Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => Known Network Issues + MSO's => Topic started by: sheddyian on February 03, 2013, 02:45:28 PM
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I mentioned this as a reply in another thread, but thought I'd post here as well.
There seems to be a problem on TalkTalk, perhaps limited to those in the South East of England.
I've been seeing it since Saturday morning.
Symptoms :
Web pages either don't load at all and time out, or only partially load. Often, pressing F5 to refresh will cause the page to load quickly and without problem, straight after it just failed.
Some sites seem largely unaffected (I've had no problem with Twitter) whereas others seem to be much worse (BBC site seems very difficult to access at all).
The line stays in synch and there are no obvious dropouts or line problems reported at the user's modem.
So far, TalkTalk haven't responded!
There are currently 7 pages of people reporting the problem on the TalkTalk messageboard, here http://talktalkmembers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=95382 (http://talktalkmembers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=95382)
Ian
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I thought it had been fixed this morning, but I was wrong, and it's still bad at times. I'm in Kent.
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Mine too in Thanet, been bad for a couple of days now. I tried opening a forum thread on TT but despite asking others not to post in my thread it still got other posts. Problem is that the Forum support staff work strictly from oldest to newest post in that order so any additional posts make your thread newer and therefore futher away from getting one of the Support staff to do anything. Ian's post refers to a thread 7 pages long now and being ignored because it is too new - stupid or what. There have been a couple of TT staff on the forum today but not done anything to any of the threads which report this problem.
I'm almost deciding to phone their support line, only thing putting me off is that I will get the run around from some daft idiot with a script to follow and not an English accent!
I believe TT use hidden proxy for all of their connections which you cannot bypass unless you are using a VPN and I suspect it is this which is losing the connection for web searching.
Stuart
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I believe TT use hidden proxy for all of their connections which you cannot bypass unless you are using a VPN and I suspect it is this which is losing the connection for web searching.
Not just limited to web searching, as I've had intermittent problems with the Windows Live Mail program timing out on pop3, and the iPlayer built into my Sony TV either fails to load beyond the "please wait..." screen, or hangs when trying to look for a programme.
Ian
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Not just limited to web searching, as I've had intermittent problems with the Windows Live Mail program timing out on pop3, and the iPlayer built into my Sony TV either fails to load beyond the "please wait..." screen, or hangs when trying to look for a programme.
Well I dont use TT for mail and that's been fine for me which is why I suspected it might be browsing only.
Stuart
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Just to increase the fun, the members' forum is currently unusable. Clicking on a message thread to read it results in:
"Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 786432) (tried to allocate 1572864 bytes) in C:\_www\forums\showthread.php on line 1885"
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I've just tried setting up a free VPN with VPNBOOK.COM (whose servers are in Romania! :o )
This utterly fixed the problem - the PC connected via the VPN was loading web pages quickly and without problem, meanwhile a 2nd PC that was connected in the usual manner was only partly displaying the Google logo before eventually timing out.
I have no idea as to the security of the VPN, so I've switched it back off again (Kitz forum wouldn't let me in using it, it said I was trying to spam!)
However, the good news is it might now be fixed - since rebooting and disabling the VPN, I can access web pages without problem so far....
[EDIT : Spoke too soon. The BBC site is working well now (was abysmal earlier) but other sites selected at random are slow or failing to load or working as normal.
Loading same site via VPN PC works fine though, so it's nowt to do with the modem or phone line!]
Ian
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My only observations over these last few days has been of my PPPoA session terminating and failing to re-initialise. The sync between my modem/router and the exchange based TalkTalk MSAN has not been affected.
As can been seen, The Cattery is located in Suffolk. I only take TT's LLU'd ADSL2+ service, not the Openreach based NGA GEA VDSL2 (i.e. FTTC) service.
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My only observations over these last few days has been of my PPPoA session terminating and failing to re-initialise. The sync between my modem/router and the exchange based TalkTalk MSAN has not been affected.
As can been seen, The Cattery is located in Suffolk. I only take TT's LLU'd ADSL2+ service, not the Openreach based NGA GEA VDSL2 (i.e. FTTC) service.
My connection has stayed up solidly throughout, excepting where I intervened for reboot and swapping of kit when I believed the fault to be my end or my doing.
But it does seem to be geographic, most posts reporting the issue on the TalkTalk forum are from Kent/South East, though a few from East England.
