Frequent disconnects and speed drops

[Paul_79]

Hi everyone, 

Up until recently we were getting a very good steady connection in the 60s Mbps, no problems at all. But over the last few months the connection has been dropping and re-connecting straight away, but then 20-30 mins later disconnect again, this would happen sometimes all day, also i noticed that as the days went on the sync speed of the router would drop to the point it went all the way down to 40 Mbps.

Just to explain on the setup :

• Sky SR203 router was located upstairs
• Moved down into the hall to connect to the master socket as requested by NOW

Rang NOW and they arranged for an engineer visit, after running some tests he said there were no problems on the line and we should be getting the speeds we had been getting before quite comfortably. He was a confused why it was syncing at exactly 40 Mbps like it was being throttled, he replaced a very old master socket and reset the line, 5 mins later everything was working great again. I moved the router back upstairs and all was ok.

Well this was the end of July, fast forward three weeks and the exact same problems were happening again, so the engineer left his number so we could ring him if we had anymore problems, so he came back and said it could be caused by an old extension cable that runs to the upstairs, recommended keeping the router plugged into the master socket in the hallway. I did this and he once again reset the line and once again it was back to normal.

Guess what! We are now experiencing exactly the same issues again, pretty much three weeks on.

Today it’s been quite bad, regular drops since around 9am and just checking the router now it’s syncing at 48 Mbps, over the weekend it was 55.

I’m at a loss now, I’ve no idea what the problem can be, on my account it says this

Estimated - 33.4-37.1 Mbps

Guaranteed - 30.0 Mbps

Upload speed: 12.8-14.3 Mbps

Which is baffling, could it be that NOW are doing something themselves? Especially as they all say there are no problems on the line.

Sorry for the rant, I know NOW can’t help on this forum but just wondered if anyone had any idea's?

Thanks for reading!

[gavs82008]

@Paul_79 

Sounds like a great old nightmare there. Maybe there is an issue with the line somewhere possibly at the cabinet side. 

That said if you do switch to another FTTC provider then it’s very likely the same issue could persist. 

All I could suggest is to call NOW and have a good moan and explain the situation.

[Paul_79]

Thanks, i think that's the plan next, just spoke to the engineer and he is not able to come around again, said i need to ring NOW to book in another appointment. He is confused by the whole thing!

Just a thought, since around Feb/Mar this year we've had Truespeed (FTTP) and Virgin in the area digging up roads and pavements, i always thought it was a coincidence we started having problems after they finished laying cables, both NOW and the engineer didn't think it would be the cause.

[gavs82008]

@Paul_79 

That said dude if you’ve got FTTP available at your property I’d definitely jump ship. As FTTC connections will be a thing of the past in a few times.

[Paul_79]

Spoke to NOW earlier and eventually got them to send out an engineer for tomorrow morning! They say our speeds on the account are accurate as the exchange we are on is full so we can no longer get the 60 Mbps speeds like before.

@gavs82008 I would love to move to FTTP, trouble is we are still in contract with NOW for sometime yet.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

[Jayach]

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@Paul_79 wrote:
@gavs82008 I would love to move to FTTP, trouble is we are still in contract with NOW for sometime yet.

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If you are having problems, and Now are unable to cure them, you should be allowed to leave penalty free.

Make sure you have an official complaint recorded.

How To File A Complaint (nowtv.com)

[Paul_79]

Well the engineer was supposed to come between 8am - 1pm but has not turned up, last time we had txt messages confirming times but haven't had anything this time.

We've actually been online now for 13 hours without a drop, but the sync speed has gone down again to 43998 Kbps. I'd be ok with that if the connection was stable but i'm not holding my breath.

[gavs82008]

@Paul_79 

If it’s any consolation.

https://help.nowtv.com/article/auto-compensation

[Paul_79]

That's interesting, thanks for the link.

Appointment today was between 1-6 and just like yesterday no txt messages confirming times.

[Paul_79]

Just an update, no progress really to report. I filled out a complaint form on the website saying about compensation due to two failed engineer appointments, says they will aim to respond within 24hrs, well that hasn't happened.

Something has happened somewhere though, just don't know by who.

The Sky hub is connecting now at a constant 43998 Kbps and we've had no disconnects in 60hrs! According to the technical test online there is a problem and says to ring but i'm fed up with repeating the same thing every time to someone reading off a script! 

FTTP can't come soon enough!