Stephen White is an angry, angry man

Holy crap! I leave you guys alone for two days….

I’ve been deleting a lot of the Stephen White comments. No place for that here I’m afraid.

83.217.170.180

That IP is now moderated.

As is his/her friend Jay Hud
195.8.186.235

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Connection drops eternally vexing

This is my big bugbear. Why on Earth can’t I stay online for more than 20 minutes. (Except today, odd.) Is it the hardware? Infrastructure? What?

yes michael. my talktalk is just about the same. I can’t surf the net for more than 15 minutes without losing my connection. When I try to reconnect I get a ‘no dial tone’ or ‘unable to establish a connection’ message. I can’t get through to talktalk by phone as I queue for too long and when I go to their ‘contact’ page on their website in order to send an email there is no send button visible.

I don’t know whether to invest in a better filter and modem than the ones which talktalk sent me. Unfortunately,I know nothing about networks, adsl etc so I can’t fix these problems on my own. I’ve checked my phone line and there is a dial tone, the (talktalk) filter is in place etc. etc All I can work out is that talktalk is utter shite and I wish I’d gone with BT or anyone else!

Anyone have an answer for us and Talk crap?

Technorati Tags: Carphone Warehouse, ADSL, DSL, broadband, Talk Talk

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The curse of the T strikes!

Alas, this time it’s not Talk Talk but Tiscali causing trouble and trepidation for customers:

I am moving from tiscali to talk talk, About a 2 week before I signed to Talktalk, I got a letter from Tiscali, that “to improve my service” they where doing some work at the exchange and my phone and broadband my be off for up to 2 hrs. My phone was off for about 5 days (broadband came back on after 2 days, broadband but no phone – strange).

When I needed to get a MAC code so that I could switch, Tiscali told me that could not give the MAC code because they updated me to a LLU. I said I never asked for that, they said ‘oh well’. Looks like I am going to have a bit of down time and move back to dial up – can’t wait

Any tips on how to get Jimmy off Tiscali and on somewhere else? Talk to him

Technorati Tags: Tiscali, broadband, ADSL, DSL

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Onetel to Talk Talk call time changes

You guys that were transferred from OneTel to Talk Talk probably want to have a skim through this:

We have been trying to get answers from Talk Talk/ OneTel since Talk Talk acquired OneTel. OneTel has been dishonest since it started up in business. As soon as Talk Talk took over, without warning us it reduced the free call period from 1800/0800 to 1800/0700 hours and the following month to 1800/0600 hours. We have been trying to give OneTel all our busines and to break free from BT/AOL (UK). It ignores out letters of complaint and continues to defraud us.

I’m not sure why they would make 6:00 am peak times? Very odd. I can’t think of many who think that’s a good time to jump on the phone and call everyone they know. Usually I’m sound asleep around then… and sometimes just going to bed.

Thanks James!

Technorati Tags: Carphone Warehouse, Talk Talk

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Matt made

What is it with you guys and all the positivity this week? You’d think that things actually are turning around!

I changed from Orange to Talktalk. I found that I could not connect to Orange and so I rang them and they (20 mins 32 secs later) told me the account had been blocked and that I should ring their technical line. 19minutes 47 seconds later ( how I love that music) I was told that my accont had been closed as i had transfered to Talktalk. I rang talk talk ( 2 minutes 3 seconds) and they said that Orange should not have disconnected me but my modem was on its way and it would be with me in 2 weeks. Got a bit cross then and asked it my Speedtouch modem would work. They said it might and they gave me my username and password which worked so i am now back on line and enjoying all the benifits so its not all bad

Way to go Matt!

So, all the Talk Talk about things improving may not be a corporate line? Time will tell!

Technorati Tags: Carphone Warehouse, Talk Talk, ADSL, DSL, broadband

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What’s the future for Talk Talk?

