Ntl

[nvening]

Im thinking about getting phone, internet and TV from NTL.

When they install the equipment what do they install? Also does it use my existing coax TV network? Do i need a set top box for each TV and what is happening the the NTL PVR (ie the one like Sky+). Is the equipment included in the price of the installation, and im guessing i cant install it myself?

Thanks, there is not much tech information on the ntl site and that i can find on the internet.

[jimborae]

Beware, the quality of Ntl's internet service is highly dependent on where you live, for me it's great but other areas are truly awful from what I hear. Can't comment on TV or telephone as I don't use them.

Try chetnet.co.uk or ntlhell.co.uk for more feedback. One thing that is universal with Ntl though is the quality of their customer service - it sucks more than a desperate crack ho' & it's based in India so sometimes they cant understand a word you're saying. Also you can forget email support, you'll never get a reply. And finally on the subject of email, their mail servers are the pits, email gets delivered in sporadic bursts and the interface is pants to use.

[johnny02004976]

i didnt have to many problems with the actual NTL product however the customer service is so so poor. Lightening hit our street and totally fried our modem, i was talking to a call centre in asia for an hour, then she hung up on me, i rang back and was forced to endure another hour with them. It took them 2 weeks to get an engineer round for 5 mins to give us a new modem.

Also i rang to cancel my account in july when i moved from my uni house, i checked my account in january they were still billing me. I rang to ask why, and they told me "it looks like whoever you spoke to forgot to cancel it", totally ridiculous - took me 40mins on hold to find that out.

[Tobeman]

On the contrary, I've never had an issue. I have their recently upgraded broadband, switched to their digital service from their analogue one and changed phone packages and I'm still fairly impressed.

Their TV digiboxes are reknown for being a bit pants, and I have had mine crash once or twice in the few months we've had it, nothing a restart doesn't fix. Their latest Samsung box, which I have, seems to be a lot better than anyone elses I've used though, EPG navigation is easy and quick, great picture quality through my new SCART cable. Optical audio out sounds good too.

Although, it looks like we have been charged for our previous services and the new ones so our latest bill came in at over £100, I await next months to see if it was the usage of the old services continuing for that month, if it happens again there will be words! Other than this, I have never had an issue. Yes, their call centres are foreign, though I think during normal business hours I have spoken to some Welsh guys before, but then still no easier to understand sometimes However all have been polite and informative.

I am all too aware that others, locally, have had issues. None as technically minded as myself, but thats probably got nothing to do with it

[nvening]

I had AOL for 7 years, need i say more (actually thier CS wasnt that bad but i can still hate them)

Apparently NTLs CS used to be complete pap but is now getting alot better, and thats from the ntlhell site! Apparently there is a billing problem but it normally gets sorted easily, probably as they are so used to it!!

I use Gmail also so i dont care about the email.

Where does the NTL box have to go and do they go digging up the garden to lay a cable to the house?

Im a bit unsure where the cable which supplies NTL comes from?

Also is it possible to record TV off it with a VHS or HDD recorder?

[BUFF]

they'll have to run a cable into the house & split off for a set top box, phone socket & seperate cablemodem (don't let them do broadband off the STB) where you want them.
The STB & modem are free but remain the property of NTL.
I use a video sender to provide a feed to my bedroom ( a 2nd STB is additional rental & I can only watch 1 TV at a time anyway).
Hopefully Hexus' interview will have more info on the PVR - it's coming from Scientific Atlanta.

[nvening]

So if i have the cable fed up the wall of the house into my upstairs "data center" then it would there go into a kinda cable router or is there no such router thing? Also how does it attatch to the phone network, or can i only use one phone socket!!! But the TV signal does not enter the TV coax network and simply runs by a cable to the TV right, which means i can still watch freeview in the other rooms?

[BUFF]

Afaik they run a cable into the house & then split off from a hub of some kind (it's under the floor in my house).
You won't get a router unless you buy 1 (relatively cheap & if need be you could go wireless to avoid cabling) seperately.
The STB has a cable modem built-in but I have always heard that you are better off to get a standalone cable modem (as I have).

I don't actually use the NTL 'phone so I only have 1 socket installed (& I don't pay for rental as I don't use it ) - presumably you can get more.

[Steve B]

if ur opting for the total package, they'll upgrade ur standard telephone cable to the ntl service, that parts easy.

The harder part is getting the opto connection co-axialised into ur house.
They'll attach a small grey box onto the outside of ur wall then drill through to feed the cable through. The standard NTL modems are co-axial, not ADSL, so they're the proper Cable ones (with an ethernet port too!)

Ull then need to buy a third party router and disect ur cable-pc connection with it.
Afaik the phone thing will upgrade all ur current sockets to NTL, so if uve got more than one connection plumbed in, they both use the NTL number. You can purchase a second line for like 7 quid a month or something, its not expensive.

The co-axial cable which comes into the house terminates on a 5dB 2-way splitter. One co-axial lead runs to the STB which takes co-ax to the converter and one co-ax lead runs to the cable modem, downgrading to RJ-45 or standard USB-A to USB-B connections post-modem. I would go for an ethernet connection as the USB connections are TURD!

