TalkTalk upload sync issues since Pipex takeover

Hi folks,

I've been with Pipex for the better part of 10 years and never really had any major issues but for the past couple of weeks I've been getting slower and slower upload connection speeds. I had a fault ticket opened with Pipex towards the end of November and over the course of a few days I got texts/calls letting me know that they'd fixed the issue. They hadn't, of course, and 'escalated' my ticket each time. Come the start of December I call in to check on my fault status and I'm through to TalkTalk, the rep in India had no record of my fault or any of my previous calls with anyone that said they were from Pipex.

I think I spent around 30 minutes explaining the situation, very slow upload speed and seemingly random periods of no connection at all. It was when I told her that I was using two routers that I'd bought myself that she said it was impossible to log a fault with the line because I'm not using a TalkTalk sanctioned router. Now I have to wait up to 7 working days for them to send me a router (at a cost of £15) before I can tell them I have an issue. The sales rep I had to talk to even had the nerve to suggest I could get the router for free if I renewed my contract for 12 months.

I've tried the BT user test credentials on the master socket and swapped out filters/removed other telephony equipment but there is no difference in connection speeds. I'm using a Netgear DG834N with the DGTeam firmware (V1.02.15 - DGTeam Rev. 1018 - I installed that to see if it made any difference, and it didn't so haven't bothered reverting it back). Also I have available a Zoom 5690G router, which I bought to see if it was just my Netgear router acting up. The Zoom worked for around 3 or 4 days at fantastic speeds (2300kbps down and 800kbps up) but now doesn't get any ADSL sync at all.

I'm hoping someone out there can either relate to a similar experience or at least shed some light on to what might be causing my issue.

Here are some stats from my Netgear:

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 1
Channel: FAST, Upstream rate = 64 Kbps, Downstream rate = 1522 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: ADSL2
Channel: Fast
Trellis: U:ON /D:ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 13.8 13.5
Attn(dB): 62.5 36.5
Pwr(dBm): 13.5 11.8
Max(Kbps): 2948 128
Rate (Kbps): 1522 64

Edited by deleted (Sat 03-Dec-11 17:37:06)

Apologies for the double post but the edit time has expired.

A friend advised I force the Netgear router to use 'ADSL' mode rather than 'ADSL2'. Unticking 'ADSL2' in the Advanced ADSL settings on the Netgear (presumably only available due to the custom firmware) puts me on to G.DMT mode with a much improved downstream rate but no change in upstream:

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 1
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 64 Kbps, Downstream rate = 2400 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 6.6 8.0
Attn(dB): 63.5 31.5
Pwr(dBm): 17.2 10.1
Max(Kbps): 2688 192
Rate (Kbps): 2400 64

Well what do you expect welcome to the joke that is Talk Talk

In reply to a post by 1Gopher:

Well what do you expect welcome to the joke that is Talk Talk

You have posted here 12 times newbie and not one of them is about talktalk so tell us you negative experiences as a talktalk customer or are you just another in a long line of bandwagon jumpers?

And to balance your biased view have a read of this thread with actual customers posting in it --

http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/showthread.php...

Edited by Jack_Hackett (Sun 04-Dec-11 12:53:04)

Trust me I'd be on any kind of fiber line if it were available to me. I just live too far from my exchange.

Does look like a line fault, and based on what you say you appear to have ruled out the extension wiring.

On the sanctioned router, if you've tried a few models, then just tell support you borrowed a neigbhours talktalk router (good idea if you can) and the same situation. Then they can arrange the engineeer - of course the caveat of it the engineer finds the fault on your side of things, or his hardware works fine you will get billed for the visit exists. Though that would be the case with the TalkTalk supplied router too.

The zoom not syncing suggests that it cannot sync the upstream, and most common cause would be a noise bleeding in from the voice side, and this could be the wiring in the exchange, if you have checked all your wiring and filters out at your end.

What is odd though is that the sync is low, but still spare noise margin on the upstream, so the issue may be burst noise.

Interestingly enough since TalkTalk stuck their nose in, regular voice calls have been very very quiet on my end - more often than not I offer/get offered to call back on my mobile.

I'm with BT for line rental, TalkTalk (Pipex) is just broadband.

Edited by deleted (Sun 04-Dec-11 13:54:14)

The trick to judging an ISP is to balance the good and bad.

Some people will always say bad, and some will always say good things. Most people who read reviews for many products will be adept at filtering out both sorts of comment.

In terms of this poster, the issue would most likely be a painful one to deal with on almost all providers. If the original poster gets nowhere in the next week, they are free to email me and I can pursue TalkTalk managers.

Poor upstream alone, is so rare that it is little surprise to find call centres have difficulty handling it, and the ex-Pipex aspect does not help.

In reply to a post by mikelouth:

Interestingly enough since TalkTalk stuck their nose in, regular voice calls have been very very quiet on my end - more often than not I offer/get offered to call back on my mobile.

I'm with BT for line rental, TalkTalk (Pipex) is just broadband.

What do BT say about the quiet voice calls?

I haven't actually reported it with BT, I suppose I can get them to check the line for faults too?