Talktalk, I'm gonna walkwalk!

I live in South East London and have used Talktalk for some considerable years on our Mac, in fact more or less since they started providing broadband.
In the past months our broadband has been becoming somewhat sporadic in working, it would work for a couple of hours then.... stop! We would then unplug the router and plug it in again only to encounter the same problem a couple of hours down the line again. We have now got to a stage where our Talktalk broadband is not providing ANY connection at all!! We have contacted them numerous times only to be told "oh yes, our engineers can see there's been a drop in connection and we are working on rectifying it" they have however NEVER fixed it and at best making it work for a few hours again.

Ultimately we are sick and tired of Talktalk and their excuses and are looking for a reliable and fast connection. Can anybody recommend an ISP that can offer a good broadband package that's reliable and Mac friendly.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. If you're wondering how I managed to write this message, we have a very nice neighbor who allowed us to use his broadband for this!!

Are you sure it's your ISP at fault and not something local to you that's causing the problem?

If you want to find out, you should post your line stats reported by your router.

I'm sure any ISP will work regardless of what operating system you use. Have a look on samknows.com to locate your exchange and see what options you have.

Any ISP is 'MAC' friendly, you don't need to install any of their silly software on your computer. Just connect the LAN / WAN and fill in the details.

I'll give you a list of ISP's that you can't really go wrong with atm.

Be
o2
Sky
PlusNet

OK thanks for your replys folks. OK I am technically an imbecile so which stats should I get? Sorry if that sounds like a dumb question but I'm desperate to get this sorted.

In reply to a post by cybersimon:

OK thanks for your replys folks. OK I am technically an imbecile so which stats should I get? Sorry if that sounds like a dumb question but I'm desperate to get this sorted.

Go here - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

and find these stats

The details you are looking for are:

~ Sync Speed (Connection Speed)
~ Attenuation (atten)
~ SNR Margin (Noise Margin, Margin)
~ Details of any CRC/HEC errors or errored seconds may also be helpful

also, did you find your exchange at http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

Oh, my wife (who's the brains) has all the info, I think this covers everything.

Is your exchange experiencing any outages ? No
3. Do you have other telephone extensions ? No
4. Do you have an NTE5 master socket and if so have you tried connecting your modem directly to the test socket ? It's connected to the master socket, but has the same problem what ever socket it's connected to
5. Are you having any other voice related problems such as noisy lines and ringtone / ringing issues ? Very rare crackle on some calls
6. What modem are you using ? D-Link DSL G604T Current Firmware Version : *V1.00B02T02.UK.20050815
7. Have you tested with a different modem? Only the default that TalkTalk supplied with our broadband
8. Are you using a telephone extension lead to connect your modem to the telephone socket ? No
9. What is your modem line attenuation down and up? Down 41 Up 40
10. What is your modem SNR Margin down and up ? I think Up 896 Down 5536
11. 11. What is your operation (connection) modeI can't find that but we use it wirelessly
12. Are you experiencing the disconnections at any specific time ? No all time s day and night
13. What lights change on your modem when you get disconnected ? No lights change at all
14. Which Operating System are you using on your PC / mac (and which version) ? XP (home and professional), Vista and Mac OSX 10.5.7

TIA.

OK thanks Batboy,


0 CRC errors.
attenuation is 42/47

Exchange is Eltham
Is your exchange experiencing any outages ? No
3. Do you have other telephone extensions ? No
4. Do you have an NTE5 master socket and if so have you tried connecting your modem directly to the test socket ? It's connected to the master socket, but has the same problem what ever socket it's connected to
5. Are you having any other voice related problems such as noisy lines and ringtone / ringing issues ? Very rare crackle on some calls
6. What modem are you using ? D-Link DSL G604T Current Firmware Version : *V1.00B02T02.UK.20050815
7. Have you tested with a different modem? Only the default that TalkTalk supplied with our broadband
8. Are you using a telephone extension lead to connect your modem to the telephone socket ? No
9. What is your modem line attenuation down and up? Down 41 Up 40
10. What is your modem SNR Margin down and up ? I think Up 896 Down 5536
11. 11. What is your operation (connection) modeI can't find that but we use it wirelessly
12. Are you experiencing the disconnections at any specific time ? No all time s day and night
13. What lights change on your modem when you get disconnected ? No lights change at all
14. Which Operating System are you using on your PC / mac (and which version) ? XP (home and professional), Vista and Mac OSX 10.5.7

TIA.

In reply to a post by cybersimon:

4. Do you have an NTE5 master socket and if so have you tried connecting your modem directly to the test socket ? It's connected to the master socket, but has the same problem what ever socket it's connected to.

The Master Socket isn't the same as the TEST socket
To reach the TEST socket you have to remove the lower faceplate which disconnects all your internal wiring revealing the TEST socket...

-------------------------------------------
Freeola[EntaNet]
Hmmm...
SNR: Netgear DG834>2Wire 2700>Thomson ST585v6 My Router Experience

OK (all stats listed above on an earlier post)

B4dger we've just tested this and trying it this way it's still not working.

Just to ask the obvious in a different way....

Have you got (or have you recently added) anything to the house that is (or may be) connected to the phone line? eg. Sky Box, Alarm System, Fax machine.

I'm asking as you said you had no extensions but then mentioned multiple phone sockets.

Does the broadband problem you have occur at any particular time of day?

Although lots of people laugh at them the G604T can be a surprisingly good modem. The main problem was that dlink rationed or hid the software updates. If you were more technical I'd suggest putting the Routertech Firmware (the programs inside the router) on it.

Its worth us trying to help you identify any problem at your end as otherwise you'll just take any existing problem with you to another ISP and call centre.

ANOTHER THOUGHT: Have you discussed your problem on the TalkTalk Members forum at http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/ That's where some of their very best technical & customer support people can be reached rather than battery script clones. Often well worth a go.

Kevin

H: Eclipse Flex 512 - Living in fear of their NAF LLU Suffering from their heavy daytime throttling.
(Was Vispa Dialup)
M: PlusNet BBYW-1 monthly6.5Mbs - They went mad the month I joined

Edited by KevinR (Wed 01-Jul-09 13:48:19)