Cannot play online anymore.

Question

Hello there,
I have been getting no-where with the BT Broadband support (based in India), and stumbled on these forums while looking for help, so i was wondering if anyone on here could help me out please?
I have been having some really annoying issues with the BT broadband for a long time now (since around 2009 to now), at first when i joined BT Broadband i was told i could get speeds around 8mb down and ~1mb up on my line, but that wasn't the case, for a months on end i was stuck on the merry-go-round of calling support, running tests from the master socket, and pretty much being un-able to play online games which is all i wanted the broadband for in the first place,,
and all those months i was being told to, "wait 24hours for the changes to take effect",, "wait 48 hours for the changes to take effect",, but of course, nothing ever changed that i could tell, so it just made me really angry at times.
So, eventually after all my calls to support, and complaining, they sent out an engineer, he replaced all the wireing in the house, he also fitted a new up-to-date master socket (Openreach socket), and my speed jumped from ~3mb down and ~200-650kb up, to an "amazing" 9.4,b down and ~1.3 up at the end of all the work he done, and i didnt even have to wait 24 or 48 hours for anything to "take effect".
This was a solid connection and very stable, and it lasted for around 2 and a half weeks up untill i got a "courtesy" call from BT asking how my broadband was now, i told him the engineer has sorted it all out and i told him my speeds were great and i have no more problems,, well only an hour or so after that call from BT, my speed began to drop out, my connection was cutting off, and i was down to ~ 5.5mb down and right back under 1mb up,, this is when all the real issues started and have not been fixed since. (That was the best 2 and a half weeks of BT Broadband i have ever had).
I had left BT at the end of that contract period seeing as it was only making me angry and i wasnt getting anywhere, i came back to BT in March 2011 as Infinity was due to be rolled out here in Belfast, and i can say that my speeds are back into the 9mb down and 1mb up range again, but this time it just feels like im on what i can only describe as a service thats just above dial up, pages take anywhere up 20 seconds or more to load up, online gaming is just impossible, and there is no point in me trying to upload to my youtube channel anymore as the connection always seems to cut off half way through the upload process.
BT's broadband support based in India, has been no help at all again, they have even managed to waste the time of an engineer as they had sent one out to "test" the line only a few days before that, but he tested the line and the Home Hub 2.0 and there was nothing wrong at all according to them both, they said the line is very good and i should not be having any problems at all, that its probably at BTs end.
Anyway, they sent me out a Home Hub 3.0, but alas, everything is the same connection wise, support is still the same.
I have recently called o2 as suggested by a friend, who told me that they'd tell me straight what my line is capable of,, and they (o2) informed me that i "should" be getting upto 19mb, but on my line its estimated that I'd actually get about 15mb down, he also said my line was capable of 2.5 upload or slightly more, so i took that information back to BT and they just saids they'd run "more tests", to which nothing has came of except "more tests".
So, not only have i been messed around for all this time, but i have been lied to about "what my line can handle", its only getting worse, and i have no idea what to do now, besides leave them, but with infinity coming out in December im not sure.
Two days ago when i called support, they told that they would be sending out one more engineer who would test some things at the exchange then come to my house, and that i have "no need to call them in between then", and just keep observing the speeds on the line every few hours,, i feel like i have just been fobbed off yet again.
Sorry for the long read guys, but i hope that information is helpful to understand my issues with BT broadband, anyway, here is a copy of my stats from the hom hub:
ADSL Line Status
Connection Information
Line state:
Connected
Connection time:
2 days, 18:04:09
Downstream:
9.399 Mbps
Upstream:
1.148 Mbps
ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI:
0/38
Type:
PPPoA
Modulation:
G.992.5 Annex A
Latency type:
Fast
Noise margin (Down/Up):
5.6 dB / 6.6 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up):
33.8 dB / 19.4 dB
Output power (Down/Up):
20.4 dBm / 11.8 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up):
0 / 0
CRC Events (Down/Up):
157096 / 126
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
HEC Events (Down/Up):
82853 / 124
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):
40043 / 258
My friend told me that it looks like the low noise margin is the problem,
I have consistently asked BT from the start to "Optimize" the line for online gaming, reduce the max delay, (lower PING default to around 8ms). which they were able to do in the beginning for me, but arent now.

