BT Broadband Usage

KiTBoH · 12 Aug 2009 at 22:04

My dad recently moved back to England and decided to go with BT to get his internet (despite me pointing out cheaper providers

)

Since he has been connected to BT he has had a connection at the correct speed (8mb) for 4 of the 11 days he was connected to BT internet. The other days he has been limited to 1mb or slower.

BT denied the problem being theres until he threatened to cancel the internet when, within 6 hours they called back admitting the fault was theirs and the internet was back to normal. The next day he got an email from BT stating that he had downloaded 117gb of data in the time he had been connected, and was being choked. Although downloading some things, he had not downloaded anywhere near 10gb, let alone over 100.

So he called BT and cancelled the service from them. They have now said they are going to charge him ~£160.

So I have 2 questions, firstly is it possible that the fault in the line, whatever it may have been, had caused the huge amount of data to be downloaded? and also are they allowed to fine him such a huge amount?

They have refused to detail any of the information that had been downloaded when asked for proof of this, too.

Any help is appreciated.

tolien · 12 Aug 2009 at 22:29

No, a line fault wouldn't cause big downloads and yes, they are allowed to charge a fee for cancelling the contract.

KiTBoH · 12 Aug 2009 at 22:31

So what would be the cause of this amount of data to be downloaded?

His computer Hard Drive is 80GB so in order to download that much he would have had to have kept on continually downloading huge amounts and then deleting it so he could download more.

Terrier_Jimlad · 12 Aug 2009 at 22:55

maybe your dad likes to download lots of pr0n and just doesnt tell you about it, and it shiftd it off to an external hdd

tolien · 12 Aug 2009 at 23:08

Poorly configured wireless? A lot of streaming video/audio/some app that uploads a lot (assuming BT count upload; IIRC they do)?

There could be loads of reasons, but without any evidence to the contrary (and BT won't log "any of the information that had been downloaded", just how much) there isn't much to back what you're suggesting and the size of his hard drive isn't particularly relevant.
The HomeHub (if he's using it) should give some statistics, I'd expect. 117GB in 11 days = constant 1Mbps too.

KiTBoH · 12 Aug 2009 at 23:14

I appreciate the comments but...

117gb of downloaded material?
That seems very unlikely. When you're getting 100kbps download speed it would take SO long to get that much. I think BT do count uploads because apparently they commented on P2P adding more because of uploads, however it's still an enormous amount and doesnt seem likely.
Things like streaming I didnt think used that much download, either IIRC

tolien · 12 Aug 2009 at 23:42

If he's only getting 1Mbps then it's verging on impossible.
Still, you haven't got much to show what they're counting is wrong. At least having some numbers from the router would be a start.

KiTBoH · 13 Aug 2009 at 01:31

true, I don't live with him, however so I can't get anything like that.

The router stats, though, said that the downstream bit rate was ~8000 even when it was going very slow.

Dadio · 13 Aug 2009 at 02:06

Heres the whole story for the full diagnosis - its long, frustrating and its BT ! :mad:

BT supply had been on for 5 days, option 3, unlimited download ( 100 GB max per month ). I was aware that I should allow 14 days for "settling in" and optimising of the connection speed.

On the sixth it dramatically dropped and so I decided to do a speed test. I use Macs as opposed to Pc and was unaware on the type of detail to be given by speed tests - I just used a basic download / upload measure - I know better now. I was also unaware on the detail that could be lifted directly from the Hub itself - something else that I have learnt.

Anyway - the day in question first test was giving this reading, 1560 kbps Download + 8 kbps upload. i did many other test that day and over the further 4 days all staying roughly around this mark. It was an unusable connection. 358 kbps download + 15 kbps upload. The BT speed tester page would not even load, and to this day I have not been able to use this test.

I checked everything from my end, re-booting, using test socket, but then staggered upon another forum where it was mentioned that the Hub could be re-synching with the exchange " When your router (Home Hub) tries to "re-sync" to the exchange after the drop in quality, the DSLAM reduces your IP Profile because it thinks you have a bad line.

If you normally connect at 6 meg and this event is a one-off, your IP Profile should automatically increase back to its original value (or possibly even higher) after a period of 10 days. Yes it's quite a long period of time to wait while you're coping with slow speeds, but this is all down to how ADSL Max works. Please note, this is not your ISP's fault (eg BT)."

I am pretty sure that this was where my connection was, but after being constantly on the line to customer support for the last 4 days, my attitude was " why the hell should I be prepared to wait another 3 - 10 days, the service had not reset and increased in the last 4, I had been a customer for around a week and the service was unusuable for 4 days - I want out NOW !!!!!

It took me 3 calls on Saturday insisting that I wanted the MAC code and a cancelation of the contract before anything was done. I was transfered from customer options to a specialist Help desk, who provide a telephonic pin code allowing you to go to the next level of "HELP". ( You have to enter this before your call is forwarded to next department ).

