Changed ISP, now BT need to fix line?

[jim]

My dad has just switched ISP from Orange to Plusnet, who at £4 per month were pretty hard to ignore.

Thing is, ever since they switched the connection, courtesy of the MAC code, he hasn't been connected to the internet. They've asked us to check the router, check this, check that, all sorts of things. Interestingly they never asked us to check that we'd spelt the username and password correctly on the router, which was what I originally presumed was the problem - being the only thing that has changed.

They've now escalated it to BT, who will almost certainly be sending an engineer round at some point, and I can't help feeling that they've got it completely wrong.

He's had the internet with Orange for 2-3 years, got a Netgear router about 6 months ago and it's all been fine. Only when he switched ISPs has it suddenly gone pearshaped... so is there anything that I could try at his house, or something I could say to Plusnet? I can't really think of anything, but none of their checks have turned up anything yet. It just doesn't seem realistic that he could change ISPs, and then all of a sudden it's his copper wiring that's at fault.

[gss03]

Is the router getting a DSL sync at all ?

Are you able to see on the router if it is a UN/PW failure?

[jim]

Is the router getting a DSL sync at all ?

Are you able to see on the router if it is a UN/PW failure?

No sync, and I haven't been able to ascertain whether the latter is the problem or not. The test function on the router fails in IE (error on page) and I haven't been back since with Firefox to give that a go.

[gss03]

If there isn't any sync then the engineer will probably come out to test the line.

It sounds like a balls up by BT. PlusNET should be able to from their end do line test (PT test from memory) to see whats going on.

If you are re-using an old router that was known good then you can say that you know the end use kit is good (as the first thing BT will blame is end user kit)

You could also plug a phone in and dial 17070 and I think do option 2 which is a quiet test of the line and see if you can hear any noise on the line.

[peterb]

If you aren't getting sync, I'd suspect ADSL has been disconnected (by leaving BT Broadband) and hasn't been re-connected (by joining plusnet - so it could be BT Openreach's fault (in not changing over) or Plusnets (in niot requesting the connection) The BT engineer might just be going to visit the exchange to fault find there, which may be followed up to check the CPE (Customer Premises Equipment)

[Jay]

I have had this as well with Orange... the bastards cancel the broadband on the line but don't update the database. This means that BT sees it as bb enabled but it’s not. At times I have had to cancel the line and re raise it with the same number just to get it enabled.

Watch out for Orange as it seems to be what they do.