You should be able to access the engineering page for your router by typing 192.168.100.1 into the address bar of ur browser. This will allow you to see the configuration settings, to check if ur connected. Dont bother changing anything else they charge u if u feck it up

I've had NTL for years and not really had any problems with them. Yeah its a damn shame that they moved the support to india, but i must have spoken to them for over 10 hours, and they really cant tell u much more than "which of the lights on the modem are on?". Its a bit of a shambles, but nothing that a standard computer geek couldn't sort out in a few minutes (it also wont cost u anything, support is 0845, sales is 0800, grrr!)

Good luck and welcome to the world of co-axial broadband!
No more dialing!!!

Cheers,
K

[BUFF]

Yeah its a damn shame that they moved the support to india,

I still get Glasgow (tested as of last week)

[Steve B]

:O u bum, how in gods name do u manage that?

BUFF, are u glaswegian?

[BUFF]

yup, West End.
I just 'phoned them up & got a Scot - iirc they have a call centre in Bellshill or some such place.

[Clunk]

as metioned, the customer service is dog kack, and in my opinion has got worse. ive been with them for 7 years or so and the broadband and phone has mostly been ok. if they install the silver samsung set top box, make sure they give you a seperate cable modem as well, as the silver set top box officially only supports a 3 meg service, although theres a lot of conflicting reprts about this, but in my case it was true. also, the set top boxes (well the half a dozen that ive had) will not let you upload and download at the same time. this is useless for anything like p2p, no probs at all with the stand alone modem. broadband tech support in india is pretty good, but this will depend who you speak to. also the people in the welsh tech support are generally ok, but not as helpful in my experience.

if they give you the samsung set top box, be aware that it doesnt have seperate audio outputs, so you will need to buy a scart to phono adapter (or whatever connections you need). picture quality from the samsung boxes is average at best, to really really poor. most of the time its somewhere in between. i can say this because i have tried various freeview boxes in direct comparison and they have all outdone the samsung box.

if your house hasnt had any cable installation before, they will need to dig up your garden, this doesnt usually make much mess, but if you have a concrete driveway, or block pavingm then you are stuffed. the cable then goes into a plastic box (a lovely brown one for me) that is attatched to the outside wall, and then through the wall into your house. inside the house, the wires split off into the phone lines and your main cable cable. if you have bt lines, they will just install the ntl lines next to them, so you will have a seperate socket. you can still keep the bt line and number as they are not connected in any way.

they will install into any room you choose, but if you plan on moving stuff round, then get them to give you extra wire, or they will charge you 50 quid to come out next time!

[Skinleech]

I still get Glasgow (tested as of last week)

Same here, based in Kelvindale.

Have never had an issue with them really. They've made a few feck ups, which they've resolved fairly quickly. Though I have just cancelled my account (moved in witht the Mrs who also has NTL) and they're supposed to call back - that was a week ago and no phonecall.

[Mutley]

I live in the Reading area, and have been with NTL for many years, since long before they were NTL in fact. I've not had many problems, and have found the broadband service to be top-notch. I don't have the digital TV package, just phone and cable modem. I tried the TV service a few years ago, and hated, and realised that dozens more channels of crap is not what I need...!

I'm on the 10Mb broadband service, and I've suffered one outage (that I've noticed) in the last six months. I consistently get d/l speeds very near to 10Mb, and 512kb up (oh for synchronous cable!).

As for installation, that was straight forward. Assuming NTL have already cabled your area, its just a case of running a spur line from the street to your house. Hopefully you have a front garden, in which case they have "special tool" (called a "spade" ;-)) they use to lever-up a line of turf, and lay the armoured cable underneath. Make sure they press the grass down properly after they do this, cos otherwise that grass will die...

They then attach a junction box to the wall of your house. After that, where the cables go is your choice. They'll drill a hole in the wall, and attached another box on the inside, then run the coax cables to the STB where you want to put that.

For me, I had them run the broadband cable up the outside of my house and into the loft, through the eves - very neat job they did to, hardly noticeable. The bloke then went into the left attached a lightning supressor to the cable, trail the cable to above one of my bedrooms, and brought the cable down into that room, again all very neat and tidy. He also left plenty of cable spooled in the loft, in case I wanted to move the cable. Which I have in fact.

That cable then plugs into an NTL broadband cable modem - makesure they give you the NTL 250 model (very small, blue, cheap plastic). That supports speeds in excess of 10Mbit. From there, you can wire to your PC directly (use ethernet cable not USB). Ideally though, you should by yourself a dcecent ethernet router , which you put in line between the cable modem and you PCs.

Note of caution - if you are going for the 10Mb service, MAKE SURE YOU GET A ROUTER THAT CAN SUPPORT MORE THAN 10Mb ON THE WAN INTERFACE (the side that goes to the cable modem). If you get yourself a router that only supports 10Mb externally, you will probably only get around 6Mb (due to all the latency and overhead issues inherent in TCP/IP).

Thats it really. All just works for. Great for work from home, downloading stuff, and for very low gaming pings ;-)

Hope that helps.

Mut.

[Kumagoro]

Im with NTL never really had any probs and not to my knowledge had to use customer
service type stuff..

NTLs customer service isnt based in india they have a couple of places in the UK
But on TV the other day it was mentioned that they will be moving it to india.