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[posso]

Everything was OK until about four weeks ago. Since, my BT broadband connection ceases/isn't there/turns off for 3 periods everyday - each starting and finishing about the same times each day. The gaps in service total 6 to 8 hours each day. My most recent piece of advice from BT Technical India was that my router was responsible - that it was set to 'pay as you go' not '24/7' and that I should speak to the manufacture's help desk. I've tried but can't get through. It's Belkin Wireless G 802.11g. Is BT talking crap? I've connected a BT router & get the same problem. My inability to solve the problem is causing my family to treat me with something like hate ridicule and contempt : I am failing in my domestic duties 6 to 8 hours every day. Please could someone rescue me with words of Advice - as simple as posible please!

[soms]

Hi there,

My most recent piece of advice from BT Technical India was that my router was responsible - that it was set to 'pay as you go' not '24/7' and that I should speak to the manufacture's help desk. I've tried but can't get through. It's Belkin Wireless G 802.11g. Is BT talking crap? I've connected a BT router & get the same problem.

This is total crap. There is no such setting on a router as "pay as you go". The options are normally to connect on demand and then disconnect the PPP connection after a specified idle period or remain connected all the time.hve

This would have no effect on your broadband.

It sounds like a line fault. If the problem is new, gives you some service and is consistent, this could well be a line fault. Kitz and others will ask you to post some line statistics if you can obtained from your router.

These would include line attenuation and noise margins. These are valuable info as they can be used to quickly identify a line problem. For info on getting this info, see kitz's page here: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm

As you say, you have tried two routers, so that is not going to be the problem here.

On a final note, try plugging in at the master socket test socket if you have an NTE5 type master socket. This isolates all your internal wiring so you know it is a problem on the BT network and not with the extension wiring in your premises.

[havelock]

Agreed, BT are talking poopy!

If the timing is roughly the same every day, I would also strongly suspect external interference.

E.g. Timers kicking in central heating, AM radios, Faulty AV equipment etc etc etc - Bearing in mind none of this needs to be actually in your house.

Your best bet is to call the technical support department again, if they supplied you with the equipment then they should be obliged to help you ensure its not in the "imaginary pay-as-you-go mode." Be persistent and insist on arranging a Broadband fault for intermittent connection to be raised. Also state the times you are without service as if it comes to a CSE (customer service engineer) visit you should arrange one inside these periods if possible.


Rgds
Havelock

[lemming]

Hello, I've just signed up to the forum, having done lots of very useful reading on the site over the weekend.

This seems as good a thread as any to jump in on.  Same old problem - diminishing performance over the past couple of months, with periods of repeated line drops or failure to sync, worst at evenings and weekends.  I've not yet reported it, but will be doing so.  My main reluctance is that it might have been  a local problem.  However switching machines, filters, leads, modems, USB/ethernet, etc has little effect.  Plenty of RF buzz around, though I'm not sure that its existence is in itself a strong diagnostic.

Without further detail, at least at present, can I just ask the significance of one clue?  I've found that taking my phone off the hook for just 20-30 seconds is often enough to raise the SNR margin by about 4 points.  Now what on earth does _that_ signify?

[kitz]

Hi and welcome to the forums. 


>> I've found that taking my phone off the hook for just 20-30 seconds is often enough to raise the SNR margin by about 4 points.  Now what on earth does _that_ signify?

Could indicate what is known as a "high open" fault, you really need to find if the resistance is internal or on the bt line.  Plug a filter into the master socket, take an SNR reading which just the router in, then plug a phone in the other side,  take a reading, then lift the receiver on the phone and take another reading.

High opens are normally the result of degradation of the line such as oxidisation on a joint, or something causing resistance on the line.

When a phone is in use (ie off the receiver) a small current flows down the phone line, and it is quite often that the current is sufficient to seal the joint.

(See ~ adsl only works when the phone is in use.)

Check your phone using the quiet line test and see if you can hear any noise - if so you would probably be best reporting this as a telephone fault  rather than an adsl fault.

Once you have eliminated your own internal wiring, then this really needs reporting to BT, the fact that performance has been diminishing over the past few months, and the "off the hook" making things better would seem to be pointing towards the fact that there is degradation on your line (either internal or external).

[lemming]

Kitz, thanks for that helpful reply, which helped converge nicely on the solution.  I think I'd done most tests, and was about to (re)try the SNR at master socket with phone off-hook, when the god of poor communications intervened.  There at the inspection point outside the house next door was a BT guy, inspecting a bundle of underground wires.  I asked if he could check my own, but he was just doing an installation, and told me to report a fault.  At exactly the same time, my line dropped again irremediably, and the line crackle increased tenfold, which made diagnosis much easier.  Even their 151 auto-test system picked it up.  Yesterday, another BT man repaired a bad joint on my line at the same point, and my SNR margin went up to a nice 21, at least 10 higher than what had been the mode previously.

I had in fact been noticing slight intermittent crackle, along with the BB deterioration, some weeks ago, and asked BT to do a line test.  The person who rang me back said the line was ok - presumably he was concerned just with voice quaility - but did seem to suggest that I might get back to them if satisfied that the problem wasn't an internal one.  Which is where I came in with my first posting.

What I've read about BT's charges if they're not at fault was a bit intimidating. so this week's drastic deterioration was very reassuring.  If it hadn't occurred, and I'd simply passed on my findings to my ISP, I wonder what the outcome would have been, and whether it would have been resolved so quickly; and whether even BT would have recognised and rectified what would have been essentially just an intermittent  BB problem.

[kitz]

Hi lemming,


>> Yesterday, another BT man repaired a bad joint on my line at the same point, and my SNR margin went up to a nice 21,

W00t - result
Thanks for getting back to us letting us know whats been happening, and Im glad that its now sorted. 
Does indeed seem like it was degradation through a rusty joint.


>> I'd simply passed on my findings to my ISP, I wonder what the outcome would have been

All too often there is a lot of to and froing trying to get faults diagnosed.  There are so many different areas where problems can occur that we do stand the best chance of getting them fixed if we can diagnose what we can ourselves.
Even the ISPs have a hell of a time sometimes convincing BT of certain things, and they are often pig in the middle, not always 100% certain if it is an end-user or BT fault.

>> BT's charges if they're not at fault was a bit intimidating

Agree it can be daunting - been there done it myself. 
But after hearing many, many stories where engineers have been called out  only to find the fault was say a neighbour using an open unsecured wireless router, or incorrectly set up kit, then I can understand why BT do have to have such a charge in place.
If we can do some of the basic diagnostics ourselves, (and be ready to offer the BT engineer a cuppa), then most of the time all works out well