Still, someone has just confirmed TalkTalk know about the fault and are looking at it. But why couldn't they put it up o the service status page? :-X
Ian
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Still, someone has just confirmed TalkTalk know about the fault and are looking at it. But why couldn't they put it up o the service status page? :-X
I've just read the former and agree, absolutely, with the latter. ;D
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TalkTalk have just acknowledged in the support forum , on thread page 13, that there is a problem!
.. and as I typed this, have announced that the problem is fixed!
Ian
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Well fixed it may be but I'd like to know why such shoddy support happens over a weekend. One thread reached 14 pages before any responce was seen from TT and that was today 2 days after opening the thread.
Stuart
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Well fixed it may be but I'd like to know why such shoddy support happens over a weekend. One thread reached 14 pages before any responce was seen from TT and that was today 2 days after opening the thread.
Stuart
Agree 100%. Faults are understandable, but acknowledgement and feedback are essential.
A simple, "we are aware of customers in locations x experiencing problems, and are investigating. We believe it to be a routing issue" would have been better than nothing.
And whilst I understand that it's important for telephone support to rule out usual problems by getting users to reset modems etc, it's important to let them know what's going on so that they can advise people accordingly.
Very poor support.
Ian
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Not that I expect a response or anything to come of it but I have tonight emailed the CEO of TalkTalk to complain about the abysmal handling of this issue. Should I get a meaningful response I will let you know.
Stuart
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I won't be holding my breath, but good luck.
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Well I had a reply timed at 07:18 this morning from Ms Dido Harding, OK it's a holding reply but she has asked one of her team to investigate and promised to let me know the outcome.
Stuart
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As I suspected my email conversations with Ms Victoria Povey, who works in the CEO's office and was asked by Ms Harding to take a look at my complaint, has not come to much. I explained how I felt that the problem had been mishandled mainly because of their procedures about weekend support and requested some feedback about how they might change things, but effectively I have had the brush off. They say my feedback is useful and will be considered if/when they review their procedures. I suspect nothing will happen unless they start haemorrhaging customers because of bad service, and to be honest this is probably only the second really badly handled incident I have experienced in 4+ years with TT, not bad considering some other ISPs.
As far as the forum is concerned just remember folks that if you open a thread dont post updates to it until a member of the support staff has added their comment, if you need to make changes or add info edit your post. The problem is that the forum staff work from the oldest updated thread to the newest which means everytime you post to your thread (or anyone else does) it goes down the priority list for being answered. Sadly there seems to be no way to lock your thread so only you and the support staff can post to it.
Stuart
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I think I've read somewhere that they are planning to change the way they prioritise messages, but I'm not sure where I read it (or maybe I dreamed it :) ).
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I think I've read somewhere that they are planning to change the way they prioritise messages, but I'm not sure where I read it (or maybe I dreamed it :) ).
Well if that is the case then that is good....
Stuart
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When I was following the problem on the TalkTalk forum, I noticed (Monday morning?) it briefly started showing newest post FIRST, before reverting to usual behaviour or oldest post first.
Unless that's a user preference on the forum? But I didn't change anything.
Ian
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When I was following the problem on the TalkTalk forum, I noticed (Monday morning?) it briefly started showing newest post FIRST, before reverting to usual behaviour or oldest post first.
Unless that's a user preference on the forum? But I didn't change anything.
Ian
I discovered that you can change that, scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see a drop down box to change what you view. At least this means the support staff can change it as well.
Stuart
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Sadly there seems to be no way to lock your thread so only you and the support staff can post to it.
:no: Sorry Stuart, that is not correct. There is an option available to a thread's OP to lock it, thus stopping the 'chattering masses' from adding to it. It is neither clear nor logical how to do so . . . but I know it does exist, for I have used it in the past. :)
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Sadly there seems to be no way to lock your thread so only you and the support staff can post to it.
:no: Sorry Stuart, that is not correct. There is an option available to a thread's OP to lock it, thus stopping the 'chattering masses' from adding to it. It is neither clear nor logical how to do so . . . but I know it does exist, for I have used it in the past. :)
Well I'll have to dig harder as I could not find out how when I needed it last weekend!
Stuart
Edit: Found it, you go to your thread and click Topic Tools, the select Close and then click Perform Action. This makes the topic read only, I guess the support staff can still update it but I've not tried....
Stuart
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Edit: Found it, you go to your thread and click Topic Tools, the select Close and then click Perform Action. This makes the topic read only, I guess the support staff can still update it but I've not tried....
Yes, that's it.
And yes!
:thumbs: