Coms Broadband migration to Timico

Hi there,

For anyone with a Coms Broadband service (previously Cloud XL, Actimax or ADSL24) we've kicked off the process to migrate the ADSL, FTTC onto our own equivalent network with BT or TalkTalk. We're sending the below email out in batches over the next few days:

Important: Coms Broadband service migration

Dear (name),

You should have received an email from Coms.com in May advising you that your service was transferring to Timico. We are now beginning to merge the Coms network into Timico and as a result will be migrating your broadband line onto our network at the end of July. You can find out more about us on our website.

This email contains important information about some changes you will need to make to maintain your broadband internet connection.

Account code: xxxxx
Phone number(s): xxxxxxx

What is happening?
During the week beginning 20th July 2015, your current broadband service will switch from the Coms network onto the Timico network. When this happens your line will lose connectivity for about 15 minutes. After this you will need to update some of the details in your router in order to connect to the Timico network.

The price, download speed and monthly usage allowance of your current service will remain unchanged. Timico operates a high quality broadband network which is relied on by many thousands of businesses and home users nationwide.

What happens next and what else do I need to do?
If you have already cancelled your broadband service, or are about to cancel your broadband service please email [email protected] or call 0330 300 1000 and we will remove you from this migration to the Timico network.

We will send you a second email several days before your line is due to transfer to Timico. In that email we�ll confirm on which day your line will migrate. It will include a new username and new password which you must use. The email we send you will also include links to further FAQs and instructions for how to update your router.
We will also be allocating new dynamic IP addresses. Please contact us if you require a block of static IP addresses.

How can I contact Timico?
If you have any questions about what is happening, or what you need to do, please reply to this email, visit www.timico.co.uk/contact-us or call us on 01636 858919.

There will be more info and an FAQ in the second email we send in a week or so, but I'll happily answer questions here?

Hi Neil ... useful information, thanks ... just a shame in my case it's a little late as I have only just migrated away (yesterday) from my old ADSL24 Coms service.

If I'd had known your plans earlier I'd have probably stayed and moved over to Timico as I have no doubt that the service you offer will be measurably better than the current Coms service.

E-mail sent to provisioning@ tonight

Thanks. Sent you a PM

Thanks, I have passed this on to my friend, but to be honest I still think after this weekends shambles of his broadband being down and lack of support from Coms, he still wants to leave and go to Xilo (once they are taking orders).

Xilo (Matt) any chance of a rough date when orders are being taken again for Broadband?

No worries, good luck with your new provider.
N

Replied to your PM so hopefully you will be able to sort it

Thanks

In reply to a post by user7423:

Thanks, I have passed this on to my friend, but to be honest I still think after this weekends shambles of his broadband being down and lack of support from Coms, he still wants to leave and go to Xilo (once they are taking orders).

Xilo (Matt) any chance of a rough date when orders are being taken again for Broadband?

Uno is back up and running, website wise

Thanks. I just saw that with bobble_bob's post elsewhere, I will pass the info on to my friend later.

Edited by user7423 (Sat 11-Jul-15 07:19:20)

Hi Neal.

Thanks for the info so far.

Coms were diabolical at anything as I'm still waiting for the email from last May. If I hadn't been reading these forums then I wouldn't have known they Timico had taken over Coms.

One question.

As an ex ADSL24 customer I had a static IP number. Coms honoured this when they took over, about the only thing they did, but I see you're talking about "new dynamic IP addresses."

Is there no chance of remaining on a static IP as I do freelance remote sys admin work and a static IP number is handy.

Cheers.

AK.

Hi AK,

Yes it will be no problem at all to have a single static IP address. If you haven't already replied to the email you've received please do so, to tell us you want a static address. In the meantime if you want to PM me your details I'll double check that we'll assign you a new static, and not dynamic, IP address.
Thanks

I was given little choice but to start a migration away from Coms last week. I suffered the weekend downtime like everyone else and afterward noticed a severe degradation in performance.

I used to get 6.5 Mbps all day every day with ADSL24 then Coms and now I find during the day I get barely 1MBps. During the night I do get speeds back up to 6.5MBps but can only assume my connection has been migrated to a high contention ratio service.

I monitor my broadband speeds very carefully as I download and upload large datasets for work so I kind of notice that something that should take 30mins to download is now taking 4 hours. It seems to my Coms/Timico are not interested in keeping residential customers and they are trying to get rid of us by degrading our service.

Not forgetting the tickets that never get answered by Coms. And also the fact when you try and call them, the system hangs up on you after 2 minutes!

Coms/Timico do you want to lose customers? Because this is how you lose customers. You mujst not have much respect for people thinking you can degrade your customers experience like this and not have people notice. I'm disgusted the service has fallen so far from what we used to get from ADSL24.

Edited by deleted (Mon 13-Jul-15 15:55:09)

Thanks for the reply.

PM sent.

Hi there,

I'm sorry you're having problems with your line and I know that historically slow speeds have been a problem for Coms customers. But no lines have transferred from the Coms network to Timico yet, so no-one has had any downtime as a direct result of the take-over. It may be there's a fault on your line? Have you contacted Coms - do PM me your details if you'd like me to investigate?

Customers with BT tails have been emailed and start moving over on 20th July. We plan to email customers with TalkTalk tails this week.

It seems to my Coms/Timico are not interested in keeping residential customers and they are trying to get rid of us by degrading our service.

We expect customers will see significantly faster speeds once on the Timico network and we're certainly not trying to force residential customers out. There are details of our packages here in case you're interested in upgrading to FTTC : http://www.timico.co.uk/unlimitedfibre/soho

If we were actively looking to lose residential customers I wouldn't be spending my time answering questions here!

We know there has been a fair bit of damage done over the past year or so to Coms/ADSL24 customers, but we (Timico) have only been in charge a few weeks - please give us a chance to fix things

How can I find out if there is a fault in my line if my support tickets are ignored, (still unread from 3rd July) and while waiting on the phone to speak to someone I am disconnected after 2 minutes?

All I know is my broadband is now a different service with transfer rates all over the place, whereas before it was 6.5 Mbps all day everyday. Something has obviously changed and since I have experienced being on a high contention service before it looks exactly like someone had done that to me now.

The SNR ration, line attenuation and data rate reported by my modem have not changed, I have records showing what they were from months ago. So what other explanation is there for my frankly awful service now other than being a deliberate act moving me to a higher contention service?

Post deleted by RobertoS

Hi,

As I said, if you can PM me your details I can try and help. I know the Coms team are very busy. No bandwidth has been removed from the Coms network ahead of the move of customers to the Timico network.

Neil

Apologies if this partly refers to my consequently deleted post. My excuse is it was plausible.

Thanks for the offer to help but the migration is in progress and I don't want to change my mind. I will report back after the migration to let everyone know if moving to a new provider restored my original bandwidth or not. In the event it doesn't the new provider is significantly cheaper and offers an unlimited service anyway.

I was going to try to phone coms to discuss the last bill but their website in unreachable! Put another ticket in saying I am cancelling my direct debit but who knows when they will read that.

Post deleted by bobble_bob

Thanks for the offer to help but the migration is in progress and I don't want to change my mind. I will report back after the migration to let everyone know if moving to a new provider restored my original bandwidth or not. In the event it doesn't the new provider is significantly cheaper and offers an unlimited service anyway.

In reply to a post by twohydrus:

I was going to try to phone coms to discuss the last bill but their website in unreachable! Put another ticket in saying I am cancelling my direct debit but who knows when they will read that.

You can bet your last £££ that they will read that one and respond quickly, when it come to money they are on the ball 100% when it comes to customer service and problem solving they are totally rubbish. Good riddance to Coms.Com and Hello to Timico, it seems like Neil is starting out well from them with a pro-active participation here in the Forums which can only be a good thing.

Edited by stevepressman (Tue 14-Jul-15 14:04:02)

Steve - are you on bt network or ttb?

I would just like to thank you so far Neil in keeping us up to speed in what is happening with the Timico takeover from Coms.com.

