A season in hell

[Tom]

Next time I feel like changing my life I will move to Calcutta or get divorced. This time I switched ISP. Hell knows what caused the trouble, I'm sure, but none of my 24 theories seem correct. But this morning we have had a full speed (24 Mb for £24/month) connection from Be There (https://www.bethere.co.uk/beonline/canBeHome.do) and access to my website on the web is now faster than to the same site on my hard drive. My 25th theory about what caused the trouble is that Be are local loop unbundling company. They have their own equipment in the exchange - and I don't think BT like it. We had 3 sets of BT engineers round to the house and they went away sighing that their equipment could not deal with this type of problem - ie they don't have the diagnostics for the fault. Be reported this morning that they have uploaded a new profile and its been OK since then, so perhaps BT are correct.

[James]

24MB is staggering. I remember the joy at upgrading from dial up to 512 broadband in 2001, then to 2MB last year.

You don't say what problems you had though Tom, would be interested to know as I'll upgrade to 24MB if I find it is available in my area.

[francis]

24MB?! Nice. Not as nice as my shiny new black 5th gen iPod with video playback, but still nice. I'm still kicking myself for not spending an extra £70 and getting the 60 gig one - that'll have to be next time.

The difference in sound quality between 3rd and 5th gens is quite amazing. And the quality of the video playback is astonishing. I'm pretty sure it uses Apple's H264 codec for QuickTime (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/h264/). With QT7.0.3 Pro (a snip at £19.99) you can take all manner of movie formats and squish them into iPod format. It's truly a work of art.

Oooh, I've digressed. So, what kind of hell did you go through? I've heard about loop unbundling, but don't really understand it.

[Tom]

The big problem was almost a month without a web connection. I think this is what happened:

- We got a MAC (migration) code from Pipex and gave it to Be. The code lasted for 4 weeks.
- Be programmed their system to send out a router and initiate the service within the month
- Be's supply section did not manage to send out the modem, but their engineers went to the local exchange, disconnnected BT's wiring and connected up their own equipment
- The MAC code expired after 4 weeks and so the Pipex service ceased
- We tried to re-instate the Pipex service but it would not work with the new wiring in the exchange
- Be eventually sent out the router, but it did not work because the MAC code had expired
- I got a new MAC code but Be waited 3 days to implement it
- When the service started it was 25% on and 75% off, with no outgoing mailserver
- Be changed my profile and the service started working - but when this happened the outgoing mailserver stopped working [it is still non-operational]

To make matters worse, Be have an 0870 number for ''''HELP'''' and keep you waiting for an hour. The various problems only started getting resolved when I discovered tha the service was 24/7 and that there are no other users at the time I get up in the morning. The man on the nightshift is friendly and has almost persuaded me they are a good company. I have however been thinking up different names for them: Be Patient, Be Where? Beware! I believe they have half the ISP market in Sweden.

Now one more thing: the 'we' in the above refers to my son and I. Changing over was his idea but he timed a 6-week trip to Vietnam with his girlfriend just when the troubles began. So I can cheer myself up by reading what fun it is to be left for a day on a deserted tropical island with chairs, sun-umbrella and banquet to consume. It makes me feel so much better to know that he is having a great time - and such a relief to know that I'll probably have it working for when he gets back. That's what fatherhood is all about.