Contact the Internet service provider

[Coffeetree]

It's just so frustrating and I don't know enough about it. Any broadband experts?

I have Intermittent internet connection problems. Five min on, 10 min off, 30 sec on, one hour off, etc. My WiFi is working fine, I just get an error message saying to contact the Internet Srvice Provider.

I do so, and I got one guy earlier this week who reset the port in (I think) the exchange box in our neighbourhood that helped. But he said if it kept happening I should call back and they'd send an engineer.

I've rung back and everyone else I get is just gaslighting me. Telling me it all looks good from their end, so ... Just now the woman said, "Well everything is telling me it's working fine," and I just laughed and said, "Everything except me!" Meanwhile I'm not getting any work done and had to reschedule a meeting I was supposed to chair.

I asked whether she could offer any assistance or whether I should just change providers and she offered to have an engineer come out and charge me £70 per hour. I laughed and asked her to put that in an email.

I'm switching providers, but is there anything I could do from my end? I've done the whole factory reset on my router, etc.

Bump --any recommendations for good broadband providers?

Who are you with at the moment?

Shell

Can you check the quality of the internet coming into the house by plugging in your laptop directly into the hub with an Ethernet cable? Generally the hubs that ISPs send out have rubbish wifi. You may need another bit of kit to strengthen the signal.

Try a wired connection first, as RainBow suggested. The Zyxel routers Shell sends out have some problems with Wifi & Windows - this is widely known by everyone except Shell. I'm on my third replacement router 😒

If it's not the router, the junction box repair's a clue. My service dropped after rain for YEARS. Eventually, after a series of visits from Sky engineers and Openreach, it emerged that some twerp had built his garden shed over a local junction and water was getting trapped in it.

I really hope your issue requires less of a legal battle (he had to move the shed in the end!) but you might have to keep pushing Shell to find out what the problem is - maybe highlight that it might be a physical problem further upstream, so they aren't scared to escalate it. Good luck!

Thanks for the responses. I haven't got an ethernet cable but I'm pretty sure the problem is external, since the one helpful guy resetting the exchange thingy worked. The thing is, we'll go months with entirely reliable service, then get a few days in a row of intermittent activity.

I've switched to another provider who has the Ofcom guarantee so at least they'll have to reimburse me if I lose connectivity.

I was really sarcastic with the telephone help lady yesterday and I know she's got a thankless job but honestly there was no excuse for how she was trolling me. Just to say, "Well it looks okay from our end, so..." and then tell me I'll be charged £70 an hour if they send an engineer. While I was missing a deadline at work.

Do you live in an area with 5G? If so, you could run work meetings over your phone when the other connection goes.

Do you know how to run an internet connection speed test? There are lots online. Pick one, run it regularly and keep a spreadsheet of the results. That will help prove there is a problem and could identify a pattern to solve it.