Why BT are still fail, #1 in a series

[uisgebeatha]

Our net problems continue apace, at the rate of one a day; ranging from high ping through to the cutting out from incoming calls and just plain outages where the router isn't giving us any helpful orange lights of death. Having provided all the technical info an IT-infused chick can, BT on Twitter suggested yet another speedtest, then decided out

Comments

[theinquisitor]

Yeah, I had the whole 'it's your router' thing from BT one time. It wasn't, but hey, now I have a nice Netgear router, and every reason to change ISP when I move house...

Switching to Virgin. Only way to get away from their horrendous tech support.

(Incidentally, the 'no start bar' line gets 'we only support Microsoft Windows' fail... Even when I'm reporting a line fault.)

[pfy]

Aaack... *twitch* * flashbacks*

I thought even Windows didn't have a start button any more. Didn't Vista replace it with a cryptic shinything?

I'm half convinced your mum's BT support bloke was taking the piss. He didn't also suggest dunking the laptop in Domestos, by any chance? The more cynical half of me realises that, yes, that really is what passes for technical knowledge in BT's B2C support department.

[ext_208701]

Find a small broadband provider. We've had BT customers complaining that websites hosted with us don't work and we've traced it down to them just dumping certain SSL connections - you snoop with tcpdump and you see the packets go to BT and not come out of the router at the other end. Set up a VPN and it all works fine. When I researched it I found lots of other companies (e.g. tescos online shopping) had had their stuff broken too.

If you're after technical clue, AAISP are the winners, general customer service competence gives you Zen, Idnet, large fast and not too shit leads you to Be/O2. Fast and cheap virgin. Personally I buy one line from Idnet and another from Virgin, that way making the internet come back after internet fail involves one route command on the router. It also means I still get to use the internet when I'm trying and failing to set up native IPv6 (idnet side).

[olithered]

We have AAISP here in WBC and I've been most impressed; tweakable and reliable connection with SMS alerts for dropouts, eight times faster than the previous occupant got with PlusNet (though that may be due to my extension wiring rationalisation)!

[ext_208701]

Plusnet developed a traffic shaping box that really was very effective at starving real users of bandwidth without most of the customers noticing. Sufficiently so that they managed to out contend BT by a considerable margin and undercut them. BT bought them in response.

[olithered]

As an aside Pete: Do you have any similar recommendations for voice?