Couple of things have caught my eye that you have said.

1. We expect customers will see significantly faster speeds once on the Timico network

How so? What were the restrictions that Coms had placed on us during our time with them if we were not getting the max available speed?

2. When it is time to change usernames and passwords from the 20th onwards, do we get to choose the username/password or will a username be allocated to us and then we have to change the password anyway?

Keep up to good work so far that you have started on the Forums!

Regards

Steve

Edited by stevepressman (Tue 14-Jul-15 14:17:09)

Hi Steve,

We know that there were lots of complaints about speeds from Coms customers over the past year. We have little info on how things have been run in the past as many Coms staff have left, but we assume there was more customer demand than bandwidth available.

Because most Timico customers are business users our peak time traffic pattern is quite different to what we currently see on the Coms network. So we expect the two will mesh together and when residential is busy business will be quiet and vice-versa. Needless to say we'll be keeping a close eye on things.

Regarding usernames we think that 95% of Coms customers will now be able to keep the same username and password and only those on 20CN realms will need to change. Where they do have to change we'll email customers with the new details which will be the same username but a new realm and a new randomly generated password (to be confirmed by end of this week).

We have little info on how things have been run in the past as many Coms staff have left, but we assume there was more customer demand than bandwidth available.

Coms seemed to promise the world and didnt have the network to back it up. They doubled and in some cases tripled peak usage limits, and reduced peak hours so alot more "unlimited" usage time

Be interesting if speed issues were with people on BT or TTB, as one thing i never suffered with Coms was speed issues but i was on TTB LLU. Was always at the max for my line. I know BT Fibre do have capacity issues so maybe more that than Coms.

Edited by bobble_bob (Tue 14-Jul-15 20:49:49)

I've still heard nothing from either Coms or Timico about the takeover - first mention of it I saw was here last week when I was trying to find out why my broadband was down.
I emailed Timico on 12th July to ask for info, only an autoresponse so far.
I was planning to move to try and move to Uno once their site was back, have had absolutely enough of the rubbish service from Coms and I would really like to be able to watch streaming video again.
A bit of information would have been nice - beginning to wonder if Timico know my account exists.... Coms certainly don't from the way they ignored my last ticket and just keep cutting the phone after every 7 minute wait. Argh.

Hi everyone,

Just FYI this afternoon we're emailing customers with TalkTalk SMPF and MPF lines which will migrate across on 27th or 28th July.

Also a second email is being sent tomorrow AM to those on BT 20CN ADSL, 21CN ADSL or FTTC giving details of the migrations on 20th, 21st and 22nd July.

Anyone wanting a static IP address can have one, they just need to email [email protected]

There's some more info here: http://www.timico.co.uk/supportcentre/coms-broadband

Thanks

Thanks Neil. Didnt get any emails today so guess im off the migration database

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

Hi everyone,

Just FYI this afternoon we're emailing customers with TalkTalk SMPF and MPF lines which will migrate across on 27th or 28th July.

Also a second email is being sent tomorrow AM to those on BT 20CN ADSL, 21CN ADSL or FTTC giving details of the migrations on 20th, 21st and 22nd July.

Thanks

Hi Neil.
Thanks for all your posting.
I have received an email today about the upcoming Timico migration.

I may be reading this all wrong but as far as I know I am on BT21CN Adsl. However, the email I received states that my migration will be on the 27th. I have never had any dealings with Talk Talk.

Which is correct? The email or your post or am I missing something?

Thanks

TTB LLU isnt the same as Talk Talk the ISP. Its using the Talk Talk tech at the exchange but over whatever network the ISP use.

Hi there,

If you want to PM me your phone number I can check.
Around 1/3 of Coms customers were on the BT network and around 2/3 on TalkTalk.

Yes sorry, good point to make.
Many resellers (including Coms) choose whether to supply lines via BT Wholesale or TalkTalk Business (wholesale) depending on geographic availability and I guess whatever commercial arrangements they have in place - some ISPs may tell the customer which technology they're on and some may not....

Im surprised Coms had many ADSL24 customers left. They did their best to lose as many as possible.

pm'd Thanks

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Im surprised Coms had many ADSL24 customers left. They did their best to lose as many as possible.

I thought I was the only one left actually!

Anyway - off to Uno now. Hopefully won't be annoyed enough to log in here for another10 years!

You have to tell us how uno is when you join.

Thanks bubble_bob, you were spot on. Thanks to Neil also for clearing that up for me.


I have a few questions I was hoping some of you could clear up.

Currently with coms I have the DSL100 package, which if I remember correctly is 100gig peak download per month and then unlimited off peak.

Does anyone know what the peak times are with Timico? [They changed with the move from Adsl24 to coms.]

Also are bank holidays/ public holidays included in off peak?

Thanks for any input.

In my private chats with Neil from Timico ISP he told me that as they are a mainly business ISP and that there customer base is as such that peak times is from 9am to 5pm Mon-Fri and off peak all weekend from Fri 5pm to Monday 9am this is not set in stone and I have sent him a PM regarding this too and I will no doubt get an answer tomorrow am when he gets into work.

As to your usage allowance I can not say but I believe they will honour whatever it was that you previously had.

Hope this helps you, feel free to message me tomorrow afternoon when I should have a firm answer to yours and my query regarding peak/off peak.

Steve

Thanks for that Steve.

Communications over this have been pretty poor.

Got an email from Timico the other week saying I was moving and that Coms will have already emailed me (wrong assumption). This said I would need to change the login details (ok, pain but understandable).

This was followed by an email last week which gave the migration date and said I wouldn't need to change login details. Hmmm, that turned out to be wrong.........

At no point has anyone said anything about the price or package that I would be migrated onto. Have to make the assumption it is all the same as before. Having read this, it may not be the case so confused now.

All in all pretty poor communications and migration so far. Not showing themselves to be any better than Coms.

Our exchange should be getting an upgrade in September with FTTC coming in. Will see how Timico perform up to then, otherwise I will be going elsewhere.

Hi there,

Sorry you feel that way. We're seeing fewer customers than we expected auto-reconnect today as it turns out one of the realms due to be set up has not been configured correctly on the wholesale network - that means some customers we expected to auto-reconnect are having to enter new username credentials. Sorry about that - are you back online?

Re: change of package and communication we said this in the email we sent to customers:

The price, download speed and monthly usage allowance of your current service will remain unchanged.

Hope you have a good experience with the speeds. Our expectation is evening and weekend speeds will be better on Timico than they were on Coms as most of our usage is business customers during week days.

I am still on Coms as I phoned to cancel the migration to Timico as my other migration should happen this weekend.

Suprise surprise my connection is flying now, with 6.5Mbps all day every day which must be due to the contention ratio going down as others are moved to Timico. This adds weight to my argument that Coms (or entanet) moved us to high contention ratio service.

Just thought I would wait a couple of day before I added my thoughts to the changeover that happened on Monday from Coms.com to Timico.

I can see from my BQM that the swap happened at 1am no big deal I was in the land of nod then anyway

Wake up to find that I was off line and so try to reconnect assuming as I had not received an email that my username and password was going to stay the same. After about 20 mins of trying I could not get back on line, rang Timico CS who answered very quickly and within five mins had me back on line with my "new user ID and password" that had not been sent to me. The CS guy was very friendly, polite, knowledgeable and very efficient.

I had some breakfast done a little surfing just to check out response times to my usual web haunts and all seemed ok. Then decided to do a few speed tests one with Thinnkbroadband, another with Ookla and then another with the BTW Performance test page.

One thing was clear my speed was slower than usual. Decided to check further with the BTW Test page and found out i had been put on the 40/10 instead of the 80/20 profile

Another call to CS who confirmed after about 5 mins of checking that I was on the 40/10 he was sorry that this had happened and would get it put right asap saying it would be done within 24 hours.

I later found out when messaging Neil ISP Timico that there were a few others in the same position as I was and that it could take BTW a working week to get me back on my 80/20 profile.

