Hope you got the problem sorted properly as some engineers just change pair with the source still not corrected a wet joint for example.
Battery contacts are very common lines may work for years in this state with the end user still in service not aware, untill another fault occurs somewhere else like a full dis we come and fix the dis only to find battery on the line also , A engineers nightmare
Hi Jonnyteg,
....and thanks for showing some interest in this ongoing problem. Perhaps I ought to provide a little of the history behind this situation.
When I moved to my present address in 2007, and had the telephone line activated, I signed up with Plusnet as my ISP. From day 1 whilst using their service I had a SOLID 8Mbps connection, with 6db NM and around 29/30db attenuation. Over the course of time, when my local exchange was enabled for 21CN WBC, I was asked if I would like to transfer to that service, which I agreed to do. I had been advised via email from Plusnet that as a result of tests that they had supposedly carried out on my line, I could expect speeds of Upto 14Mbps on the WBC product. As it turned out, that was pretty far removed from the actual speeds that the line managed, I think the absolute max that I achieved was around 12Mbps, but I was reasonably happy with that. Then during 2010, the performance of the line just got worse and worse and I just got fed up playing ticket tennis with the support people at Plusnet, so......
.....I started looking around for a possible alternative to Plusnet, and as I am an O2 Mobile Phone customer, I decided to have them install a new line for me, which happened in February 2011. Naturally this was carried out by a BT Openreach engineer, and rather than actually install a new line from the DP in my building, he chose to use what I think is referred to as a 'spare pair' in the existing cable from the DP. Again from day 1, this line performed flawlessly, initially at around 12Mbps, but gradually increasing over time, and most importantly, not dropping at all for weeks at a time. I chose, perhaps rather foolishly to run both the Plusnet and O2 lines in parallel just to compare the performance of each of them, and it was quite clear that there was some kind of problem somewhere with the Plusnet line. Then back in July or thereabouts after the umpteenth Plusnet support ticket being raised and getting nowhere with it, I made an executive decision to cancel both the Broadband & Phone line provided by them. For this I was instantly charged something over £25, and then the cheeky b*ggers billed me an additional £5 about a month after termination. Nobody could explain what that was for, and it took around 4-5 weeks to get that refunded - go figure !!!!!! Anyway, although the Plusnet service had been terminated, the actual NTE box is still present alongside the one for my new O2 line. Could this in any way be involved in my current issue ?
Anyhoooooo, jumping forward to 12 September, at some point during the afternoon (I was out at the time), the router appears to have dropped the line and reduced the sync speed from something in excess 15600kbps to 7000kbps. It had been connected at around 15634kbps for the previous 6 weeks or so, without interruption. I contacted O2 Support and explained the situation to them and was told that there was either a fault on the line or that the router was in the process of failing. They sent me the new O2 Wireless Box V (TG582n) which fortunately arrived the next day, but made not the slightest difference to the problem. They carried out some line tests, most of which apparently did not show anything up, and I was contacted by a very helpful O2 Guru, who needless to say, I had to tell the whole story to again. He then ran a couple of WHOOSH tests which led to the diagnosis of the Battery Contact Fault for which I had a BT Openreach engineer last week. The BT engineer was ADAMANT that everything to do with the phone side was perfect, and he advised me that if I should have any further problems I should insist that my ISP arrange for a Broadband Specialist Engineer to get involved in resolving the issue.
...as to where we are at the moment, well I think there is something very seriously wrong somewhere, and I'll tell you why
At around 3:30am yesterday, i.e. Monday - the line dropped and was down for around 20 minutes I think, it then came back at the same sync rate as it had been at, and then stayed up until around 6:35am. From then on it was up and down, up and down, up and down......well you get the idea, I'm sure. Curiously, during this cycle of up / down, etc. it appeared that the line was trying to connect at something above 12Mbps, but in each case this lasted for only a few minutes at a time, and finally gave up the ghost with a sync speed of something short of 8Mbps. At around 10:00 am, I decided to try calling O2 Support, but the line was 'extra busy' at the time, so I guessed that maybe there were a few others also having problems. When I eventually did get through, I explained what had been happening since around 3:30, and the lady at the other end told me that they could see NO DISCONNECTS on my line - is that weird or what
The router had literally been having a hissy fit since the early hours, but not according to O2. Anyway, it seems that standard first reaction is for them to run a 24hour test on the phone line, which according to what I was told earlier today has shown no disconnects or any other problems. Not surprising really, I suppose, as the fault that is present on my line is what might be called an intermittent one. So, at the present time they have reduced my target noise margin from 15 to 12, and that had the effect of increasing my sync rate from something like 7838 to 9537 where it has been since around 11:00 today.
More as I get it, dear readers, and of course you are welcome to add your thoughts on this situation,
TTFN
toulouse