Odd noise spikes causing speed issues and disconnections

[duckson]

Others that i know of arent experiencing the same thing, my parents live 200-300 yards nearer to the exchange on the same road and i've monitored their connection and they dont get the same problem.
My next door neighbour doesnt have ADSL but i saw him today and he was going to order BT's own ADSL today.
I've been logging the SNR Margin/Sync on routerstats since 22nd Dec but my ISP (Zen) tell me BT wont take it into account and arent interested in it.

I've had everything in the house and garage turned off at some point trying to see if its me causing the issue and no changes.

BT Openworld came out for the 2nd time yesterday and the guy was supposed to monitor from the exchange but he said he'd come round and do a quick check (previous guy used the Hawk and laptop/modem from my house last time and then reset me onto the 10 day training). He found nothing (and broke my double extension splitter so i cant remove it from the faceplate now) and then said he'd go to the green cab and exchange to monitor and phone back later. He didnt.
Funnily enough an hour after he left my connection resynced and i didnt get a noise spike until 1.05am, i was almost thinking it was fixed as prior to that the latest it had gone into the evening without spiking was 9.45pm.
I saw 3 spikes overnight which was less than normal and tried a reboot of my router in the morning, it resynced at 8128kbps/7db noise margin which stuck for 1.5 hours before a large noise spike took it to -4db and caused a drop.
Synced now at 7456kbps/10db noise margin since then with no spikes, again prior to yesterday i saw a couple of spikes between 3pm and 5pm without fail but not today. Will just have to continue monitoring.
Zen have just replied to my fault log thats open and they say the BT guy claimed he tested with his own faceplate....he didnt, he used mine!!! 
I dont know what else the BT report says, whether anything has been changed.

[waltergmw]

Hi Duckson,

It's a pity you can't persuade your neighbour to start with Zen as adjacent results would be invaluable.
If he doesn't want to afford Zen in the longer term he could transfer usually free of charge.

If you haven't already done so perhaps you could e-mail

Zen - Technical Support <support@zen.co.uk>

with pictures of some of your spikes in the hopes that Zen might convince BT O to call out a REIN specialist.

Kind regards,
Walter

[duckson]

I think its a cost thing getting BT over Zen.

I have had a Fault ticket open with Zen since 22nd Dec, i've updated it with links to my plots but apparently BT wont have anything to do with them.

[jeffbb]

Hi

quote I have had a Fault ticket open with Zen since 22nd Dec, i've updated it with links to my plots but apparently BT wont have anything to do with them.

I am surprised at that response . Using your info I would have expected the Zen help person to be able to see that there is a problem . THEY then push BT to solve it .
Regards Jeff

[waltergmw]

Why not give your neighbour the £40.00 installation fee ? He / she is then only covering the monthly cost differential for say a couple of moinths, and can sign up to a nice long contract when he / she feels like it.


I realise this might be a wild goose chase, but if your neighbour is likely to suffer as you are, how does he / she expect to get a reasonable level of (often) Asian fault-finding service from BT ?

Kind regards,
Walter

[duckson]

Hi

quote I have had a Fault ticket open with Zen since 22nd Dec, i've updated it with links to my plots but apparently BT wont have anything to do with them.

I am surprised at that response . Using your info I would have expected the Zen help person to be able to see that there is a problem . THEY then push BT to solve it .
Regards Jeff

Zen can see the problem but BT wont take them as evidence there is a problem....Zen have been pushing from what i've seen and they've said.

[duckson]

Does this look reasonably normal? The bitswapping is alot higher than it normally is.



From Friday morning it has got better in that there are less spikes, still get drops though. You notice when it drops it sometimes reconnects at 8128kbps/~7db, i think when it doesnt do this the noise is still there and it cant reconnect at the max speed....i do notice when this happens the noise margin goes to 6-7db for a couple of plots (10 seconds) then shoots up to 9-11db due to the sync speed not being at 8128kbps hence my reasoning.








The only thing i can think of is the external temperature is slightly warmer than it has been.

[jeffbb]

Hi
quote
My next door neighbour doesnt have ADSL but i saw him today and he was going to order BT's own ADSL today.

All things being equal it will still be helpful to compare connections when your neighbour is connected . The fact that he is connected to BT should make no difference . The line connection speed,target SNR margin ,bit loading etc is done BEFORE the isp authentication. under normal circumstances you would expect your 2 connections to be in the same multi core cable or at least follow the same route to the exchange .
If possible get your neighbour to monitor using routerstats at the same time as you .

quote Note the massive noise spikes only occur when my nosie margin is around 9db for some odd reason, at 14/15db it doesnt spike that much "only" a 5/6db loss.

I think that that has to do with the actual "power " of the noise burst. remembering that each 3db is a doubling affect .
taking the base noise level as X   at 0db(or any value)  then  6db margin = 4x  ,9db = 8x ,12db= 16x,  15 db = 32x .
so looking at spike when you have 15db margin that drops by 6db  that in terms of actual power shows tha the noise mus have gone up by
a factor of 24 .
now if the same change ie and increase of noise of 24 times original happened when you only have 9db margin then the factor of 8 above the base line is swamped by this massive 24x noise spike . That's as I think it works .   

the 3db between 3db and 6db  is not the same  in power terms as 3db between 12db and 15db .

 Hope that makes sense 

Regards Jeff

[duckson]

Thanks Jeff, i know what you mean i think! Its a Logarithmic scale after all.

Regarding my neighbour, i will have to see what he will do, he might allow me to monitor his connection wirelessly (get his router login of course) and that would be great to see if the noise spikes occured and if they happened at the same time. We do go back to the same pole on the road.
I will have to find out what the BT hub is like for using with routerstats or routerstats lite. My 3COM and Draytek wont run natively with it and i managed to set them up OK.
I might even suggest some other ISP, he can use my 3COM then which is spare if he doesnt get one for free!

[Azzaka]

G'Day Duckson,

This has now been brought to my attention again. Could you please send me your fault rer and allow me the time to look at it. If you tell me the engineer has not done what he has suggested then this will need to be raised as a complaint and investigated. The fact the fault has been open since the 22/12/09 is a little worrying when you do not seem to have gotten any further.

Kindest Regards,

Leo

~Update: I have spoken to the person dealing with the fault and a formal compliant is being made against the engineer. I have PM'd Duckworth and will keep him informed as the goings on.

[duckson]

Many Thanks Leo, Zen have been brilliant so far as I can see this fault is being a little bugger!!  

However I am flabbergasted BT seemingly have no way of monitoring remotely or calling up a log of information from the exchanges equipment similar to what i can get from my own router.

[Azzaka]

They can, but some of the agents dont have access to the systems for it and some have no idea what it means.

[duckson]

They can, but some of the agents dont have access to the systems for it and some have no idea what it means.

In that case i'd politely suggest that BT find someone who can! 

[duckson]

BT coming out on Saturday to do a 6 hour test/checks...3rd time lucky!   

[jeffbb]

hope it goes well