RolandHaley

Back on February 5th, I had a call from a supervisor at Xplornet telling me that they were upgrading the equipment at the tower that services my area and it would be about four weeks before all the tests would be complete and fully operational. I know we have four more days to go, and I thought I would do another test. Here are the pitiful results... :::.. testmy.net test results ..::: Download Connection is:: 323 Kbps about 0.32 Mbps (tested with 386 kB) Download Speed is:: 39 kB/s Upload Connection is:: 403 Kbps about 0.4 Mbps (tested with 748 kB) Upload Speed is:: 49 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net (Server 1) Test Time:: 2007/03/01 - 10:29am D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-8CS5WX36Q U-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-WTALHJQVY User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2 [!]

Well one of the people I talked to on the phone assured me that when this "issue" was resolved, it would be sent on to accounting who would determine the rebate which would then be passed on to billing and I would be credited accordingly.

Well I have had some action from Xplornet. On Friday just as I was about to have supper, I had a phone call from the CEO who apoligised for the delay getting back to me saying the letter did not get to him in a timely manner. He said he was sorry that I was having the problems that I noted and that he would look into it right away and have someone get back to me. Today, I received a call from the level 3 supervisor, who had been given my letter from the CEO and told to look into it. He had checked the 'tickets' and was not happy with the way the level 3 people were handling the problem. He told me that they were aware of the problem and are taking steps. Today they got permission to use a third party tower which has a larger pipe to the internet and will start installing the newest equipment. He said for me to be patient as it will take about four weeks to get everything in place and all the testing done before it becomes operational.

I certainly do like rural living and have been doing it since moving out of the city 25 years ago. But such service as high speed phone lines, cable TV etc., are non-existent. In fact, I was so dissatisfied with Ma Bell I had my phone disconnected and now only use my cell phone and VoIP. I do have satellite TV though and sometimes high speed xplornet. Speaking of which, as I was about to sit down to supper last night I got a call on my cell phone from a level 3 tech who said that I had complained to the local distributor about the slow service. We talked at length (30 minutes) about the problems and he admitted that there was 'an issue' with the Woodstock tower that I receive my signal from. He also told me that the radio head I have is not designed to get the 5 Mbps that I was signed up for so I was wasting my money. My question was "why did they allow me to sign up for it then." Of course that is a different department. Anyway, we did some tests and we recycled everything, he also took me off the 5 Mbps package and put me back to the 3 Mbps package removing it from my billing from when I signed up for the higher package a few weeks ago, which I was appreciative of. We did more speed tests and got a download speed of 1722 kb/s and Upload of 503 kb/s which he said was the best I could expect. He then said he wanted to check something else and put me on hold, unfortunately the battery in my cellphone died after a further five minutes on hold so that was the end of the conversation.

I hope you get a better response from the level 3 guys than I have. I was told someone would get back to me within 24 hours. It has now been 168 hours and counting. The joy's of rural living...

Today I took the 20 minute drive to the distributor for Xplornet and spoke with the owner. He was very sympathetic to my cause, but outlined that he had no control over them. I pointed out that he, being a distributor, should have a little more clout than I do being a lowly customer. He also said that Xplornet have been waiting for 3 months for Ma Bell to get the fibre optic lines to the tower, and all they have done so far is install temporary DSL lines, and that they are aware of the slow speed problems. They did get a multitude of new customers just before Christmas, and those fibre optic lines were supposed to have been installed. A representative from Xplornet is to arrive at their shop this afternoon and he is going to bring to their attention that there are some unhappy customers. He is also going to call the level 3 tech support at their 'special phone number'' and find out why no one has got back to me. I am waiting with bated breath. Looking back through my records, I find out that I am still waiting for a tech 3 support person to call me from 2005, although that particular problem did get resolved.

Maybe, just maybe, if more of us send letters to the CEO complaining of the service, or lack thereof, we may get somewhere. For your info, here is his name and address. John Maduri - CEO Barrett Xplore Inc. 300 Lockhart Mill Road, Woodstock NB E7M 5C3

Mailed off a letter to the CEO of the company this afternoon, explaining my frustration and apparent lack of support from the tech people. Lets see if I get a reply. My next move is to complain to the local company that is promoting Xplornet.

