BT Dropout

Most weekends BT will drop out, making me log back It happens at peak periods - and is very annoying. I live in an Infinity street but have not signed up, as I get about 18Mb normally. Why is this happening - and should I move to another ISP? BT are impossible to deal with.

Home Hub 5? There's a lot about it in the BT forum, including the BT closing and banning users who go on about it in the BT Community forum.

No, not BT5 - which I don't understand anyway - why are they asking us to pay extra for modems - that I thought were supplied as part of the service?

BT are unbelievably dismissive of their customers needs.

No, it's the standard 'old' modem (less than one year old) but it drops out every weekend, and many nights, usually around 9-11pm. It's a deliberate act by BT.

I love it. I posted a question on the BT Forum - asking why I drop out at peak periods. Two minutes later they disconnected my broadband - at 8am on Easter Monday - clearly a peak usage time.

BT is badly managed - and too many of the geeks they employ have a juvenile sense of humour, and they know they can get away with it.

Are you certain you don't have an intermittent line fault? Is it fibre or ADSL? If it is ADSL do you have any line stats you can post?

I am sceptical that BT would disconnect your broadband for a post on the forum and believe this is a coincidence and suspect you have some underlying issue with your connection.

Ian I'd like to believe you - yours is a standard BT response. It's must be the customer's problem, not ours. If I bought any other product that did not work - I'd get the supplier to fix it.

We allow ISPs to get away with it - and it's wrong.

Last night around 10pm by broadband dropped out - been OK all day, but at 10pm it went. I reconnected - a total of ten times in the next hour. Finally the signal dropped out altogether.

This morning BT Broadband is perfect - I'm getting an uninterrupted 18Mb.

Don't blame me - I didn't make the signal drop out. My bandwidth use was minimal at the time.

BT will constantly pass the buck - and it has to stop.

What should I do? I was asked to complete a survey the moment I logged into my BT account. I did that - later. Where do my comments go? Into a waste bin?

Nobody at BT has the power to do anything - poor Indians sit in front of screens asking banal questions, most designed to stop me going to Level Two. The next Level fail to respond. I go back into the system again - same rigmarole.

After several days I receive a phone call from BT - we have checked your signals, it must be your end.

It ain't baby - I know you are doing something. I live within three miles of BT's research HQ. I know plenty of BT engineers - some will admit that my service is shared with too many people. They will also say that BT may be trying to make me to pay for Infinity.

If something is not done soon - I may have to sue BT.

good luck with that mate i doubt any isp contract (except business) says you will be guaranteed 100% of the service 24/7 365

the world unfortunately just isn't that rosy

Fact is that ADSL connections can drop at any moment from an electrically noisy milk float to a light switch causing ADSL to drop out if the noise spike is long enough and bad enough.

When you have the drop outs does the modem show the ADSL signal has dropped, if using WiFi check that it is also broken on Ethernet, since WiFi can be subject to its own set of problems.

When those 'BT engineers' say the service is shared with too many people, sounds like they are engineers who know very little about how ADSL works, since your ADSL signal is NEVER shared. Once your connection reaches the exchange and meets with other users it is shared, but this should not mean it stops working intermittently.

First step is to determine whether the ADSL signal is the issue, or it may be something network based.

NOTE: You do not have to remain with BT there are other providers you can join and you can also buy premium care levels if the odd drop-out is a major problem for you, but if its an ADSL service still they cannot guarantee you will not have any drop outs.

Thank you for your replies - but why does it always happen at the same time every night? Something is happening - and it must be possible to find out what it is.

If it is the same time every night then most likely to be something electrical with a timer, or a routine in the house, e.g. turn on plasma TV at that time.

BT could send out an engineer but if no fault is found during the visit you would get charged, hence why self diagnosis is the cheaper route