O2 Forum just opened...about bloody time!!!

hideous ape

Just a heads up to all O2 Broadband users.

There is now a Customer Forum on O2's website, so now there is somewhere to vent your frustrations or at least ask the company a direct question.

Thats gonna be one busy forum over the next few weeks methinks:p

http://forums.o2online.ie/index.php

byte

Something every ISP should have IMO. Smart have had one for years. That said, a forum will only be as good as its members, specifically, the o2 staff who will have the job of helping on the forum.

Richard Dower

Please, the mods will be all over the shop...banning people left, right and center. O2 only wanna hear positive things about there company/service...anything other must be denied/deleted.

smellslikeshoes

Richard Dower wrote: »

Please, the mods will be all over the shop...banning people left, right and center. O2 only wanna hear positive things about there company/service...anything other must be denied/deleted.

Thats a pretty negative attitude, a support forum is a forum to give support for people having problems. It would be pointless if they banned people for having problems and they might as well just not have it. Though I am looking forward to how they will explain the problems of HSPDA to people who were expecting it to be like fixed broadband

hideous ape

^^ And the seemingly random hissy fits that the network seems to be throwing lately.
I smell over-subscription:eek:

Had a lot of disconnects in my first week about two months ago and since then it was pretty good but last weekend it went ape-doo-doo. Over 50 disconnects across two days before I gave up on it and went back to playing Morrowind on the Xbox:D

I'm not using Vista so the Vista Update can't be blamed and my XP hasn't changed in 10 months, it can't auto update as thats been removed. Signal strength was fine, just kept disconnecting for two days.

smellslikeshoes

hideous ape wrote: »

^^ And the seemingly random hissy fits that the network seems to be throwing lately.
I smell over-subscription:eek:

Well I smell a product that was only designed for net access on the go, that because of over zealous marketing by all the providers people have unrealistic expectations of.

hideous ape

I would tolerate slow down at peak times...which would be the nature of the technology. But getting constantly disconnected when signal strength is strong at random times of the day or night. What use is broadband on the go if it doesn't go in the first place

I don't think been annoyed by 50 or more disconnects in two days is an unrealistic expectation for a €35 a month service.

smellslikeshoes

It is, sort of. 50 disconnects is annoying alright but thats the way HSPDA is. HSPDA is designed for checking the email on the train and situations like that, 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there, NOT as a replacement for fixed line broadband. Because of the crap availability of broadband here most people who use it are using it not as internet on the go but as their main connection to the internet.

hideous ape

Taken from O2.ie:

"Now you can have it all without a landline; no need for another service provider. All you need is your mobile for calls and O2 Broadband for all your internet needs!"

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Personal/Services/O2+Broadband/More+Information

I knew what HSDPA was before signing up, I have worked as a technical writer with Cisco! But circumstances ended up with me needing to have broadband for three months in whatever format I could get it to complete my PostGrad and my internship. This was the only option available to me.

If it was one glitchy weekend fair enough but if this is going to be the service from now on then funk that. I have about two months of excellent service...not a single disconnect in all that time but last weekend was unacceptable.

Dialup was more reliable than that!

biologikal

@ ape

Are you using a few USB cables between the modem and your PC? I was trying 3x1m cables and the small one supplied to the modem (E270), and it seemed to be dropping very frequently, but since I went back to 2x1m cables, it's been much better, rarely drops, maybe once every 3 hours, even though it's further from the window now.

I'm not sure it was because of the length of the cabling, or maybe influence from the window (or some other inhibitory effect) I was trying to get it to (most likely cabling, I think). I had about a week of poorer quality connections nearly a month ago, but I'm happy with it now overall, tonight getting 2716/257.

Could high pressure be effecting the signals?

smellslikeshoes

hideous ape wrote: »

Taken from O2.ie:

"Now you can have it all without a landline; no need for another service provider. All you need is your mobile for calls and O2 Broadband for all your internet needs!"

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Personal/Services/O2+Broadband/More+Information

That just illustrates my point about over zealous marketing skewing peoples expectations, In other countries its marketed more for business and for people who want broadband on the go. In Ireland its being sold as a replacement for fixed broadband.

hideous ape

Regardless of marketing techniques thats 10 days and counting of shocking service.

Troubleshooting so far has included:

1) Updating Huawei E270 software
2) Using the dual USB cable
3) Relocating modem
4) Praying to Jeebus

The last option I will try if this doesn't get sorted soon is throwing the E270 Modem through the nearest O2 Store window. I've seen on the O2 Forum that they are working on a fix but that does not apply to my system as I haven't updated XP in years...I run TinyXP and had no disconnects in the previous two months until now. Still getting disconnected with three bars of HSDPA every 2 or 3 minutes. I'm in Cork City centre.

Surely there must be grounds for cancelling the contract, as it is no longer working as advertised???

smellslikeshoes

hideous ape wrote: »

Surely there must be grounds for cancelling the contract, as it is no longer working as advertised???

