HPLovecraft

Hello!

I have been with my current ISP for over 6 years - at first on a 512 connection and then around a year ago I upgraded to a 8MB connection. All this time the connection had been rock stable and never lost sync with the exchange - I had a good 6.5 MB BRAS profile and speedtest.net showed consistent speeds of 6 MB down - until around a few months ago when it started to play up big time.

Suddenly I began to experience disconnections/resyncs every few minutes and for many days there was NO sync at all. I contacted my ISP who told me the connection was failing at the router (a new linksys WAG200g) so I went out and bought a new router (Netgear DG834) and guess what ? yeah, It wouldn't even try to sync - no flashing green light or anything.

I jumped through all the hoops - disconnecting everything on the line but the modem (couldnt test in the master socket cos its an old style one with no lower removable plate), changing cables, filters, etc. but the problem persisted. The ISP was very reluctant to get BT involved and kept sending me in circles trying different things. I got fed up in the end and started to look more closely at the router stats and tried to find out what they mean.

I will post the full stats later but one of the main things I noticed was that the SNR margin was bouncing around like crazy on a second to second basis going for example 12,7,10,4,14,0,7,2,0,9 etc and coming up alot of the time with stupid numbers like 2 billion (maybe this is when the SNR margin goes negative ?).

After persisting with the ISP they eventually got BT involved and they changed some equipment at the exchange - this stabilised the connection but the sync speed dropped considerably, but at least I had a fairly stable connection again - for about 8 weeks. Now this last week the problems have started all over again. When I do get a connection it syncs at around 2200 or below (used to be 6800 when I first got the linksys) but doesnt stay stable, every few minutes it disconnects, and even when connected pages take an eternity to load (seems much slower than my old 512 connection).

Anyway I've asked them last week for a MAC code - I didn't even report the fault cos I know I'll be sent in circles again (I'm still waiting for the code) but in the meantime is there anything else I can do to help pin the problem down ? I changed absolutely nothing in my set up - didnt add any new elec. equipment to the house, move or disturb anything. I'm at a total loss really

JDM_Stig

iTrader: (3)

Even if u change provider you will retain the same equipment from BT at the exchange,
Sorry I cant help you with you error but I had the same symptoms, I ended up disconnecting and starting a fresh no BB for a week or 2 but it sorted it,
I had something changed at the exchange and my profile reset which would work for a day or 2 then it would slow down and start to disconnect.

HPLovecraft

Damn!

I was hoping that changing to a provider that has LLU equipment at the exchange might sort it out.

LostUser

This is almost certainly a BT problem. Eventually they will usually try resetting the ADSL card at the exchange but quite often this is only a temporary fix.

On the 1st occasion I saw this I told them that it wasn't any better and they then went back to the exchange and managed to fix it permanently.

On the 2nd occasion the only solution was for BT to either move the line on to a different pair back to the exchange or to replace the cable to the house. I can't remember which they did in the end.

Have you thought about getting the master socket changed? I'm sure I remember hearing that BT will come out for free and fit a new master socket in place of an old one.

You could certainly look at moving to one of the ADSL2 providers like O2 or Bethere and hope that this fixes the problem.

HPLovecraft

We are with Talk-Talk for our landline who did a line test when it first started playing up and reported no problems. The phone works fine - no problems.

Tidgy

dump it in favour of virgin, much better connection, plus its fibre op so gets rid of dratted bt.

mmmm 48mbs,,,,,, lol

hodgy0_2

the problem is ISP/WAN providers will very rarely ever admit it is their problem.

RB5 Boyo

Many things can play havoc with your Broadband, even simple things.

I work as a Telecomms engineer and have found that most of the probs with slow broadband, loss of synch at the modem etc to comes from dodgy internal wiring in the customers house beyond the NTE (main socket), either wrongly wired, or even too many internal extensions in the house or things like that

Try taking off your extension front plate on your master socket, and plugging in your modem at the test socket with all your extensions disconnected, and if you notice an improvement you can have an SSFP (Service Specific Front Plate) fitted at your master socket which will isolate your extensions from your broadband. This link shows you how to check this:

rights to make a mass complaint ? - ISPreview.co.uk Forum

....the only probem with this is that when its fitted you will always have to use your modem at your master socket, ok if you have wireless but if you run wired it can be a pain

There are also many othe things on the outside wiring that can cause probs, but these can all be looked into by BT through your ISP if you are having major headaches

mike1210

If you migrate to an LLU the kit would be different at the exchange, BT bill them for powering the kit. If it's a wiring fault at your end though it wouldn't fix the problem

Try the advise by RB5 Boyo by all means, it may stabalise the connection but to be honest I'd leave Talk Talk anyways

I have had dealings with them looking my mams mates line. The line itself was dead, no ADSL coming through it at all

So she rings support and at first they tell her the printer was to blame

Couple more phone calls ended with "sorry we can't help you so tough" basically

I go to the house armed with another router to make sure the one she had wasn't dead. On the phone to support for an hour. The guy had me check settings which were of no rellevance at all to the problem which I pointed out. Things like hardcode the DNS servers on the router which would take 10 mins to work then the modem dialer settings (FFS it was going through a router).

