Failed Daily Updates - Tiscali 'phone line problems?

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Dear all. Every time I think it's fixed, it fails again. I think the time of day has an affect. Anyway... Thanks to John it's working sometimes with that code. I quite like tiscali really and they do have a fantastic price ... But they should offer a freecall option when the fault is their system. Also they shouldn't expect john and people like him to do all the investigation - and deny that there's a problem when we know there is - and something they did caused it. Anyway... It's still happening with the code... All very odd. Matty

 

I find that my Tivo fails to connect on most occasions so I have got into the habit of trying to force a call on just about every time I use it. (I could do with a short cut to the phone connection page!) As the Tivo is clever enough to be able to try and connect in the background, this is not too inconvenient. I find that it connects about one time in twenty, the last time being four days ago so it stays reasonably up to date. It would be nice to have it working every time as it used to though

 

Teepee - et al

same here - i have to force daily call. Also thanks for letting me know I can go back to the other tivo screens when doing a daily call - I can then watch something while it's doing its thing!

But ... anyway the time of day may have an effect - but there is no real logic.

Not good really - come on tiscali!

M

 

I encountered this problem the other week, at the in-laws, when setting up a (new for them) TiVo. They have Tiscali's phone + broadband service.

I set TiVo to dial with a prefix of ",#096,08081050005,,". That worked most of the time, but wasn't 100% reliable. (I also did as suggested by, I think it was, mikerr and disabled the dial-tone and passive in-use checks.)

From the different errors that came up during the frustrating time of getting it through the guided setup, I'd say that the phone calls might be taking varying amounts of time to complete. Unfortunately, with their telephone set-up, I wasn't able to easily pick up a receiver and listen in to the modem negotiations.

(Not a great introduction to the TiVo service, but they still find it really easy to use. Far easier than even controlling their satellite set-top-box or the TV's built-in freeview!)

 

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Having returned to BT (solely for Tivo & my sanity!) everything was fine for a month or two. Then, a week ago, the same old problems recurred. I will run out of terrestrial data on Saturday although Sat. Data seems OK. Calls fail 'unknown error' or 'failed while loading series'. Tivo helpline said my calls looked successful at their end & suggested I may have too much in my Now Showing (No!) or too many season passes. So, I deleted what I felt I cold do without, & cancelled all my season passes. Then I powered down for a while & restarted Tivo. Still no joy! Is this ever going to be solved? Please help if you can.

 

Has this problem with Tiscali & Talk talk ever been solved? My Tivo on talktalk has been fine up until 2 weeks ago. Today, after having been reminded by tivo to 'Make daily call' EPG only has 2 days to go, I lost everything including everything that was on the 'to do' list and everything recorded. I did a reset but can still not get a download without an 'intrupt' message. Unfortunately my line is run by talktalk so cannot even use 1280.

Has anyone succeeded in finding a solution?

Regards
Bry

 

Bry,

The issue with Tiscali is still outstanding (nearly five months on). Quite appalling.

If you're unlucky enough to be on a locally unbundled exchange, TalkTalk have confirmed that their telephony system won't support modem to modem calls - and I assume they're not going to do anything about it. At least they've come clean, unlike Tiscali. You can check if you're on an unbundled exchange via http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

Kind of surprised that the 1280 prefix won't work, at least part of the time - the whole point of this is that it routes calls via BT, irrespective of your normal telephony provider, though you do have to pay for the call.

If you can't get 1280 or the alternative prefixes tried by others, e.g. ",#096,08081050005,," to work, your other option might be to invest in a cachecard and update via broadband.

Regards,

 

This has to surely be in breach of their obligations regarding provision of a telephone service under Wholesale Line Rental. Not being able to carry a modem call would also imply not being able to send faxes. There is still quite a lot of fax sent. Especially if you have any dealings with the law in this country.

They surely can't provide what is actually a voice only voip service and pretend that it is a conventional telephone service coming down a phone line. A conventional phone service is expected to support data by modem at some minimum rate or other.

I would send your complaint to ed.richards@ofcom.org.uk (Ofcom's CEO) and copy it to the CEO of Tiscali.

