Is NTL/cable internet service always horrible?

Fenster

We got NTL broadband into our house last night, the 6mb package, and so far the service has been atrocious - upspeed was barely 256k and downspeed has varied, but it's regularly below 2mb. Internet is also graying or blacking out on a regular basis. Either the whole service will go down for anything up to half an hour, but occasionally port ranges will become unavailable - I variously cannot access POP, HTTP, IM or newsgroups.

I understand fully that cable has a high contention ratio so speeds can vary, but nowhere in the small print can I find does NTL mention that service will be slow. In fairness I can't complain too much, as its free for the first three months and I'll be back in the US by the time we get the first bill, but I'd rather get any problems sorted now while I'm here.

Has anyone else had problems with such horrible NTL connections? I'm in Galway city centre.

Fenster

Up, the service has been consistently awful and I've been stuck on what are nearly dialup speeds from day 1.

nava

HI

what are are you in? I'm in the old bawn in tallaght and the service is the same as always, never had any big problems.

Are you connected directly to the modem or via a router? if using a router try connecting to the modem and check if it improves, if you know any other users around the area you can ask them if it's as bad yours.

You should try calling service you might be on hold for a while but is free.

Regards

DemonOfTheFall

It sounds like you have problems wiht very bad line quality, contention should not be that bad at all!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/index.html

Check that page out, in particular the parts about logging into your modem and checking your SNR and Attenuation figures.

Get onto NTL on the phone every day about it, they probably have a dodgy cable in the box at the end of your street or the one coming into your house. No matter how bad my pings might get because of their dodgy international transit my upload speeds are still always pegged at exactly 512 kb/s and downloads at 6 meg.

GerardKeating

Fenster wrote:

Has anyone else had problems with such horrible NTL connections? I'm in Galway city centre.

An up off the Western distributor road, near Rahoon and the service is a dream.

some outages, only two major ones, one cause by a city wide power failure.

Aquos76

Speeds in Waterford are also up and down all day today. At times it was really like been back on dial up. Also I seem to be losing connection at times.

TempestSabre

I had a lot of problem with my NTL initially. Some of it was contention, but there was a water damaged junction box that causes some of the problems. It showed up as the signal strength was outside expected parameters.

cornbb

I'm living in lower salthill with an NTL cable connection and its been out for the last few days. Anyone else experiencing this?

Easy Rider

I live in Santry and it has been really bad the last two weeks, up and down all the the time, when I come home in the evening it will only start working from 10pm onwards....you phone them but their support is rubbish, no IT staff at all....they always blame the modem and you know it is not the modem...but they still insist on not sending you a new one and sending out an engineer who then confirms it is not the modem.....I live in an apartment block and all NTL users have the issue, they all call but NTL can't notice the connection (pardon the pun)

bindybandy

Had ntl in Galway for a year - it was perfect bar one small outage for about 8 months - once the service upgrades came in it became very slow and ping times were terrible for gaming. Cancelled them and moved to Metro in September and very glad I did - get rid of them if you can as I hate to say it but that company can only get worse in my opinnion.

el diablo

Easy Rider wrote:

I live in Santry and it has been really bad the last two weeks, up and down all the the time, when I come home in the evening it will only start working from 10pm onwards....you phone them but their support is rubbish, no IT staff at all....they always blame the modem and you know it is not the modem...but they still insist on not sending you a new one and sending out an engineer who then confirms it is not the modem.....I live in an apartment block and all NTL users have the issue, they all call but NTL can't notice the connection (pardon the pun)

I'm having the same problem as you here. recently it seems to be down every evening from 6pm onwards and I can eventually access it at around 9pm.

this morning it was down again. and their customer service is poor. I'd have to wait a week for a service call. I told them to shove it.....

probably i'll dump them and find a more reliable provider....

