Mr Saffron on BBC1 News at 6:20 Today

Andrew Ferguson is featured on BBC, trying to assist users with ADSL problems .....

There's an article (click "Users speak about their broadband problems" -
top right- to watch the report!) on the BBC's website here.

"Andrew's advice is that Karen she should either arrange to revert to a slower service or get a phone engineer in to upgrade the line. "

Mrsaffron here to comment? sounds new to me perhaps I should ring BT for a line upgrade

BBC as always very poor no pressure on BT with that article, it now makes believe the bulk of problems are users equipment not bad lines and if a bad line exists apperently we can all call BT and they will make the line better.

Good PR for AG. I can envisage a new prime time series along the lines of House Doctor.

"Max Medic", starring Andrew Fix-it Ferguson. Also available on DVD.

Simon

The word upgrade is perhaps a bit of a misnomer.

The better phrase is, get an engineer in to simplify/rectify the houses internal telephone wiring, i.e. fit an NTE5 ADSL faceplate and in the process in this case carry out an NTE5 shift

To get the engineer for this it should be reported via the ISP - which from the peoples comments is clear they are having trouble doing. Providers have the ability to book an ADSL engineer which may be a chargeable visit of course.

A bad line is very often NOT a bad line, but some noise pickup in the property. This is clear enough from the number of people where a bit of fiddling in the home does improve thing, and at Karen's property I am pretty sure that is the case, i.e. extension coming off before the master socket. Master socket with an extension that has only one leg connected.

Its not so much pressure on BT or Openreach, but pressure on ALL providers (hence no names mentioned) to pick these problems up better, perhaps liase with PC repair people who can make a visit and assess the issues.

At the end of the day a techie item would have most people switching off, better to do something that people watch. Given a lot more time it would be possible to show what can be done, but showing fiddling with the phone wiring on TV is not the wisest thing, unless you do it in depth.

Andrew

In reply to:

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Good PR for AG. I can envisage a new prime time series along the lines of House Doctor.

"Max Medic", starring Andrew Fix-it Ferguson. Also available on DVD.

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Maybe something along the lines of Trinny & Suzannah's new series?

Where Andrew can pop round to your house, fix your internet, insult your dress sense and help solve problems with your lovelife all in one hour....

At the moment Karens on at 1Mb, which is Tiscalli LLU's doing. Basically limiting her connection to that speed.

What I don't understand though is that if the line is capable of running at that speed (which it was before being LLU'd) how it didn't continue to run at that speed after the change to Tiscalli LLU

well when you say its very often a bad line is that based on BTS reports? for example BT tried to close my fault numerous times with comments such as "proven fault at customer premises" when they didnt prove anything. SFI have now not only confirmed to me the problem is external but they have also told me the engineers that previously visited me missed many basic diagnostics they should have carried out.

I think this article had a target in mind of getting people to check their wiring and to make some isps look bad, if it was unbiased their would have been some heat put on BT liek the gaurdian did earlier in the year.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 20-Oct-06 18:10:07)

"A bad line is very often NOT a bad line, but some noise pickup in the property. "

Is the full quote, which reads a bit different to what you have said. It is based on the number of people on the forums who do better with ring wire changes, faceplates, extra filters, twisted pair RJ11 cables. I DID NOT say that ALL at any point.

Which service providers were mentioned in the item I was involved in then? Some service providers support is bad, and some service providers have admitted this.

As for heat on BT, why should it be so hard for people to book an engineer to checkout wiring? Could BT not offer this service directly?

Andrew

booking a adsl engineer should be available directly, causes more problems then its worth having to go through an isp. The point I meant tho it would be nice if the engineers had an open mind to faults rather then assuming it can only be internal wiring which is the impression I got from 4 different engineer visits.