Our BT Darren brings up a good point about Talk Talk’s future. The 18 month contract takes us to 2008, or rather nicely, to the end of the 5 year plan for broadband. Read and mull:

TalkTalk was established in 2003, with a 5 yr business plan which ends in 2008. Their business plan is to either sell off to the highest bidder, or if they hold enough customers, – hold BT to ransom. Either way, it is still their equipment in the exchange, so, if you was to move onto another supplier in 2008, then it would cost you , probably, an engineer to go to the exchange to rip out their tripe equipment. either way, its a case of pay now , or pay later. Every business has a 5yr business plan, thats how the rich get richer, hook them in when they are young, hold them to 18 months, as of this year, ohhhh to my shock, that 18months coincidently brings us to 2008. did anyone else not see this comming ?

Thanks Darren!

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Danny Vu, Deja Vu

I love Talk Talk’s billing universe. Those who pay, haven’t. Those who haven’t, have….

I signed up with Talktalk in May 06. I never received their Welcome Pack. I still don’t know my account number. I still have not received any bills. I haven’t got broadband either due to some spurious service left on my BT line.

I’ve talked to BT about the line and they said it was compatible with Talktalk Broadband so I have no idea whether BT or Talktalk was saying the right thing.

There’s no way to speak to Talktalk. I was given an email address for the broadband desk but it bounced back.

I asked Talktalk via email about the lack of a Welcome Pack and account details and bills. They gave vague answers about my account being with them but had not gone ‘live’, and that there was a Direct Debit set up – BUT I’ve never given them my bank details – nor have I set up any DD for Talktalk. I gave up on them after a few exchanges of emails.

At this moment in time, I have no idea about the status of my account with Talktalk, although my phone line is working.

Any idea of how Danny can find out? Talk to Danny

Technorati Tags: Carphone Warehouse, Talk Talk, ADSL, DSL, broadband

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Are there still DNS woes for Talk Talk?

In May their DNS servers just crashed and failed miserably for a good few hours. That’s what inspired this site. Since then, though I haven’t had the problem myself, I’ve read and heard that there are still problems getting to certain sites. Sam has written in with what sounds like confirmation:

purchased TalkTalk in late July, when we were told that super-fast 8mbit broadband would be with us by September. The phone line was set up with a little problem but has otherwise been fine. We are enjoying our free calls. However, upon switching our Pipex broadband service to TalkTalk in early August, I quickly realised that problems were to be plentiful. I’m currently at speeds up to 2mbit, which, although disappointing, still betters our Pipex speed. I should be with 8mbit broadband in July next year. I have had no downtime, no disconnections or speed irregularities, however I’d be interested to know if other people are having difficulties with being unable to access certain websites. I’ve seen no mention of this on your blog but I am quite certain that it is a TalkTalk network problem and not to do with my computer or my phone line, as TalkTalk constantly tell me. Sites I cannot access include msn.com (inc. Messenger), pcworld.co.uk, egg.com, talktalk.co.uk (!) and hmv.co.uk. Some others are incredibly slow.

Essentially, I’d like to know if others are having this problem and whether it has been resolved by TalkTalk, yourself or by the process of LLU.

Ok guys, this is how you test to see if records are being resolved:

1. Click ‘Start’
2. Click ‘Run’
3. Type ‘cmd’ into the box

You should get a screen that looks like this:

What you’re looking for is the line that says: ‘Pinging pcworld.co.uk [195.92.228.186]‘

That number in brackets means that pcworld.co.uk is being translated by a DNS server. (You don’t need to know what these are, only that they are necessary.) The request timed out isn’t necessarily something to be concerned about. Often times pings will be blocked.

This is an example of an unsuccessful lookup:

See? It can’t find the host.

Now, how you troubleshoot this is by using a utility in Windows XP called ‘nslookup’

An unsuccesful lookup looks like this:

That command tells you two things.
1. The DNS server is taking queries. That’s that Opal Telecom address
2. The DNS server can’t find the domain.

Now, there may be a few problems with the domain I typed in. The first is that the domain isn’t valid (which is the case here for demonstration purposes.) The second is the domain is valid (like PC World) but isn’t being resolved properly.

