A 2Wire 2700 HGV BT Business Hub Router Wireless

[LesD]

Eat your heart out Tiscali 

I second that whole heartedly being ex-Tiscali too. 

I really want them out of my system and it is many weeks since I last had a look on their Broadband "Service" Support Forum at the misery any number of their remaining victims are suffering  but they just won't let go of me.

I had their telephone service as a separate account to my broadband and closed both accounts at the same time. I paid for the broadband by direct debit and the Smart Talk account by on-line bank transfer using a sort code and an account number Tiscali provided to me when they took over my telephone account.
When I left BT (apart from the line rental) I started with Cable & Wireless that migrated through the likes of ntl and nPower before arriving at Tiscali.

Throughout last year they kept saying I had not paid my telephone bill. This happened at least three times and once when I had been away on holiday they pursued me for £0.99 yes ninety-nine pence! I had my bank trace one payment, which they willingly did right into Tiscali's account. Each time after months of hassle they admitted that they had received my payments one and all. At Christmas they told me that paying them by on-line bank transfer was not possible! Something I had been doing since circa 2004! So I filled out a direct debit mandate but they never implemented it. So when the invoice for the final settlement arrived I sent them a cheque with the tear off Giro from the bottom of the invoice in the self addressed envelope they provided with a first class stamp of my own on it.

This cheque to the value of £6.22 (and another for £0.72 to settle the broadband account) have never appeared on my bank statement and this was months ago, end of February early March!

After about a month I received a reminder about the £6.22 they said I still owed them. So I emailed  and was told that their "white mail" (yes "mail" not "male" before you ask) was being transferred overseas" and not to worry because this was causing delays in the processing of some payments.

After another month came a "Notice of Suspension" (by now the line they were going to suspend was back with BT). In this letter they said that if I didn't pay up they would be passing the debt to a debt collection agency. So with copies to ofcom and BBC Watchdog, I emailed, wrote, and even rang them on one of their expensive, dreaded 0871 numbers and was told not to worry that there were hold ups processing postal correspondence as this activity was being transferred to Manila. I was assured that I would not be put on a bad debtors list but what comfort can I take from a harassed call centre operative, who was overly keen to terminate the call and did in fact put the phone down on me when I was asking why, if there was no need to worry, did they persist in sending out these letters. I never did get this point answered and at this time the matter remains unresolved. 

Thank goodness for IDNet. They restore faith in this industry that I can think of no other provider that I have come across doing. 

Sorry about the whinge. Maybe this should have been in "Rant & Rave" but Davids remark in this thread triggered me and I have said before that I am not one to use two words when ten will do! 

David scrub the above, I have just read your:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=8011.msg173457#msg173457

My troubles with Tiscali are trivial! For hanging in there my friend! 
I see you fought and won a good result! 

[David]

I had a similar package Les and the last phone bill was for 12.22 and I always paid DD when the final bill came in I studied it and found that in fact although this was correct,they had taken a months broadband when they should not have,when I left I allowed for that months billing cycle and paid Knowingly but when the rolled it over again.I accessed my tiscali account online got a copy of the final couple of months and Emailed this all to it.....once I was safely back with Bt I closed the DD and asked Tiscali for a refund of the difference
knowing they would not but | thought I would have a bit of sport with them,just re balance the scales a little.

Never heard from them....I too used to go back to read the forum,never posted on there really but the misery is or was getting worse and the replies were all the same ones I had heard so many times.
I dont pop in any more but I do feel for some of the people trapped there.....
On the plus side I owe them a debt of gratitude..............I found IDnet so maybe it was all worth it after all 

[LesD]

Never heard from them....I

Go threaten to put them on a bad debtors list just for me! 

On the plus side I owe them a debt of gratitude..............I found IDnet so maybe it was all worth it after all 

A very true statement with which I can only concur 100% 

[David]

Not worth your blood pressure Les..............if they don't want to cash your cheque as long as you have proof of postage and are not giving them the runaround no one is going to come after you.......relax 

[LesD]

Not worth your blood pressure Les..............if they don't want to cash your cheque as long as you have proof of postage and are not giving them the runaround no one is going to come after you.......relax 

I am certainly not losing sleep over the matter     and knowing Tiscali I did put the cheque, Giro and envelope on my scanner before I sent the originals to them but I did not think to use recorded delivery!

