topic Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help in Archive

BT Broadband Desktop Help

James — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:18:22 GMT

BT Broadband Desktop Help is a help tool that can assist with the most common broadband connection and email problems. The tool performs a number of broadband and wireless checks to help you if you have a problem. It also includes Wireless Connection Manager, a utility that ensures your wireless equipment is set up correctly.

Download Desktop Help and you'll get:

- Instant access to help, even when not connected
- Easy-to-use tools that automatically keep themselves up-to-date
- Automatic checking and fixing of common broadband connection and email problems

Download Desktop Help today then post a message and tell us what you think.

BT Business

Message Edited by James on 24-02-2009 03:18 PM

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

jcsturgis — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:01:21 GMT

I am trying to install this on a new (ultimately replacement) laptop running Windows Vista (previous laptop was XP) - part of the installation requires specification of the primary user account for the broadband connection, which ends in btinternet.com. Installation seems to require it to be btconnect.com and fails if I specify this, presumably because this account does not exist.

Anyone got any bright ideas?

Thanks.

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

nsampson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:07:34 GMT

Hi there, I have *finally* managed to download this tool. I say finally, because I currently have a pitifully slow 160kps connection - yes, this is supposed to be BT Business Broadband...so for starters, I'm not impressed.

Anyway, having installed the tool, I was hoping that I'd be able to run some diagnostic checks and get some handy pointers as to what could be causing the slow connection speed and how it could be remedied. Instead, I get;

- Troubleshoot Email ... no use to me as I don't use BT Business email

- Setup Email Account ... again, what's the point? I don't need *another* email account!

- PC Housekeeping...ahh...this looks promising, however it looks like it performs the very same function that you can achieve by clearing your cookies, browser history and cache via the Tools menu on the browser...so no 'value add' there.

There's links to the following;

- Broadband forums

- Support & Advice

- Speed issues

...all of which are BT online help resource web pages that I could access without this tool.

On the 'Services' tab, I see a few more options, but again these are all basically links to existing webcontent...not a diagnostic checking application at all.

Perhaps the tool will be expanded to cover what has been promised, but in the meantime, it's next to useless and doesn't provide me with anything useful.

I guess the text says that it 'runs in the background' and 'alerting you only if theres a problem'...isn't a very poor connection speed of 160kps considered a problem?

Cheerio

Neil - long term BT Business Broadband customer - now very dissatisfied with BT and looking to move elsewhere (taking the rest of the company BT Business broadband accounts with him).

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

garethsoloman — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:29:42 GMT

Hi! Replying only now because of installing this Desktop Help just yesterday.

My primary user email account ends in "btopenworld.com" and when I acceded to the request to replace that by "btinternet.com" the installation completed successfully!

I can't imagine why yours proved to be unsuccessful.

Gareth

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

garethsoloman — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:59:18 GMT

Hi!

I just joined for identical reasons.

I just tested my upload and download speeds with a freeware from Brothersoft: go to http://www.brothersoft.com/internet-speed-test-diagnostics-download-197023.html for download.

Even at our connection speeds it takes seconds.

My download connection speed is at 130.5 kbps allowing downloads from servers at 16.3 KB/sec.

My upload connection speed is at 144.3 kbps allowing uploads to servers at 18 KB/sec.

This bares out my experience for a week now.

Virgin Media just got my order!

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

george6 — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:53:29 GMT

My broadband download speed is so slow I cannot even download the Desktop Help!!!!

Brian

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

NarrowBand — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:41:45 GMT

Not everybody in the world uses Windows. Bill Gates probably wishes they did but there are superior operating systems out there. One of which is Mac OS X.

I don't seem to be able to find a version of this tool for Mac OS X.

Why is that?

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

petracarrier — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:42:21 GMT

Having received an email asking me to downland desktop I did just that and the very best advice I can give to anyone is DONT DO IT. I have just wasted two hours firstly downloading it which actually was very quick and easy. However once installed my computer did not want to play anymore telling me I had not got a network card installed which is a bit odd as we never had one in the first place. After half an hour on the web line chat thing it was decided the best thing to do was for me to now uninstall the aforementioned software. So I did. My antivirus went into action immediately to tell me that there were three infected files on this download and none of them could be disinfected. Nice one BT and I wonder if they will pay my computer guys bill after hes been and put everything back to how it was before I did this download. I wont be holding my breath

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

alastair — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:18:55 GMT

use system restore to go back to the day before you installed it

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

Riggs127 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:43:19 GMT

@NarrowBand wrote:
Not everybody in the world uses Windows. Bill Gates probably wishes they did but there are superior operating systems out there. One of which is Mac OS X.

