Hi all,
This topic is related to the same fault that we were discussing here
https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,21455.0.html, however a significant amount of time has elapsed and I now believe that the initial assumption I made in that thread (MSAN ports going bad) is incorrect, so I thought a new thread would be worthwhile for clarity. Sorry for the very long post, but this story is somewhat complicated.
In a nutshell, the problem I am having is repeated loss of ADSL sync, occurring on an intermittent basis. We can go for a few days with an absolutely solid connection and not a single CRC error, however this can then change to a completely unusable connection for several hours with the modem staying in sync for only seconds before re-syncing over and over again. On average, I'd say the connection is unusable for about 10% of each day, and extremely frustrating outside of that with random disconnections occurring.
When the connection is playing up, the symptoms are as follows, as tested with a known good modem and corded telephone connected to the test socket using a known good microfilter:
- Large numbers of CRC errors and loss of sync occurring at random, but frequent, intervals (see attached image crc.png for typical example)
- Loss of sync occurring when the telephone is taken 'off-hook'
- Large number of CRCs occurring when the telephone is ringing (often followed by loss of sync)
- Significant oscillation of the SNRM (see attached snrm2.png for typical example)
- High pitched white noise clearly audible on the phone line while the modem is in sync, disappearing when sync is lost before restarting.
- Occasional crackling audible on the line, whether or not the modem is in sync
This problem has now been going on for roughly 2.5 years and, with me now having to work from home which involves numerous video calls, is becoming unbearable. In this time we have had visits from roughly 10 Openreach engineers, none of whom have managed to fix it. The results of the tests performed by the Openreach engineers on every visit are as follows:
- Exchange-based 'Fast-Test': Often passes, sometimes fails with 'CIDT Fault'
- House-based 'Pair-Quality' test. Always passes
As a result of this, a large number of Openreach visits end up being 'Right When Tested' so nothing gets done. Sometimes, the engineer performs a 'DSL Close-Out Test', using their tester as a modem and monitoring for CRCs and loss of sync. If the line is having a good period at that point, they see nothing, so again we have 'Right When Tested'. If the line is acting up at that point, they see the errors, particularly when the telephone is picked up or if I sneakily ring the phone from my mobile during the test.
If the errors were seen during the test, on every case they have gone away and done something, usually swapping between pairs at various different junction boxes until no more errors are seen during the DSL close out test. On a few occasions, the port on TalkTalk's MSAN was changed (hence the other thread). When they come back to the house, the DSL Close-Out Test passes with no errors and they leave. Without fail the fault then reoccurs some time (even minutes later in same cases) after they have left.
Lately, we have changed ISP to NowTV. Partially this was because of the suspicion of a bad line card on TalkTalk's MSAN (see other thread) so, since Sky have their own LLU equipment, we thought this would fix the problem. It didn't, the problem is just as bad as before.
Two weeks ago, we had an Openreach engineer come out and he saw the huge number of CRCs on his tester. He then went to the joint box in the pavement on the opposite side of the road to the house and did the same test there, finding no errors. He then swapped us to the green/black pair in the cable from the joint box to the house and tested again at the house. This time, he got even more CRCs than when testing at the house the first time. He therefore put us back on the orange/white pair and put in a job for the replacement of the 'lead-in' (the cable between the joint box and our house). The house is 1970s build with an armoured telephone cable buried directly in the ground from the joint box on the other side of the road, up the street a bit.This means this job is very difficult and expensive as it requires digging up our front garden, the pavement outside the house down the street and then the road to get across to the joint box on the other side.
Last week, a civils team together with a PSTN engineer came along. Apparently the job had been changed by management from 'change the lead-in' to 'find the fault on the cable run, then dig there and repair it'. Of course, no-one knows where on the lead-in the fault was, so they guessed at under the pavement outside my neighbour's house as they thought it might be the buried joint there. They dug a hole in the pavement, but found no telephone cables in the hole so filled it in again and left.
A few days later, we had another broadband engineer visit who put in for replacement of the lead-in again (though he was unable to reproduce the fault as the line was fine at that time, he did believe the previous engineer who said that there is one). Yesterday, another civils team turned up. They dug up the front lawn and put in ducting for a new lead-in between the house and pavement. So far so good. However, they ran out of time so had to come back today to dig up the pavement and road to get to the joint box. This morning they arrived with a broadband engineer who tested the line and couldn't find the fault (line having one of its good periods), so he told them to cancel the lead-in change, leaving the newly installed duct in the front lawn empty. Instead, they dug in front of next door's house again and the engineer spliced my lead-in onto the spare pair on next door's lead in (this effectively replaces only 5m of the 30m lead in). As soon as the engineer left, but while the civils team were still there, the disconnections restarted. I showed one member of the civils team the disconnections and the noise on the phone, and he agreed that it is still broken, so he tried to call the engineer that just left. We were told to simply report the fault again via our CP.
This is a complete nightmare, since going back to reporting the fault via NowTV leaves us with a 50/50 chance they will find nothing again, so we will have to keep trying appointment after appointment until an engineer happens to come when the problem is apparent. Then the issue is that if the engineer can't fix the problem that day, the next engineer does the tests again and cancels the job if the fault can't be found the next day.
My questions to the good people at kitz are as follows:
1) Does anyone have any ideas about a better way to approach Openreach or NowTV about this, because right now I am getting nowhere.
2) Does anyone have any other ideas about what the actual problem with the line might be? It may be that the fault simply disappeared (in the way it does) when the engineer tested from the joint box, so perhaps the lead-in is not the problem after all.