It's their inefficiency and total lack of customer care that annoys me. The hollow apologies in every email that answer nothing and the cynical way they take you money on 0871 numbers is evil. 

[David]

Never used that number when I sussed it,Emails only this way I have a copy of time ,date etc and it has not cost a penny..............

[LesD]

Ah, the wonders of ADSL.

Never a truer word said. 

This morning I have now had two days without losing sync. at 9-o-clock!

Do you think I router overheard me type that I was thinking about rebooting it tomorrow! 

[Rik]

Or BT finished the work they were doing or... This is part of the frustration, Les, we often never find out what happened. A couple of weeks back, my line suddenly degraded. Support talked to BT, who weren't interested as I was performing above FTR, so as far as they were concerned, there was no fault. A day later the line recovered and I found BT working on the cable just up the road...

[MoHux]

Or BT finished the work they were doing or... This is part of the frustration, Les, we often never find out what happened. A couple of weeks back, my line suddenly degraded. Support talked to BT, who weren't interested as I was performing above FTR, so as far as they were concerned, there was no fault. A day later the line recovered and I found BT working on the cable just up the road...

What happened to your 'Bacon Butty' technique?  Let you down?


Mo

[Sebby]

What happened to your 'Bacon Butty' technique?  Let you down?

He tried, but the wind was blowing the wrong way.

[David]

What happened to your 'Bacon Butty' technique?  Let you down?


Mo

This only works on that other isp pork pork 


Talk,Talk cpw ?

[Sebby]

This only works on that other isp pork pork 


Talk,Talk cpw ?

[Rik]

What happened to your 'Bacon Butty' technique?  Let you down?

You have to get the engineer on site first, Mo.

[LesD]

Do you think I router overheard me type that I was thinking about rebooting it tomorrow! 

My router must be psychic it jumped the gun and rebooted of its own accord this morning!
I have only just switched the PC on to see a router reboot over an hour ago! 

Configuration
Key Code: 528Y-27G4-A222-22BJ-B22V
System Time: Sunday, May 18, 2008
11:57:38 AM
GMT Daylight Time
Time Since Last Boot: 0  days  01: 21: 38

[Rik]

It's not got SBC firmware has it, Les?

[Sebby]

IIRC, Les has a dual SSID, but I could be wrong!

[LesD]

IIRC, Les has a dual SSID, but I could be wrong!

Yes Rik, Sebby is right I do have the dual SSID one but despite the goings on over the last couple of weeks each time I have reconnected it has been at above 4000 kbps so my IP Profile has been maintained. I have just run a BT test with this result so I am not complaining: 

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    IP profile for your line is - 3500 kbps
    DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)  4224 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 3267 kbps

Ever since putting in the filtered master socket and running the dedicated CAT5 twisted pair from it to my 2700 my IP Profile has not dropped below 3500.

I do still fear an event causing a resync at or after dusk would result in a connection rate below 4000 kpbs and the resultant drop in my IP Profile. I know I am not alone in this predicament and that is a comfort. The understanding that I have come to have, from the explanations and help I have received from the members of this forum, makes it all the more tolerable. 

[Steve]

How do we confirm whether the loss of connection is related to external noise or a problem perhaps related to the router itself i.e faulty. From my own personal experience using a speedtouch 585v6 which indeed performs better on my "short" line than the 2700 HGV BT (higher profile and throughput) it will throw a wobbly every 2-10 days and reset itself. I have absolutely no idea why, but it always comes back with the exact same margin and sync rate and obviously since my profile is right for my sync rate and as these events do not occur often my connection does not suffer. Even using routerstats I have never seen more than a 5% swing in margin. Going of the topic evenmore a previous firmware for the 585v6 had a "flaky" DHCP server which was put down as the cause for frequent resets. Surely the 2700 HGV on an individual basis cannot be immune from similar issues.

[LesD]

Surely the 2700 HGV on an individual basis cannot be immune from similar issues.

I agree with this probability Steve but before I had ADSLMax my previous "Mk1" Netgear DG384 would stay up for hundreds of hours without so much as a blink on the fixed rate 2 Mbps package I had from my previous IPS.

This is why I think it is most likely to be associated with the more temperamental nature of ADSL lines rather than a hardware problem but I am open to correction on this. I certainly have found the 2700 to be more stable on my ADSLMax line than the Netgear was.

