I moved on!! ages ago....

I have been trying to find my old BQM graph I retained when I was with Zen unfortunately It's gone from my desktop and back up files. Historically I also couldn't find it within the BQM page either, after the website was updated I could no longer access them. Since been deleted by myself.

I want to throw some backing into the ZEN saga that is affecting people yet again regarding the single thread issue.

I was a zen customer for about 9 years and would defend their quarter as they were a distinctly rock solid ISP, not the cheapest and not the most expensive either.

I found that after they introduced the unlimited option on some of the product range the service started to slip.

Long story short... I moved my ISP from ZEN to another seller and told my new provider NOTHING about previous congestion problems. The same congestion problems that ZEN would not admit to being a problem and was present at migration.



Now there was NOTHING wrong with my line according to ZEN. I think the graph above will disagree.
I have a few ping charts and other screenshots if needed.

I moved to another provider and for nearly 2 lonnnng years I have used and sometimes abused their service and it has been faultless.

So anyone thinking ZEN is still top of the tree think again, don't get blinded by loyalty as I did. The grass is indeed greener on the other side!!!

I only put this on here as sometimes the people that post often frequently get harassed by others.

I stayed...

I joined !

I also stayed because the single thread fiasco occurred only a few months into my initial contract, and Zen would not release me at that time, I was pleased to find that since that experience my service from Zen had proved to be rock solid............................

That was.........until they decided to upgrade their system in the last few days.

I will wait a few more days for it to settle down, otherwise I will have no option but to promptly move on.

Godfrey.

Re: That was until they decided to upgrade their systems.

The problem is: They are damned if they do or damned if they don't.

They can't just leave everything unitil it no longer works; but changing anything is always a risk.

I have been with Zen since 2003 and have found them to be very good, whereas my second line has suffered more problems with various previous providers. In fact, I often think why do I need a backup system if Zen is always on.

You were unfortunate then, I too had single threaded speed issues and had renewed the contract originally partly to reset DLM (package downgrade and upgrade). My line had a fault however, this was fixed by an engineer but it didn't fix a broadband related fault I was having and Openreach considered the original fault resolved. The single threaded speed issue was somewhat fixed in the end but intermittently at peak times I would still notice a drop in speed.

I went to an ISP with a reputation for pressuring Openreach (on a new line), which also had the same broadband related fault but was on a newer line card version (0xd086 ECI, compared to 0xb206 ECI). A few SFI engineers later and the connection is improved while the underlying broadband related fault is not as bad as it was but still present. I'm happy with that at this time though, the SFI engineers did their best in trying to locate the fault and workaround it (e.g. pair swaps by finding me the best pair along the route, lift and shift, D-side inspection, etc.) but I guess the fault isn't obvious enough for their testing equipment to fully identify it or what's causing it. I think it's something to do with the cable I'm on, one engineer said it's more than 70 years old.

Some months following that I was eventually released from my contract early, so I'm proud to say Zen did their best for me. I really hope they can resolve what appears to be a slowly growing number of reported issues regarding slow single threaded speeds and/or packet loss.

Edited by Ixel (Sat 27-Jan-18 01:20:31)

The problem is: They are damned if they do or damned if they don't.

They can't just leave everything unitil it no longer works; but changing anything is always a risk.

Just no, every other player manages it without user impact. There is no reason a system upgrade should impact production, there should be ample backend testing to ensure the transition is smooth. There is no such thing as leaving it until it no longer works, that would be a huge security risk... Businesses should be periodically patching systems, upgrading where systems are becoming end of life or legacy and ensuring road maps are setup into the future to meet demand and capacity required. We have stores which are open 24/7 yet their systems get upgrades, patches etc and the users are still able to shop. Other players e.g. BT run pentests, vulnerability assessments etc and patch / upgrade systems as necessary with no business impact to customers.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 27-Jan-18 15:47:46)

In reply to a post by kebabselector:

I stayed...

Your cab finally got upgraded then.

I used to be with Zen in the ADSL Max days and found at peak times speeds wouldn't be that good with BT backhaul so moved to another ISP using TTB backhaul and things were much better.

Yes, an email to Clive Selley worked!

They upgraded the 3 remaining small cabs in the local area.