Eventually I was told that they had identified a fault and it could take up to 48 hrs. I noticed my hub restarting at 11pm on Sat eve. Everything all fine for the next 4 days.....

On monday I was still fuming from the bad support, service blah blah blah, so called Customer options to cancel, they taked me out of it - offred 6 months internet for free ( worth £146 ) then 12 month contract + another Homehub and phone as back up just incase. Thought nothing else could go wrong.......

Wednesday 12 pm - email arrives from " Fair Usage team " - We thought you'd like to know that your broadband usage in August has reached 80GB.
In accordance with our Fair Usage Policy, and to protect the online experience of all our customers, if your monthly broadband usage goes over 100GB, we'll restrict your broadband speed at peak times (typically this is between 5pm and 12am, but these times may change depending on the demands on the network) to 1Mbps for 30 days.
Please note: your service won't be affected in any other way - we'll restrict only your speed, not the amount you can upload and download.

I have now rang back BT and told them to shove the whole thing, 6 months free is pointless if there is no service ( speed ). They are wanting to charge cancellation fees of £160.69 - I said whatever - just take off the £146 of free internet for 6 months that you awarded me and I will send the the £15 balance !

I cannot believe there figures are correct. I have now downloaded and set up Surplusmeter to monitor the bandwidth usage. As for providing details from the Hub, there isnt a great deal there as it was reset remotely by BT on Saturday. But these are some figures to date.

5. ADSL uptime 3 days, 13:52:34
6. Bandwidth 834 / 7160
7. Data sent / rec’d 3199.9 / 2668.3
8. Broadband username [email protected]

Just as I have been looking for info from Hub settings, it went off line and has reset itself !! Giving this data

ADSL line status
Connection Information
Line state Connected
Connection time 0 days, 00:00:48
Downstream 7,160 Kbps
Upstream 855 Kbps

ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation G.992.5 Annex A
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 16.4 dB / 6.2 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 22.0 dB / 8.5 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 11.6 dBm / 1.7 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Down/Up) 0 / 8191
CRC Errors (Down/Up) 1 / 43083
HEC Errors (Down/Up) 7 / 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote) 1 / 8229

WHAT NEXT ???????

Looking at Event Log on Hub - it provides this info:
Recorded events
Time and date

Message
Aug 13 01:48:46 2009 (395784.750000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 13 01:48:23 2009 (395761.270000) danube_dsl_ioctl:88: Failed ioctl 250 errno 22
Aug 13 01:48:23 2009 (395761.270000) danube_dsl_ioctl:88: Failed ioctl 255 errno 22
Aug 13 01:48:23 2009 (395761.270000) danube_dsl_ioctl:88: Failed ioctl 290 errno 22
Aug 13 01:48:23 2009 (395761.270000) danube_dsl_ioctl:88: Failed ioctl 270 errno 22
Aug 13 01:48:06 2009 ERR 2009-08-13T00:48:06Z cwmp: mt_cwmp: session error: Could not resolve host
Aug 13 01:48:01 2009 [395743.910000] mei_ioctl:
Aug 13 01:48:01 2009 [395743.910000] meiCMV:

AND HERE IS EVERYTHING ELSE

EVENT LOG

Aug 13 01:45:26 2009 (395584.770000) Admin login successful by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 13 00:40:59 2009 (391717.710000) sock_socket: failed bind() for ip 0.0.0.0 port 50253: Address already in use
Aug 13 00:31:47 2009 (391166.100000) Admin login successful by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 12 21:22:58 2009 (379836.740000) Admin login successful by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 12 11:11:30 2009 (343234.660000) sock_socket: failed bind() for ip 0.0.0.0 port 5062: Address already in use
Aug 12 09:14:02 2009 (336187.090000) sock_socket: failed bind() for ip 0.0.0.0 port 2903: Address already in use
Aug 11 20:22:13 2009 (289877.900000) sock_socket: failed bind() for ip 0.0.0.0 port 5060: Address already in use
Aug 9 19:35:20 2009 (114443.760000) WGET: Error connecting to host https://pbthdm.bt.motive.com/cwmpWeb/CPEMgt (66.193.112.93:443)
Aug 9 12:11:24 2009 (87808.080000) Admin login successful by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 9 12:11:11 2009 (87794.670000) Admin login FAILED by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 9 12:10:36 2009 (87760.310000) Admin login FAILED by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 9 12:10:25 2009 (87749.380000) Admin login FAILED by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 9 12:10:25 2009 (87748.580000) Admin login FAILED by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 9 12:09:59 2009 (87722.400000) Admin login FAILED by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 9 12:09:47 2009 (87710.890000) Admin login FAILED by 192.168.1.64 on HTTP
Aug 9 11:48:10 2009 (86413.960000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 9 10:50:06 2009 (82929.530000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 9 10:31:50 2009 (81916.250000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 9 09:19:21 2009 (77567.710000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 22:43:48 2009 (39435.070000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 20:50:47 2009 (32653.430000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 18:48:06 2009 (25292.970000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 16:17:00 2009 (16226.850000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 15:46:20 2009 (14386.940000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 14:32:49 2009 ( 9975.180000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 14:32:04 2009 ERR 2009-08-08T13:32:04Z cwmp: mt_cwmp: session error: Could not resolve host
Aug 8 13:57:21 2009 ( 7848.020000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 13:55:23 2009 ERR 2009-08-08T12:55:23Z cwmp: mt_cwmp: session error: Could not resolve host
Aug 8 13:35:25 2009 ( 6531.710000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 13:34:12 2009 ERR 2009-08-08T12:34:12Z cwmp: mt_cwmp: session error: Could not resolve host
Aug 8 13:21:17 2009 ( 5683.720000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 13:20:16 2009 ERR 2009-08-08T12:20:16Z cwmp: mt_cwmp: session error: Could not resolve host
Aug 8 11:48:21 2009 ( 107.130000) WGET: Error connecting to host https://pbthdm.bt.motive.com/cwmpWeb/CPEMgt (66.193.112.93:443)
Aug 8 11:53:37 2009 ( 93.830000) RTNL: Received ERROR reply 'No such process' for message type 0x19
Aug 8 11:52:48 2009 ERR 2003-01-01T00:00:27Z cwmp: mt_cwmp: session error: Could not resolve host
Aug 8 11:52:28 2009 ( 25.600000) DVA started

