Motorsports Village

Been having major problems with my nTelos mobile broadband connection for the last week. I've bitched about it to tech support two or three times this week and it's still slow as a snail!

I even took my spare USB data card that I have and had it activated yesterday (cost me $40 to do that) to see if it was the card I had been using that was bad and what I'm finding now says that neither of the USB cards is bad, it's just a suck ass connection that I have now, meaning that either they've over sold their bandwidth and there's not enough to go around at peak times or they're throttling my connection. Either way it blows big time!



I can remember not too long ago that this connection would do 5 times + what it's doing now!! In fact, one of the speed test results I've done in the past is posted here in this section from back in December of 2010.

OK so here I am up at 6:15 am on a Saturday and I just did another speed test and look at the difference between this one at 6am and the one I posted last night around 9pm?? If that doesn't show that they've over sold their bandwidth then I don't know what does as it's obviously not throttled now!!



So I'll accumulate a few more of these over the next few days then send Tech support a link to this page and see what they tell me now. Earlier in the week I was told that a .50 Mbps connection was considered on the low side of "normal" by Cell providers? Really, for a supposedly 3G connection?

Oh, and BTW, my next door neighbor has a US Cellular data card connection that checks even FASTER THAN THIS ONE @ 2.99 Mbps!

Oh, and here's a link to that thread from December 8, 2010 at 10am where I posted speed test results that are very similar to what I'm showing this morning. That info is in the 4th post down the page.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7870&hilit=Virgin+Mobile

Well, here I am a couple of weeks later and things are worse now than before. I CAN'T DO A DOWNLOAD MUCH OVER 100 MB AS THE CONNECTION WILL JUST STOP PASSING DATA AND NEVER FINISH?? I even activated my extra card and tested that one also and it does the same crap the other one does.

So I've been testing these cards and sending an endless stream of data to tech support only to have them tell me that the leaves on the trees are blocking my signal? SAY WHAT?? YOU MEAN THOSE SAME TREES THAT HAVE BEEN HERE SINCE I MOVED IN BACK IN JUNE OF 2000? AND THOSE SAME TREES THAT HAD LEAVES ON THEM BEFORE THIS PROBLEM MANIFEST ITSELF ON AUGUST 16TH??

GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK WILL YA!! I SENT THEM AN EMAIL TELLING THEM IT WAS bullsqueeze!! NO REPLY!!

So I took my laptop and drove to the cell tower that my service comes from. I set my laptop on top of my car with the USB data card connected and took a picture of that with that cell tower in the background. Ran the download tests and it still didn't work. Drove to the rescue squad 2 miles up the road, fired up my laptop and proceeded to FINISH that download in about 8 minutes on their cable internet connection!!! Sent them this info only to get a message back stating that the data card is 2009 technology and I need to buy a new one?? WTF???

So I sent them an Email asking that if I bought a new one that didn't work any better than this one, were they going to take it back and give me a refund?? NO ANSWER TO DATE!!

So I have this friend with a spare data card that I called the other day asking him if I could pay to have it activated so I could test it as it's the same model that nTelos has advertised on their site. He said yes, but after thinking about this over the weekend I've decided not do presue this any further as they'll probably want me to by a new computer next!!!

IF YOU LIVE IN THE SERVICE AREA FOR NTELOS WIRELESS, MAKE DAMN SURE YOU DON'T CONTACT THEM FOR ANY OF EITHER YOUR CELLULAR PHONE OR MOBILE BROADBAND SERVICES! THEY SUCK!

UPDATE: THE SERVICE STILL SUCKS!! Last night I tried to watch a youtube video and after 15 or so tries I just gave up!

There is one bright spot in all this though. Since this problem manifest itself back in August I've probably turned about 6 or 8 people away from nTelos Wireless service!! That and Pit Bitch (race day pit crew), who is a Vice President at a local University was asking me back a month or so ago about nTelos service and I took great pleasure in telling him exactly what they have done to me and what I thought of them now! Needless to say, he didn't even bother to call them!! Can you imagine how many students he comes in contact with each day where he works and how many potential customers nTelos has lost as a result of that one negative feedback?

WHO'S LAUGHING NOW!

UPDATE: Well, here we are going on 3 months later and it's still no better. Faye still can't download a movie to her Kindel and I'm still not able to do an HTTP download that will complete. Hell even Windows Updates are failing and I wind up having to go to Microsoft's website and download those via that Russian Proxy that I use occasionally?? Gauwd I wish there was another service available that was better than this crap!!!

