ADSL Issues in Courtrai, Paarl

[Jonk]

I would really appreciate some advice on a ADSL line in Courtrai, Paarl. It drops the connection several times a day.
I am told that this is a local Courtrai problem (implied - get used to it)

Numerous calls to Telkom and even a visit by them have not fixed it. This is compounded that I live in CT and the user is not particularly technically minded so I end up trying to support by phone.

I recently started a line migration to Mweb simply because they are more responsive and may have higher links into Telkom technical services than I can reach.

Any ideas - tests I can do - or a techie in Paarl that can really fix it (I will pay) would be handy.

Thanks

[Flidiot]

I have noticed some issues in Paarl as well, one of my clients are there - the staff have been having major issues at their homes and the office itself has had a few line drops/crappy speeds the last while.

To be entirely honest with you, I think its exchange issues. But I am also still waiting for at least a half-brained person to give me an answer about the problems there.

[AcidRaZor]

I live and connect to the Courtrai exchange in Paarl. So far the only issues I've had with the connection dropping was a few years ago and it usually happens on a Saturday/Sunday. The noise levels would go up and down quite a bit and this causes the line to resync and drop the connection. However, the only problem I've had in the last 12 months was when the actual exchange had an issue by not being able to connect to the ISP, this usually only lasts 24-48 hours and Telkom (mission to speak to someone not checking your physical line and say "everything is fine") usually admits there's an issue with the exchange and lets me know that they're aware of the issue and busy looking into it.

Other than that my connection is fine. I'm on 1mb though. Not sure what speed your client is on, but I might suggest if they're on 4mb, to downgrade them to 1mb (512k that was automatically upped to 1mb) and see if the problem persist.

I know there's a capacity problem with the exchange and ATM links, but like I said, haven't had a problem like this for a while now other than the exchange going down and not connecting to MWEB or any other ISP.

my other advice is that you're creating a problem for yourself by migrating the line to the ISP. I've had better service/support on my ADSL line from Telkom (being able to call them myself) than I have had with the line being at ISP level and Telkom just ignoring my pleas for help since the ISP's report the problem and then have to wait up to 72 hours for a reply from telkom (their SLI is stupid), whereas if I wanted support now, I can phone them up and get it immediately (telkom that is)

Same with line upgrade/downgrade requests. It takes an ISP 7-21 days whereas if you phone telkom (even though they have the same SLI policy), the upgrade or downgrade is processed immediately over the phone and reflects within 24 hours.

You can get your client to give you remote access to their router (or just drive out here for 10min) and check things out. If you can let me know what the noise margin and line attenuation is, I can give you an idea if this is normal or not.

Then you can also get the ID number/address (which I assume you know already) and pretend you're the client and speak to Telkom yourself instead of just relying on their technical incapability to describe the issue properly. I've found that if you can't do that the monkeys in the call center won't be able to help you with the exact issue