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[waltergmw]

Gentlefolk,

Very sadly Walter's re-trundling wheelbarrow has had to return for a second time to a notorious line of around 1 km where I look after 5 impoverished families. In the spring this year we had a long drawn struggle with a PlusNet VDSL 2 / 40 service that at best could achieve 18 Mbps but with others close by at over 22Mbps. I became involved as the line had been capped down to 10 Mbps then and sadly I'm back again chasing exactly the same problem yet again. This time BT Openreach & friends managed to restore the line to a higher capped rate of 15 Mbps which lasted for a couple of weeks before it once again was capped at 10 Mbps. This time we were permitted to ask for a site visit which took the engineer 1.5 DAYS to increase the Max rate to just over 20 Mbps but still with the cap at 10Mbps.
BT via PlusNet then told us there was a systems fault "in the exchange". At 13:01 last Thursday we noticed a very bad deterioration in the VDSL service rapidly followed by a complaint from the EU that he had lost dial tone. Quite preposterously this required me to raise a second phone fault as the test had indicated a one leg dis. But we were assured that BT would attempt to cure the. Phone  fault by tomorrow (Monday). We still await the pleasure of the next BT engineer hopefully re-crimping or re-punching the disconnected wire before we can carry on the battle with the VDSL fault just because the original engineer didn't have the resources or inclination to test the dial tone.

Surely in the near future the whole operating regime of VDSL services must be urgently reviewed ? If not, as more and more FTTCs are commissioned, an untenable and quite unacceptable national crisis will ensue.

In the meantime the one benefit we can obtain, thanks to the stirling work of Bald_eagles and pussy cats, are some very interesting results of running VDSL over an unbalanced half-pair.

Kind regards,
Walter

[Bald_Eagle1]

I can't put my hands on the graphs from when the connection exceeded 20Mb, but I have attached a few montages showing the recent rapid decline.

[Bald_Eagle1]

Just for good measure, I have attached a montage of the last 4 days connection.

[NewtronStar]

Oh my god that looks bad  it's only when you see someone's stats you kind of think to yourself my line is doing very well  unless it's those guys on 80/20 with a line sync of 79889 that live inside the copper cab 

[Black Sheep]

Now I'm confused ?? I thought those graphs were of the circuit Walter has been looking at, not BE's own circuit ?? 

[kitz]

Oh..  sorry I misread Bes post and what he meant.    I didnt realise that BE would have some stats for another line, and thought they were BE's own line.

I'll delete my post then. 

[Bald_Eagle1]

I dont need to tell you but theres something really weird about your line BE.

It's not actually my line.
It's one I have been monitoring for Walter.

Content removed by kitz as she was talking garbage, by mistakenly thinking that the graphs were BE's

AS Walter mentioned, quite preposterously this required him to raise a second phone fault as the test had indicated a one leg dis.

Can you adjust your hlogs to show further than -100 on the x-axis?    Not that it would prove anything but it would just be interesting to see.

I could, but Hlog never goes below -100.
The worst it gets on this example is -96.25

You actually meant the y-axis, didn't you?

[kitz]

Sorry, BE.. my confusion..   I thought they were your stats.  Ignore what I said...   therefore I didnt know the one leg dis related to the stats you posted.  Ive deleted my post.

[burakkucat]

Regarding this faulty Ewhurstian circuit, I am also a recipient of the monitoring data.

Attached, below, are four representative images of the bRAS profile (cropped to remove any private, identifying information).

Points of technical interest to note are:

• The disconnected leg must be somewhere between the MSAN and the EU's NTE5/A, in the D-side of the pair -- as a disconnection in the E-side pair would not affect the broadband service.
• The differential mode circuitry deployed is not of the highest standard -- as sufficient coupling of the VDSL2 signal allows the broadband service to operate in severely degraded mode.
• With one leg disconnected, the common mode rejection (of induced 'noise') is non-existent.

As is well known, Walter's wheelbarrow is regularly trundled around the village of Ewhust and its outlying environs. It is also, I believe, fairly well known the b*cat makes a regular inspection of items up for auction on eBay. Having just got back from my most recent tour of inspection, I would like to ask if fellow Kitizens would be prepared to join me in purchasing a new Openreach Vauxhall Vivaro, which is currently up for auction and then lend it to Walter for his use around and about Ewhurst?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151152005643

Clearly some Openreach technician has been rather clumsy in loosing his new van but, assuming it was not Black Sheep nor one of his fellow flock members, I will not feel guilty in having 'first rummage' through the test equipment, 'gubbins' & stock that will be stashed in the back and adding certain interesting items to my grotto. 

[waltergmw]

Thanks BKK for your toy idea !

Being just a little pedantic, we should not overlook the D side tie cable too. This would not be the first time a fault either within the FTTC or the tie cable had been found. "Ordinary" Openreach engineers are unable to open the special locks on FTTCs unless they've filched a key from somewhere. Yet another hindrance for us all.

Kind regards,
Walter

[burakkucat]

Thanks BKK for your toy idea !

You are welcome. 

Being just a little pedantic, we should not overlook the D side tie cable too.

Indeed. That is why I typed " . . . somewhere between the MSAN and the EU's NTE5/A, . . . ", as that statement 'covers' the D-side tie cable.

"Ordinary" Openreach engineers are unable to open the special locks on FTTCs unless they've filched a key from somewhere.

For those 'Huawei based' cabinets, of which I am (physically) familiar, a key to the main security lock would be required. Once that has been released the standard 'triangle' key will allow access to the right hand side of the cabinet, where the tie cables are punched down onto the Krone connectors.

[waltergmw]

Just to update you the problems remain. Plusnet report that an Eclipse test passed so they have cleared the phone line fault down without visiting the premises; where we still have no dial tone and incoming calls ring ad infinitum.

BT Openreach also report that they have detected a fault in the exchange where they are to do a Lift & Shift. I assume that they are aware this is a VDSL service but their fault reporting systems don't recognise the difference !

However as we have reminded PlusNet that we still don't have a dial tone and we also have a MBORC announced we have had to accept the first available visit date of November 7th.

Sadly I recognise this is likely to become yet another horrible pantomime ! Oh how I wish we had a Black Sheep amongst us.

Kind regards,
Walter

[Chrysalis]

With it been a voice fault, BT will at least treat it seriously when they come, not only because the fault is kind of obvious but also the regulations that exist require them to fix it.

I am surprised at the date tho.  When I last had a voice fault it was reported on a friday night (by my isp, which was a entanet reseller) and the engineer knocked on my door on the sunday.  My isp was surprised also :p  In my case according to the engineer the fault was in the exchange.

[burakkucat]

I attach an image that shows the current bRAS rate for the VDSL2 (FTTC) circuit in question. 

[kitz]

MBORC announced we have had to accept the first available visit date of November 7th

Yes I saw that MBORC report yesterday

I am surprised at the date tho.

Me too, looks like they are adding 1 week on to appts until it clears :/
You would have thought no voice meant push to front of queue though.

"From Sunday evening through to the early hours of Monday morning the South of the UK was hit by a severe storm. The exceptional conditions, with strong winds and heavy rains have resulted in flooding and network damage and as a result we have seen a major increase in fault intake across the affected areas.

Openreach is now declaring MBORC for repair activities, in the following areas, with effect from midnight Tuesday 29 October 2013.

Cambridge
Colchester and Ipswich
Hemel
Southend
Romford
East Downs
Central Downs
West Downs (including the Isle of Wight) Esher Croydon Crayford Reading Maidenhead Southampton Bournemouth Taunton Guildford

We have been directing available additional resource into the affected areas in order to bring the position back to normal as quickly as possible.