China Telecom causing me problems

Since we moved in our new apartment in December last year, we have been having countless problems with the internet. 

First when we moved in the internet used to go off for a couple of hours at 2pm everyday. We logged the problem with China Telecom everytime but the engineer always came round at 8am and could never find a problem.   He would always say, if the problem happens again call me.  We would call him at 2pm and he would always say I am too busy and would come round at 8am the next day.

Then they somehow solved the problem but insisted that they hadnt done anything to fix it.  Then the problem started happening around 6pm everyday.  We again called the engineer but had the same thing happening, with him coming round at 8am. 

We never actually saw him testing anything in the house, maybe he tested something outside but we never saw any equipment with him.  When we called China Telecom, my wife always spoke to them as they said they didnt have anyone that spoke English.  I love my wife very much, but she isnt very good at complaining, apart from to me to of course.

Anyway the problem seemed to go away like last time and again theys aid they hadnt done anything.

The latest thing to go wrong, on Tuesday night we could only get onto Baidu and QQ. nothing else worked. We called China Telecom and they said at their end it showed that we had 5 computers online, when we only had 2.  They said to wait a few hours and the problem should go away.  All day Wednesday we had no internet.  This morning the engineer came, the same one as before, and everything was working fine.

He said that he couldnt do anything, as everything was working fine.  I called customer service and tried to find someone that spoke English.  Amazingly I finally found someone (if you ever need her, her staff number is 8250). 

I told her what my problem has been since we moved in and she asked if the internet was ok now.  I said yes, she said ok call us if you have a problem again.  I said I wanted something done so that it never happens again.  She said that she will look into it. 

Finally I have been told that its because we are using more than 4 computers in our house, when actually we are only using 2.  She said if I can promise that we wont use more than 4 computers again, we wont have anymore problems.

Trying to explain to her that we have never had more than 2 computers in the house so there should have never been a problem, is very hard.  She is using the broken record technique of saying the same thing over and over again until I go away.

They really dont understand that there must be something wrong, they are trying to blame it on me.

Has anyone had the same problem with China Telecom

Unshielded wireless router?  A line splitter somewhere in the building helping someone else use your line?  Or just the famous China Telecom customer service?



(I only mention that stuff because I still find it alarming just how many wireless connections my laptop can recognise in the neighbourhood.  Sitting in my living room, there's like twelve different wireless connections operating somewhere close enough to be picked up.  All shielded, of course.  Wouldn't dream of such a thing.)

The wireless router has a password and then there is a dial up username and password.  Not sure about the line splitter but the boxes are not locked downstairs so that could be possible. Or just the famous China Telecom customer service

You are getting some kind of interference from an external source if it is repeated at the same time every day. Electrical usually, your attenuation may be high perhaps. I think they are bullshitting you with the "X amount of computers" thing. I used to have this job. Either you have end to end ATM sync with your local gateway (what people usually mis-refer to as a modem), or you don't. There isn't really any way to tell what is happening after that if you are using a router, they have firewalls anyways. Next time it happens unplug your "modem" for 5 minutes, then plug it in again. If this solves the problem (and even if it isn't related) move it about 1 meter from ANYTHING electrical, including power cords, even it's own. Buildup of EMI is the most common cause of simple connectivity issues, and power cycling your gateway/modem and moving it away form electricity (e.g. it should never be on top of your pc, or a bundle of power cords) will often give you a stable connection again.

My WIFI doesn't work, no matter what I do.  They've sent people, but they always plead ignorance of Mac and scuttle away.  So I plug in.

Now someone changed some settings on my laptop and my internet doesn't work at all.  I'd stab somebody, only who exactly?

The guy who changed your settings!

I guess I was lucky. I had consistently good luck with China Telecom broadband internet connections in China.