Terminator

I'm living in Salthill too and its been pretty up / down these past few weeks.

andrew163

C:\Documents and Settings\Andrew>tracert dcu.dcu.client.hea.net

Tracing route to dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]
  2    20 ms    35 ms    23 ms  10.91.224.1
  3    32 ms    11 ms    11 ms  089-101-162097.ntlworld.ie [89.101.162.97]
  4    10 ms    12 ms    38 ms  dbln-t2core-b-ge-2-2-0-0.aorta.net [213.46.165.1
7]
  5    41 ms    41 ms    68 ms  nl-ams05a-rd1-pos-13-0.aorta.net [213.46.160.13]

  6    74 ms    39 ms    44 ms  nl-ams09a-ri1-ge-5-0.aorta.net [213.46.183.81]
  7    49 ms    75 ms    54 ms  ge4-1-0-1000M.ar1.AMS1.gblx.net [195.69.144.80]

  8   223 ms   222 ms   224 ms  so0-0-0-2488M.ar1.DUB1.gblx.net [67.17.66.6]
  9   227 ms   255 ms   259 ms  HEAnet-2.so-3-0-0.ar1.dub1.gblx.net [208.48.23.5
4]
 10   230 ms   259 ms   226 ms  kuiper-gige2-5.dcu.access.hea.net [193.1.194.69]

 11   238 ms   225 ms   285 ms  dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]

Trace complete.

Gah!! :mad:
I used to get between 9 and 20ms to DCU. SSH is almost unusable - I was getting a better response time from Los Angeles than here.

watty

Mine does it in 6 hops. Not NTL.

Foxwood

watty wrote:

Mine does it in 6 hops. Not NTL.

And yours doesn't go through Amsterdam either.

Trotter

Can anyone give me their diagnosis on this so?

Tracing route to dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 24 ms 15 ms 10.92.224.1
3 54 ms 16 ms 47 ms 089-101-162161.ntlworld.ie [89.101.162.161]
4 45 ms 55 ms 72 ms dbln-t2core-b-ge-2-2-0-0.aorta.net [213.46.165.1
7]
5 22 ms 52 ms * uk-lon01a-rd2-pos-1-2.aorta.net [213.46.160.17]

6 62 ms 44 ms 37 ms uk-lon01a-rd1-10ge-7-0.aorta.net [213.46.174.33]

7 20 ms 59 ms 30 ms uk-lon01a-ri1-pos-5-0.aorta.net [213.46.174.162]

8 79 ms 72 ms 74 ms ge1-0.ar2.lon2.gblx.net [195.66.224.112]
9 * * 133 ms so0-0-0-2488M.ar1.DUB1.gblx.net [67.17.66.6]
10 139 ms 122 ms 69 ms HEAnet-2.so-3-0-0.ar1.dub1.gblx.net [208.48.23.5
4]
11 116 ms 119 ms 93 ms kuiper-gige2-5.dcu.access.hea.net [193.1.194.69]

12 91 ms 71 ms 72 ms dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]

Trace complete.

Sponge Bob

Trotter wrote:

Can anyone give me their diagnosis on this so?

Tracing route to dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]

8 79 ms 72 ms 74 ms ge1-0.ar2.lon2.gblx.net [195.66.224.112]
9 * * 133 ms so0-0-0-2488M.ar1.DUB1.gblx.net [67.17.66.6]

On its way back into Dublin from London it starts to slow down in London ince the traffic hits GLOBAL CROSSING and then hits a HORRIBLY congested GLOBAL CROSSING link between lon and dub (london and dublin) which is where that problem is .

NTL know that though and have known it for months.

Trotter

Cheers.. well I reported the problem anyway, and I've been told that although a good few people have reported the same problem today, it hasnt been confirmed yet.

i.e. Loads of calls... but sure they might all be wrong. Grr.

Im on a 2mb connection.. getting 700kbps down at the moment. Pants.

po0k

My experience

dlofnep

I'm in waterford, and it was perfect up until about a month ro so ago. Now it's consistently slow and I can't even agme anymore due to such a terrible latency.

NTL has gone down the drain lately. I'm not the only one, two of my friends who have it have crap speeds too. Not to mention, I get disconnected on average 3 times a day, and it stays off for 5 minutes.. Which is fine, unless i'm in the middle of a game

Aquos76

heres mine. Means nothing to me, but might to ye guys on here. I am on 3mb package with nthell


C:\Documents and Settings\>tracert dcu.dcu.client.hea.net

Tracing route to dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 5 ms 5 ms 6 ms 10.92.224.1
3 25 ms 9 ms 27 ms 089-101-162129.ntlworld.ie [89.101.162.129]
4 19 ms 9 ms 28 ms dbln-t2core-a-ge-2-2-0-0.aorta.net [213.46.165.9
]
5 20 ms 19 ms 20 ms uk-lon01a-rd2-pos-1-2.aorta.net [213.46.160.17]

