Me my ISP and BT

VaderDSL · 1 Mar 2008 at 10:02

Ok, I am with Bethere ISP, went live around the 12th of February and from the moment I sorted my router out to connect it was great, 11mb down 1mb up and it was all good, really nice pings, good download speed and fast browsing.

Then 2 weekends ago there was a massive problem with Betheres network, lots of bad performance, massive dropputs and generally bad weekend all round.

That weekend caused my broadband connection to go down briefly, but when it came back up something was wrong.
Browsing was slower than dial up, pings were massively high, I was and still am 2 weeks later unable to retrieve email, logon to IM, stream media, or do pretty much anything online.

I have tried the supplied bebox and my own equipment with the same results, I filed a ticket nearly 2 weeks ago, and received my response 10 days later saying; and these are the exact words,

Dear Sir [Edited my name out]

How i see you request your mac address probably you are not happy with the service.So about the ping the connection seems ok but about the tracer route i will escalate this issue to my colleague from high technical support to check but i think that this is not in our network.So do you experience the problem again or no because we have the problem all weekends with the our system.

Kind Regards
BE*Team

I replied as soon as I could, which was a few hours after it was posted saying I am indeed having major problems still.
I have tried the support number to no avail, they keep sending me in loops trying other DNS IP's etc. and still the problem continues.

My overall question is, is this my equipment? I am inclined to think not due to the same problems persisting on the bebox.
Is it the bethere network? or is it a problem BT's end? Bearing in mind it is an LLU service are be responsible for the exchange side of things with my service?

Here is a traceroute to google and bbc :

Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [64.233.187.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 54GL [192.168.1.2]
2 * * 20 ms 78-105-168-1.zone3.bethere.co.uk [78.105.168.1]

3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 92 ms 92 ms 92 ms so-3-0-0.mpr2.iad5.us.above.net [64.125.28.14]
7 * 92 ms 92 ms 216.200.151.110.available.above.net [216.200.151
.110]
8 92 ms 92 ms 92 ms 216.239.46.250
9 * * 107 ms 72.14.238.138
10 106 ms 107 ms * 72.14.236.15
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * 107 ms 109 ms jc-in-f99.google.com [64.233.187.99]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>tracert www.bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.253.70]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 54GL [192.168.1.2]
2 99 ms 100 ms * 78-105-168-1.zone3.bethere.co.uk [78.105.168.1]

3 * * * Request timed out.
4 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms 212.58.238.129
5 21 ms * * 212.58.239.222
6 21 ms 21 ms 21 ms www1.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.253.70]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

Edit : I should also note the traceroutes are the same if I use OpenDNS servers.

tolien · 1 Mar 2008 at 10:08

Be are responsible for everything from the exchange on - that's the whole point of LLU.

VaderDSL · 1 Mar 2008 at 10:11

So them saying it's not on their network, does this mean that the exchange is fine? Or is that a little fib on their part?

Oh another thing, not sure if it means anything, with my bebox connected and looking at the stats after 10 minutes and 1mb of data downloaded I was looking at 250 thousand HEC errors.

tolien · 1 Mar 2008 at 10:17

It could mean anything - there's more to their network than the exchange, and there's more between you and the internet than their network.

If you're getting that many errors, there's something wrong somewhere between you and the exchange.
Tried the usual stuff, master socket with no extensions or filters?
What is your SNR margin/sync rate like?

wesley · 1 Mar 2008 at 10:36

did u had any ADSL broadband (BT wholesale) before moved to bethere? any crappy connection with previous ISP?

bad phone line = crappy internet, no matter what ISP u with

VaderDSL · 1 Mar 2008 at 12:30

Thing is it was working perfectly for the first 2 weeks, no errors, great pings etc on both equipment then they had issues with the network and they did some messing to get people back on, after that it went completely to pot.

The line is fine

the equipment is fine as far as I can tell just something has happened after that weekend or problems.

VaderDSL · 2 Mar 2008 at 12:49

Ok here are the stats

Uptime: 0 days, 0:01:34

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,321 / 11,371

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.0

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 15.0 / 31.5

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 7.0 / 6.5

FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 3,483

Just had a reply from Bethere saying everything looks fine and asking me exactly what the problem is

*cry*
Can't login to any IM, can't use an VOIP or Voice Comms like Ventrillo, can't check my email, can't connect to my webserver, can't even login to my online banking.

The really weird thing is, downloading is fine, it takes about 5 minutes to start, but when it does start it downloads at just over 1mb a sec?
Last night was insanely annoying, trying to load the BBC new site took me 35 minutes to actually load it.

In the end I put my machine away and started browsing on my iphone on Edge

VaderDSL · 2 Mar 2008 at 12:55

Also there is a thread over on the bethere forums about out exchange lots of other people are having the same problems as myself.

The line is completely fine, it's the equipment in the exchange

I don't see bethere doing anything about it so I'm going ahead with my migration on Wednesday.