As of this morning I am still on the 40/10 profile the speed is not what I am used to but it has so far been quick at all times during the day and evenings so can't fault that so far!

Steve

Hi Steve,

There were 8 customers who had 80/20 lines but the Coms systems had them logged as 40/10 so we placed the wrong migration order. We've resubmitted orders with BT to get these changed back to 80/20 lines which should take 4-5 working days. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this causes you.

Neil

Uff.
Well having done as I was instructed and sent an email saying I was in the process of migrating elsewhere (and had an email back to confirm) I've just had the email from Timico saying I'm being migrated to them on 4th August. Er... no, you don't.
Seems about as well organised as Coms so far. Just saying.......

Just checked and I've had the same e-mail as you this afternoon.

I migrated away from Coms on the 7th of this month and I've had confirmation from two different people at Timico/Coms that my service has finished with them.

It's like an unstoppable steamroller ....

You tried PMing Neil your line number? He sorted mine out (well assume he has, no email with migration)

Gari - try emailing Pulse8 too, they should be able to stop it if you dont feel confident Coms/Timico can

sylphe/Neil - If he was in the process of migrating away, how were Timico successful in placing a migration order? Surely it would fail as one already is in progress

Edited by bobble_bob (Thu 23-Jul-15 17:30:37)

Arrggh so I finally migrated from Coms on 13th July. On the 15th I get an email from Neil advising me of my move to Timico. So I promptly emailed Coms to advise them I had left them (as per the instructions in Neil's email) - which they must have known anyway as I'd lost all internet when I woke on the day of migration. I had confirmation from Coms that they'd remove me from the transfer list. Now I've received another email from Neil confirming migration to Timico on 4th August.

I've now raised a ticket with Timico to ask them not to do anything with my line, but I'm rather worried at the moment that everything is going to go down. Afaik, as I moved over to fibre, I don't even have an ADSL line any more but I just want things left alone

PM Neil, by far the quickest way he replies pretty quick. He can remove you

Yeah thanks Bob - I saw your earlier message to another user and have pm-ed Neil with the line, account and Timico incident numbers.

Can't blame Timico I guess - looks like it's Coms just not passing the information over even though they were quick to disconnect me after advising them of migration.

I doubt you were disconnected, probably a usual Coms outage. I was still "active" on their network a month after migrating

Hi all

Sorry for this confusion. If you have previously told us you're leaving/have left you can ignore today's email. Our email system ignored 'opt-outs' because the email was set as a service communication and not a marketing communication. rest assured if you have PM'd me or emailed in previously and had a reply, you are definitely not caught up in this migration and can ignore today's email.

So I seem to have been migrated to Timico in the last hour despite me emailing and phoning to tell you I have another migration in progress which is scheduled to take place tomorrow.

I followed the instructions in the email to say I don't want to be migrated and yet it seems to have happened anyway despite me getting an email saying it would not happen until 8th August.

My IP address has changed and a traceroute shows I am going through the timico network now. I really hope this does not affect my migration tomorrow to another ISP.

I'm really unhappy with the disjoint between what is being said in the emails and what seems to be happening in reality.

Well I just got the email from my other ISP saying my phone line is now active and that the broadband migration will happen tomorrow so the migrating to Timico I thought had happened might be just due to the phone line changing providers. Hopefully my new ISP will come on line tomorrow as planned.

They shouldnt be able to place an order if you were in the process of migrating. Unless the new migration rules allow this

It will have gone in as a bulk move, which is far cheaper for the ISP. I wonder if those are subject to the normal migration order checks. They may not be .

With a bit of luck, the single migrations to other ISPs may still complete, but I have grave doubts. I imagine they are by phone number/circuit ID.

If he has phoned to cancel any migration/bulk order he has been caught up in and they still moved him across i would consider that slamming

No reply from Neil as yet (maybe he's being bombarded) but my Timico ticket has been updated to confirm I won't be migrated. Fingers crossed...really...I'm not sure of the impact if I get moved when I'm now on fibre, don't even want to think of the implications

Its a difficult one to try and explain. I got Neil to remove me before the 1st round of emails so never got the initial email saying i would be moving

In reply to a post by twohydrus:

My IP address has changed and a traceroute shows I am going through the timico network now. I really hope this does not affect my migration tomorrow to another ISP.

Was your phone also with COMS, and does your chosen ISP happen to be Plusnet?

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 24-Jul-15 18:11:12)

Something you know we dont

LOL.
Something the poster may not know, but you may do.

And it could be relevant if anyone is migrating to Plusnet.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 24-Jul-15 19:40:50)

Im intreged now

There have been several migrations into Plusnet recently where the user has come onto the Community forum asking why it hasn't happened on the expected date.

The answer is frequently that they have no trace of it. In such cases, and even when they do find it either first go or after incredulity from the poster, in possibly all cases Openreach have rejected the order for some reason or other, and nobody in Plusnet had picked that up and got back to the migrator.

A frequent cause of orders being rejected is that there is one already pending on the line. Either for phone, broadband or both.

Plusnet apparently have a new "provisioning" system. It looks like it has holes.

So people messed up by this supposedly cancelled but actually happened Timico move may not have been migrated on the expected date anyway. If the bulk order had gone in before the Plusnet order, which I expect would be the case as bulk orders take a while to be scheduled, I think the Plusnet order would have been rejected due to the migration order on the line.

Even where Timico correctly rescinded their order, it wouldn't cause reinstatement of the Plusnet one. (Or any other ISP's order of course, but they would probably have been doing something about the rejection).

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 24-Jul-15 21:00:11)

My new broadband activated yesterday ahead of schedule. Speed is the fastest I have had so far, now sitting at 6.9Mbps all day. No signs of throttling or high contention ratios.

But yesterday morning you said you migrated to Timico. What time did it move on again?

Just after 9:00am my phone line went dead for 10 minutes. After it came back up I did a traceroute to yahoo and it was showing going through timico servers rather than entanet servers.

About an hour after I got the email saying my phone line was ready from my new provider so this was obviously why the phone went dead as it was switching over.

A few hours later I got the email saying my broadband was ready for use. I changed the username and password in my router, did a traceroute and confirmed I was now using my new ISPs servers, not timicos.

If you were going over Timico instead of Enta after your phone went dead then a migration must have been placed and completed by them before your new provider took over?

So in the space of 3hrs you went from Coms -> Timico -> New ISP

Seems odd that could happen

Edited by bobble_bob (Sat 25-Jul-15 11:39:10)

Possibly a UK record though!

Quite

I have a feeling he wasnt migrated to Timico (why he was getting a Timico IP and traceroutes i dunno) but firstly he cancelled the migration, secondly the email (which Neil said was in error) said migration would happen on thr 8th. And lastly its 1 hell of a coincidence that the supposed Timico migration completes 1 hour before his new ISP complete their migration. What are the odds?

Maybe Coms have ditched Enta and using Timico backend network until all migrations complete?

Neil will know what happened.

I don't really care why I picked up Timico servers for a few hours. I'm on my new ISP and very happy with it so far. Don't regret migrating for an instant.

Hi there
Apologies for lack of reply, been away for a few days.

In each case of moving a line from Enta/Coms to BT/Timico we've placed individual migration orders. Where we've been contacted by someone who didn't want to move we've cancelled the migration orders.

However, I've now seen 3 different examples where we've cancelled a migration order with BTW, had a confirmation reference, yet the migration has still gone ahead. Obviously in those instances were in touch with the affected customer to help them move smoothly to the ISP they intended to move to. Likewise I have 8 x FTTC 80/20 upgrade orders all in delay at the moment with BTW, despite being well past their confirmed date.

We have a meeting with BTW tomorrow and if we find out something useful I'll share it here.

As we delayed some Enta/Coms > BT/Timico migrations due to customers with faults we'll be doing a 'clean-up' batch later this week, again with a 10 day lead time, so you may see reference to some more emails going out.

We're still on track to migrate the TalkTalk tails onto the Timico/TalkTalk pipes in one-go as a realm-shift on 4th August.

