I am just at the point of cancelling my Orcon account later today or tomorrow because of the bizarre (I can think of worse words) support I have received from their overseas helpdesk.

A few months ago I tidied my homes internal wiring to get the most out my ADSL connection and got some good results then thought I would go with "interleaving off" <- bad mistake #1

It was switched off and although I got a decent speed increase from it, I noticed that interleaving depths had gone from 12/1 to 64/8 - not something I was expecting. Also my speedtest ping times rose from 12ms to 30ms, not something you'd associate with interleaving being switched off. It seemed interleaving was still on but I was getting faster speeds.

I queried the helpdesk about this initially and the response was basically "you should be happy as you have faster speeds". Well yes maybe, but that increased latency actually slows the initial connection to any site down. Sadly I couldn't get that message through to them.

Anyway I got busy and just accepted it, until a couple of weeks ago. I had had a couple of connection dropouts over a few nights so I picked up where I left off about the interleaving depths being 64/8 with interleaving off. They said it was off but couldn't really explain to me why the depths were 64/8. When I told them the depths were 12/1 prior and had a 12ms ping the person emailing me seemed not believe me and stated that my current ping (30ms) was normal (note to self - must remember ping doubles when interleaving goes off). I got them to do a port refresh and things remained the same with an interleave depth of 64/8 it appeared to be on. I got a Huawei HG630 and configured it temporarily with my Orcon details and it showed the channel type as "interleaved" and not "fast". I screenshot that and sent it to the helpdesk only to have them tell me that,

"Regarding your phone line issue, I just noticed that you are using a third party modem. Since your phone service runs through VOIP, we highly recommend for you to use the Orcon supplied modem. Phone service would not work if you use a third party modem." 

We have been going backwards and forwards and around in circles it seems when yesterday just after I got an email from their support team to factory reset my modem. I went to reset it and the DSL light is flashing away and connection is dead... I factory reset it but still no connection. Phoned their support team and it took them a few goes to reset the connection to fire it up again. Well I just got an email today from their support saying they never took down the connection yesterday and were waiting for me to plug the modem in as I'd appear to have unplugged it - well, I hadn't unplugged it! My guess is someone screwed up at their end or there was a line dropout on a line which they said was absolutely fine.

This is beginning to turn into a novel. I don't really want help as such, I just wanted to get it out my system but feel free to comment if you wish.

And to Orcon, you have been told by so many here and on Facebook that your helpdesk is just about the worst out there. In fact, it will be your downfall.