Anyone Know A Good UK IS Provider? Annoyed AOL User Requests One.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 14:26
I am sad to say that I am one of the UK residents that is unforunate enough to have AOL as her ISP DSL so called unlimited broadband and of course now due to some un-known reason I and many other's with this provider can no longer log into SL during our evenings. (I could last evening after midnight but have not tried during the day as I have been at work)
Does anyone in the UK know of a reliable ISP I could at least look into? I have done some research but so far all I seem to come up with are places like BT where all they provide now broadband wise is wireless and DSL is no longer available. My area doesn't have cable either so I am starting to fear I'm going to locked out of SL for sometime-as they say in the requirements that wireless isn't really compatiable with connecting to SL.
I haven't called AOL because quite frankly I would find it more useful to bang my head against a brick wall. Can you tell I have called them in the past? They mostly have no clue at all.
Any help would be great. Thank you in advance.
~Petra
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Drongle McMahon
Older than he looks
Join date: 22 Jun 2007
Posts: 494
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10-01-2008 15:03
From: Petra Carpenter ...places like BT where all they provide now broadband wise is wireless and DSL is no longer available.... I think you are under a misaprehension here. The BT products all come with a wireless "hub". This contains an ADSL modem and a router. If you look at the specifications, you will see that it has one dsl socket and 4 ethernet sockets as well as the wirelss access (and a telephone). I don't think you are obliged to use the BT router if you want to use another one. I have a rather poor rural line and have to use a router on which I can forcibly increase the default signal-to-noise margin setting to avoid badly intermittent connection.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 15:12
From: Drongle McMahon I think you are under a misaprehension here. The BT products all come with a wireless "hub". This contains an ADSL modem and a router. If you look at the specifications, you will see that it has one dsl socket and 4 ethernet sockets as well as the wirelss access (and a telephone). I don't think you are obliged to use the BT router if you want to use another one. I have a rather poor rural line and have to use a router on which I can forcibly increase the default signal-to-noise margin setting to avoid badly intermittent connection. I didn't know that. I have spoken to someone in their customer services team via a IM chat and she didn't inform me that was the case about the *hub*-just that only wireless is availble. Thank you Drongle I'll look into it again tomorow and this time give them a call. I need to get this sorted out-before my tennants think I have left without a trace. Hopefully I'll be able to connect then at any given time with BT.
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Keres Bikcin
Registered User
Join date: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 8
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10-01-2008 15:22
Well I'm not on AOL, I'm with Virgin broadband. And according to them they have no connection with AOL. Yet I can't log on either. The guy on the phone insists it is a PC issue, which it isn't as I was logged on earlier today just fine! And I have not changed anything. The guy on the PC helpline insists it is not a PC issue but must be either the Second Life grid or a line issue. The first guy again insists there is nothing wrong with my internet. He refreshes my lines, and still Second Life doesn't work. He goes back to either blaming Second Life itself or of course, it is to do with the settings on my PC again. *rolls eyes*
So when trying to log in, I just get stuck at "Logging in..." Nothing happens. Is that the same as the rest of the UK people are getting? Or is mine some different issue?
I was logged on earlier this afternoon (about 6am SL time) and it was okay then. Took a break, come back and this. Any help would be much appreciated. :/
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 15:30
From: Keres Bikcin Well I'm not on AOL, I'm with Virgin broadband. And according to them they have no connection with AOL. Yet I can't log on either. The guy on the phone insists it is a PC issue, which it isn't as I was logged on earlier today just fine! And I have not changed anything. The guy on the PC helpline insists it is not a PC issue but must be either the Second Life grid or a line issue. The first guy again insists there is nothing wrong with my internet. He refreshes my lines, and still Second Life doesn't work. He goes back to either blaming Second Life itself or of course, it is to do with the settings on my PC again. *rolls eyes*
So when trying to log in, I just get stuck at "Logging in..." Nothing happens. Is that the same as the rest of the UK people are getting? Or is mine some different issue?
I was logged on earlier this afternoon (about 6am SL time) and it was okay then. Took a break, come back and this. Any help would be much appreciated. :/ That is just the same as I get Keres. No matter how many times I re-load it all I get is a black log in screen or it loads after ages-then gets stuck on *logging in*. One of my SL family members is on cable and he has no issues with logging in at all from the UK-just seems to be those of us on the DSL broadband services over here that are having the problems. Doesn't it seem very odd that we can't connect during our evenings? Just like the old days when some ISP places were over loaded during peak times? Only this is broadband not dial up so just what is going on? If I end up not being able to log in during our evenings I won't be paying my island tier for very much longer that's for certain.
