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We find the 2 meg tiscali business broadband offering, and the support that goes with it, not fit for purpose as delivered in our case. If you have issues with tiscali business broadband or are considering purchasing tiscali business broadband then you'd be advised to read on.
Don't forget to phone
I have recently had a nightmare experience with
tiscali and the provision of a tiscali business broadband connection. I'll gloss over the problems I've had actually getting tiscali business broadband provisioned and a static ip correctly assigned (for the record, if you order a tiscali business broadband connection with static ip you still have to phone tiscali support to request the static ip be provisioned, I rather assumed that because I'd ordered it that would be sufficient).
Do as we tell you or we won't support you
This on it's own would be enough, but the real problems started late
yesterday morning when all the machines on the network started timing out accessing websites. The problem seemed random and intermittent. I
reported this to tiscali where the support people insisted on taking me
through the configuration on the workstation I was sat at. Now it doesn't take a rocket
scientist to figure that if all the machines on the network start having
the same problem at the same time then the fault is something they have in common and not a problem with the configuration of any particular machine. However, I
dutifully carried out procedure after procedure with no benefit (you
have to do what they ask or they won't support you) but still could not
persuade the various support people I spoke to that the problem was
theirs not mine.
We have no network problems
I
could tell from the router status screen there was no problem with the actual adsl connection, but from some simple ping and tracert tests I suspected there was either a DNS
or a routing problem on tiscali's network. It transpired that the router
was picking up DNS servers that were "incorrect" - for the record I was
getting 212.139.132.9 and 132.8 as primary and secondary DNS servers,
a whois on these ip addresses reveals they are tiscali DNS servers. Two support people told me that was wrong, it should be 212.74.112.66
and 67 - "but you are giving me these DNS servers" I said, "my router is picking up this configuration from your network, please change your configuration to give me the correct DNS server", "we can't" they said, "put me through to a supervisor" I said, "he can't either" they said "nobody can, it's impossible". "It's not impossible" said I...."we'll call you back" they said. Still waiting for that call.
Now to be fair we did agree that it would be better if my router was pointing to different DNS servers, that was the one bit of light tiscali support shed on the situation, although tiscali support would not accept that there were any dodgy DNS servers on their network, nor that the configuration I was getting had come from their network. Tiscali support wanted me to change the DNS setting on the pc - which is not the right thing to do in a routed network where the router acts as a DNS proxy. I would have been prepared to manually configure the router ( a Draytek Vigor 2600) but at the time I couldn't see how to do that - and couldn't research the problem as I had no internet. A little while later connectivity came back sufficiently for me to find a solution, which if you have a Draytek Vigor you can find an excellent note on this topic here
So now I have the router manually configured with the "correct" DNS addresses, and set to override the DNS addresses being offered by tiscali's network, and all is working well.
You can call us but we won't be much help
Getting back to my opening statement, the tiscali business broadband product as supplied was not fit for purpose. A static ip address was supposed to be dynamically assigned (in other words I shouldn't have to manually configure the router other than to enter account details) - and the router was dynamically configured with defective DNS servers. But the biggest frustration is with the support operation. On the plus side, they do answer the phone, I never had to wait more than a few rings and was never in a queue, but that's no good if the people you speak to - all of whom had the best intentions - are not of business calibre and can't, or won't, escalate the calls to the right people. My view is that they are the same people who support home users and have been trained as such. Not good enough tiscali. I've spent two and a half hours on the phone and achieved little more than raising my blood pressure. I will see how things go now, hopefully all will be well, but it's taken about two months to get to the point where the tiscali business broadband connection is what was actually ordered.
Update: Review of Tiscali Business Broadband 20/05/08
A pattern has emerged of tiscali broadband grinding to a halt in the afternoons (UK time). With the exception of last Monday (19th) the connection in question has been unusable for about two hours in the afternoon for at least a week. Not just slow, completely broken. This is more than just a DNS problem and suggests that tiscali's network is maxed out. tiscali support actually admitted to me today that they have a problem that is affecting "some other users". I recall tiscali running a major marketing campaign at the back end of 2007 for domestic broadband at very low prices. Could it be marketing have excelled themselves in selling capacity they don't have?
Another question... is there actually any difference between tiscali business broadband and their domestic offering. tiscali business broadband comes with a static ip (which is probably a requirement) and some basic hosting (which is probably not going to be used by anybody with serious web intentions) - but if all you want is reliable broadband - well experience here is that tiscali can't supply it. Needless to say, a MAC code has been requested.
Update: Tiscali Business Broadband Review 28/05/08
Trying to get back to work after the bank holiday weekend and rather optimistically hoping that maybe tiscali will have resolved their problems. As expected the tiscali business broadband connection ground to a halt yesterday afternoon, but what was new was that the situation didn't improve overnight and this morning connectivity was slow to intermittent to non-existent. Another call to support... "Yes, we have had other customers with a static ip address with the same problem". Support said what they had been doing was switching connections back to dynamic ip and see how it goes, if the situation improved they would then allocate a different static ip. This meant of course changing the router back to "auto" for DNS. Well we've don that and it does seem to be much better, enough to let me update this blog!
I'd be interested to know of other experiences, not just with tiscali business broadband but other business broadband suppliers, maybe you are a satisfied customer? Who would you recommend? Use the comments box and let us know - good, bad and the ugly.
Update: Tiscali Business Broadband Review 14/06/08
Well so far the business broadband connection from tiscali seems to have been stable although not exceptionally fast, but that's what happens when there is a long piece of copper between you and the exchange. Unexpectedly tiscali support called me a couple of days ago to see if everything was ok. I said the broadband connection had been good but that we were still on a dynamic ip, "I can't do anything about that" he said, "I've just been asked to phone round the customers who had the same problem and see if everything was ok". "What's the point of that?" I ask "if when I tell you there is an outstanding issue you can't do anything about it." "I'll put a comment on the system" he said. So Tiscali support are capable of being proactive, in that they called me, but it looks like we're still going to have to pay for another phone call to actually get a static ip back.
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