Supporting role

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Broadband services, whether delivered using DSL, wireless, satellite or cable technologies, offer significant speed improvements over traditional dial-up methods of connecting to the Internet. The technology is much more sophisticated than dial-up but does this mean there are likely to be more support issues and how much can a user do to self diagnose the problem themselves?

Gary Dempsey, product manager for IOL Broadband, agrees that support for broadband is much more complex than with dial-up. ‘With DSL there’s a lot of different things that can go wrong — there’s the equipment in the exchange, the filters, the user’s PC, the wiring in the house, the telephone line — there’s lots of areas it can fall down,’ says Dempsey. The good news is that he estimates less than
one per cent of users have a problem once they are set up although he concedes that there can be problems setting up the service.
The issue for DSL providers such as IOL/Esat BT, Netsource, UTV Internet and Digiweb, is that they are reselling a service that they buy wholesale from Eircom. This means that they don’t have total control over the product and as Dempsey points out Eircom does not provide a service level agreement for this so-called ‘bitstream’ product.

As this journalist found out through bitter experience of getting a broadband connection with IOL, a user’s problem can easily fall into the cracks between Eircom and the third-party service providers. After over two months trying to get the service up and running, including three visits from Esat BT engineers, it transpired that the
problem was caused by a cable connected incorrectly at the local Eircom exchange. ‘The customer will ring us and then we have to try and establish if it’s a problem with Eircom or us,’ says Dempsey. ‘It’s an unusual position for us and it can be hard to explain to the customer especially when it can take a day or two to get back to them with an answer.’

Problems in setup phase
Michael Byrne, operations manager with Netsource, which provides a DSL-based broadband service, has also seen the majority of problems occurring in the setup phase. ‘There are more issues related to supporting the customer at the time the service is being activated,’ says Byrne. ‘There’s work that has to be done in the
exchange to ensure the customer is connected to the right port. It’s not like dial-up where it’s a case of just putting data through the voice system.’

The physical line between the PC and the local telephone exchange has to meet certain technical limits in order to enable DSL. It’s been widely reported in the national press that Eircom’s copper network is not in great shape; add to that the internal wiring in a house may be of poor quality. If there is an issue with the line from the exchange to the house this can normally be upgraded through soft changes
from the exchange, without the need for anyone to go digging up roads. If the wiring in the house is in bad shape, most ISPs will suggest a wireless solution, where a wireless access point is connected to the DSL line as it comes into the house. With
Wi-Fi cards now costing around €60 and access point prices starting at €100, it’s certainly a much cheaper option than getting a professional in to wire the house.

For satellite, wireless and cable-based broadband the service provider generally has end to end control of the connection which makes problem diagnosis easier. ‘We own and maintain all of the infrastructure ourselves,’ says Barry O’Connell, head of customer support with wireless provider Irish Broadband. ‘With wireless it’s also discreet components all the way — there’s no lengths of fibre or cable which makes it easier. It’s not a case of knowing there’s a problem between point x and y — we know if there’s a problem on a particular high site and we can dispatch an engineer straight away.’

Free trials
Although there has been a low level of problems for broadband users once they have got up and running, the service providers say this is likely to change over the coming months, largely due to the free trial offers being pushed by the companies. ‘With the new promotion of four months free, we expect a lot of families to sign up,’ says Dempsey. ‘They are not as tech savvy as the early adopters so they’ll be looking for more information as to what to do.’
According to O’Connell, the main problems that users run into tend to be with their IP configuration. Irish Broadband provides each user with a dedicated IP address, which generally provides for a better service, but if for some reason they overwrite their settings they will need their own unique address to get back up and running.

Currently the main method of providing support to users is through the telephone. That seems surprising given that broadband users are generally experienced Internet users. As a result, you would expect them to be more comfortable getting support through web-based forums or e-mail. IOL is currently in the process of building a web-based support tool that will answer the main 60 to 70 questions for each product, according to Dempsey.