I don't seem to be able to find a version of this tool for Mac OS X.

Why is that?

BT has no Desktop Help tool for OS X. However if you have 'Parallel Desktop' or 'VMWare' this program should run under that. You should be aware though the Desktop Help tool, as it is at the moment, will offer solutions to problems on PC's rather than Apple OS X anyway.

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

clifhanger_uk — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:43:50 GMT

I dont mind the desktop help, but as a business user I dont really want BT installing software on my business PC thats not needed. My only question is:

Whilst I have BT BB Helkp installed, how can I set it so it doesnt auto start and create a 'question mark' icon on my toolbar?? Surely you let me turn this off?? If I want help from it I'll just execute it from the programme list. I dont want it started and its notshown in the startup programme list or in PC services!

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

Naishy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:22:30 GMT

If it's not under Start -> All Programs -> Startup then it's probably in the registry under My Computer\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. I haven't got BT BB Help installed, so I'm unable to confirm.

Tim

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

gs — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:42:41 GMT

If you have to ask how to stop it runing then you should not be in the registry.

There is a far safer and simpler way.

Click start, then run, then type msconfig and press enter, click on the tab that says startup and find the process that is dekstop help. Untick it and click ok. Once you have restarted your PC check the tick box that comes up with the warning message and click ok.

From memory it is called installhelper.exe or bthelpbrowser.exe, just look at the file path for where it is installed to confirm which it is.

The registry is for advanced users as any changes you make cannot be undone without creating backups and so on, this is just a checkbox.

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

clifhanger_uk — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:03:19 GMT

Thanks guys... Yes its BTHelpNotifier.exe, it has the install path and the registry pointer.. I just disabled it. Will restart later.

Thanks again.

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

admiralg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:02:29 GMT

It seems that BT doesn't think OSX users are worthy of a help tool! Or maybe we just don't have the same problems using OSX that PC users do for some reason!

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

sej7278 — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:30:13 GMT

i run linux so am not at all interested in this desktop help stuff, plus i really don't need support from BT, so why are my HTTP sessions being hijacked by BT's adverts for it?

this is a business account and i don't expect ads from my isp - especially ones that prevent me from working.

is there someone i can phone to get this rubbish disabled?

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

Fiona — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:57:54 GMT

I have contact the development team who have replied that:

At BT we are very keen to offer applications to customers that can enhance the quality of the broadband service that we provide. More information on what Desktop Help can do is available here: http://www.bt.com/business/help/desktop While we accept that at present there is only a Windows version available, this does cover the vast majority of our customers.

To help us present this opportunity, we have recently started using the redirect facility for this service message, as when trialled it did allow us to successfully communicate the availability of Desktop Help to a large number of customers. We have set this to be viewed at first log in the morning to minimise any impact during the working day. Customers should only see this message once. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

We do believe that having this capability installed will, for most customers, help provide an even more reliable service and for this reason we would urge customers to install it. However if you do decide that Desktop Help is not for you at present, there is an easy click-through which will allow you, within seconds, to be back to your normal internet browsing.

Thanks for your comments, any feedback whether positive or negative is appreciated to enable us to continually strive to improve our service to our customers. Your comments will be fed into any future development of this tool.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

sej7278 — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:31:10 GMT

so when we click "i do not want this junk installed on my pc" will that flag be saved on our accounts so we never get session hijacked again?

wow, this is like PHORM all over again.

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

lawrencedudley — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:21:56 GMT

Totally unacceptable, especially as BT seem to be naive enough to think that the only thing ADSL lines are used for is web browsing. What happens when a service goes down like ours did and we don't run kit with a web browser at the other end?

You CAN'T redirect communications to advertise your crap software which doesn't even run on the platforms we use. BT Business? More like BT Joke, or maybe a very bad April fool.

Re: BT Broadband Desktop Help

Fiona — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:40:24 GMT

Apologies to those whose browsing was interrupted by a Desktop Help service notice. We've listened and are suspending the notice immediately to make changes to how we communicate this service.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator