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[DickiJ]

Hello all

Wondering if you can help, because I'm starting to lose the will to live.

Our estate has FTTC fiber, but unfortunantly the houses are a decent distance away from the cabinet with the underground cabling still sporting aluminum. We've always had some issues (a disconnect every 1-2 days), but this last 8 months have been particularly bad and for the last 2 weeks I get a drop out every 20-60 minutes.

Openreach engineers have been out and have fixed every fault they can find, even providing fresh wiring from the dropline to the internal box.

I've had a DLM reset after the recent visit and I'm sitting at 44mb down with an SNR @ 5-6db. Something that has been bugging me however is that whenever I go home I check the router logs and more often that not the line has behaved overnight and when we are out. Today I've realised that the moment I put the connection under load (speedtest/streaming) the SNR dives from 6db all the way to 2db. The moment I stop the SNR shoots back up to 6db.

Is this a symptom of a fault? Odly enough I can get the SNR to drop down to 3.5db just but rapidly refreshing my routers interface page.

Router is a TD-W9970.

Many Thanks
Josh

[Chrysalis]

This sounds like a possible interference from a faulty router chip that when under load is interfering with the dsl.

Before calling that in I would try a different router/firewall.  Make sure cables isolated from each other as much as possible also.

A reset wont do much if the symptoms persist.  That is a more suitable action if its either a infrequent problem or after a fault has been fixed.

[DickiJ]

I'll see if I can dig out the old One Hub.

Would it be an issue if the FFTC line is ran alongside one of my ethernet cables?

[Chrysalis]

probably not but try to not let them touch.

[j0hn]

Do you use Powerline/Homeplug adapters to distribute broadband around the house over the electrical wiring?

The line downloading nothing and the line using the full up/down speed shouldn't change the SNRM in the slightest.

[DickiJ]

Do you use Powerline/Homeplug adapters to distribute broadband around the house over the electrical wiring?

The line downloading nothing and the line using the full up/down speed shouldn't change the SNRM in the slightest.

No I don't - but one of ethernet cables does run on the exterior of the house, but this hasn't caused any issues in 18 months.

This evening I see my SNR is now 3db at idle (lower SNR at night is normal I think?) but drops to 0.5 on a speedtest so I suspect a disconnection is inevitable tonight!

I've dug out the old one hub and I'll give it a test run tomorrow evening and report back.

Thanks for the replies so far

[dee.jay]

Do you use Powerline/Homeplug adapters to distribute broadband around the house over the electrical wiring?

The line downloading nothing and the line using the full up/down speed shouldn't change the SNRM in the slightest.

Agreed, activity on the line should not change the physical characteristics of the carrier signal.

[DMZ]

Hi!
Funny thing..

I finally moved to a third party router which is the same one the OP has. I too with this model can make the snr drop by refreshing the router page rapidly. Not as severely affected though 6.2 to 6. Or if I download a game from PlayStation Network it's a bit more affected, it goes from 6.2 to 5.9 but it always recovers on it's own in my case.

Funny thing is since I moved from the BT Smart Hub to this one I've been constantly interleaved (2 days after install) But I'll live with that.

My line is copper not aluminium, ECI cab, no powerlines or homeplug adapters here.

I still prefer it over BT's kit plus I always have a constant open Nat unlike on the Smart Hub where it was always moderate.

What's the likelihood we have similar line/router.. Whatever else issues? 

[DMZ]

Sorry for double posting, but it's relevant-ish (Unsure if I should've edited my last post.)

The other day out of curiosity I set up my Smart Hub again and concluded it's better on my line than the TP-Link. On the Smart Hub I can refresh the status page and it doesn't dip the snr nor does a large download from PlayStation Network.
The snr doesn't vary much at all on BT's kit unlike before where it would drop to under 6 on the TP-Link from time to time.

Just need to get rid of interleaving I guess now, maybe it should have been a clue something wasn't right when I switched to the TP-Link.

Hopefully the OP posts back as I'd like know if he has seen any difference using his Hub One.

Maybe it's a bad batch going around.

[DickiJ]

Sorry for double posting, but it's relevant-ish (Unsure if I should've edited my last post.)

The other day out of curiosity I set up my Smart Hub again and concluded it's better on my line than the TP-Link. On the Smart Hub I can refresh the status page and it doesn't dip the snr nor does a large download from PlayStation Network.
The snr doesn't vary much at all on BT's kit unlike before where it would drop to under 6 on the TP-Link from time to time.