NTELOS SERVICE STILL SUCKS!!!

UPDATE: DID I MENTION THAT NTELOS WIRELESS SERVICE SUCKS???

09/22/2014

Somewhere around the middle of August 2013 my Ntelos internet connection went in the toilet! Failed HTTP downloads, web pages timing out without opening and ultra slow connect speeds have been the norm for the better part of the last year for not only me, but for friends of mine that have Ntelos service as well. Multiple complaints to Tech support were an exercise in futility as I debunked every “excuse” they gave me up to and including what they said was a failing USB Novatel Ovation U727 data card THAT I’M STILL USING TO THIS DAY BTW. I also have a second U727 that I used for testing in August of 2013 and that one had the same problems as the one I originally got when I went with your service. So tech support says that they BOTH had the same problems?? Really?

Fast forward to July of 2014 and I noticed some time around the 8th of that month my internet connection was “fixed”? Next day it was broken again so I went on my forum and checked my Administrator login IP address for the previous day and it showed it was 70.32.193.130. The address when I logged in that day when the service was not working correctly was 70.32.221.16? So, being the inquisitive guy that I am I forced a reset on the IP address and it came back up as 70.32.193.130 so I resumed my normal internet surfing using that IP address and the connection worked “normally” for the rest of the day.

Next day when I first logged on I noticed the connection was in the toilet again so I checked the IP address I was connected with and sure enough I found out yet again that I was connected using 70.32.221.16 address? So I forced a reset on the IP address again and it again switched back to 70.32.193.130 and again all was well for the duration of the connection to that IP address.

So since then I’ve been logged in on IP 70.32.193.130 most of the time because that one is the only one that would give me anything near a “normal” internet connection.

So fast forward again to September 18, 2014 and since then the internet connection has been in the toilet again and even the 70.32.193.130 address is screwed up just like all the rest?? All this begs the question of why did IP 70.32.193.130 stop working after 9 weeks?? What or who changed it so it's not working like before and why??

I've said this before and I'll say it again. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR CELL PHONE OR A MOBILE BROADBAND PLAN I'D STAY AWAY FROM NTELOS IF I WERE YOU!! THEIR TECH SUPPORT ABSOLUTELY SUCKS!!

Got a survey from someone concerning my Ntelos internet service? They wouldn't let me post all the stuff I wanted to say, so I put it here instead along with the other posts that explain what's been going on for over 2 years and gave them a link!



Thought you'd never ask!!! Make the damn connection WORK like it did before August of 2013!

I originally got an unlimited data card service in January of 2009 and it worked well until August of 2013. Repeated calls to tech only got excuse after excuse, which I proved wrong time after time and they finally told me that they wouldn't give me any more support until I bought a new device, which I did in October of 2014 on a no contract plan and it was the same thing all over again!

Fast forward to August 2015 and I got a second contract service, the 50GB month plan and a NEW MiFi 2200 device and guess what? The service with that NEW device was worse than what I have with the OLD ONE THAT I'M STILL USING! The excuse I got for the MiFi 2200 not working correctly was that I was out in a "fringe area" and that was the reason for my problems??? So I'm in the SAME LOCATION I've been in since 2009?? Hello?? THIS IS A FIXED SERVICE NOT A MOBILE ONE!! GPS coordinates say I'm within 2 miles of the tower I connect to, which is #282 in Spout Spring, Va. The tower hasn't moved and neither have I and we also have two cell phones from Ntelos that work great at this location!!??

Anyway, after that lame excuse I just decided to cancel that contract at the end of the trial period as the connection was so slow I couldn't have used 50GB a month if it was downloading 24/7 for the whole month! And BTW, I do have a rather large Email reply and also speed tests that I never sent back that you can have also!

Oh, and that 14 day trial period has cost me about $180 at this point!

Why do I put up with the crap? I can't find a service anywhere near this price in this area. I could do Hughes net satellite internet but that's 3 times as expensive and only offers half the bandwidth I need.

So THAT is the story of why I have a low opinion of Ntelos service!! Hopefully it will get better with Sprint as there's really no way to go but UP!

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Big Boyz Toyz!



Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt, British Prime-Minister (1759-1806)