So Coms do use Enta then? Despite traceroutes going over Enta, Coms always insisted their supplier was never Enta

Bit worrying that you cancel a migration and still get moved anyway. Not so bad if they get moved to Timico before their prefered migration took place. But if they completed a migration to their new ISP then the so called cancelled migration happens could cause allsorts of issues

Hi yes,

Coms definitely bought most of their BT lines via Entanet
The TalkTalk lines were mostly direct with TalkTalk

Once fully migrated to Timico all lines will be direct with BT Wholesale or TalkTalk Business.

Thanks

Well I actually got a reply back very quickly from Timico apologising for not having taken me off the email list. So hopefully everything will now be sorted. (Unless I end up in some kind of weird limbo between providers.... which I'm half expecting to happen with my broadband luck.)

Definitely beats Coms response time, they never even opened the last 2 tickets!

So looking forward to getting back to better than dial up speeds in the evenings......

Hi Neil,

We are one of the customers stuck on a 40/10 profile - we reported this to your support two days ago and got a quick response to say you were investigating. But nothing since. I mailed again a few hours ago to request an update. Can you give us an update on when we can see the correct profiles re-established please - 80/20. How can that have gone wrong please - seems like a bit of a major error?

Thanks
Spon

Seems it was Coms database error. Another in a long line of Coms f*** ups

I'm scheduled to be migrated on the 4th (former ADSL24 customer) but having a lot of problems with the connection this weekend, I'm randomly getting a lot of connection timed out errors on different websites. Tracert is still showing going through the Enta network so I assume this is Coms being more rubbish than usual and not related to the migration?

Did you try changing your DNS to Google, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 ?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Did you try changing your DNS to Google, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 ?

That's what the router is on already, I'm getting a mix of DNS errors and simple connection timed out when it does resolve correctly.

Thanks for the suggestion.

In that case try OpenDNS 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

In reply to a post by Johnmcl7:

I'm scheduled to be migrated on the 4th (former ADSL24 customer) but having a lot of problems with the connection this weekend, I'm randomly getting a lot of connection timed out errors on different websites. Tracert is still showing going through the Enta network so I assume this is Coms being more rubbish than usual and not related to the migration?

Hello. I registered to make this post. I'm a former ADSL24 customer too with a scheduled migration set for the 4th. From this morning I'm getting exactly the same. It's like most of the internet refuses to DNS resolve or times out. Facebook / Google work but Twitter and most other things don't.

I've tried using GoogleDNS and OpenDNS but with no joy.

Another one in the same boat. Migration due on the 4th but half the internet is missing.

Did a speed test on the site here, my net connection is faster than usual. However, I can't get to speedtest.net.

So I can get to practically no sites but can get there quickly.

Edited by deleted (Sun 02-Aug-15 13:33:17)

Looks like this boat is going to become overcrowded as I too have the same problem since early this morning.

Changing DNS servers makes no difference and I can successfully do dns lookups from console just fine. It appears to be http traffic related.

Role on the 4th August.

I wonder if Openreach are doing the batch job early and your accounts aren't fully set up to handle the result?

Edit: See this post.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 02-Aug-15 17:22:35)

And another one !
ex ADSL24 customer, scheduled to be moved over on the 4th. Getting very limited and slow connection since late last night.
For what it is worth, it appears to me that it is web sites that I would expect to be in the UK or Europe that are still accessible (with the exception of speedtest.net).
Changing DNS servers does not help.
Doing a tracert to Google DNS (8.8.8.8) seems to indicate that the delay is at enta.net (big delay reaching telehouse-north.core.enta.net)
This is the worst problem I have had even since Coms took over. Hope it's not a sign of things to come.

Hello, same here. Only half of the internet seems to be working. I have restarted my router, modem, and computer and made sure all wireless devices were disconnected before switching it back on.

Changed DNS and still no luck.

I am also set for migration on the 4th.

Just tried calling Timico. So CS and tech support are closed on a Sunday unless I stump up cash.

On a Sunday

Hard enough getting them to do a good job on a weekday

lol yeah I know. Was just hoping the new guy would be eager. Or that, maybe as they are business orientated that they may offer support for when their customers need it. Guess not.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I wonder if Openreach are doing the batch job early and your accounts aren't fully set up to handle the result?

After reading here initially I was thinking it was just a coincidence as I'd expect the internet connection to be down completely if they'd started the migration early rather than the partial connection I have now but now I'm seeing several people posting with exactly the same issues and also being migrated on Tuesday it seems the two may be linked.

Thanks to all those posting by the way, I was pretty confident it wasn't an issue specific to my connection but it's useful to know others are in the same boat.

I've not been following the situation closely so apologies if I'm asking something obvious, what exactly is happening with Coms to Timico? Are they transferring people from one company to another or are we simply being moved from one network to another?

If traceroutes are still going over Coms/enta then its a Coms issue and not a Timico or migration issue i would have thought. Probably just coincidence. Not the first time their network has given up

I don't have any connection since this morning.
I am scheduled to move over on 4th. My question is can I still cancel this and migrate to different ISP? Also as I am now on a month to month contract does anyone know what will happen with my contract now? Will get a new 12 month with timico or will stay on a month to month contract?
Thanks for any answers

You will still be on your existing one month, with no changes to your contract. Neil stated this a few days back.

For anyone who needs to access an unavailable web site, try using TOR browser. Every site I have tried is working via TOR. My guess would be, if you used a VPN and could access it, then you should be good too.
Accessible from TOR Project downloads

Hi everyone

We're aware of a problem that is affecting potentially several hundred customers. Our Tech support teams trying to diagnose the issue. Lines definitely have not migrated early. The symptoms are the line is in synch but some (indeed much) of the internet is not accessible.

Quick question to anyone affected today - are you on TalkTalk lines?
We've had around 40 customers call into Timico Tech support today and all have had TalkTalk lines but we can't see an issue from the TalkTalk end so think it is something elsewhere in the old Coms network.

Hi there

If you're currently on a monthly contract you'll stay exactly as-is. No-one's contract will restart and no new minimum terms as a result of migrating the network onto Timico.

My post re possible early migration edited. Thanks Neil.

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

Quick question to anyone affected today - are you on TalkTalk lines?

Nope, I've had this problem since around 7am and I'm on a BT line

This did happen before when i was on Coms. Turns out it was an Enta issue

OK, thanks that's very helpful to know it's affecting BT/Enta lines too.
Can you PM me your phone numbers pls?

Would be great if the page didnt time out!
What a cock up

Service Status alert now up:
http://status.timico.co.uk/?cat=19

All examples we've seen are TalkTalk lines still connected to the Coms network, so that's where we're focusing diagnosis efforts.

BT line here with problems. Just PMed you my number. Thanks.

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

OK, thanks that's very helpful to know it's affecting BT/Enta lines too.
Can you PM me your phone numbers pls?

PM sent...

internet out completely for me since 4am Sunday. Talk talk line. No help from Timico on phone as they have deleted my details as I am migrating to Uno on 10th. Has taken nearly an hour to log in and post by phone. What a mess!

Neil it's good to see you about on a Sunday.

I'm on coms too as we have discussed previously.


Any one out there got any idea why using TOR allows me to access the net when otherwise I have only limited access?

In reply to a post by TaintedShirt:

Neil it's good to see you about on a Sunday.

No rest for the wicked.

What we know so far:
- Only affecting TTB lines. Several people sent me their CLI saying they have BT lines but all so far have been TTB (Coms must have put some customers on TTB lines without telling them)
- But only affecting *some* TTB lines - we see several hundred with no issues
- Not affecting Timico TTB lines, just Coms TTB lines
- All still in synch but with limited connectivity
- Some showing errors on the line from TTB end, others look fine
- Some customers reporting VPN solves the problem

In reply to a post by TaintedShirt:

Neil it's good to see you about on a Sunday.

I'm on coms too as we have discussed previously.