6 25 ms 20 ms 26 ms uk-lon01a-rd1-10ge-7-0.aorta.net [213.46.174.33]

7 20 ms 22 ms 21 ms uk-lon01a-ri1-pos-1-0.aorta.net [213.46.174.126]

8 80 ms 82 ms 81 ms ge1-0.ar2.lon2.gblx.net [195.66.224.112]
9 98 ms 108 ms 94 ms so0-0-0-2488M.ar1.DUB1.gblx.net [67.17.66.6]
10 116 ms 99 ms 118 ms HEAnet-2.so-3-0-0.ar1.dub1.gblx.net [208.48.23.5
4]
11 93 ms 93 ms 94 ms kuiper-gige2-5.dcu.access.hea.net [193.1.194.69]

12 96 ms 95 ms 95 ms dcu.dcu.client.hea.net [193.1.196.190]

Trace complete.

jimbo37

nava wrote:

HI

You should try calling service you might be on hold for a while but is free.

Regards

Free if your NTL based landline phone service works (but not from your mobile), and free if you do not value your time or sanity.

Yesterday, NTL Broadband was offline from 3pm, so I gave them an hour to see if it was their usual breaks in service & I thought it was time to speak with the Customer nonSupport Team.

OK, phone the 1800 number for customer support - “this call is not free from a mobile number”.

No problem, I have a mate with a landline so I ask him to call.

He calls at 16:30 (Monday) and gets an engaged tone the first six times. Persistent is his middle name so eventually he gets a line, navigates the robot menu to tech support for cable modem - great!

“all our customer servive gurus are busy please hold while we transfer you” - Vivaldi’s Four Seasons begins.”

+ 5 minutes: he’s getting a bit miffed
+ 10 minutes: he phones me on the other line to tell me what’s happening (3rd loop of Vivaldi)
+ 30 minutes: he phones to say his ear is getting sore so he has figured out how to transfer Vivaldi to the speaker phone. But expecting an answer any minute now
+ 50 minutes: he’s getting tired of Vivaldi. Don’t they have any Metallica?
+ 1 hour 10 minutes: He realises why I didn’t wan’t to do this on my mobile and pay for the call
+ 1 hour 20 minutes: We decide to check that a 1800 number really is free for the caller
+ 1 hour 25 minutes: Yeah, looks like we’re OK. Eircom says “Freefone 1800 lets customers call you from anywhere in Ireland, free of charge”. Whew!
+ 1 hour 30 minutes: He’s really getting sick of Vivaldi.
+ 1 hour 35 minutes: We wonder just how long this will take and could he risk leaving the phone for 45 seconds to take a leak. We decide it’s worth the risk - well, the alternative is not attractive!
+ 1 hour 36 minutes: Whew, Vivaldi is still there and his bladder is very grateful!
+ 1 hour 40 minutes: We begin to wonder if we should stay on hold all night. OK, he’s blocking his incoming office number but his customers are probably gone home by now.
+ 1 hour 45 minutes: We discuss the merits of hanging up and phoning again. Nah, too risky. We’d probably be back to the end of the queue, better hang in there.
+ 1 hour 49 minutes: His doorbell rings. We decide it’s probably safe to answer it.
+ 1 hour 50 minutes: He’s back. Damn it! the line to NTL is dead. Could it be that somebody answered, found nobody there and hung up?
+ 1 hour 51 minutes: We decide the only way to find out is to phone again and ask.
+ 1 hour 52 minutes: Ah Vivaldi again. Except now, he needs to go have his dinner, burt we figure he’s probably safe enough for an hour. He goes for his dinner leaving his computer to learn to appreciate Vivaldi …

2 hours 20 minutes: Dinner was great, so was the Gadget Show on TV. Meanwhile...

NTL is still playing Vivaldi, except now, a robot interrupts evey 30 seconds to say
"We appreciate that you are holding for a customer Service Agent. We aplogosise for the daly. Please continue to hold".

Well that's a bit more encouraging. We'll hold for a while...

2 hours 30 minutes: NTL still appreciates that we're holding ...

Maybe we should take a break? But is that safe? I mean these NTL guys are obviously very busy. What happens if they pick up and we're not here? OK, let's risk it.
Meanwhile "We appreciate that you're still holding ..."

