BTOpenwoe has been hit with technical problems that prevent people from using the high speed, always on, broadband service.

People who've signed up to the £40-a-month service have reportedly been suffering access difficulties for the last week or so and at the moment there appears to be no resolution to the problem.

It's understood the glitch centres on a dynamic IP address server, which is not recycling dynamic IP addresses once they have been freed up by someone logging off or losing their connection.

In non propeller-head speak, it means that instead of continually re-using IP addresses, they are simply used up until there are non left. When that happens, Net users are frozen out of the service until BTOpenwoe reboots its server and the IP addresses can be used again.

Punters have complained of being unable to log on for up to ten minutes. Others claim they have been locked out of the service since the weekend.

Until now, BTOpenwoe has not formally told its customers about the problem leaving it to the helpdesk to inform those who call and complain.

However, a recorded message on BTOpenwoe's technical support helpline confirms there is an ongoing problem without giving specific details.

Furthermore, an anonymous posting on an adslguide.org.uk message board purporting to be from a BTOpenwoe techie claims he has the "definitive answer" to the problem.

The entry reads: "Every time a user connects they take an IP from the pool of IP addresses. When they disconnect this IP should be freed up. At present this is not happening, so when a user connects again they get another IP from the pool until all the IPs are used. There are enough IPs for all users on a gateway, but every time a user connects, they are freezing up another IP. Every morning the server is being reset, freeing all IPs, but obviously the same build up is happening every day. Nightmare for us helpdesk workers who do not even work for or get directly paid for by BT"

A spokesman for BT confirmed there was a problem with dynamic IP addresses and that it only affected users of BTOpenwoe's USB home service.

He said that a patch put in place to resolve the problem had not worked. He had no estimate as to when the problem might be fixed but added that BT was "working around the clock to fix the problem. ®