Any one out there got any idea why using TOR allows me to access the net when otherwise I have only limited access?

Certain parts of the network seem to be functioning and others aren't so if you can route all your traffic via a working part using something like Tor or VPN, then you should be able to browse normally.

John

BT user here also waiting to transfer from Coms to Timico on the 4th. Experiencing the same problems, some websites work (Google, Facebook etc), but many also time out.

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

In reply to a post by TaintedShirt:

Neil it's good to see you about on a Sunday.

No rest for the wicked.

What we know so far:
- Only affecting TTB lines. Several people sent me their CLI saying they have BT lines but all so far have been TTB (Coms must have put some customers on TTB lines without telling them)
- But only affecting *some* TTB lines - we see several hundred with no issues
- Not affecting Timico TTB lines, just Coms TTB lines
- All still in synch but with limited connectivity
- Some showing errors on the line from TTB end, others look fine
- Some customers reporting VPN solves the problem

Thanks for the update, I didn't realise I was on a Talktalk line either but it sounds like I must be.

any update?
Absolutley no internet at all for me since 4am sunday and to get a phone signal I have to stand on a water tank in the corner of the orchard. this is somewhat inconvenient to say the least. Os this going to be fixed at all? What happens to those of us who are still coms customers even though timico isn't taking us on?
It's rather too dark now to stay on this perch. Hoping for some positive news in daylight tomorrow!

Mine stopped working for about an hour got limited access again at the minute

Well they are doing something.
We lost all internet shortly after my last post. Win7 said there was no internet connection, router said it was there. Either way, I had no access. It has just come back, borked same as before.

So going from bad to worse and just recently back to bad.

Just registered to add my voice to the boat - half the websites on the internet not working since about 12:30am on Sunday (2nd August). I'm on a BT Line too (was on ADSL24, now on Coms... haven't had an email yet about when I'm being migrated but had an email saying that I would be at some point. Guessing it'll be the 4th)

I've found using Google's DNS settings (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) let's me see about 5% more sites than before (e.g I can now see duckduckgo.com). Still leaves about 60% of the internet unavailable....

I noticed Coms took their monthly invoice from my account just yesterday (1st August). Did they just pull the plug on their hardware now that they're done with me???

What was the last email you got regarding the migration? Did it give a date? All BT should have been moved over now so if not you are probably on a TT LLU line

their status page now reports this should be fixed, seems ok now here. but now way to late to start off a windows 10 upgrade download was planning to start it after work at 5pm

According to Coms, my package is called "Coms DSL Unlimited", and I can still log into their MyAccount portal. (Next to "Account live", I have a "Yes".)

I assumed I just hadn't been migrated yet?

I received an email from Neil on July 15th, but it didn't state a date for the migration.

Dear Customer,
You should have received an email from Coms.com in May advising you that your service was transferring to Timico. We are now beginning to merge the Coms network into Timico and as a result will be migrating your broadband line onto our network at the end of July. You can find out more about us on our website.

This email contains important information about some changes you will need to make to maintain your broadband internet connection.

Account code: XXXXXX
Phone number(s): xxxxxxxxxxx
. . .

Can confirm I am able to browse sites I was previously unable to just a few hours ago.

Ummm... thanks everyone?

Yay.... I have internet at last. So relieved I don't have to go and stand on the water tank again to check my email.

Just curious though..... if this happens again between 4th (when the Talk talk people are migrated to Timico) and the 10th (when I get migrated to Uno)... what happens? Is anyone going to fix it? Does Coms still exist in any form? Technically I'm still their customer until the 10th, but they no longer appear to have any kind of customer response.

In reply to a post by sylphe:

Yay.... I have internet at last. So relieved I don't have to go and stand on the water tank again to check my email.

Just curious though..... if this happens again between 4th (when the Talk talk people are migrated to Timico) and the 10th (when I get migrated to Uno)... what happens? Is anyone going to fix it? Does Coms still exist in any form? Technically I'm still their customer until the 10th, but they no longer appear to have any kind of customer response.

I think I'm up and running here as well as I'm able to get to sites I wasn't before.

It looks like this issue is unrelated to the migration so if it happened again it would hopefully be sorted reasonably promptly since it's affected a reasonable number of people although as you say, who knows with the level of service coms seem to offer. I really need to get onto finding a suitable alternative, I found ADSL24's technical support to be very good and spend a lot of time banging my head off the table when dealing with other ISP's for other people, don't want to be doing that for my own connection.

John

Well isn't this nice...again. I've had no internet access of any description since the early hours of Sunday morning like, I gather, most of you. So, after struggling to get online on my 3 inch mobile screen I discover, apparently, that Coms users are now going over to Timico! No notification, no emails, no letter by snail post, usual stuff. Nice, thanks Coms, will I be glad to see the back of you lot.

Meanwhile, what's going on? Have I been changed over? Am I still on Coms? Do I need a new username or password or change my router details? And what are the T and C's on Timico? What's my user allowance and can I still download what I want 'unmetered' during the same hours and what are those hours? How do I get into 'My Account' on Timico, assuming there is such a thing? And how do I contact Timico to report a fault?

What a fiasco, only in this country could they get away with it....

<muffled scream>

Back on the internet too. Lost the added speed (about 0.5Mbps), but got the whole internet back.

Did you get the "Welcome to Timico" email many months ago?

In reply to a post by My_brain_hurts:

Well isn't this nice...again. I've had no internet access of any description since the early hours of Sunday morning like, I gather, most of you. So, after struggling to get online on my 3 inch mobile screen I discover, apparently, that Coms users are now going over to Timico! No notification, no emails, no letter by snail post, usual stuff. Nice, thanks Coms, will I be glad to see the back of you lot.

Meanwhile, what's going on? Have I been changed over? Am I still on Coms? Do I need a new username or password or change my router details? And what are the T and C's on Timico? What's my user allowance and can I still download what I want 'unmetered' during the same hours and what are those hours? How do I get into 'My Account' on Timico, assuming there is such a thing? And how do I contact Timico to report a fault?

What a fiasco, only in this country could they get away with it....

<muffled scream>

You can see a sample of the letter in the opening post of this thread, it's much the same one I received. For most people it looks like there shouldn't be any change with a brief disruption in service with a possible router restart being the only expected issue. My migration isn't until Tuesday so will see how well that works in practice.

Nope, first I've heard of anything happening was tonight when I accessed the net on my mobile! Had no knowledge of any of this stuff and been way too busy lately to mess about on forums to see why I've had the odd ADSL problems so totally unaware of going over to Timico at all. Anyone remember the opening minutes of the original Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe? Just sitting here wondering if I'm going to have any internet access tomorrow, just what I want in the middle of sourcing building materials and tools...

Could be Coms dont have an uptodate email for you. Best to email Neil on here who works for Timico

hi bobbly bob, how ya doin?

Yeah, oddly enough I just checked my old Coms account details to check what email address it shows and, although I changed the email when Coms binned their email service last year, it shows the updated address and the old adsl24 email address but won't let me update it. I wondered why I never had so much as an invoice from Coms for ages but been so busy this past year it's not really bothered me. Commonsense would have been to send a snail mail to every user, I for one had absolutely no idea we were going to Timico until tonight! Grrr...

Im good thanks. You? I thought you had left Coms as not seen you on the forums. I got out just before the Timico takeover a few months back. Thought i was one of only a few left but seems more stuck with them than i thought

Heh!

I knew. And I've been on Plusnet since 2012, never been on COMS, never been on Timico.

(OK, I'm just having a bit of fun, but the above is true. Fortunately for me my working life is years past ).

Oh - and your connection and contract should stay as is. Just a different supplier. But as others have said - Neil needs to know your current email address and your ADSL24/COMS username. A few people do need new usernames and passwords, but not all.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 03-Aug-15 00:56:07)

I'm feeling 'harrassed' Betty, I think the cat did a whoopsy in my beret, lol.

Wasn't expecting to find my ISP has changed/is changing once again and found that out only by accident because I urgently needed to get online and was trying to find why I was off air (yet again). It couldn't come at a more inconvenient time, I'm up to my eyes in building work, last thing I want is not to get important emails I'm waiting for etc. I was all set to leave Coms too, like many who did, but I got diverted, other things took over and Coms 'settled down' and changing over seemed less important. I keep promising myself I'll run a campaign to get the Regulators to force telcos to sell us 'wires only' just for internet access, it's just a complete ripoff being charged monthly line rental for a phone I never use.. but that's for another day!

Getting too old for this stuff...

Morning all,

Really sorry for the issues experienced yesterday.

There was a routing failure within the old Coms network that affected some customers who have lines via TalkTalk. The complexity in resolving it came from trying to un-pick where the issue was without having access to the network. Coms outsourced much of their network to two third parties and the issue was between them but *looked* like it was a TalkTalk issue. So we spent a frustrating day trying resolve between three different third parties. We think this is fully resolved now so would be interested to hear if anyone is still having problems?

This highlights why we're migrating everyone off this complex network onto our own network where we have visibility and direct control of everything.

Anyone who's received an email saying your line will migrate on 4th Aug, that is still going ahead and it means you have a TalkTalk SMPF or MPF broadband line. You'll be able to keep your same username and password when your line moves across.

Thank you to everyone who sent me the details yesterday as this helped prove where the issue was.

Fascinating/aggravating to read all this. I am an old ADSL24 customer who has suffered under the incompetence of comsplc. I had absolutely no idea until I saw this thread that I was now with yet another telco. I have received no email telling me this that I can find. I have certainly not been advised of a date when I will be transferred to the Timico network. God help me for being an innocemnt seeker after decent broadband.

So yesterday, when the network went down, causing me untold frustration and, today, a lot of extra work to catch up on the data I msised, I tried calling all the coms numbers I had. All permanently engaged. So I had absolutely no idea what was going on. This really is disgraceful. And now I am with another provider (apparently) who like coms specialises in business customers. Not at all happy. Shall be looking urgently into my options (once I have recovered from yesterday's appalling screw-up).

Sorry about yesterday's problems. While we do mainly focus on business customers we also have several thousand residential customers and have done so for 10+ years.

Can you PM me your line details and email address please and I'll see whether your line has been migrated and will send you some more details?

Thanks

Wonder if thats why Coms always denied their authentication servers were screwed when for almost a year every few weeks customers would get authentication errors and no connection for up to an hour. If there are 2 or 3 third parties must be a nightmare to sort out

I will get migrated on 4th so I guess I am on talktalk line.
Does that mean I will have a different line after that?
Any chance for better pings or it has nothing to do with that?
Sorry for newbie questions

Hi there

You'll still be on exactly the same physical line, same network port, same copper etc. But basically TalkTalk will re-point one end of the 'pipe' from the Coms network to the Timico network. So your line characteristics should remain exactly the same.

If after the move your line has changed in any way or you're not happy with it, by all means contact [email protected] and we'll be able to fiddle with it or raise a fault as appropriate. The lines switch from Coms to Timico on the 4th, but TalkTalk's systems won't fully update until the 5th so there may be a short delay in raising a fault if we need to.

Hope that helps

Yeah, like My_brain_hurts I only found out about the move when I came here a few weeks ago to try and find any info about a problem. No email notifications before that at all - and I've never changed my details with Coms.

So... between the 4th and the 10th whose customer am I, Coms or Timico? Anyone?

They never did fix that did they ... and we put up with it for months and months - if you reported it nobody would have had a clue what you were on about, so from what I can see, those left are going to get a much better service when moved over to Timico

Hi there,

On the 4th your line will move from the Coms network to the Timico network. But Timico already sort of own Coms Telecom, so your contract remains unchanged.

So between now and 10th you're still a Coms customer, paying Coms but your traffic will route over the Timico network.

Hope that helps.

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

Timico already sort of own Coms Telecom

So Timco is sort of responsible for the whole mess.

I am very happy to report that I have now received an excellent response from the first man supposedly to walk on the moon (still not entirely sure about that one Neil) and it does seem that Timico is from a totally different planet than Coms (the moon I guess). So I'm going to stick with these guys for now and see how things pan out.

I hope he didn't Strongarm you.

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow the bulk of Coms broadband customers with TalkTalk SMPF and MPF lines will move across onto the Timico network.

This will happen in 11 batches (according to realm) starting 10am and continuing until 3pm.
Customer usernames and passwords will remain the same.
We're expecting connections to drop for a max of 5 mins and then re-authenticate automatically but we'll be keeping a close eye on things.

If you have problems please contact us by email or phone - details here> http://www.timico.co.uk/contact-us and make sure you say you're a Coms broadband customer.

We'll be keeping a very close eye on things....

Take it this isnt like a normal migration then from 1 provider to another, as the time they happen are usually outside the control of the ISP and up to BTw when they get around to it in the day?

Edited by bobble_bob (Mon 03-Aug-15 15:54:45)

Indeed. We're doing a realm shift where all users and all traffic on each realm will move at once. Basically TalkTalk just update their databases and push the new config to the switches and point traffic at Timico instead of Coms. 11 different realms to shift, each one being done in turn.

Neil, can I ask you this. In your 'Network Management Policy' it states that "certain non-business applications such as peer-to-peer (P2P) may be deprioritised. This allows us to maintain quality of service for business applications such as VoIP, email and web browsing."

Bit worried about that. I do a fair bit of data swapping between computers using Dropbox and a fair bit of web 'scraping' into Excel as well. I also have a live feed updating prices at a rate of 20 updates/sec. Will these be under threat?

Edited by deleted (Tue 04-Aug-15 09:36:02)

LOL

Certainly under less threat than they are/were with COMS.

Your usage is possibly http (classified as web browsing) anyway. I admit I haven't checked what RSS feeds use.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 04-Aug-15 10:51:32)

Coms as a communication company used to block voice chat if it used p2p protocols. The irony

Well the live feed is a direct link to a website API so don't know what that counts as.

That will be normal web access not P2P.

Hi

As far as I know Dropbox is just HTTP. Certainly I use it all the time on my home FTTC line via Timico and it is very fast. Have asked the questions of the networks dudes and will come back to you though.

How lucky of you to have FTTC. I'm about 150 yards from my enabled N London exchange but "economically unviable". Real bummer.

Incidentally, if you want to reboot your router it speed up the process of moving across to the Timico network as when you re-authenticate you'll pick up the new route via our network.

Oh, okay. I didn't notice any downtime so assumed it hadn't happened yet. I have a window of opportunity coming up shortly.

So I've done that and it's working fine. I can tell its switched because your name comes up in the Ookla speedtest rather than coms. Super stuff! Thanks

Edited by deleted (Tue 04-Aug-15 17:27:45)

Working like a charm here.

Shiny new static IP and the bonus of being away from the Coms useless network and support.

I'm a happy bunny

Thanks Neil.

In reply to a post by Reged:

So I've done that and it's working fine. I can tell its switched because your name comes up in the Ookla speedtest rather than coms. Super stuff! Thanks

According to Tracert I'm on the Timico network as well, didn't even notice any downtime.

John

from a quick check after a restart, it seems i was not migrated today at all, whats going on?

Did you restart your router, which is what is needed, or just your computer, which wouldn't affect things?

remote reset router 5 times, even physicaly turned it off and on again, still on coms via enta

I believe Neil said Timico were forcing sessions to resync so users didnt have to manually do it to switch over

And Ninereeds, did you get an email to say you were moving today?

Edited by bobble_bob (Tue 04-Aug-15 22:24:17)

pretty sure the email said for migration today, though cant check as it was deleted by mistake in my monthly inbox purge

Ah, but do you also purge your Trash/Deleted folder?

unfortunately, yes

checked this morning, now its migrated over

Incidentally we're aware a few customers are seeing higher latency than previously.

We actually have a temporary route in at the moment for about two weeks while we're upgrading part of our network. This is sending traffic 'the long way round' and is just short-term.