Yes you do have grounds for canceling the contract. If you decide to cancel it make sure you are firm with them because you are in the right and they will do everything possible to try stop you from canceling.

nhughes100

I've been having problems with o2 broadband lately - past 2-3 weeks. I get an error saying the device has been disconnected, then it reconnects and I'm prompted for my pin again without me doing anything. I rang o2 and they say Microsoft released a windows update that is conflicting with the Huawei modem and is turning it off. They credited my account for 3 weeks worth of charges no questions asked. I've turned off the setting where it says "allow windows to power down the device" and it seems to be more stable.

Apparantly the patch is on the way but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Lorraine1974

Seemingly there is supposed to be a fix out this week but I'll hold my breath.
I have been credited back the last 2 months without any problems.
Called into the shop today as I am fed up talking to people on the phone who don't know anything!! The chap in the shop said to swap out the pepple shaped usb device for the stick one as there are no issue with that one, not sure how realible that is but it's worth a go.

hideous ape

Here's a link to the firmware update, just in case someone does not know about the O2 Forum:

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Personal/firmware+update

I have just updated the firmware so will give it a day or two before confirming if it has fixed the problem.

Lorraine1974

just installed it there so yeah will wait a few days and see what happens!

If it works great ... I hope O2 will re-evalute their broadand CS after this little eposide as it was just crap!

Good Luck!:D

hideous ape

Well since updating the firmware yesterday, I haven't had a disconnect so it looks good so far.

nhughes100

MMM thanks for the link, despite 3 calls to o2 they still haven't rang me or texted me to tell me that the firmware update was ready. I'm looking for at least a month's credit on this, I only managed to download 220mb's during may, i think my old phone line might have managed to beat that.

Lorraine1974

nhughes100 wrote: »

MMM thanks for the link, despite 3 calls to o2 they still haven't rang me or texted me to tell me that the firmware update was ready. I'm looking for at least a month's credit on this .../quote]

Sure I got no phone call either from them depite my many calls to them about the issue!!
They said that they will credit me back the last 2 months and also say on the O2 Forum on the O2 website that another person is getting credited back 2 months, so ring 1740 and shout and roar down the phone at them coz I think that's the only thing they understand!!!
It's kinda sad really that you have to shout and roar down the phone but it has to be done else they will walk all over ya!

Flamed Diving

I downloaded the firmware for the E270, but I can't install part 1 of the firmware because it says I don't have a E270. I had all programs shut down but it just wouldnt install it. However, part 2 was able to install no problems.

Any ideas?

Lorraine1974

I had no problems installing the update on my laptop. It only took about 15mins in total to do. There were 2 patches on the website one for the black modem and one for the white one. The E270 is the black modem is this the one you have ?
Did you follow the doc step by step and broadband disconnected ?
Did you have the modem plugged in to your pc/laptop when running the 1st executable ?
Not sure how the second one would install without the first being installed prior.

Flamed Diving

Yeah I followed the instructions. It seems that as the update is about to load it ejects the stick and then tells me that the data stick is not an E270.

Lorraine1974

So you have the stick modem as opposed to the cable and pepple shapped one ? The black one is the E270 and the white one is the E220.
I had heard that there were no problems with the stick modem and that the fixes where for the other modems i.e. the pepple shapped ones.
I'd say your best bet is to ring into O2.

nhughes100

Working fine so far for me, 17mb update sounds like a fairly big patch to me, lots of other problems I'd say as well.

Vinneyboy

just downloaded the update as well hopefully this will sort the disconnection problems.

poshie

i'm going to try this download tonight. my O2 connection hasn't been letting me access blogger/myspace/pitchfork etc for the last 2 weeks. i got into gmail and news websites though.anyone else have a selective connection that just won't let you access certain sites? i've tried IE and Mozilla Firefox. it disconnects a good bit too. hopefully this will fix it...

nhughes100

Mine wasn't selective - about 6-10 disconnects in the first 30-40 mins no matter what I had open, even if I had nothing open but was just connected to O2. Then it could be ok for hours after that. The fix seems to be good.

poshie

Fingers crossed because when I first got it about 4 months ago it was a great service; really quick and stable. I just want the good ol' days back...

hideous ape

Did anyone else post over on the O2 Forum?
I just got a letter apologising for the $hite service and a €20 voucher for an O2 Store.

FourMasters

I installed the upgraded software (which fixes the disconnect issues) but still had problems. I phoned O2 customer support, complained about the software and was transferred straight away to tech support. Got a good techie who got me sorted.

I just post here to say that if anyone still has problems after running the upgrade, phone and explicitly say you have a software issue - this bypasses the general support and they have at least one good tech staff :rolleyes: (I'm a techie myself and can smell a college kid with a FAQ a mile off - you'll know what I mean if you've dealt with hosting providers).