[Rik]

Since 1984, I've been muttering "comms is a dark art", and it remains so. We don't have the diagnostic equipment to decide whether a sync dropping is down to a router issue, a mains spike, external noise, a fault on the line or the DSLAM suffering from hay fever. All we can ever do is make an educated guess, based on eliminating as many variables as possible.

[LesD]

Today it is one week since the unexplained reboot of my Dual SSID 2700 and ever since that event my connection has been rock solid again. Not one of the disconnects I was seeing in the days leading up to the reboot!   

Logs filling up crossed my mind having read about this being speculated in another thread. The possibility of BT works affecting me but there is nothing that I can put a finger on to tie this down. It's back to wait and see I guess. 

[Sebby]

It looks like it probably was just a glitch, for which there is no explanation.

[LesD]

Just an update for the record as all's well with what I now know is my Single SSID 2Wire,
Model: BT2700HGV that includes
Hardware Version: 2701-100588-005
Current Software: 5.29.107.19

My System Summary shows:
System Time: Saturday, June 21, 2008
11:06:35 PM GMT Daylight Time
Time Since Last Boot: 20  days  14: 19: 08

There are two minor incidents in the event log as follows:

INF  2008-06-03T20:44:06+01:00  sys:  Successfully logged into a password protected page
INF  2008-06-04T19:15:31+01:00  sys:  ppp0: connection lost, reconnecting...
INF  2008-06-04T19:17:16+01:00  sys:  ppp0: Up with ipv4 service on pppoa0
INF  2008-06-04T22:38:19+01:00  sys:  Successfully logged into a password protected page
.
.
.
INF  2008-06-13T21:33:24+01:00  sys:  Successfully logged into a password protected page
INF  2008-06-14T08:56:06+01:00  sys:  dsl0: connection lost, reconnecting...
INF  2008-06-14T08:56:43+01:00  sys:  ppp0: connection lost, reconnecting...
INF  2008-06-14T08:57:01+01:00  sys:  ppp0: Up with ipv4 service on pppoa0
INF  2008-06-14T10:44:43+01:00  sys:  Successfully logged into a password protected page


Note the latter incident was cira 9 AM again so there is definitely some that happens in my locality at or about 9 AM on some mornings that I cannot bottom out!

These are tonight's Stats:
DSL                            Down            Up
Current Rate:              4416 kbs      448 kbs 
Max Rate:  4416 kbs     1048 kbs 
Current Connection:
Current Noise Margin:    6.0 dB        25.0 dB 
Current Attenuation:     41.2 dB       27.0 dB 
Current Output Power:  19.2 dBm    11.9 dBm 


All in all I am satisfied with the improvements I have obtained by moving from my Netgear DG834 (mk1) to this my 2Wire 2700 ADSL Modem/Router.

[Sebby]

It could be a difficult one to solve, Les. If it doesn't cause any problems, it's not too much of a worry.

[g7pkf]

Oh dear....

i sell a stuff on ebay.

I always try to include version numbers if possibe!

The wife is a shopoholic and if it sits around in the box (still sealed) or in the case of clothes in wardrobe still with tags on i sell it as new--it might be 2 years old but as far as i am concerned new means never used.

as for new old stock scenario i also buy the occasional job lots etc from various sources (mainly from customers on my travels) now if it's still sealed unused its new, it might be 20 firmware versions out of date but hey its unused therefore new....

I may open the box and update the firmware to latest but i always state this in the advert.

Lots of times i go into the likes of costco currys dixons etc and see televisions etc in there severly discounted.

now a few times on items like this i looked into it and the respective models are no longer manufactured and a new model has taken their place..sometimes by 6 months

do currys comet costco etc etc tell you there new old stock...NOT ON YOUR NELLIE.....WTFSi (why the f should i)


if in doubt

ask questions.

I am trying to get hold of a netgear wg602 version 3, and i am asking sellers what version they are selling as they normally do not say. now v4 has been out for about a year lots are saying new unopened v3 and selling as new is it new or used.....answer if still sealed NEW.


But yes i do sometimes also say new unused old stock.

My thoughts on all this change regularly (usually get the ar*e just after ive been ripped off)--said new and OBVIOUSLY BEEN USED