Are all users off the Coms network now then? Must say apart from a few issues with some users, for a mass migration going on these forums it appears to have gone smoothly for you

Problems with my /29. It turns out that I was migrated sometime today while I was away. I hadn't been sent any details of my new /29 allocation, but after a phone call to Timico, I was given then, and this was followed up in an email.

The problem is that the start IP address of my block is also the WAN IP of the ISP (Timico). They used to be separate addresses, quite distant from each other. This doesn't play ball with my Belkin modem, and as such it's mucked up my network until I can spend time diagnosing.

I've cobbled together a working connection for the next few days until I have the time to sit down and trace the problem and configure the modem differently to be able to work with what I've been given.

RWJ

1. How do I find out if I am one of them customers going "long route"? Wiling to wait if it's only temporary.
2. Do we need to make any changes to the payment method? Keep the direct debit for Coms active?

Thanks Neil

Thanks, still a few hundred customers left on Coms/Entanet for various reasons. Those will all be moved to Timico, ceased or migrated to other ISPs by end of August.

Still got a few customers who should be on 80/20 FTTC but are on 40/10 profiles but we're fixing those one at a time. Had a few issues with mis-matching addresses or conflicting orders.

Biggest issue from customer perspective is where people been on holiday and not been around to re-config routers for change of IP address which has caused some business customers particularly a fair bit of hassle. But we've tried to do what we can to make this as smooth as possible.

Hi there,

1) All Coms customers on TalkTalk lines affected for next 10 days or so. I'll post here again when the work has been completed (basically some traffic bouncing from London to Manchester and back to by-pass a box that is being upgraded).
2) No need to change DD details yet. We've contacted some customers to change billing but not others. We'll contact you if/when you need to change

Thanks

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

Thanks, still a few hundred customers left on Coms/Entanet for various reasons. Those will all be moved to Timico, ceased or migrated to other ISPs by end of August.

Still got a few customers who should be on 80/20 FTTC but are on 40/10 profiles but we're fixing those one at a time. Had a few issues with mis-matching addresses or conflicting orders.

Biggest issue from customer perspective is where people been on holiday and not been around to re-config routers for change of IP address which has caused some business customers particularly a fair bit of hassle. But we've tried to do what we can to make this as smooth as possible.

Neil,

I'm one of the non-business customers with routing problems since I got shifted to your /29. As I wrote last week:

"The problem is that the start IP address of my block is also the WAN IP of the ISP (Timico). They used to be separate addresses, quite distant from each other. This doesn't play ball with my Belkin modem, and as such it's mucked up my network until I can spend time diagnosing."

I have two ADSL2+ modems, one Belkin, the other Linksys, and both are having problems routing on Timico. I've had various different /29 over the past 10 years my exchange has had ADSL, and each time there's been no problem preforming the changeover on my network. Until Timico took over Coms and gave me a new /29. Each time I had a change of /29, all I'd do is change one entry in my modem's config file -- changing it to the new IP for ex 4.5.6.2 (where my new block is 4.5.6.1-8) from 1.2.3.2. The WAN IP that my modem displays -- and is what the ISP gives me when I authenticate on their network -- is quite far from the /29 block that they allocate me. Timico are different. The WAN IP they give me when I authenticate is the start IP of my /29. This is what's causing problems.

Strangely, if I configure the modem to, say, 1.2.3.1, and my iMac to 1.2.3.3, I can use the iMac to connect to the internet, but the modem is invisible from my side of the network. I can only configure it externally via tethering something to my Three mobile phone. Additionally, nothing else on my network can see the modem on 1.2.3.1 thus my wireless router (which is a separate device to my modem) can't see it, thus I have no home wifi. I've been relying on using Three's mobile data since a week, so I dread what my bill is going to be like.

This could be resolved if Timico allocated me a WAN IP on authentication that was distinct from the /29 they allocated me. I have tried taking this up with Timico support, but they don't understand the problem.

Help!!

Richard

Edited by the_gog (Tue 11-Aug-15 15:43:28)

What netmask are you using?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

What netmask are you using?

255.255.255.248. It's what I've always used with no problems over the past 10 years.

Edited by the_gog (Tue 11-Aug-15 17:04:29)

I'm confused by your example using 4.5.6.1 and 1.2.3.1.

I would expect this http://jodies.de/ipcalc?host=4.5.6.0&mask1=29&mask2=

In short, because that was Zen's support's advice. Do not set the modem on a /29 to the network address ie 1.2.3.0 in my example. It's always been set to the second IP address in the /29 and it's always worked, I could access the modem's web interface. This was the case across ADSL24 and Coms (when they were up). Timico are the first ISP I've encountered to allocate the first IP address of my /29 as their WAN IP.

I'll look at hacking around a bit more later tonight. A headache I could well do without.

Presumably Zen give you a separate static IP and a routed subnet?

I imagine the modem gets the WAN address and your other devices get the host addresses.

I have no idea what Zen gave me. All I know is that they gave me that /29, and this was the same set-up with ADSL24, ADSL24 post-Entanet, then Coms. Timico must do something completely different.

So, is the problem that you can't access the modem from the LAN but you can from the WAN? Is that because you need loopback configured on the modem or because you need to allocate a LAN ip address to the modem?

Can you access the modem by using a VPN instead of having to use a tethered mobile phone?

Hi there,

Sorry you're having this problem. Can you PM me your line number and contact details please and I'll follow up with Tech?

Correct. It would appear there is no way to configure loopback on it (it's a Belkin F5D7633uk4a ADSL2+) that's given me no issues in the 10 years it's been on the line, apart from one dodgy firmware that Belkin pushed out. I had to return it to them under warranty. The firmware since then has been rock solid.

As for accessing via VPN, I'd have to hunt down an OpenVPN provider that gave a free trial as I'm now out of my monthly data allowance. As I'm now using the Belkin router in NAT mode, at least I've regained some semblance of home wifi, albeit WPA, and from a poor location. I'll have to fiddle around with the Assus to get it to operate just as an access point.

Thank you Neil. PM sent

Ah, I used to have a Belkin 7633, excellent modem. I probably still have it somewhere...

A quick search for free VPN gave this http://www.vpnbook.com/

Thank you.

The issue is now fixed. Timico allocated me a separate IP address for the WAN IP they dish out on authentication that's not in the /29 they allocated me. This is as per Zen, ADSL24, and Coms. Routing now works. Many thanks to everyone's work at Timico to fix this.

RWJ

Timico Broadband - Misleading! Censoring! Poor support!

After migration I noticed that some websites dont load, ie one of my favourites torrentz.eu.
Sent email to their 'technical support' - received reply two days later:

"I'm afraid as a service provider, we do not support the use of torrent sites and that is why these are blocked."

Yep - they don't support torrent websites! But still very very many 'torrent websites' load without any issues!

Now take a look at their T&C:

Network Managemant Policy
4) Content Filtering
"Timico does not operate any content filtering or proactive website blocking of any kind by default on our fixed line network"

I can access torrentz.eu from neighbours Virgin or TalkTalk, I did not have such problems when with Coms. Now Timico and my connection is censored! But for those who want to rad T&C there is no blocking or filtering! Trap for new customers? Poor idiots.

Also 1) is interesting. It is about bandwidth management - they do shape traffic all the time. Soon or later throttling to be experienced.

This is just ridiculous, even worse than Coms! How is it possible that such a rubbish providers still exist?

Moving house in couple of months, MAC soon. End of this comedy.

In reply to a post by Jack_14:

Moving house in couple of months, MAC soon. End of this comedy.

Two problems there.

First: a MAC isn't applicable to house moves. Only to migration between ISPs on the same line/number/premises. You will have a simple Cease, which is usually chargeable by ISPs.

Second: MACs ceased to exist on 20 June 2015.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 17-Aug-15 16:49:35)

You can see only two problem here? I can see more. Ie poor ISP? No?
To MAC or not to MAC whatever the name is hope you got the message.
BTW I have never agreed to any of their t&c - so no new charges here. I was promised the same service but their failed to deliver, even as poor as Coms, Timico is even worse!