Try it and see what you get.

Technorati Tags: ADSL, DSL, Carphone Warehouse, Talk Talk, broadband

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June and August confusing for Talk Talk

Like the mole? It’s especially for Moley

Trev and Pat are slightly vexed by how June and August are two of the same thing. They’ve sent letters to BBC Breakfast, Dunstone and… me! Can anyone help?

Hello, its now nearly the end of August and still no broadband from
Talktalk.

I received a letter from Talktalk in July asking for my MAC code, so that
you could transfer my service from BT. I replied to that letter the same
day, but still no broadband from Talktalk.

I have emailed your help line a number of times, but I have had no response;
not even an acknowledgement and you guessed it – still no broadband from
Talktalk.

I have telephoned the help line and have been kept waiting for 10 or more
minutes, before the line disengages. When I do get to speak to someone, I am
invariably fobbed off.

I eventually spoke to a person at the call centre on Monday 21st August. She
(presumably in India from her accent) first told me that there was no
record of my order, then she blamed the computer system, then she promised
that someone would phone me back “soonest” and they would help me out.

But, I am sure you have guessed the result. It is now 23rd August and no-one
has called me back and I still have no broadband from Talktalk.

Fortunately, I do still have the broadband connection from BT, otherwise I
would not be able to work from home as I invariably do. By the way, this
means I am paying you for Talk3, which is supposed to include broadband and
I am also still paying BT £24.99 per month for their service.

So I am paying twice for the same thing.

So please help. Either get me connected or I will have no option but to
cancel my order and seek compensation from Talktalk for the duplicate
charges.

I have phone numbers and e-mail addresses if anyone wants to give them a hand. Trev and Pat, any update?

Technorati Tags: Carphone Warehouse, Talk Talk, ADSL, DSL, bad customer service, customer service

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Update: September 25, 2006. Kind of good news everyone!

Well, I did get a response from Talk Talk on 25th August.

The guy, whose name I will withold was very helpful and he admitted it was an internal administartive error that had prevented me from going live.

He asked me to send another MAC code, directly to him and promised he would deal with it.

However, when I told him I worked from home and needed a reliable broadband service, he recommended that I hold fire for 6 months, while my local telephone exchange was upgraded.

So helpful, but not the resolution I had hoped for.

Understood guys. But at least you got them to go that leeeeeetle bit further. That’s something, eh?

Ball of confusion! Brief update before the barrage.

Lots of comments to get through. Many apologies for not posting yesterday. To give you an insight into my current life; I work full time, write for a gaming website and another geeky gaming hard copy, am beta testing an online RPG and do this. Alas, my holiday has put me behind on pretty much everything. But what good are bank holidays if you can’t use them to catch up?

Now I’m sat here going through the Talk Talk Hell gmail address, drinking some coffee and listening to a Love and Rockets CD I picked up in Dublin. Have you guys gone record shopping in Dublin? Every time I go I wonder why I don’t do it more often.

Above is a photo of Loch Ness I took a few weeks ago. No monsters but lots of gift shops….

Now to what you guys are really after:

- If you have sent an e-mail or a comment and it hasn’t appeared as a post, that could be because I’m incorporating it into the FAQ page. It’s there, just not published yet. It’s going to take a bit of time to get that sorted. At last look we were at about 160 posts and over 600 comments. Which is awesome.

- If your comment has been deleted or hasn’t appeared yet, that’s due to one of a few reasons.

1. WordPress is being flakey. I’ve noticed a lot of error 504 gateway time outs recently. Generally when the good ol’ US of A wakes up.

2. It contained personal information such as public e-mail addresses, phone numbers or account information.

3. The spam filter trapped it (thanks for pointing that out in the comments ) and I haven’t released it.

And though I’m still playing catch up, I still want you guys to e-mail in whatever is on your mind. How is or was your weekend? Whatcha got planned?

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