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Keres Bikcin
Registered User
Join date: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 8
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10-01-2008 15:37
Tonight is the first time I haven't been able to log in. The past few days it has hung for a little while at "logging in.." but usually does log in after a minute or two. But tonight, nothing at all. But my isp insists it is not a problem on their end. So, who knows. I'm not a happy bunny right now though, I know that much.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 15:44
From: Keres Bikcin Tonight is the first time I haven't been able to log in. The past few days it has hung for a little while at "logging in.." but usually does log in after a minute or two. But tonight, nothing at all. But my isp insists it is not a problem on their end. So, who knows. I'm not a happy bunny right now though, I know that much. I wasn't able to log in on Tuesday evening either until just after midnight when the status page said the issue seemed to be resolved. I logged after five minutes as I needed to sleep because of work the next day. Of course it then returned as a issue for many on Wednesday evening but SL say it's nothing to do with them or the grid so it's up to us to solve. But as none of us know just what is the because some of us may have a very long wait.
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Dena Dana
Registered User
Join date: 5 Oct 2005
Posts: 7
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AOL user also that can connect
10-01-2008 15:46
Well after spending 20 mins trying to load the page of the forum I will attempt a reply!
I am on AOL in the UK also with router DSL/Wireless noticed connection probs Sunday morning and its been fluctuating ever since. Now today same as you guys..just sits on the log on screen. Rang AOL and was put on a different BB server and was told all would be ok....5 hours later still the same.
So I have no idea if its just AOL or other ISP's that are not connecting with cable. ANyone else?
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Keres Bikcin
Registered User
Join date: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 8
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10-01-2008 15:53
The "it is AOL's fault" doesn't seem right to me. I'm NOT on AOL or any affiliate of AOL. Yet here I sit having the same problem... I definitely don't think the issue should be closed as the grid status page reports. Something is going on here. :/
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 15:56
From: Dena Dana Well after spending 20 mins trying to load the page of the forum I will attempt a reply!
I am on AOL in the UK also with router DSL/Wireless noticed connection probs Sunday morning and its been fluctuating ever since. Now today same as you guys..just sits on the log on screen. Rang AOL and was put on a different BB server and was told all would be ok....5 hours later still the same.
So I have no idea if its just AOL or other ISP's that are not connecting with cable. ANyone else? Keres is on Virgin and it is happening to her as you prob saw. Something tells me it is not just a AOL based problem but could be more to do with those of us who do not connect by cable. As for this website-I too have had loading issues for two days. My friend's page wouldn't load for nearly six hours both days.
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Kimora Otsuka
Registered User
Join date: 11 Jan 2008
Posts: 3
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10-01-2008 15:57
Sadly this isnt the first time they have ****** up =|
i've had the pleasure of going through this twice in the same year.
i am with talktalk and the problem is ALWAYS with them best you can do is call your internet service provider tomorrow and complain and demand they allow secondlife again i'm sure many people have already and complained if you dont then the issue will continue ....i am glad to say the problem didnt continue but now it has happened again which is irritating so either wait it out =[ or complain...best advise there is ...nothing wrong with your computers at all.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 15:59
From: Keres Bikcin The "it is AOL's fault" doesn't seem right to me. I'm NOT on AOL or any affiliate of AOL. Yet here I sit having the same problem... I definitely don't think the issue should be closed as the grid status page reports. Something is going on here. :/ I agree on all of the above which you said. And the fact SL have closed it and just told us to get on with it is I think quite disgraceful. Customer service these days in all lives seems to be very poor.
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Kimora Otsuka
Registered User
Join date: 11 Jan 2008
Posts: 3
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10-01-2008 16:05
edit-
or you could send your ISP and e-mail like i did because its to late to call.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 16:08
From: Kimora Otsuka Sadly this isnt the first time they have ****** up =|
i've had the pleasure of going through this twice in the same year.
i am with talktalk and the problem is ALWAYS with them best you can do is call your internet service provider tomorrow and complain and demand they allow secondlife again i'm sure many people have already and complained if you dont then the issue will continue ....i am glad to say the problem didnt continue but now it has happened again which is irritating so either wait it out =[ or complain...best advise there is ...nothing wrong with your computers at all. Call AOL? That will cost me a small fortune and that is all it will result in because the person on the other end won't have a clue about what I am trying to explain to them. They never do-least not the one's I have had the misfortune to be connected to in the past. As for demanding they allow SL again...we seem to be able to connect in the day so I can't quite figure out how that will help. Are you saying the ISP put's a block on it there end? Either way this is starting to smell very fishy to me-plus a LOT of people have been affected and from different service providers.
