O2 Broadband - any good?

[kaybee]

After 3 months of having the same problem with intermittently losing internet connection, I am now totally fed up with my current ISP - who shall remain nameless (OK you twisted my arm - it's VirginMedia aarrgghhhh!!). Their customer service and commitment is cr@p and they are just not interested in getting things sorted.

 

I am looking to change my ISP when my contract expires in July and, looking at all the reviews/cost comparisons etc etc, O2 Home Broadband seems to come out pretty good. There are several reviews that state slow speed/dropped connections, but, when you consider that the people most likely to write a review are the ones that have a bad experience (plus VirginMedia also have worse review scores) I tend to take them with a pinch of salt.

 

I am now looking for fellow Forum Members' views on their thoughts of O2 as an ISP (Home version NOT Mobile) - or can you recommend a better ISP?

[Capman]

Well kaybee, since you last posted about your troubles with Virgin, and I tried helping you, I suffered really bad problems regarding losing my connection, some days I would be lucky if I had the internet for an hour, other days I might be lucky and have it for 5 or 6 hours.

I was constantly on the phone to Virgin trying to get it sorted, I tried 3 different Belkin routers (2 were old, one was brand new), changed all my filters, went through the same routine with the support staff over and over again, they had me running all over the house trying the router in different phone sockets, but nothing ever worked.

In the end I gave up and started reading up on other ISP's (when I was lucky enough to get connected), I couldn't decide who I wanted to go with. Unbeknown to me they were still trying at their end to sort things out though, possibly even looking at their log of my internet activity, because they did something I never expected. They called me on my mobile whilst I was at work one day and asked if they could send me a new router to see if that would cure things. Of course I said yes, next day a Netgear router turned up, the problem remained a little bit so I called them up, they had me change a few settings in the router and for the most part everything is fine these days.

They were not obliged to send me a router, because that was never part of the contract in the first place, years ago when I upgraded to broadband with them they supplied me with a modem, it was down to me to change to a router when I decided to get all the computers in the house connected.

Anyway, on the odd occasion that I do lose the connection now, I just go into the router configuration page, restart the router and everything is fine.

 

I know this is not answering your question about O2, but just thought I would share my experience, maybe you should push for a new router from them.

[kaybee]

Well kaybee, since you last posted about your troubles with Virgin, and I tried helping you, I suffered really bad problems regarding losing my connection, some days I would be lucky if I had the internet for an hour, other days I might be lucky and have it for 5 or 6 hours.

I was constantly on the phone to Virgin trying to get it sorted, I tried 3 different Belkin routers (2 were old, one was brand new), changed all my filters, went through the same routine with the support staff over and over again, they had me running all over the house trying the router in different phone sockets, but nothing ever worked.

In the end I gave up and started reading up on other ISP's (when I was lucky enough to get connected), I couldn't decide who I wanted to go with. Unbeknown to me they were still trying at their end to sort things out though, possibly even looking at their log of my internet activity, because they did something I never expected. They called me on my mobile whilst I was at work one day and asked if they could send me a new router to see if that would cure things. Of course I said yes, next day a Netgear router turned up, the problem remained a little bit so I called them up, they had me change a few settings in the router and for the most part everything is fine these days.

They were not obliged to send me a router, because that was never part of the contract in the first place, years ago when I upgraded to broadband with them they supplied me with a modem, it was down to me to change to a router when I decided to get all the computers in the house connected.

Anyway, on the odd occasion that I do lose the connection now, I just go into the router configuration page, restart the router and everything is fine.

 

I know this is not answering your question about O2, but just thought I would share my experience, maybe you should push for a new router from them.

 

Thanks for that Capman - I have, on a number of occasions, asked them to send me a new router. I even offered to return it at my expense if it didn't resolve the issue. VM continue to maintain that it isn't the router that's at fault.

[Capman]

Oh wow, yet with me they kept trying to tell me it was the routers at fault, but I wouldn't have it because it seemed impossible that 3 of them could be faulty.

I think it was possibly an incompatibility problem with Belkin routers and Virgin now, although I don't know how. Besides I have set up loads of Belkin routers for people that are Virgin customers and they haven't had problems.

 

What make is your router?

Maybe it would be worth buying another router from somewhere like Argos, at least then if it cures it then all will be good, but if it don't cure it you can take advantage of Argos's 16 day money back guarantee.

[kaybee]

Oh wow, yet with me they kept trying to tell me it was the routers at fault, but I wouldn't have it because it seemed impossible that 3 of them could be faulty.

I think it was possibly an incompatibility problem with Belkin routers and Virgin now, although I don't know how. Besides I have set up loads of Belkin routers for people that are Virgin customers and they haven't had problems.

 

What make is your router?

Maybe it would be worth buying another router from somewhere like Argos, at least then if it cures it then all will be good, but if it don't cure it you can take advantage of Argos's 16 day money back guarantee.

 

It's a Netgear router.

 

VM did call me to say there was an earth fault on the line and they had me disconnect everything whilst they repeated the test - it still showed faulty. VM advised me to call BT and report the fault and get them to come out to it.

 

BT came out the next day - no fault found!! Although the BT engineer couldn't connect to the internet and said there was a fault between my local exchange and a junction box around half a mile from where I live. He also said that it should have been VM that reported the fault and they should not have asked me to report it!

 

I contacted VM and they got a BT engineer to 'do something' at the exchange - it still hasn't cured it.

 

I do find that VM staff are really keen to close incidents as quick as they can - they ring me to see if it's ok and, when I tell them it's intermittent and may not re-occur for a few days, they say they'll close the incident and for me to give them a call if it happens again!

[Capman]

VM shouldn't of told you to phone BT to report a fault, because you could of got charged if no fault was found, it was VM's responsibility to report the fault.

Oh well, I'm not being much help am I, lol.

[kaybee]

VM shouldn't of told you to phone BT to report a fault, because you could of got charged if no fault was found, it was VM's responsibility to report the fault.

Oh well, I'm not being much help am I, lol.

 

 

No but, as the old BT advert used to say "It's good to talk!"

[Capman]

Haha.

 

I wish I could remember what settings they had me change in my router because you could of tried that, but I have a terrible memory.

[hazelnut]

My daughter switched to O2 from Tiscali recently. She has got things up and running with the O2 router (I think these are just updated Thomson speedtouch modems)

 

Telephone help seems to be okay, it's free

 

One thing to note is she had difficulty using a little netgear usb modem to connect to another old computer upstairs via O2. Apparently netgear and O2 call the network in different ways. It's sorted now she just has to click on a windows dialog first and then the upstairs one connects no problem.

 

I've stayed with Tiscali so far, have heard no more since they announced they couldn't pay their monthy bank loans in italy.

 

If they go into administration I may have to join O2 as well

[Woody]

Visit this site. It's the best there is. It has user comments on every ISP in the land.

 

Look on the left and click on " Broadband forums "

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

[Capman]

I visited that site a lot when I was thinking of changing ISP.

See also this page:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/faq/sections/radsl.html#235

It describes how to remove the now redundant third wire in telecom wiring.