Leaving O2 today

[NewsreadeR]

Hi Tony

Sorry to hear of your issues. Zen were always supposedly the best from what I have read.

In fact the only thing that their customers used to moan about on Think Broadband, was the distinct lack of Zen coffee mugs given away.

My move took place yesterday to Sky, less than 5 minutes downtime, and bang straight on. Slow initially, at 4mb but that is down to Sky's DLM

However, maybe just conicidence, but even at 4mb the web just seemed snappier and browsing is superb.

I have no regrets leaving o2 whatsoever, and if they hadn't of given me such shit support, or increased my Broadband cost, then I would have stayed with them. At the end of the day though, people vote with their feet, whih both you and I have now done.

I hope you get your issues sorted asap

Ged

[Tony1044]

Nice one - nice when things work out.

I'm not sure what's happened with O2 broadband lately.

It seemed they were really interested in providing a great service - and when they're reps appeared here, it looked promising and then of course, they just disappeared.

And the service - can't say it was _bad_ but I noticed frequent drops after 10pm.

I stream music from web stations to a player or two (well, the wife does) and after 10pm it'd start to break up. But, downloads were usually snappy and gaming rarely laggy.

And ultimately, I outgrew them.

So...anyway - Zen realised my noise margin kept getting automatically changed from 6dB to 3dB and every time it happened, connectivity went with it.

So they've supposedly had BT hard-code it to 6dB and since then - well still connected slightly slower than O2 - currently averaging 3000 whereas O2 was 3400 (well, up to about 3900 on a good day).

Touch wood, it all seems ok at the moment, but I've had my systems crippled for three weeks whilst no one at their support listened.

They were adamant that the problem must be internal because they could ping my router and my router could ping their gateway...but once they listened and tried pinging further than their gateway, or using bigger packets...they clicked.

Really, though, it's bonkers when they take three weeks over something like that.

So going to see how things calm down - not convinced yet, that I'll stay with them, but we'll see.

[Tony1044]

Well just a quick update.

Things are much improved compared to how they were (hard not to improve of bytes/sec download speeds, really).

But it still (a) isn't right and (b) isn't reliable.

I'm seeing it connect at around 2500 now, but download speeds struggle to get above 100kbits. That's testing with a single computer connected into the router via either cable or wirelessly.

Pings from the router itself to bbc.co.uk this morning at circa 09:30:

PING 212.58.241.131 (212.58.241.131): 56 data bytes
56 bytes from 212.58.241.131: icmp_seq=0 ttl=249 time=132.3 ms
56 bytes from 212.58.241.131: icmp_seq=1 ttl=249 time=80.4 ms
56 bytes from 212.58.241.131: icmp_seq=2 ttl=249 time=84.5 ms
56 bytes from 212.58.241.131: icmp_seq=3 ttl=249 time=106.4 ms

--- 212.58.241.131 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 80.4/100.9/132.3 ms

I'm used to a more reasonable 25-35ms.

So I've given up and have requested my MAC key - but here's a thing. I've been told that the one I used to migrate TO Zen is still valid...is that duff info?

So I'm now considering moving to Be Pro as they can also offer multiple IP addresses and I'm guessing (hoping?) that they use the same kit and technology as O2?

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Tony1044]

Got my MAC key and began the migration to Be last night.

Can't believe it'll be my second move in a month!

Zen customer services (cancellations): "Is there anything we could have done differently to have kept you?"

Me: "Yeah. Take the fault call seriously. Explain to me why I had years of almost flawless service with O2 at speeds you - at best - can only get to within 2/3 of and even then can't provide a download speed of greater than 100kbits. Explain why the only testing I was asked to do was to ping your default gateway. Explain why it took three weeks for your support staff to 'notice' that my S/N ratio was way too low leading to sub 1000 byte download speeds and my systems grinding to a halt."

Zen: "Oh. I'll get your MAC key"

And that, after a "fault manager" had apparently explained the situation!

pfffffffttttt.

[Tony1044]

Got my Be router today plus activation date for next Weds.

But apparently, they've had to do a BT Cease. Hoping it won't be down too long. <sigh>

[Saturday]

Good luck

[Tony1044]

Well the migration went ahead yesterday.

Popped the new settings into the same router as on Zen and it sync'd at just over 3900.

Pings to bbc.co.uk were back to my usual 28-32ms

Downloading was commensurate with the sync speeds and everything seemed good.

And then this morning, I found on their members area, a settings box. Optimise for speed, and turn on gaming mode.

Of course, being a techy, presented with two buttons I had to press them to see what happened.

The S/N ratio on my router dropped to 3.7dB from 6.1dB. My initial reaction to that was along the lines of "uh..oh...that's what went wrong at Zen" But..it sync'd at just over 3000, and my pings to bbc.co.uk dropped to 20ms. That may not seem much of course, but in real terms it's close to 30%.

All this during the training period too, of course.

Now I'm sure that the NTE5 panel I fitted is helping some (although with Zen I had all of the problems even plugged into the test socket with 2 x new filters..ok 1 x 'old' but unused and 1 x brand spanking new).

I don't want to tempt fate, but kudos so far to Be. They've been incredibly good with communications, and their DSL thus far seems (touch wood) rock solid and potentially higher performing than anything I've ever had prior to them.

I'll do a bit of gaming later when I get a chance and compare latency (Halo [yep, the original version for PC] used to get around 200ms latency to most servers wheresoever they are in the world. It'll be interesting to see if that drops.