No I am not using any of those services. I checked what was running and there are 48 processes in the background but only the SYSTEM IDLE PROCESS using any CPU space. I tried the EDWIDO on-line scan, but seeing that I do not use Internet Explorer, it said I would have to download the version. It is now called AVG Anti-Spyware which I downloaded and ran taking 1 hour and ten minutes finding nothing out of the ordinary. As for screaming sorry, talking to the ISP, I have been conversing with them since January 2nd and still get the runaround. My next move is a strongly worded letter to the president of the company.

and, here is the test a couple of hours later... :::.. Download Stats ..::: Download Connection is:: 968 Kbps about 1 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB) Download Speed is:: 118 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Server 2) Test Time:: 2007/01/22 - 7:34am Bottom Line:: 17X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 8.68 sec Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 25.328 seconds to complete Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 82.03 % of your hosts average (35.239) D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-YKGMAPELF User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1 [!]

Okay! here it is, of course this is early morning so there are probably not too many people accessing this tower, but even so, a far cry from the 5 Mbps I am signed up for. I should point out also the way I noticed the slow speed. I have a Voip phone system that was working fine until just before Christmas when the bottom fell out of it. That is when I started doing the speed checks with and without the Voip phone hooked up and it didn't make any difference. :::.. Download Stats ..::: Download Connection is:: 1193 Kbps about 1.2 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB) Download Speed is:: 146 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Server 1) Test Time:: 2007/01/22 - 5:41am Bottom Line:: 21X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 7.01 sec Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 20.547 seconds to complete Download Diagnosis:: Looks Great : 0.85 % faster than the average for host (35.239) D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-RJ7HQSF39 User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1 [!]

Okay! I cleared the cache, cleared the temp files, cleaned the disk, checked for errors, defragged the drive, checked for spyware, powercycled the modem and then ran the speed test, here are the results... :::.. testmy.net test results ..::: Download Connection is:: 779 Kbps about 0.78 Mbps (tested with 748 kB) Download Speed is:: 95 kB/s Upload Connection is:: 528 Kbps about 0.5 Mbps (tested with 1013 kB) Upload Speed is:: 64 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net (Server 1) Test Time:: 2007/01/21 - 5:40pm D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-6YZ41DJXQ U-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-SAI60EDXW User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1 [!]

You got it. Here is my latest one... :::.. testmy.net test results ..::: Download Connection is:: 572 Kbps about 0.57 Mbps (tested with 748 kB) Download Speed is:: 70 kB/s Upload Connection is:: 620 Kbps about 0.6 Mbps (tested with 1496 kB) Upload Speed is:: 76 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net (Server 1) Test Time:: 2007/01/21 - 10:58am D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-PLZ8TCHGY U-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-G6UDBER8X User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1 [!]

Actually I thought I was in the wrong forum with all the satellite talk, but read a few more messages and found I was okay. I have no problems with my laptop speed as it gets scanned every Sunday for 'SpyWare' and daily for viruses etc. and I have cleared my temporary file before doing the speed tests. The other day my son came over with the grandkids and brought his laptop, we did the same tests and got the same results that I get s..l..o..w speeds. Like I have tried to explain to the tech people at Xplornet, they have problems with their equipment, not me with mine. Problem is, it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Trouble is, Xplornet is the only broadband provider in my rural area, so I am stuck with them. Mind you, it is far better than the early 80's when I had to use the dial phone to dial the number and then place the phone in the two rubber cups on the modem... but when you are paying for 5 Mbps, you expect to get something close.

I just upgraded to the Xtreme package here in southwestern Ontario thinking I could boost my speeds, but no, I am still the same, in fact here is what I got at 11:45am today Download :: 640 Kbps or 0.64 Mbps (78 kB/s) Upload :: 547 Kbps or 0.5 Mbps (67 kB/s). I noticed a slow down a week or so before Christmas and started to do periodic speed tests sending Xplornet the results on Jan 2, 2007. They got back to me on January 9th 2007 requesting I do more tests and contact them again. I talked to them on the 11th. and after jumping through hoops and powercycling the modem (as I had done every day prior), I was told to do more tests and contact them again. I did and on the 12th I was passed along to a level 2 person who did some things and had me do more tests with the same results. The level 2 person said that he would pass it along to a level 3 and someone would contact me. No one did, so I called again on the 13th and was told that they were presently working on the tower and I would be contacted when it was complete. Today, January 20th after not hearing anything and doing tests six times a day for the past week with no improvement, I phoned again and I was told that the level 3 people need me to do more tests to find out what port is being tested. Pity they forgot to phone me and advise me of this. It seems like I am going around in one big circle.