Answer 1

NanoTm wrote:
might be a stupid question but you mention that your having massive problems with slow internet,
since you dont mention it, do you use windows media player extender service ? - Not since i had an xbox 360, it was hopeless and pointless, would that still be active, or is it active by default, if so, how can i disable that,, i like to have my laptop running with a little operations going on as possible!
if its running in the task list then there is a good chance its causing hte problems that are making your internet go slow, disable the media player services (control panel >system security>admin tools>services) its a known problem wiht 7 and for some reason the recent round of updates re-enabled them,
have you done anyupdates or installed anything around the time of the problems starting?
anything even an adobe flash update could of caused the problems, since your connection itself would appear to be fine (from the numbers) the options left are your system (and some inocuous change that has caused a problem) your interneal network setup (you mention a homeplug?)
theres a lot of things that could be causing the problems that have nothing to do wiht BT, yes ok i'll grant that the timeings seem co-incidental but have you searched forums checking to see if others are having hte same problems especially with the router or other hardware you also have in your network ?
also you mention swithing off your laptop and then booting the ps3 game, have you tried leaving the laptop on ? - I have done this before while playing Dead Nation before the game chat was patched in, i used Skype, and there were no problems, but that was a while ago.
I usually switch off the laptop or computer from the internet before i go onto play COD4 just to make sure i dont lag and my connection stays as solid as possible.
not sure about the media player settings wiht ps3 ? i know the hookins are there for some consoles, but dodgy nat settings or port forwarding can also be to blame for consol gaming - I did have port forwarding on with the HH3 to try and make it better, but i didnt do a **bleep** thing, so it got switched back off after a few days of waiting to see if the "changes would take effect" When i put Modern Warfare 2 on earlier, it was "NAT Type 2", so nothing seems to be wrong, but as i mentioned, i was put into a lobby which was 160ms PING (after a long wait which made it more annoying).
Hi, thanks for your reply,
I have had Homeplug installed since pretty much the start of my service with BT way back in 2009 i think, i had it installed at the time when the engineer replaced all the phone wireing when he got my speed upto 9mb!, so i can rule that out, i also get the same speed using ethernet plugged in downstairs in the master socket, that i do upstairs, both wirless and wired connections get the same speed results, downstairs and upstairs using the homeplug, i get a little faster when i use the test socket though i was advised that i shouldnt use it and that i should only really use the socket on the faceplate,, dont know why tho.
It is really strange to me that i have these speeds, yet for some reason i just can play online anymore,, all of the engineers who have been out say there shouldnt be any issues.
I think what im going to do is just move to a different provider, o2 said on thier "The Works" package i would get 2.5 upload and around 20down,, I'd even be happy with 10down and 2.5 up.
An engineer is going out to the exchange tomorrow to try somethings out, then come to my house afterward to run yet more tests,, then i was told to give it 48 hours (again),, so this is the last time, i cant keep doing this and going through all this nonsense and having to deal with the extremely poor customer services, which might also end up putting me off getting infinity, because when i think about having to spend between 45 minutes to 1hour 45minutes on the phone being passed around and put on hold and having to ask them to repeat themselves, i just cant stomach the thought of it, regardless of superfast broadband or not.
On the services list:
Windows Media Center Receiver Service - STATUS= Blank (not started) - START UP TYPE= Manual
Windows Media Center Sheduler Service - STATUS= Blank (not started) - START UP TYPE= Manual
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service - STATUS= Started - START UP TYPE= Automatic (Delayed start)
I stopped the Network Sharing Service like you suggested,, I dont stream content anyway (if thats what it was for), although i dont see why anything on my computer should affect what is happening on my PS3?
Im not one for updating things except what my browser needs to function, i have Windows automatic updates switched off, as all i see them as is an excuse to clutter my HDD and waste my time, i havent updated since i first got my laptop back in early 2010 and it still works fine, i use malwarebytes and AVG 2011 (full suite).
How do i deactivate "Remote Assistence" and Remote Desktop thingy?