Just need to get rid of interleaving I guess now, maybe it should have been a clue something wasn't right when I switched to the TP-Link.

Hopefully the OP posts back as I'd like know if he has seen any difference using his Hub One.

Maybe it's a bad batch going around.

Unfortunately I can't find the power adapter for my Hub, but instead I've connected my old openreach modem to thr TP router. I'm still getting disconnections but nowhere near the amount the TP was giving me and speed throughput is better.

Unfortunately I can't get any line stats from the modem so might suggest to plus net they send out a new hub!

[DMZ]

Unfortunately I can't find the power adapter for my Hub, but instead I've connected my old openreach modem to thr TP router. I'm still getting disconnections but nowhere near the amount the TP was giving me and speed throughput is better.

Unfortunately I can't get any line stats from the modem so might suggest to plus net they send out a new hub!

I'm happy you've seen some improvements, I'd say go for it and ask plusnet for a new one if it doesn't cost you.

So far downloads aren't knocking the snr down at all, I'm downloading Star Wars Battlefront 2 which is over 100gb and no sway like before. The other day I had 3 downloads going at once and still no sway either. I did the refresh router stats page one and off, no difference either.

Throughput seems a bit better too despite my speeds being slower and still interleaved. Hopefully fastpath will return, again it should've been a clue something was up as it only did that when the TP-Link was installed.

I was going to live with the interleaving I previously posted but it's making me think it must've been duff in some form as prior to getting it I've not been interleaved on months. Also more frequent random disconnects since the TP-Link was in use.

So.. I can conclude for myself the swap back from the TP-Link to the Smart Hub has been beneficial. I just had to put my PS4 into the DMZ section to get my open nat back.

Fingers crossed you continue getting better and better results. 

[DickiJ]

I'm happy you've seen some improvements, I'd say go for it and ask plusnet for a new one if it doesn't cost you.

So far downloads aren't knocking the snr down at all, I'm downloading Star Wars Battlefront 2 which is over 100gb and no sway like before. The other day I had 3 downloads going at once and still no sway either. I did the refresh router stats page one and off, no difference either.

Throughput seems a bit better too despite my speeds being slower and still interleaved. Hopefully fastpath will return, again it should've been a clue something was up as it only did that when the TP-Link was installed.

I was going to live with the interleaving I previously posted but it's making me think it must've been duff in some form as prior to getting it I've not been interleaved on months. Also more frequent random disconnects since the TP-Link was in use.

So.. I can conclude for myself the swap back from the TP-Link to the Smart Hub has been beneficial. I just had to put my PS4 into the DMZ section to get my open nat back.

Fingers crossed you continue getting better and better results. 

I think the modem must have been listening to me because after that reply it dropped twice in the space of an hour, and has been a nightmare since. Just had openreach do a "lift and shift" - no evidence to support doing other than that's all they have left to try. So fingers crossed.

Unusually though it's syncing at 41, according to the engineer - can't tell with the openreach modem, but the throughput speed is 28mbps... So something still probably isn't quite right - can error correction cause a drop like this?

[DMZ]

I'm not a knowledgeable member like some are on these forums. I hope one pops along and can give you an answer.

I'm thinking it'll probably impact your connection in some form yes but I'm just guessing.

I'm sorry for not being super helpful. 

[DickiJ]

Just an update, all is now good!

3rd engineer visit - he simply applied interleaving and left. Still unstable and the DLM even removed it after 2 days.

4th engineer visited and swapped me onto a different line all the way from my house to the cabinet. Turns out last year they installed fresh copper cabling underground but only move people on to it as a last resort - I can see why as he was here for over 5 hours.

The TD-W9970 synced at 41mbps but throughput was still 28mbps with the same SNR reduction under load. I've swapped out to a BT Smarthub and sync speeds are 42mbps with throughput of 38mbps - Much better!

The even better news is that the 4th engineer pointed out that there's a few posts in the street with fiber lines coiled up half way up ready for installation - so hopefully we'll see FTTP in the near future!

Thanks for everyone's input

Many Thanks
Josh

[burakkucat]

So a good result has been achieved . . . eventually. 

Openreach have a "Thank an Engineer" page, if you feel that the five hours spent by "number four" are worthy of credit.