Many people are uncertain what information they should provide when they request support, especially when posting to the blueyonder.support.* newsgroups, and when told what is desired many people are uncertain how to provide that information.

The first port of call, before making a report (and if you have access to the Web), should be the blueyonder web site:

• http://help.blueyonder.co.uk

If the advice given does not solve the problem, or if you cannot reach that web site for some reason, then check the Status Page:

• http://status.blueyonder.co.uk:888(The "888" bypasses any web-cache)

If possible you should also check the blueyonder.announce newsgroup.

• blueyonder.announce

If there is still no explanation for your problems, you may need to make a report to Support.

If the web site is active, this can be done at one of the appropriate links on

• http://help.blueyonder.co.uk/html/contact/

"Connection Problems", "Services" or "Enquiry"

Formerly a report could also be made by e-mail to

• support@blueyonder.co.uk

but this facility has been withdrawn, with mail to the above address being returned by an autoresponder with the admonition that contact should be made via the Web Form only.

Reports may also be made by telephone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. See the Contact Details FAQ for the phone numbers to use. For all users this used to be free, but from April Fool's Day 2002 dial-up users have been required to dial a premium-rate number charged at 50p per minute to receive support, and from March 1^st 2003 HSI users are required to dial a National Non-geo Rate number (which doesn't qualify for Talk Unlimited). Both calls attract a connection fee of 6p. The best bet for fast free support for the majority of users therefore remains posting on one of the Usenet (news) groups:

• blueyonder.support.access.dialup
• blueyonder.support.access.hi-speed
• blueyonder.support.mail
• blueyonder.support.usenet
• blueyonder.support.pwp

to receive direct or peer support (depending on the time of day). This is only possible, of course, if some semblance of connectivity remains. If the local PoP is down, and call-gapping prevents using a different PoP, there will be no option but to check the free Service Status telephone line to see if there is a known issue, and potentially to pay 50p per minute to speak to Support directly if there is not.

We should point out that the decision to charge for dial-up support seems to have been made solely by blueyonder Management, against the advice of those actually dealing with the front-line support issues. If you are unhappy about being charged, please feel free to register that fact with the Support Operatives with whom you speak, but please don't blame them personally. Remember, the more calm you are when you place a call to them, the faster you are likely to have your problem resolved. Using the opportunity to rail against the unfairness of the charging policy will just cost you 50p for each minute you do so.

Help from Newsgroups

If you wish to post to the newsgroup, it is always preferable to read existing posts first to see if your problem is already known, or better yet, if someone has already posted a solution.

If you do need to post, and you can see that someone else is having the same problem, the best thing to do is to "follow up" to the other person's existing message. That way Support may easily see that related problems are occurring.

However you choose to report your problem, including certain items of information will go a long way to helping Support answer your, and other people's, questions rapidly and efficiently.

The desired information is as many as possible of the following:

1.	Username	e.g.	mpba12345
2.	Modem Make	e.g.	GVC
3.	Modem Model	e.g.	SF-1156V+/R19
4.	Modem "Pedigree"	e.g.	Rockwell ACF external K56Flex flashed to V.90
5.	Modem "Extra" Strings	e.g.	atv1e1w1q0S48=0S7=30
6.	Operating System	e.g.	Microsoft Windoze NT4 SP6a
7.	Dialled From	e.g.	01702 316xxx
8.	Dialled To	e.g.	01702 308308
9.	IP Assigned	e.g.	213.48.0.52
10.	Destination	e.g.	http://www.mcp.com
11.	Error	e.g.	"Could not locate remote server"

12. Tracert(s) to the problem site(s)/URL(s), including those for Mail and News as appropriate (see below).

e.g.

Tracing route to www.mcp.com [63.69.110.193]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 111 ms 110 ms 100 ms svr1-sou.cableinet.net [213.48.0.4]
2 101 ms 110 ms 100 ms 213.48.0.1
3 100 ms 100 ms 100 ms rtr2-sou.cableinet.net [213.48.0.2]
4 170 ms 180 ms 181 ms a41-gw1-usa.cableinet.net [193.38.108.78]
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * Destination host unreachable.

Trace complete.

13 Whether any URL can be reached using a different ISP

In which case:

13a Other ISP e.g. BT Internet

13b Tracert from the other ISP

If authentication failed, then obviously stop at item (6). 

The example shown is for a dial-up user. Cable Modem users should substitute their Cable Modem make and model in items (2) and (3), and ignore (4), (5), (7) and (8).

Instructions

1 Username - Should be self-evident

NOTE	Some people are reluctant to post this information. Given the security of the passwords blueyonder issues (who can remember "jqjjhyty" without looking it up? I know I had to...) I do not think it's too big a risk, but if the problems you are reporting are not connected with authentication or mail access you can probably safely exclude this item.
	If you cannot access your mailbox, or are having authentication problems, however, your username is an important piece of information to include, please.

2 Modem Make - Should be self-evident

3 Modem Model - Should be self-evident

4 Modem "Pedigree" - If you know it, fine. If you don't, not a problem (but every bit of information helps).

[If any or all of the above three are not known, a trip to:
http://www.modem-help.co.uk/chips/identify.html
and
http://808hi.com/
now may help solve problems in the future, and may give some insight into existing connection problems.]

5 "Extra" Strings - In the Control Panel ("Start Settings | Control Panel") double-click the "Modems" icon. Choose "Properties" for your modem, then the "Connection" tab, then the "Advanced" button.

6 Operating System - Should be known to you. If you are running Windoze, you can right-click "My Computer" with your mouse and see the information in the window which pops up when you select "Properties".

More information still may be shown by running "WINVER" (under Windoze NT/2k/XP) or "VER /R" (under Windoze 9x) from the Command/Cmd prompt, from an MS-DOS window, or "Start | Run | {Winver} or {ver /r}".

7 Dialled From - Should be self-evident

8 Dialled To - Should be self-evident

9 IP Assigned Start | Run | WINIPCFG
or
IPCONFIG in Windoze NT/2k/XP

10 Destination - Should be self-evident

NB	/ News - \	news-text.blueyonder.co.uk news.blueyonder.co.uk news-lhr.blueyonder.co.uk
	Outgoing Mail	smtp.blueyonder.co.uk
	Incoming Mail	pop3.blueyonder.co.uk imap4.blueyonder.co.uk

11 Error - Should be self-evident

12 Tracert

Get a Command/Cmd/MS-DOS prompt.

Type "tracert www.mcp.com > c:\www_mcp_com_trace.txt" (substitute whatever you are trying to trace for www.mcp.com, naturally).

Paste in the contents of c:\www_mcp_com_trace.txt into your message. Do not attach it! Binary attachments are not permitted in the blueyonder support newsgroups, and many brain-dead newsreaders are incapable of attaching text files as text attachments.

Last Amended : 2003-04-01 by elfin
Original Author : Unknown