Aug 8 11:52:28 2009 ( 24.830000) sys_if_stats_reset failed for atm0

Any clarification of the problems that can be given to back me up against my battle with BT would be gratefully received.

Cheers

Rainmaker · 13 Aug 2009 at 02:23

I don't know about BT, I'm well away from ipstream (eg BT) ISPs thankfully. LLU is the future.

But with that kind of line your dad would see 16+ megs easily I should imagine, on a decent LLU ISP (eg Be, UK Online). They also don't care about how much you download.

I hope you get this resolved satisfactorily. BT suck.

The speed going down after a router disconnect and you having to wait 10 days are not due to how ADSL "Max" works, btw. They're due to IP profiling set up by BT. They're not actually integral to it except insofar as BT has made them so, if that makes sense.

Klo · 13 Aug 2009 at 03:05

BT are ok if you are lucky, as we are, constant 6.8mbps (the max the line can take), and I usually only d/l around 50gb a month, so no caps. p2p throttling is bad though.

However, it seems you are unlucky! I wish LLU would come to our exchange, but I doubt it will happen as I live in a village.

tolien · 13 Aug 2009 at 11:13

It reckons you've done 5GB in 3 days:

5. ADSL uptime 3 days, 13:52:34
6. Bandwidth 834 / 7160
7. Data sent / rec’d 3199.9 / 2668.3

There's nothing in either of those sets of logs and without the details from before they reset it there's not much use to the rest of the data either except you can see that interleaving is enabled which would tie up with your connection being unstable:

Connection time 0 days, 00:00:48

Rainmaker said:
But with that kind of line your dad would see 16+ megs easily I should imagine, on a decent LLU ISP (eg Be, UK Online).

Not if he's already on ADSL2+, which those stats claim he is.

Modulation G.992.5 Annex A

Dadio · 13 Aug 2009 at 11:53

Ok - so if we work along the line a little taking this 5 GB usage over 3 days as a bench mark. I was connected for 12 days so 5 x 4 = 20 GB - 4 days ( Slow speeds = unloadable pages, so stole neighbours connection ) = 13 GB for the 8 days online. ?? Seems a lot more accurate.

During the days that I had problems, I was using alternative network and left BT connection to itself, just checking speed occasionally prior to daily complaining.

The contract has been terminated now and I am looking at having to pay fees, which I hope to argue away. With this experience there is no way I could tie myself in for a year.

I am just sorry that I didnt monitor things closer and record all the data better.

What about the theory of the BTHUB re-syncing itself with the exchange continually ( during that 4 day period where the service was redundant ) - could this have been where the 100 GB bandwidth usage went ?

tolien · 13 Aug 2009 at 12:07

No, ADSL sync loss won't transfer data.

Dadio · 13 Aug 2009 at 12:18

Ok - so any other suggestions apart from downloading loads of pron on p2p ?

I downloaded a few music files over a few hours then closed the P2p connection, so cant see a problem here.

I would like to think there is some logical connection between the first fault and this huge bandwidth useage. When I asked what the original problem was the only words I heard were - restored..migration. disturbance..

tolien · 13 Aug 2009 at 12:21

Either they're miscounting (and you'd expect to hear reports of such given how many users BT Retail has) or something really did transfer that much data over your connection.

The "first fault" sounds like the connection was unstable. Without more information, that could have been anything from the Home Hub being unstable to interference to anything at all.