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Kimora Otsuka
Registered User
Join date: 11 Jan 2008
Posts: 3
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10-01-2008 16:23
hmm i just logged into secondlife...which is weird try again people and let me know if you get in also.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-01-2008 16:32
From: Kimora Otsuka hmm i just logged into secondlife...which is weird try again people and let me know if you get in also. No I still can't get in which is worse than Tuesday evening because then after midnight I could log in. I'm going to give up and go to bed-trying to log in is like flogging a dead horse and I'm tired of it. This now makes me wonder if I'm going to be locked out at all times-permantly.
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Dena Dana
Registered User
Join date: 5 Oct 2005
Posts: 7
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10-01-2008 16:39
I get connection to region and there it hangs - am having a nightmare also loading forum pages still i am guessing its the same problem as with connecting to the grid. WOuld be good though to ascertain what other UK'ers are having issues and what ISP/connections they have - because something has gone wrong somewhere!
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Keres Bikcin
Registered User
Join date: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 8
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10-01-2008 16:40
It let me in a couple of minutes ago. I'm a lovely fluffy cloud, but think I'm gonna log out and try again? Hell and No. LOL
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Metawraith Mistral
Ghost in the Machine
Join date: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 166
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10-01-2008 16:47
Location : UK ISP : NTL/Virgin Media DNS : Open DNS - almost never use NTL's DNS SL Status : surprisingly good today, forum pages load fast, TP okay, objects and textures rezzing fine. Yesterday scuplties weren't rezzing properly though. I do not think its a fault with AOL, or any one ISP, having seen comments on other forums some not SL related, there seems to be problem with one of the major telecoms carriers, it could simply be the affected ISP's buy transatlantic capacity from the affected carrier. If i'm right in thinking this, there is nothing you or ISP can do, it needs to be fixed higher up the food chain. Don't fiddle with DNS, Modem or Router settings, turn your kit off, get some sleep and try again tomorrow.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-02-2008 01:43
From: Keres Bikcin It let me in a couple of minutes ago. I'm a lovely fluffy cloud, but think I'm gonna log out and try again? Hell and No. LOL 9.21AM UK time I was able to log into SL without any problem what so ever. But something tell's me if at any time I want to log in during my evening or crash at any point during the evening if I am already logged in that will be me out for the night. Something is very odd when it's keeping people out during peak UK times. Ah well let's see how the day fares.
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Rhiannon Boronski
PRIMAL ART OWNER
Join date: 3 Feb 2007
Posts: 220
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10-02-2008 02:20
exact same problems here with TalkTalk.....I did see a post somewhere on the forums 2 days ago mentioning a problem with the SL UK servers and wonder if this is linked to that problem. I logged in fine from home at 7am (11pm slt). If this problem continues though will have to seriously consider closing the business, with a full time rl job, evenings are the only time I have to work on sl 
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Debbie Trilling
Our Lady of Peenemünde
Join date: 17 Oct 2006
Posts: 434
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10-02-2008 03:14
...just because it hasn't yet been mentioned here, and may be relevant... AOL UK operate a throttling system where they will downgrade your bandwidth between the hours of (last I heard) 6pm GMT and midnight GMT, if the amount you downloaded in the previous month exceeded an amount stated in the very very very small print of your contract, tucked away in some obscure web page. The AOL UK small print also states that they do not need to notify you (in writing) that this is what they are doing. Even with operating such a system, the UK Regulator allows an ISP to call it "unlimited broadband". That is, the Regulator reasons, the broadband is avaliable to you 24/7 albeit for 6hours a day at a substantially reduced rate to that which you are being charged for. Im my case, I was being charged for a 8Mb connection, but only receiving 512Kb for six hours a day. This policy is supported by the UK Regulator. Google "Fair Usage Policy" or see this link for further info: http://www.broadbandwatchdog.co.uk/fair-usage-policy.phpFor most standard web pages this reduced bandwidth will be fine; for SL however, it makes for an awful experience during those six hours. The reason I know this is because AOL UK did this to me at the end of last year & I made such a big fuss that they eventually released me from the contract and refunded all the three previous month's payments. I took two months for them to admit that they were throttling my connection, and used all sorts of ways to avoid directly answering the question. It took another month for them to release me from the contract (after I wrote to a C5 TV consumer programme and threatened to start a "I Hate AOL" campaign) When talking to the AOL Technical people, you need to specifically ask "Is the Fair Usage Policy being applied to my line? Is *my* line being throttled?". They may try to waffle and avoid the question. If so, ask to speak to the 'Cancellations' department and you will normally get a more