4 hours 5 minutes: ...tum te tum te tum ... still holding, but they're still apologising, so that's OK

5 hours: If we leave this running all night we'll be first in the queue in the morning and maybe we'll wear out their Vivaldi tape - yes, it is still playing the same tape.

5 hours 10 minutes: He thinks maybe it's time he tried their website. Surely they'll have a better contact method there?

www.ntl.com > contact us> select reason for contact> Complaint
" we're sorry that you want to complain. Please phone us on 1800 ....". Arrrgggh!, He's already holding on that line for the past 5 hours and 10 minutes - That's why he wants to complain.

5 hours 15 minutes: OK, back to Vivaldi and the apologising robot. Looks like this will be an all-nighter. !800 is free, right?

5 hours 30 minutes: still holding. Now it's 10:05 PM. He's not likely to get an answer tonight but maybe he'll be at the top of the queue tomorrow.

9 hours 30 minutes: NTL still "appreciates that I'm holding and apologieses for delay. Please continue to hold".
Its after 2 in the morning now so I think I'll hang up and go to bed. I hope they pay those guys well because they really do seem to be very busy

speedy21

haha - I can relate to this so much
Then when you do get through - you give your details and dont get support - they say they'll call you back - and of course they dont

Avoid NTL people!!
You'll age prematurely!

Sponge Bob

jimbo37 wrote:

9 hours 30 minutes: NTL still "appreciates that I'm holding and apologieses for delay. Please continue to hold".

You do know that NTL are closing that support centre (in Waterford) by end March 2007 .

Sniipe

My NTL went down yesterday, I missed out on 2 Ebay bids that I was on. Really annoyed. Why did I ever move from Eircom. I'd go back in an instant if I could get out of this contract. I'm in Galway aswell

TempestSabre

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

It sounds like you have problems wiht very bad line quality, contention should not be that bad at all!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/index.html

Check that page out, in particular the parts about logging into your modem and checking your SNR and Attenuation figures.

Get onto NTL on the phone every day about it, they probably have a dodgy cable in the box at the end of your street or the one coming into your house. No matter how bad my pings might get because of their dodgy international transit my upload speeds are still always pegged at exactly 512 kb/s and downloads at 6 meg.

I only got mine sorted when I asked to cancel the service. via customer.support@ntl.ie. I sent them pin logs and SNR and Attenuation data from a few days.

Sponge Bob

if the ODCA agrees with you that a lack of service is an unfair contract (basically where you pay them and they do not supply a service) then you can terminate the contract straight away with no penalties, email them. odca@entemp.ie

do not terminate without contacting the odca first

Sniipe

yes Sponge bob, nice pointer, but what constitutes as lack of service? I'm dissapointed I can't play games with as low a ping as the eircom/bt lads. My mother can't do her nursing degree when she needs it most for researching her final document, but that said we've only had downage from 3 days ago. Its come up once since. We are getting an engineer from NTL, who by the way said they had to call out months ago because of some problem (I didn't realise there was one unless they are on a bout the average/poor pings).

I really want low pings and a company that can give me an idea of how much I can download, with NTL its a guessing game with 4 computers in the house.

okcomputer

jimbo37 wrote:

Free if your NTL based landline phone service works (but not from your mobile), and free if you do not value your time or sanity.

Yesterday, NTL Broadband was offline from 3pm, so I gave them an hour to see if it was their usual breaks in service & I thought it was time to speak with the Customer nonSupport Team.

OK, phone the 1800 number for customer support - “this call is not free from a mobile number”.

No problem, I have a mate with a landline so I ask him to call.

He calls at 16:30 (Monday) and gets an engaged tone the first six times. Persistent is his middle name so eventually he gets a line, navigates the robot menu to tech support for cable modem - great!

“all our customer servive gurus are busy please hold while we transfer you” - Vivaldi’s Four Seasons begins.”