Its a month contract so you can leave whenever you want if you arent happy.

are you sure the torrent website isn't down from the websites side? i have used many torrent sites since the switch over and haven't had any problems.

seems strange because if their official stance was that they didn't support torrent sites they would have blocked more than just 1 of them

infact my torrent speeds have greatly increased in the last couple of weeks, steam downloads too. under coms it seemed like whenever i hit my peak speed, it would dip down into the 500s and then crawl back up, down again, etc. timico are very stable at the highest possible speeds. not sure if that has anything to do with the switch or not but its certainly noticeable

It could be that the agent was wrongly extending "we do not support" to include "so we block them", because the OP was saying they couldn't get to that torrent site.

Plenty of ISPs do not support different modems and routers from the ones that they supply. That doesn't mean you can only use theirs. It just means they can't give (support) help if you have a problem with a different one.

Hi there,

Sorry, but our Tech Support advisor has given you incorrect information here.
We don't proactively block any sites P2P or otherwise unless we are given a court order to specifically do so.

We do however (and make absolutely no secret of this hence our policy published on our website) use traffic management tools, specifically packet inspection, to mark and prioritise traffic so that at busy times business-critical applications are prioritised. So at busy times (9am-4pm) I would definitely expect to see P2P traffic slow down, possibly even to a crawl if it is a very busy day. But in the evenings and at weekends it should run to whatever your line speed is (ignoring other factors which may restrict transmission speeds).

O2, BT, Sky, and EE (to my knowledge) have all been served a court order to block Torrentz.eu. You can test this by using any O2 mobile and trying to navigate to the site. You will get a message saying it is blocked due to hosting copyright material.

We have several thousand residential customers and hope to do so long into the future, so we're not looking to force anyone out. If you could PM me the details of your ticket I can re-educate the Tech agent concerned.

Thanks

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

O2, BT, Sky, and EE (to my knowledge) have all been served a court order to block Torrentz.eu.

Working fine on BT Infinity here

Hi

"Tech Support advisor has given you incorrect information' - do I read properly? Another misleading information? [censored] is going on in this company?!

"We don't proactively block any sites P2P or otherwise unless we are given a court order to specifically do so" - why I can not access torrentz.eu??

"I would definitely expect to see P2P traffic slow down" - I don't care I use it very very occasionally.

"You can test this by using any O2 mobile " - I DONT GIVE A FLYING **** about O2 !!!!

"O2, BT, Sky, and EE" - works great at work with BT broadband.

You have promised the same the same the same service! What I got is WORSE than Coms!
Your T&C are mislead those who read - you certainly DO block websites!
Your tech support? WHAT support??? Teenager on national minimum?

I still can not access the website I want. I NEVER had such problems with Coms. What are the other websites that you decided to block?! Bet you didn't block any nasty under-age porn.

This weekend Ill get a screencam and upload this scam on Youtube. Google should find 'timico'+video easy.

Unbelievable! I am physically sick of this.

In reply to a post by karmaamputee:

are you sure the torrent website isn't down from the websites side? i have used many torrent sites since the switch over and haven't had any problems.

seems strange because if their official stance was that they didn't support torrent sites they would have blocked more than just 1 of them

infact my torrent speeds have greatly increased in the last couple of weeks, steam downloads too. under coms it seemed like whenever i hit my peak speed, it would dip down into the 500s and then crawl back up, down again, etc. timico are very stable at the highest possible speeds. not sure if that has anything to do with the switch or not but its certainly noticeable

Same here but I don't use P2P often, only occasionally. It works so the idiot 'tech support' has no slightest idea what he was talking about. Rubbish ISP, rubbish support, rubbish company. My rant is about torrentz.eu - the website they block.
They DO block websites, they DO filter content, only God knows what else they do but in the T&C they say no, we don't!

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Its a month contract so you can leave whenever you want if you arent happy.

I know but for remaining two-three months I don't want to switch, pay connection charge etc. You know what I mean. It just a pain on the back side.

If you want a few months with an ISP until you move try Pulse8. They dont charge a connection fee

I meant to add to this post last night that a different Timico customer asked me about Torrentz.eu and where we blocking it. The customer pointed me to this article:
http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/lack-of-cour...

He also told me that O2, BT, Sky and others were blocking it. I checked it on my O2 connection and got the blocking message. I haven't checked Sky or BT so can't vouch for that.

*Timico* is not blocking Torrentz.eu, however I don't dispute that you can't get to it on a Timico connection. We think it is getting blocked further down the line by a transit provider.

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

I meant to add to this post last night that a different Timico customer asked me about Torrentz.eu and where we blocking it. The customer pointed me to this article:
http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/lack-of-cour...

He also told me that O2, BT, Sky and others were blocking it.

So your customer told you?

But you said

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

O2, BT, Sky, and EE (to my knowledge) have all been served a court order to block Torrentz.eu.

Now you point to an article saying there is no court order.

Get a grip please.

Yes, the customer told me there was a court order. I'd never heard of Torrentz.eu until this customer mentioned it. A quick Google shows lots of articles about Torrentz.eu and various requests for ISPs to block it.

The customer listed 5 ISPs who had been served the court order, one of which was O2. I tested that with my own O2 phone, found it blocked with a copyright infringement message which seemed to support the customer's assertion that there was a court order to block the site.

The question I was answering was whether Timico was blocking it (we are not) and whether we have received the court order (we have not).

Reason some ISPs who have been served a court order can still access the site is how they block it. I think BT just block the actual URL so its easy to get around using the IP address of the site

I know this is what happened with a popular usenet website that BT "blocked" but was easy to still access

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

Yes, the customer told me there was a court order. I'd never heard of Torrentz.eu until this customer mentioned it. A quick Google shows lots of articles about Torrentz.eu and various requests for ISPs to block it.

But there is no court order, although you said there is.

The customer listed 5 ISPs who had been served the court order, one of which was O2. I tested that with my own O2 phone, found it blocked with a copyright infringement message which seemed to support the customer's assertion that there was a court order to block the site.

But there is no court order according to the list here http://www.ukispcourtorders.co.uk/

The question I was answering was whether Timico was blocking it (we are not) and whether we have received the court order (we have not).

Well, you wouldn't have, as there isn't one.

You also asserted that BT are blocking it, which they are not.

I believe some sites have been blocked without a court order in place, and instead the bigger ISP's like BT and Sky have proactively decided to block these illegal sites.

The confusion lies because even with a block in place people can still access the sites. I know Newzbin was blocked by BT before it closed down but some could still access it while otherse couldnt

Edited by bobble_bob (Tue 18-Aug-15 13:30:13)

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

I believe some sites have been blocked without a court order in place, and instead the bigger ISP's like BT and Sky have proactively decided to block these illegal sites.

Illegal? Without a court order, I don't think they're illegal.

As there's no court order, BT aren't blocking them.

Well i say illegal but that is debatable. A usenet site that links to copyrighted material is no more illegal than Google doing it but still have been blocked

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

If you want a few months with an ISP until you move try Pulse8. They dont charge a connection fee

Plus8 looks interesting. Thanks!

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

*Timico* is not blocking Torrentz.eu, however I don't dispute that you can't get to it on a Timico connection. We think it is getting blocked further down the line by a transit provider.

Are you really trying to say that your transit provider is censoring your broadband service?
Can you get us a list of websites not available, ehm, not supported, on Timico broadband?
That would help a lot.

Post deleted by jasperus

In reply to a post by Neil_A:

Hi there,

1) All Coms customers on TalkTalk lines affected for next 10 days or so. I'll post here again when the work has been completed (basically some traffic bouncing from London to Manchester and back to by-pass a box that is being upgraded).
2) No need to change DD details yet. We've contacted some customers to change billing but not others. We'll contact you if/when you need to change

Thanks

It's been 12 days now. Any news on that?

Edited by deleted (Sat 22-Aug-15 13:04:18)