Sadly the cretins at Ofcom have made it legal for Tiscali, TalkTalk and co to block access to 1280.

See www.saynoto0870.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1217821163/0

 

I'm not sure he'll care;

http://news.google.co.uk/news?ned=uk&ncl=dNWQO2Uj2HmltoMY4mFkOq7BX8JXM

 

I suspect that asking for one's MAC code and moving to www.zen.co.uk, www.idnet.co.uk or www.newnet.co.uk would probably be a better bet, albeit a little more pricey.

 

They can and they do. Why do you think it's so cheap?

BT are of course moving the entire PTN to being IP based over the next few years.

I guess very few people have a home fax machine these days, especially as there are so many software solutions to sending and receiving them.

I'd have thought that issues with Sky boxes would be pretty common though?

 

This consultation by Ofcom suggests that BT and Kingston's Universal Service Obligation requirement means that they must provide a line that can support data transfer at 28.8kbps.

See www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/uso/statement/usope/

Are we saying that those providing a LLU phone and broadband service are discharged from these rewuirements, even though they utilise the same BT copper for the final run form the exchange to the home? If so surely they would have to be pretty clear in any marketing material that fax and modem data are not supported when they switch you to LLU and give you the option to change back to BT or another operator supporting modem data if you are not happy with this? I would have thought anyone discovering this problem in a long contract where it was not actively disclosed to them would be able to terminate their contract immediately if they wrote to the CEO of the outfit concerned and/or took the matter to Otelo (the telecoms ombudsman) as a formal complaint.

 

Yes, I'd have thought so.

BTW, are folks aware of this thread?

https://www.tiscali.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=156401&page=3&pp=15

 

Yes, so would I. Certainly my Sky box can't dial out successfully unless I use the 1280 prefix (which apparently Tiscali haven't blocked....yet...).

 

So if the calls don't work with Tiscali due to the call being routed over choppy high packet loss voip then why do they still work when a manual daily call is forced by the user?

Surely they should either not work at all all the time or only work either manually or automatically when the 1280 prefix to route by BT is used.

As so few of Tiscali's customers would have the brain power to use the 1280 override prefix (especially when placing one's telecoms business with Tiscali shows a lack of technical awareness in the first place) why would Tiscali want to risk unfuriating the small number of their customers who need to use it. Do they think they are perhaps running a prison camp rather than providing a service?

 

I do not know whether it is because my line rental is with Talktalk or not, but I am blocked from the option of prefixing my call with 1280 and routing the call through BT. I therefore have no way of overcoming the daily call problem

regards
Bry

 

TalkTalk have been blocking 1280 access since 2006, at least certainly for any customers on their LLU exchanges.

See http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=153625

You can check if your exchange is on talktalk LLU equipment at www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

I suspect TalkTalk may however support fax and modem data calls after a fashion as both were more common in 2006. I believe both these service can work on a Voip system if it is configured correctly with the right bandwidth and detection of data calls but connection quality is probably still less reliable than on an old fashioned analogue only based telephone calling service.

 

I use fax over VOIP and it works OK but, if you google you will find that for a lot of people it doesn't work. It guess it works for me because my VOIP provider has fax recognition and will use a different protocol if it detects a fax (it becomes fax over IP) and my adaptor also supports the fax protocol and detects outgoing faxes. Not sure if there is an equivalent for modem over VOIP, I still use BT for modem calls.

 

Surely a fax machine just contains a modem of sorts (unless I missed something obvious) but it is one that just syncs with other fax machine modems? So if a voip connection can support fax I would have thought it could support a data modem, at least up to fax's 14.4kbps speeds?

Out of interest why do you still need to use a modem these days. The last time I used one on this PC was during a 19 hour power cut two years ago. I used it to email the board members of the power network company concerned.

 

Dear All

I've just posted again on the tiscali forum asking for an update. They are beginning to sound like a broken record - I am quoting one of their technicians! (their staff are normally great). Shame they are allegedly in financial difficulty if you can believe the internet, they are VERY competitive and provide the same service levels as certain other companies charging nearly twice as much!! (Guess who...)

M