+ 5 minutes: he’s getting a bit miffed
+ 10 minutes: he phones me on the other line to tell me what’s happening (3rd loop of Vivaldi)
+ 30 minutes: he phones to say his ear is getting sore so he has figured out how to transfer Vivaldi to the speaker phone. But expecting an answer any minute now
+ 50 minutes: he’s getting tired of Vivaldi. Don’t they have any Metallica?
+ 1 hour 10 minutes: He realises why I didn’t wan’t to do this on my mobile and pay for the call
+ 1 hour 20 minutes: We decide to check that a 1800 number really is free for the caller
+ 1 hour 25 minutes: Yeah, looks like we’re OK. Eircom says “Freefone 1800 lets customers call you from anywhere in Ireland, free of charge”. Whew!
+ 1 hour 30 minutes: He’s really getting sick of Vivaldi.
+ 1 hour 35 minutes: We wonder just how long this will take and could he risk leaving the phone for 45 seconds to take a leak. We decide it’s worth the risk - well, the alternative is not attractive!
+ 1 hour 36 minutes: Whew, Vivaldi is still there and his bladder is very grateful!
+ 1 hour 40 minutes: We begin to wonder if we should stay on hold all night. OK, he’s blocking his incoming office number but his customers are probably gone home by now.
+ 1 hour 45 minutes: We discuss the merits of hanging up and phoning again. Nah, too risky. We’d probably be back to the end of the queue, better hang in there.
+ 1 hour 49 minutes: His doorbell rings. We decide it’s probably safe to answer it.
+ 1 hour 50 minutes: He’s back. Damn it! the line to NTL is dead. Could it be that somebody answered, found nobody there and hung up?
+ 1 hour 51 minutes: We decide the only way to find out is to phone again and ask.
+ 1 hour 52 minutes: Ah Vivaldi again. Except now, he needs to go have his dinner, burt we figure he’s probably safe enough for an hour. He goes for his dinner leaving his computer to learn to appreciate Vivaldi …

2 hours 20 minutes: Dinner was great, so was the Gadget Show on TV. Meanwhile...

NTL is still playing Vivaldi, except now, a robot interrupts evey 30 seconds to say
"We appreciate that you are holding for a customer Service Agent. We aplogosise for the daly. Please continue to hold".

Well that's a bit more encouraging. We'll hold for a while...

2 hours 30 minutes: NTL still appreciates that we're holding ...

Maybe we should take a break? But is that safe? I mean these NTL guys are obviously very busy. What happens if they pick up and we're not here? OK, let's risk it.
Meanwhile "We appreciate that you're still holding ..."

4 hours 5 minutes: ...tum te tum te tum ... still holding, but they're still apologising, so that's OK

5 hours: If we leave this running all night we'll be first in the queue in the morning and maybe we'll wear out their Vivaldi tape - yes, it is still playing the same tape.

5 hours 10 minutes: He thinks maybe it's time he tried their website. Surely they'll have a better contact method there?

www.ntl.com > contact us> select reason for contact> Complaint
" we're sorry that you want to complain. Please phone us on 1800 ....". Arrrgggh!, He's already holding on that line for the past 5 hours and 10 minutes - That's why he wants to complain.

5 hours 15 minutes: OK, back to Vivaldi and the apologising robot. Looks like this will be an all-nighter. !800 is free, right?

5 hours 30 minutes: still holding. Now it's 10:05 PM. He's not likely to get an answer tonight but maybe he'll be at the top of the queue tomorrow.

9 hours 30 minutes: NTL still "appreciates that I'm holding and apologieses for delay. Please continue to hold".
Its after 2 in the morning now so I think I'll hang up and go to bed. I hope they pay those guys well because they really do seem to be very busy

can you please email this to NTL Customer.Support@ntl.ie and post their response here...if we dont complain they wont change a thing. also ifyou are brave enough when they send you the usual template apology forward it on to odca@entemp.ie and cc Customer.Support@ntl.ie asking ODCA if this service is adequate. part of a service is answering the phone and NTL know this. If nothing else your problem will be solved pretty quickly i bet

SeanW

Vote with your wallets: go for a DSL based service instead.

dub45

9 hours 30 minutes: NTL still "appreciates that I'm holding and apologieses for delay. Please continue to hold".
Its after 2 in the morning now so I think I'll hang up and go to bed. I hope they pay those guys well because they really do seem to be very busy

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Their recently increased charges are obviously to pay for the massive increases in their 1800 bill from Eircom!!!

A poster recently reported getting pretty prompt attention when he mentioned the small claims court but you cannot do this if you cannot get through to them - however has anyone tried threatening the small claims court via email?

Don't forget you are paying advance for this non service!!!