Why don't you all sign up to the Real Stream....it's free for 14 days. Cancel your account on the day before they start charging. And it's a far better quality stream than the official one.

http://uk.real.com/guide/home/

WHATM on the NTL saga:

Just put the phone down.

92 minutes of crap.

First person I spoke to had a master of the English language similar to my Swahili. Got nowhere and nearly crashed my computer (disable pop-up blocker, disable firewall, disable the freaking electricity).

Was then put on to "Level 2" (and I quote ). My problem is that I can't even access the Broadband Plus page, let alone do anything with it. Found out 30 mins later I have a problem with IE, but can use Mozilla.

Loaded the NTL Broadband Plus page with Mozilla, only to find out I have a gazillions plug-ins to download. Guess what, the download isn't working.

But oh yes, sirreeee, we have you registered for the Broadband Plus service and your "free month" is counting down, even though I can't access the service.

Icing on the cake: I ask about BB streaming. "It's been working since Tuesday", the **** tells me.

I give up.

Just tried again - NOT WORKING!

This problem is NOT due to faulty modems - how does that determine which Flash movie comes up? For me, it's still the same - coming soon. My modem is fine for 2mb.

I'm not phoning up - why should I? The service is clearly not running yet.

Any word on those who have phoned up?

By the way, I don't have a TV aerial, so freeview isn't an option for all.

I can't use RealPlayer, it doesn't work. Which is the conclusion I thought Endemol had come to, and why they'd switched to Windows Media.

Bruno, whatever you do, don't phone them (see my previous post). I'm now going out to get some wine just so I can calm down later.

It works for me and is far better than the offcial stream.

you still need a credit card to register for the free trial and i dont have one.

i would have live streaming from channel 4 now if i had

I want the streaming to escape the blasted frog, as I have access to E4 on NTL and Sky. I went with the Broadband Plus route because they are offering a month freebie trial and then just £3.99 per month on your NTL bill. It also saves using credit cards.

For me now though, it's becoming more of a battle of wills with NTL and trying to get what they are actually offering.

Same here. The Indian chap I spoke to didn't seem to care, though.

i spoke to an idian woman and she had the same attitude ...
she didnt seem to understand that my modem was working ok untill the other woman registered me for broadband plus...

So broadband plus still not providing the stream?

I have done my registration, entered my free trial code and gone through to Broadband Plus player page .... can see BBC news and all sorts. But BB just says 'coming soon'. It ain't working.

We are on 2MB broadband and I did this just for fun cos we have freeview and ntl tv too and just thought i'd test it out for the month - but i guess it's now counting down and they're counting on me forgetting i signed up!

Ha!! Fat chance NTL!!

The customer service people must be thick to suggest it's something to do with the modems. It's plain as day that the service is isn't running yet. We just want an answer for God's sake. If they hadn;t advertised that starting Tuesday I would have never have signed up. I can come to the conclusion that no one knows anything about broadband plus because it's such a pile of crap that no one uses it and the only incentive they have to get people to try it is through Big Brother streaming. The incompetant muppets can't even get that right or even bother to update any of their staff, let alone their customers.

Still not working here. It's not the fact it isn't working, it's the continued insistence that it is, or it will be... WHY?? Just 'fess up that you're having problems.

I'm on the blower to them now in a queue. I'm going to get to he bottom of this.

Me too. Right at the end of their shift.

Right, some news....

Just spoke to a very helpful guy at Swansea NTL. He told me that they have been having problems with the stream. He said he had recieved a memo at 16:52 today regarding this. he read it out to me word for word. It basically said that the stream would be introduced at some point tomorrow. He said this would be 'definitely' (no doubt about it) be working by the end of tomorrow. His exact words.

Good work Swipe. It's just not on. Why wasn't this put on the site today. I thought they'd sorted all that lack of communication out.

Don't suppose there was a clue on the format of stream?

He was under the impression that there was an apology on the site. I told him there wasn't and he seemed surprised so I told him to look for himself and he was shocked they hadn't updated it. I think the stream will be in real player format.

thanks for that ..
i couldnt get any sense out of them.
they told my i have a faulty modem and an engineer's coming out tomorrow.


my moden is now working again and im back online with it.

Excellent work Swipe and thanks to everyone else who took the trouble to call.

Here's hoping it's all up and running tomorrow night then and there's no more excuses?

Glad to hear that. What has happened to you warrants a letter of complaint. She basically broke your modem through sheer incompetence and ignorance. The staff obviously have zero training, or are technically inept or a combination of the two. I guess I was just lucky I got through to someone who knew what he was doing.

Argh. That's the worst news possible. How come there are two formats of stream? What a waste of resources.

thanks swipe ..
im scribbling a letter as i type

I can't seem to get into broadband plus today.

Is anyone else having this problem?