Our ISP, Fast.co.uk, is willing to log a complaint/report with the BT Chairman’s office on our behalf on the issues we’ve been having with our broadband connections in the last seven months (we have supplied lots of evidence and hundreds of speed tests etc. in that time). But to give the complaint/report more weight, they would like to hear from other Purbeck residents who are having similar problems. The more residents who come forward and put their names to the complaint/report the more likely it is that BT will take it seriously. As things stand we have reached an impasse: our ISP can’t do anything more because BT Wholesale refuse to acknowledge that there is an underlying problem with broadband performance/speeds in some areas of Purbeck.

So, if you are as fed up as us with the quality of your broadband connection and want to help us try to do something to improve it, please get in touch. The more the merrier, as it were. A little community action and we might get this sorted before Christmas!

As you will have noticed, there has been an ongoing problem in the Purbeck area since December 2009, possibly even earlier. Our ISP (Internet Service Provider) has suggested that we collate data to persuade BT that there is still a serious problem that is causing random fluctuations in speed and loss of data (packet loss*).

Can you help?
If you live in the Isle of Purbeck and have 5 – 10 minutes spare a day to test your Broadband Speed and Ping Time (ideally first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon) then we would really appreciate it if you could visit the following websites and send us your results.

Speed Test
Visit SpeedTest.net and run a couple of tests, ideally using the London Server (any server in the UK will do).

After the test has finished, you should see the results in the middle of the screen with 2 button/links at the bottom. Select the “Copy Direct Link” button and send the link to us via our Contact Page.

Ping Test
Visit PingTest.net and ideally run a test from the Milton Keynes server (again, any server in the UK will do).

From the results, select the “Copy Direct Link” button and send it to us via our Contact Page.

Note: you can send both links at the same time if you like.

The data we can gain from the results will help persuade BT that there is still an underlying problem here in the Isle of Purbeck.

*What the heck is Packet Loss?
Good question. Much as it sounds, if you have anything less than complete success in transmitting and receiving “packets” of data then you are experiencing a problem with your Internet connection. It can mean much slower download and upload speeds, poor quality VoIP audio, pauses with streaming media and what seems like time warping in games — your connection may even come to a total standstill! Packet loss is a metric where anything greater than 0% should cause concern.
Read more here: http://www.pingtest.net/learn.php

Just to let regular visitors to Purbeck Broadband know that lack of updates from us doesn’t mean that all is fine. I experience fluctuating download speed and throughput at various times throughout the day – it is rarely consistently fast. We tend to only add an update to the blog when things are worse than “normal”.

This issue started in December 2009. We’re now into June 2010 and there is no end in sight. It amazes me that BT can get away with providing a substandard broadband service for so long. My ISP has proved useless in getting BT to do something about the problem.

Normal service should resume once the mess is sorted out!

If you’re having similar problems please complain to your ISP.

WEYMOUTH MSAN 302 : LOSS OF SERVICE
Update Number 1
Detected 05/04/2010 13:05
Started 05/04/2010 13:00
Anticipated Clear Time: 05/04/2010 15:00
Area Codes: 01305

If you are experiencing any problems and decide to contact your own ISP, then it may be worth mentioning the problem(s) in Weymouth.

I’ve also been having the usual problems with wildly fluctuating download speeds most of the Easter weekend.

Update 9:25 p.m.: Still no improvement – I cannot access a number of websites because of severe packet loss. My download speed has also nosedived in the last 20 minutes. I suspect this issue is affecting other households but it’s difficult to get any confirmation at this time on a Bank Holiday.

Update 10:38 p.m.: I hope I’m not tempting fate, but things seem to have returned to “normal”. It’s doubtful we’ll get to know what caused this latest issue – it wouldn’t surprise me if it was related to the problems we’ve been having in this area for the last several months. Download speed remains inconsistent.

We are awaiting a response from our ISP and will update this post with any news/info.

Unfortunately, this is not an April Fools, and we would be interested to know if anybody else is having similar problems (please leave comment below).

Note: if you are having problems, please report it to your own ISP so that the problem will ‘hopefully’ be fixed ASAP.

Update – 12.33 pm Service has returned to normal (whatever that means). There is no explanation yet, hopefully our ISP will be able to inform us of the reason.

Update – 13.05 pm BT acknowledged a fault in the Corfe Castle area, but were unclear as what was causing the problem!

Update – 13.31 pm BT have said there is an Internet problem in the Dorset Area affecting 01929 and 01305 dialling codes:

Dialling codes affected: 01929, 01305
Estimated time to resolve: 2hrs
We are aware of a temporary problem in the Dorset area that may be causing some users difficulties accessing the Internet. Our engineers are working to resolve this problem and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Update – 14.37 pm – Looks like the fault has been fixed, but latest update suggests it affected most of south Dorset – area codes affected: 0130, 01300, 01305, 01308, 01929!

Update – 16.30 pm – BT have said this mornings outage was due to a “power issue” in the Salisbury area (see comments below for details).

If you’re having similar problems please complain to your ISP – and please let us know by leaving a comment. We need to draw as much attention as possible to this issue so that BT make an effort to find and fix whatever’s causing it.