Subscribe Feed (RSS)Finally! We had been complaining for a long time, but finally we got some action. If you read my previous post on Bell Support Chat, then you would know what I’m talking about, but just in case you didn’t, here’s the story. A long time ago, we got high-speed internet from bell. It was really the best thing anyone could get at the time, and we managed to get 1 megabit plan. We had this for about 5 years, with little to no complaints or calls to their `310-SURF (310-7873)` tech support hotline until I decided we should try upgrading our plan, since we were still paying around the same price we had been paying since we first got the service, and for that price, now we could get the 5 megabit plan.
So we decided to upgrade, and that was when the troubles began.
Since it was on some kind of special, we ordered a bell sympatico `home networking modem`, which is essentially a 2wire 2701. When I fired it up, lo and behold, the networking didn`t work. So then we had to pull out our old Linksys WRT54G and hook it up through one of the Ethernet cables on the back of the modem and then use that device to take care of our networking, even though we had gotten the home networking modem specifically for that purpose, in that way freeing up the WRT54G for use elsewhere.even though I kept on calling and calling bell sympatico, but they kept on saying to like… configure my printer provider, when the real problem was with the network. So, the network wouldn´t work, so I couldn´t print. So, I had to end up turning off the wireless radio on the 2wire, and then connecting an ethernet cable from one of the ports on the modem-router to my Linksys, and so by doing that, I would be only be using the modem feature of that device. I wasn´t really happy, because Bell promised that we could network with modem, whereas I found that to be untrue. So now, I would use my linksys for all my networking. Everything was working fine now, unless you brought up the subject of speed. The internet was painfully slow, not only for browsing, but also for downloads. We were getting around 10% of our promised speed.
So, once again, I called up Bell Sympatico, and the person had me do a whole bunch of troubleshooting crap, just trying to save Bell a few dollars.
He had me do this (and at the same time wasted my time):
- Unplug all the phones in the house except for the router/networking modem
- Turn the router on and off (huh???)
- Turn my computer on and off (HUH????!!?)
- Had me do various things with my phone – none of them made sense
Eventually I just got fed up and told the guy to send me a bell guy to our house. The person was supposed to come that Thursday, but they didn’t give us the convenience of letting us know when exactly he would come in the morning, so we took the day off to wait for him. They did say he’d come in the morning, though, but this didn’t prove to be true.
We had to wait till the afternoon, and therefore we wasted a morning when we could’ve been elsewhere.
Then, the person came, and this was when our problems started getting fixed. He apologized for being late, and then he came downstairs to where the modem/router was. Then he tested our speed, and told us that yes, our speed wasn’t fast enough, -this was what surprised me- he made a quick phone call to somewhere and said his name and then he paused… and then he said some ID. Then he said, “OK, so I’m here at _-(our address)-_ and they have a speed issue. Could you increase the bandwidth supplied to their house? *Pauses* Yes. Put it to around 70%. Thanks. Bye!”
And then he said, “So you’re all set up! You should notice the change immediately.” I asked, “What exactly did you change?” He said that he just called them up and had them change the bandwidth of our line to 70% of the company’s ‘promised speed’. “Why can’t we get the full 100% of our promised speed?” I asked. He explained that if he were to increase our bandwidth to 100%, then our line would be unstable. I didn’t quite understand his reasoning, but the person seemed to know what he was doing, so I trusted him.
When he was gone, I went onto my computer and did a speed test to see if our speed had increased, and voila, we were at 70% of the advertised speed. But we might still switch to a Rogers bundle :p.
The Moral Of This Story: When you have trouble with Bell, get them to send a technician to your house!
Dude your an idiot! Its not bandwidth 70% but signal strength to your modem, think of it like a water pipe, the longer the distance the lower the pressue. Making the pipe smaller increases the flow down the pipe to a more distant location. Sounds like the tech readjusted synced singal to accomplish a better rate for you. In most case 80% of speed isses are in POTS wiring of the home, missing filters, alarm system in line, bad wiring such as using speaker wire for telephone cable etc… Good luck, remember you can always switch to another provider!