Then I said "no there is a line fault, there is no ADSL service getting to the house". After more arguing of him going through router settings then saying they don't support routers... Then me saying I'm not aking you to support the router I'm asking you to raise a line fault with BT, he stated he took what was saying onboard but that wasn't the problem. Then said to ring Netgear because the router is at fault. Then I stated I have another router which also didnt work and the Talk Talk modem.

After more arguing and him realising he couldnt fob me off what did he then say..............................Im going home now sorry!! WTF????

Then I said no problem transfer me to someone else to which he replied we are all going home

Mams mate send complaint mails and threatened to take it further, then they sent an engineer who confirmed what I said, then he tried to charge her....I could go on, but you are probably bored of reading this by now

p.s they used to traffic shape IPSec VPN connections

HPLovecraft

Thanks for the replys guys

I know that pinning these things down can be very hard and that my wiring could have developed a fault - but it needs a pro with the right equipment at the premises to confirm this and this would cost me right ?

If we were to move back to BT how much would they charge for coming out to check the internal wiring ??

The 'master' phone socket is an old style one with NO test socket, just bunch of wires when you remove the single faceplate plate ie. there is no lower split off part to it like on the new ones. I even tried disconnecting the ring wire but no joy. The best I could do was pull out the skybox and phone so that there was nothing else connected to the line but the modem - but the problem remained.

Well I'll get the current modem stats, attenuation etc off my partner tonight and post em up later - I'm away from home during the week working.

Again thanks for taking the time to reply - I did read all your post mike and am disgusted at the treatment you received but at the same time not surprised in these days of pass the buck. While on the phone to talk-talk they tried to get us to switch to them saying they had adsl2+ and we could get up to 24MB down - i cant believe this as the max i have ever seen talk talk advertise is 8MB. Its the newport pagnell exchange in Bucks that we are on and I cant figure out whether talk talk have adsl2+ LLU equipment there or not. If they do they must be capping the DL speed at 8MB ?

ChrisB

If you go through Talk Talk to BT Wholesale, a Special Faults Investigation visit is £144+VAT.

If you reported a noisy phone line (ie voice calls), you might get a new master socket fitted FOC but I wouldn't like to say for sure.

Tigdy - whilst Virgin can avoid BT's kit, it's a hybrid co-axial/fibre-optic network (not pure fibre). There's nothing like Virgin getting away with iffy advertising...

RB5 Boyo

AFAIK if you get onto your SP you should be able to tell them you have no master socket and should therefore be able to get one fitted at no charge, but as ChrisB says, i wouldnt like to say for sure that you wouldnt be charged for this as all SP's are different as are all cases....but you could try though

mike1210

that one?

SamKnows Broadband - Availability - Newport Pagnell (SMNP) Exchange

they have Be* there enabled if so and I'd much rather be on that than Talk Talk

https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/homepage

you need to eliminate potential internal wiring issues as well don't forget

HPLovecraft

Ok

Here are my stats:

Downstream Attenuation: 38 dB
Upstream Attenuation: 9 dB
Downstream Transmit Power: 11
Upstream Transmit Power: 19
Downstream Rate: 3424
Upstream Rate: 416
DownStream S/N margin: 9
Upstream S/N margin: 7

The downstream rate has gone up a bit since yesterday, and the margins have strangely enough stopped fluctuating !

I'm with be at the address where I stay during the working week and the connection has been pretty good for the time I've had it (5 months) at 19MB down and 1.1 up. I think we might go with Be ! when I get my MAC code

Am I right in thinking that even on the Be value package (8MB down) we would still be using ADSL2+ ? and is ADSL2+ more forgiving to noise issues? Its mainly for the other half and the kids to use, just casual surfing, so they dont need an ultrafast connection - just a reliable one ! lol

Thanks for the replys.

shooter007

ask if you will have to pay before you order as bt now expects you to pay for everything do not say it is damaged could cost up to £245 pounds if you do try dissing the bell wire on no.3 on back of socket as this will pick up any extnl interferance and send it through wiring if you use plug in filters dont worry as these have there own ringing cercuit if line is faulty (over head back to exch bt will have to deal) hope this helps steve.b

mike1210

Im sure it wouldn't be adsl2+ unless you went on an up to 24meg package IIRC. ADSL2+ can handle line issues better and adapt faster.

The ADSL and ADSL2+ Line Capability Estimator

I plugged your stats into the above (using download speed as sync speed) and you could get around 10 meg with your current line conditions, your attentuation is quite high to be honest. Even so I would defo pay the extra £4 for Be* unlimited to be on the ADSL2 up to 24 meg shizzle.