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[Rapala]

1st post, hello everyone!

We have just moved into a new house and are experiencing a lot of disconnection with our adsl.  I reported the fault to our service provider and their position is that all seems fine on their end.

Details as follows:
- Using a planet ADW 4401 router, never had hassles from it before.

On a 16mb line which I then downgraded to 8mb to see if that could improve the stability.

stats at 16mb on status page:
SNR up/down:  16.5 / 12.8

when I go to the adsl diagnostics page I get the following stats:
loop atten up/down:  6.5/ 15.1
SNR margin up/down: 6.4 / 14.3
output power: up/down: 8.4 / 20.9

When I downgraded to the 8mb line I still get the same disconnections with he only difference being SNR changed to 17 / 19.

This afternoon when I got hit by a disconn, I quickly checked the status page and saw the downstream SNR was down to 2.8.

Apparently the exchange is only a few hundred meters down the road so it can't be a length of line problem.  Can anyone suggest what I tell my service provider to counter their 'all is fine on our side'?  Or is there anything I can do?

[Rapala]

Oops I forgot to add another symptom.  Initially, often when I used the phone it would disconnect.  I replaced the filter with a known working one and actually completely disconnected the phone to see if the phone could be the problem but the low SNR readings came without the phone plugged in so I've ruled that out.

One thing to note is that there are a ridiculous number of phone lines in this house, 6 or so.(same phone number)  Could this be a factor towards excessive noise on the line?  The engineer I spoke to on the phone said that the next step would be a hard wired filter to separate phone and adsl, but I can't see how that would help when the problem persists without a phone plugged in or could it?

[sheddyian]

Lots of phone lines (extensions) could well be making your ADSL connection unreliable.

Do you have a phone socket that looks like this anywhere in the house?

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/images/phone/NTE5_fl.jpg

If so, unscrew the bottom part and pull it out.  You'll see a phone socket hidden behind it.  Plug your ADSL modem in there, and see what the speed and reliability is.

Whilst the front of that socket is removed, all other phone sockets in the house should go dead.

If you haven't got one of those, getting one might be a good idea, then you can easily fit an ADSL filtered faceplate there, which will isolate all your extension sockets and give your modem the best signal.

I understand that your ISP can arrange to have one of those sockets (called NTE/5) installed, via BT Openreach, and it shouldn't cost you anything.  Someone else on here will be able to confirm this, I hope

Ian

[burakkucat]

Welcome to the Kitz forum, Rapala.

A broadband disconnection as a result from using the telephone can be indicative of a developing HR (high resistance) fault on the line or it can be the result of defective filtering. Neither of these conditions can necessarily be detected by remote tests, performed by your ISP.

It would be most helpful to be able to see your existing wiring, sockets, junction boxes, etc. Would you be able to take a series of photographs and then upload them to a suitable hosting site for us to examine, please?

Certainly you should try to identify your NTP (network termination point), which should be an NTE5/A, as Ian has explained, above. If the problems still exist when the modem/router is connected to the test socket, then is is due to issues external to your home. On the other hand, if the broadband connection is now quite satisfactory then the fault is with your internal wiring and extension sockets.

If there is no NTE5/A present within your home, then you should report it to your ISP and ask them to book an Openreach engineering visit to "regularise" the wiring. That will be a FOC service by Openreach to you, as it enables them to ensure that there is a clear demarcation point between the end of their network and your own wiring.

[Rapala]

Thanks very much for the help.  I have checked every room and can't find any NTE5 box.  Here are the pics of all the bt boxes, extensions and the outside junction box. http://netload.in/dateiRyNUHjwfxf/photo1.zip.htm

(btw although they are bt boxes, I live in Jersey so the service provider is JT.)

In total there are six boxes and 3 other line extensions feeding off the boxes.  Should I now go ahead and ask JT to install a NTE5 box and ADSL filtered faceplate?

[burakkucat]

Thank you for providing those photographs and for telling us of your location.

Looking at picture #1, I predict that is a DP which not only feeds your property but also that of your near neighbours. Pictures #2 to #10 show that the installation has be added to, at some time in the past and that there have been two active lines in the premises. It also seems as if some other "additions" were made for a Sky TV service.

I am not sure how closely Jersey Telecom follow the procedures of Beatie but it certainly looks as if a lot of that installation could be eliminated. Certainly, as it currently exists, it will be detrimental to any broadband service. 

I would advise that you contact JT and see if they would be willing to arrange for an engineering visit to disconnect all that existing wiring from the DP and then run a new service cable from the DP into you home, terminating it at an NTE5/A. If you were located within the mainland UK, that would be a FOC service by Openreach . . .    Certainly there would be no harm in asking. Just make sure that you mention that you do not currently have an NTE5/A fitted and, thus, it is limiting your broadband usage.

[Rapala]

Thanks again burakkucat and sheddyian for your help and advice, it is so appreciated.

I thought I would add one more symptom which I noticed last night is now definitely more than coincidence and that is that when bandwidth usage is at max, eg: downloading torrents, there is a much higher tendency for the disconnection to occur.  Would this fit with the symptoms already described?

[burakkucat]

   Hmm . . . I do not think there is a clear-cut answer to that. 

Perhaps you could install and run John Owen's RouterStats, so that there is a log available of the current line performance? If you could leave it running for a few days, whilst you (attempt) to use your broadband connection for various tasks, examination of the log files may prove to be illuminating.

[Rapala]

I will give that a try and report back. thanks

[Rapala]

Problem solved!

I'm embarrassed to say the issue was nothing to do with the line, but my rather aged router giving up the ghost.  In my defence it was highly coincidental that it did this as we moved into a new house when it didn't give any problems previously.  I now have a netgear dgn2200 in and haven't had a disconnect in a week.
Sorry to have wasted your time but thanks very much for the help.

[burakkucat]

Excellent news!    Thank you for reporting back.

You really haven't wasted anyone's time . . . as all problems are interesting.

I think you would still benefit from having all your internal wiring reviewed and rationalised. Perhaps you could find a retired JT or BT engineer through the Small Ads in your local paper? It's something I would be willing to do -- if I lived "next door".