Joe
0
I run the BT 500/4 option for satellite and have had it for some 2 years. I was wondering what other people were seeing in terms of availability/reliability (that is if there is anyone still using this service out there?). Recently my systems reliability has gone way down... I wrote a script to monitor it and here's the output for Thursday and Friday last week:
Fri Mar 12 20:58:27 UP
Fri Mar 12 20:47:56 DOWN
Fri Mar 12 19:45:36 UP
Fri Mar 12 19:35:05 DOWN
Fri Mar 12 18:06:51 UP
Fri Mar 12 18:01:40 DOWN
Fri Mar 12 03:04:36 UP
Fri Mar 12 02:59:25 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 18:15:58 UP
Thu Mar 11 18:10:47 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 07:48:24 UP
Thu Mar 11 07:43:13 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 07:11:57 UP
Thu Mar 11 07:06:46 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 04:46:43 UP
Thu Mar 11 04:41:32 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 02:26:37 UP
Thu Mar 11 02:21:26 DOWN
Due to this kind of performance (and it really is a performance!) I rang BT support to see what was going on. They told me this was not normal and that perhaps I should have an engineer come out and measure the signal strength and check the dish alignment and equipment. I said great.
Then came the gotcha. Due to having been a customer of theirs for more then 12 months the equipment was "out of warranty". This means (apparently) that I have to pay them £150 to look at it (regardless of if anything is wrong with it or not).
This came as somewhat of a surprise since I thought I was buying an internet access package complete with support (including hardware support). Certainly it cost enough.
As I am qualified for basic radio engineering I asked them to provide me with service manuals and frequency specifications for the service and said I would fix it myself if they were telling me it was my problem. They said that service manuals were not available to anyone but their engineers and that if I needed the hub to do anything I would be stuck because the hub will only talk to their engineers.
So basically I can pay the £150 or I can do nothing.
Fortunately other service providers are moving into this area so my inclination at present is to wait and see and use dial up to supplement the service until then - though as I'm sure you all know someone saying they are moving into an area is quite different from it actually happening.
So I could pursue this via Gilat and try and get the service manuals and technical specs from them - I don't know if they would tell me the relevant info. OR I could pay BT the £150 which I am very loathe to do since I pay them enough every month for this service anyway.
So I thought I would post here and see if other people were experiencing the kind of up/down behaviour I'm seeing to try and figure out whether it's worth paying BT if I get desperate!
Can anyone comment? Or is there nobody left with this service here?
Comments from people with 500/4 would be of most interest as I guess there may be differences between the two services. Thanks.
Fri Mar 12 20:58:27 UP
Fri Mar 12 20:47:56 DOWN
Fri Mar 12 19:45:36 UP
Fri Mar 12 19:35:05 DOWN
Fri Mar 12 18:06:51 UP
Fri Mar 12 18:01:40 DOWN
Fri Mar 12 03:04:36 UP
Fri Mar 12 02:59:25 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 18:15:58 UP
Thu Mar 11 18:10:47 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 07:48:24 UP
Thu Mar 11 07:43:13 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 07:11:57 UP
Thu Mar 11 07:06:46 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 04:46:43 UP
Thu Mar 11 04:41:32 DOWN
Thu Mar 11 02:26:37 UP
Thu Mar 11 02:21:26 DOWN
Due to this kind of performance (and it really is a performance!) I rang BT support to see what was going on. They told me this was not normal and that perhaps I should have an engineer come out and measure the signal strength and check the dish alignment and equipment. I said great.
Then came the gotcha. Due to having been a customer of theirs for more then 12 months the equipment was "out of warranty". This means (apparently) that I have to pay them £150 to look at it (regardless of if anything is wrong with it or not).
This came as somewhat of a surprise since I thought I was buying an internet access package complete with support (including hardware support). Certainly it cost enough.
As I am qualified for basic radio engineering I asked them to provide me with service manuals and frequency specifications for the service and said I would fix it myself if they were telling me it was my problem. They said that service manuals were not available to anyone but their engineers and that if I needed the hub to do anything I would be stuck because the hub will only talk to their engineers.
So basically I can pay the £150 or I can do nothing.
Fortunately other service providers are moving into this area so my inclination at present is to wait and see and use dial up to supplement the service until then - though as I'm sure you all know someone saying they are moving into an area is quite different from it actually happening.
So I could pursue this via Gilat and try and get the service manuals and technical specs from them - I don't know if they would tell me the relevant info. OR I could pay BT the £150 which I am very loathe to do since I pay them enough every month for this service anyway.
So I thought I would post here and see if other people were experiencing the kind of up/down behaviour I'm seeing to try and figure out whether it's worth paying BT if I get desperate!
Can anyone comment? Or is there nobody left with this service here?
Comments from people with 500/4 would be of most interest as I guess there may be differences between the two services. Thanks.























