Seil Chat

I hate BT

This will be over 18 months after we reached our 'trigger level'

It seems pretty obvious to me that BT have been ripped off by a sub-contractor who told them the cable was there and functional when it wasn't.

There is currently a section of our broadband cable actually lying on the edge of the road at Kilninver. It is only a matter of time before a tour bus or a lorry runs over it.

I could have got a £1200 grant over a year ago to install satellite broadband, instead of which I have a whole heap of useless networking equipment and a client base who mostly have broadband and expect broadband-enabled sites. I spend most of my time watching large files uploading very slowly, and usually terminating at 99% when Freeserve decides to drop the connection.

NOT HAPPY

Nick

Yeah, the date was changed during the day. This morning it was still May, by tea time it had changed to July. I've rung BT to find out why they keep changing it - apparently it's all down to the capacity of the exchange and waiting for the 'phone company' to upgrade it. I don't know what they mean by that - I thought it was all the same company? Anyhow, I was too late to get very much info from 'the team', whoever they might be, and have to ring on Monday and speak to them directly and find out exactly what is going on. The person who I spoke to today said that it can still be brought forward to an earlier date again.

I knew this would happen after the last time, so hadn't got too excited about it. Except I have loads of stuff I want to advertise on eBay for AAA and have been holding off until we got a faster connection.

Pat (sticking my head in the gas oven)

Got on to BT first thing, they haven't got a bl**dy clue.
I was just told it is engineering works - could be the exchange needs more work, or it could be the cable you have all seen waving about in the wind at Kilninver.
He says we shouldn't be delayed again and we're on schedule for July.
That's what we thought last time. Don't hold your breath...

Pat

Looks like the cable has been buried (pity the BT lot aren't buried with it).

Pat

AT LAST IT'S HERE

Is there anyone physically connected yet to broadband on Seil as it can
be some days after the enabled date to get a connection.

Please post if you are connected.

I spent a lot of time yesterday on the phone to BT as to when we'd be actually connected. I was assured that emails would be sent out today with all the details of our connection dates etc. I don't know about you - but I've heard nothing, nada, zilch

Pat

I have been given the 25/07/05 as the day I will be connected nothing in writing as yet but fingers crossed. Will keep you posted as to what really happens

Doug, which provider are you with? They seem to be more together than BT. I had an email from them today to say they were still doing line checks and 'updating their database'. Really makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Pat

I joined on the 20th the modem came friday they rang me to confirm WANADOO plus i get free phone calls evenings and weekends free on the modem and paid nothing out


DOUG

Thanks Doug. How is everyone else getting on? Anybody actually connected yet? I'm still tearing my hair out with BT who can't/won't give me an activation date.

Pat

Hi Pat It's as quiet as a graveyard nobody has said anything, I don't think half of them know we are connected or that they can register for it I would love to hear who has signed up and been given dates, mine has been put back to Tuesday at 1347 god knows where they get the times from why not say 1350 or just 1400 beats me. so if there is anyone out there please let us know, when you are officially on

DOUG

Hi Pat line activated at 1420 just a hicup at the end but sorted I only have to make a move to click the mouse and its there lets hope no problems down the line excuse the pun

DOUG

Brilliant Doug!! I think I'm still waitng for tomorrow with BT, but it probably won't kill me now I know! Enjoy it, we've waited long enough.

Pat

We're in Lochmaddy just now, and will probably be stuck here with bad weather tomorrow so I'm hoping to log on here again then and order ours for when we get back . . . fed up with being the only web designer in Scotland still without Broadband, I reckon it'll free up several hours of my time per week that I spend just waiting for things to upload or download.

- Nick

It's brillliant, Nick, I never want to go back to dial-up!

Pat

Finally got Broadband. The Wireless router blew up after less than 24 hours, so I had to go back to BT's free Voyager modem, but discovered I could just plug the ethernet connection straight into a cheap ethernet hub I'd been using to network my PCs anyway and hey presto - instant always-on internet access for three machines.

Chalk and cheese . . . it's amazing how little time previously endless routine tasks take compared with the bad old pre-broadband days.

And . . . as we had two lines before and don't need them now it's not going to cost us any more.

Worth the wait.

- Nick

I'm being upgraded to a 2 meg connection on 12th Sept for the same price (BT). Check with your ISP to see what you can do.

Pat

Lucky NickB got connected a week or so ago. If he had left it much longer he may have had a problem, the latest from BT on the Balvicar exchange is detailed below.

Results: Balvicar Code: WSBAV
County: Strathclyde
Enabled: 20 Jul 2005

Service capacity: Amber

BT are reporting that overall physcial capacity is low for some products at this time. This may result in orders being delayed or rejected until such a time that capacity can be installed.

BT are reporting that there are no port capacity problems on the Office IPStream (20:1 contention) product range.

BT are reporting that port capacity for Home IPStream (50:1 contention) products is currently low.
BT have provided no ETA for the installation of additional capacity.

Record last updated: 31 Aug 05

First BT tell us we need 100 punters to sign up before they will enable the exchange.

Then bizarrely we actually reach the magic number, mostly due to a few of us bullying others to sign up who will probably never use the service. Nonetheless, as far as BT are concerned a minimum of 100 people will subscribe.

15 months or more later the exchange is enabled. Maybe 25 people sign up, and then BT run out of capacity.

I should be surprised, but somehow . . .

- Nick