to my former ADSL as far as I could ascertain the "problems" were all at the local loop and exchange - even with one of the cheap'n-cheerful ISPs (well, not so cheerful, actually).

Still all that is irrelevant for those with a BT allergy, you don't have to trust anyone - or anything - if you don't want to.

[Niall]

IDNet will offer fibre as soon as it's available to them, Den.

It is on the Idnet website right now but they want about £27 including VAT  (25 gb download allowance) and without the phone calls, or am I misreading it?  On that basis it's a no brainer, or I stay as I am of course.   

Oddly, BOTH Wrexham exchanges are now showing 31/12 for Fibre to be updated. Are you sure you've got it?

[Den]

I'm sure, I have had both phone calls and emails asking me to sign up.    Still undecided though as I don't down load films or play games and everything else is OK at my present speed. 

[Niall]

I want my 15mb back and could really use more than 888 up. I think the reason my upload has dropped is that IDnet have at some time changed the packages and the speed I was getting before that was prioritised traffic (apparently) has now stopped. Looking at the packages, it would explain my upload drop. Whatever the reason, the upload speed is killing me as camera sensor sizes increase which almost tripled my photo file size

[Niall]

Okay, this is now beyond a joke. I really want this sorted. 6mb line, ZERO errors, BT themselves and all line checkers say I should be getting 14mb but I'm getting SIX. If BT tell me there are no problems with the line, my equipment has been ruled out too, obviously there's nothing wrong with the several filters I have either. I've even changed the firmware on the router and have two routers with the same results.

Now, if the line is fine, the exchange is fine, my equipment is all fine then surely that leaves IDnet?

Ideas before I send yet another ticket off? I might even migrate somewhere else if it isn't fixed now as this is just annoying the hell out of me. Everyone is saying it's not their fault but it must be someone's fault. To say I've been patient is an understatement as I've given it several months and have spent a small fortune replacing routers, cables, filters, PC components, etc.

[Lance]

Or quite simply the 14mb estimate is wrong and not achievable and 6mb is the best your line will support.