sensible response. I now use "BT Option 3", the only home use package that BT offer that has unlimited usage (ie: not subject to "fair usage policy"  . I have had no problems with this system, and the HUB comes with two ethernet connections, 1 USB internet connection and wireless connectivity. I know this may not be the whole answer to what you have been experiencing, but I think it is probably useful info for AOL UK users anyway EDIT: Additional info. "AOL UK" is owned by "TALK TALK". AOL UK only started to aggressively apply the "Fair Usage Policy" *after* being taken over by Talk Talk (for all new customers or on renewal of existing customers' contracts. Existing customers were not notifed of the change in contract conditions on renewal, and this is one of the factors I used to get released from the contract) Plenty about this on the net if you want to Google for it
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http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:debbie_Trilling
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-02-2008 03:20
From: Rhiannon Boronski exact same problems here with TalkTalk.....I did see a post somewhere on the forums 2 days ago mentioning a problem with the SL UK servers and wonder if this is linked to that problem. I logged in fine from home at 7am (11pm slt). If this problem continues though will have to seriously consider closing the business, with a full time rl job, evenings are the only time I have to work on sl  I'm really sorry you may have to close down your buisness. I hope all of us are able to get it sorted out one way or another very soon so we don't end up losing out on a world we all enjoy being part of.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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10-02-2008 03:30
From: Debbie Trilling ...just because it hasn't yet been mentioned here, and may be relevant... AOL UK operate a throttling system where they will downgrade your bandwidth between the hours of (last I heard) 6pm GMT and midnight GMT, if the amount you downloaded in the previous month exceeded an amount stated in the very very very small print of your contract, tucked away in some obscure web page. The AOL UK small print also states that they do not need to notify you (in writing) that this is what they are doing. Even with operating such a system, the UK Regulator allows an ISP to call it "unlimited broadband". That is, the Regulator reasons, the broadband is avaliable to you 24/7 albeit for 6hours a day at a substantially reduced rate to that which you are being charged for. Im my case, I was being charged for a 8Mb connection, but only receiving 512Kb for six hours a day. This policy is supported by the UK Regulator. Google "Fair Usage Policy" or see this link for further info: http://www.broadbandwatchdog.co.uk/fair-usage-policy.phpFor most standard web pages this reduced bandwidth will be fine; for SL however, it makes for an awful experience during those six hours. The reason I know this is because AOL UK did this to me at the end of last year & I made such a big fuss that they eventually released me from the contract and refunded all the three previous month's payments. I took two months for them to admit that they were throttling my connection, and used all sorts of ways to avoid directly answering the question. It took another month for them to release me from the contract (after I wrote to a C5 TV consumer programme and threatened to start a "I Hate AOL" campaign) When talking to the AOL Technical people, you need to specifically ask "Is the Fair Usage Policy being applied to my line? Is *my* line being throttled?". They may try to waffle and avoid the question. If so, ask to speak to the 'Cancellations' department and you will normally get a more sensible response. I now use "BT Option 3", the only home use package that BT offer that has unlimited usage (ie: not subject to "fair usage policy"  . I have had no problems with this system, and the HUB comes with two ethernet connections, 1 USB internet connection and wireless connectivity. I know this may not be the whole answer to what you have been experiencing, but I think it is probably useful info for AOL UK users anyway .....I had NO idea they were able to do that. For goodness sake I am pretty much only on line in SL-bit of surfing and few emails. I don't download a heap of stuff such as video and music so how dare they throttle my connection. Reading what you wrote I am starting to think this is what is happening to me and maybe others who's ISP use this pratice. I think this afternoon I'll give BT a call and see what they have to say-I'll mention SL even though they prob wont have a clue what it is. Plus at least with BT I hopefully will be able to find a customer service team who can do more than work from a script if I do have any issues. Hopefully. I think it is a disgrace they are able to call it unlimited when in fact it is reduced access for six hours in the evenings. It's not something I am willing to put up with when paying £25 a month. But I will admit finding a new ISP does give a girl a headache. Long as the service is good and I can connect to SL with DSL with BT I'll be happy.
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Petra Carpenter
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2006
Posts: 54
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Line Throttling...Common Place.
10-02-2008 03:48
Having just done some research on line throttling it seems that some BT customers on the option 3 have suffered the same fate in the past. I'm starting to think there isn't going to be a single UK ISP out there you can sign up to and insure this isn't going to happen despite their promises.
How very depressing. Now I have no idea what to do for the best.
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