Netsource offers customers the ability to create a trouble ticket relating to a particular problem from its website, but Byrne says the facility is very rarely used. ‘I think it’s an Irish thing that people like to have the comfort of dealing with someone on the end of the phone,’ says Byrne. ‘Anyway it’s an access service we provide, so generally if people have a problem they are not able to get online.’

E-mail support
O’Connell reports that Irish Broadband has had a lot of success with using e-mail for support and it is now the primary method of communication used by the company. It also uses Internet Relay Chat so customers can chat live with an engineer. ‘We have an automated ticketing system that logs and records each e-mail which people tend to find useful,’ says O’Connell. ‘Obviously if they have a problem with their connection though they can’t use e-mail and we’re happy to deal with them on the phone.’

Talking to experienced broadband users or monitoring the various broadband-related bulletin boards, it’s clear one of the most problematic areas is the introduction of a new modem or router. While your ISP will usually provide a router or modem that
enables you to connect a single PC via Ethernet or USB, many users want to use their own kit in order to create a wireless or wired network — either so that multiple PCs can access the broadband connection or so to enjoy the flexibility of a wireless network from anywhere in their house.

Byrne’s advice in this regard is that you pay for what you get. He saw a surge in hardware problems just over a year ago when many users began to source cheap routers and other devices on the Web. ‘Some of them would have features we wouldn’t be too enthused about,’ he explains. ‘They can lose settings that should be in
the flash memory and then you have to re-install. Also when you make a change to the user ID and password some of them are not able to save that and again you have to go through the install procedure.’

For those planning to buy from the Web they should be aware that DSL in Ireland is subtly different from the UK, due to differences in the phone system, so buyers beware. But as Byrne points out, ultimately most of the cheap networking equipment comes from the Far East and while Netsource will do its best to help customers
getting support from these manufacturers, sometimes that can prove a challenge.

Limit stressful scenarios
There’s nothing worse than hanging on the telephone listening to muzak and an irritating voice assuring you ‘your call us is important to us’. To limit your exposure to that stress-inducing scenario, it’s useful to be able to be able to test a few things related to your broadband connection before having to call tech support. If you find your connection seems to have got slow it’s a good idea to ‘ping’
some websites and see what response you get. A ping basically means your PC sends some data to a remote site and tells you how long it takes to get a response. To send one you’ll need to choose Start*Run, type in the dialogue box to bring
up a DOS prompt. In the resulting window type ‘ping www.servername.ie‘, replacing servername with whichever website you want to test against. If you get a result saying ‘Request timed out‘ or ‘Packets Lost‘ you may have a problem and it’s time to contact your service provider. One caveat: some sites have disabled the facility to ping them so they are not overwhelmed with traffic, so be sure to try a number of different sites before you assume there is a problem.

Slow connections can also be caused by the applications you are using as some programs can be very aggressive users of bandwidth. For example, file sharing program Kazaa will attempt to use as much bandwidth as possible even when running in the background. So even if a program is not actively open, you should check your system tray for any programs that are running in the background. If there’s anything there that shouldn’t be simply right click it and choose Exit.

Help from providers
The message from the service providers is that their responsibility only lies in providing the broadband connections. That said, all those we talked to for this feature maintained they will provide as much help as reasonably possible to help a user get specific applications working. ‘Obviously we’ll engage with the customer and do what we can,’ says Barry O’Connell. ‘We’ll put together a case history and show them it’s a problem with the application if that’s the case. With most applications you can usually find alternative software that does the same job and use that to test whether it’s a problem with the application or the connection.’

Another source of slowdowns is the temporary files that your browser stores up after a few weeks surfing the Internet. Cleaning out the history and temporary files can really boost speed. In Internet Explorer simply choose Tools*Internet Options and click on
the General tab. To clear out the temporary files click Delete Files and ensure you check Delete all offline content in the next window and then OK. This process can take some time so be patient. To get rid of your history simply choose Clear History on the General tab.
If you’ve still got a problem and you can’t connect to the internet, it’s time to get on the phone.

19/07/04

Read More: Hardware & Equipment