Telkom - Attack of the Confusing Ninjas

[throughtheiris25]

I recently decided to test my ADSL line speed above 4MB, which I have been using for ages. Telkom originally said that my line was 10 MBps compatible after the so-called upgrade, and done the necessary adjustments.

At the moment, I am sitting 2.5KM away from the exchange in Parow. Initially, after changing my account to an 8MB OpenWeb account, I got 5MBps. My continuation was around 42 and SNR was around 6.3. Called Telkom to reset ports and look into the matter.

After reporting fault on 17 January, Telkom's Technician came on over, when I was unavailable, checked my Router, downgraded my Line back to 4MBps, and blamed the lack of speed on my distance from the exchange, without consulting me. SNR improved with the Downgrade, but it couldn't be possible that I was receiving this speed, considering, a family friend around the corner, on the same exchange claims to be hitting the 10MBps mark when unshaped.

So, started the war with Telkom. Many a call to their support team, without any help. Have received many promises, been hung up on hold a few times, have not managed to speak to any supervisors or receive any clarification on anything, besides that they will notify the technicians. I wanted these folks to check my physical line for noise contributors which may be slowing me down, but no go. After two weeks of callbacks, a technician comes over today, when I'm not at home again, checks his laptop and tells my sister their network is fine and that the issue is caused by our hardware. I am not pleased. I never got a call about this appointment although this was promised to me twice already.

Well, just to clarify, I have tried two computers, two routers and another line from the Splitter without having any changes.

I'm starting to lose my cool with Telkom.

Any advise on the matter you legendary MyBroadband folks? I have no idea what to do, or say to save my dignity in this all. All I capable of better, and how do I convince Telkom to take action.

 

[vicv]

The SNR you had there was horrible, I think it might be a line issue though since I'm 5km from my exchange and my stats are fine.

 

[FNfal]

You have to bear in mind the telephone network is designed for voice not ADSL , they have only recently started to use cables that are ADSL compatible .
I am 300 metres from the exchange and have terrible SNR and dont get full speed on my ADSL .
Your SNRs are not good .
What area are you in ?

 

[ponder]

At the moment, I am sitting 2.5KM away from the exchange in Parow. Initially, after changing my account to an 8MB OpenWeb account, I got 5MBps. My continuation was around 42 and SNR was around 6.3. Called Telkom to reset ports and look into the matter.

The distance should be OK, the SNR however is up to schite.

Unplug all devices from your line (filters, phones, faxes, alarms etc) and see if anything improves. Disconnect your adsl router now as well and plug in a normal phone (not corless), lift the receiver, press "0" to get rid of the dial tone and see if you hear any noise.

 

[throughtheiris25]

You have to bear in mind the telephone network is designed for voice not ADSL , they have only recently started to use cables that are ADSL compatible .
I am 300 metres from the exchange and have terrible SNR and dont get full speed on my ADSL .
Your SNRs are not good .
What area are you in ?

I'm in Parow, Cape Town

 

[throughtheiris25]

The distance should be OK, the SNR however is up to schite.

Unplug all devices from your line (filters, phones, faxes, alarms etc) and see if anything improves. Disconnect your adsl router now as well and plug in a normal phone (not corless), lift the receiver, press "0" to get rid of the dial tone and see if you hear any noise.

Unplugged everything, and nothing improved really, and currently have noise on telephone line unless I make a call, then the quality goes down the tube really

 

[throughtheiris25]

@all

So Telkom came to my house yesterday as I said. Got home and asked my sister what happened. She told me she was on the WiFi half an hour before he arrived, but when he left, it was down. Internet has been down ever since and was perfect when I left home in the morning yesterday. Technician plugged my line into his laptop via his router and then proceeded to tell my sister that this issue was with my hardware or router and left, even though this was not the reason for my request for Telkom to send someone. How can you even come to someone's house without verifying they are there. Terrible service.

I requested Openweb give me new login details, and this also failed to work as well. Whatever this guy did, completely killed my Internet connection or so it seems. I have had line drops before, but nothing like this. How possible is it that this is my Router, or that he adjusted a setting on it that caused this? What you guys think?

 

[ponder]

Unplugged everything, and nothing improved really, and currently have noise on telephone line unless I make a call, then the quality goes down the tube really

If you have noise on the voice portion then log it faulty as such, DO NOT even mention adsl (tell them adsl is fine). Just tell them you want the noise on your voice line fixed.

 

[throughtheiris25]

If you have noise on the voice portion then log it faulty as such, DO NOT even mention adsl (tell them adsl is fine). Just tell them you want the noise on your voice line fixed.

That sounds like a plan. But, there is the factor that may hinder this idea. They would generally downgrade ADSL speed to clear noise out. This was the first thing they did when they came to my house two weeks ago. Technician said his focus was SNR, and this did improve with what he did, although my ADSL was downgraded to 4MB. I don't have any connection at the moment.

Thinking of getting a brand new line installed and then cancelling the old one. No idea what to do. Should I give up on faster internet connection?