Hi there folks, I'm hoping someone experienced with BT procedures could help me with this situation.
Basically I am suffering from intermittent line noise since Februay 2009. The noise is very audible and obviously affects the ADSL. I am approx 3km from the exchange and usually sync at 6880/832 with a up and downstream SNR of 9.
The noise only ever lasts a few seconds at a time, but can happen several times an hour. This results in several ADSL sync drops. In the time it takes for the ADSL to re-sync, the noise could of gone away and it resyncs at the same or faster rate.
Most the time it is the upstream that is affected. Each reconnect will have a downstream of 6000+ but the upstream will vary and be as low as 80 (eighty). I have also had 48 hours of 6880/832 with little change in the SNR.
You can view a typical day from the routers perspective at
http://www.nooblet.org/blog/gallery/misc/router/full/2009-04-13.jpg.
This is a downstream graph. The blue line is the SNR, and the red line is the sync speed.
More graphs can be seen at
http://www.nooblet.org/blog/pics/?lzkfile=misc%2Frouter%2F.
The noise I am hearing is scratching on the line, as if I am scratching the receiver on the phone. I don't beleive its rain as after 2 dry weather days I suffer from the issue.
So far I have tried:
Different routers: Netgear DG834GT, Netgear DG834N, Zoom x3
Different microfilters: 3x Standard plug-in that came with modems, NTE5 faceplate with microfilter built-in
Different cables: All 3 modems came with their own cable
Plugging direct to test socket: I have no extensions but whenever I used a standard microfilter it was plugged into test socket
No modem, just phone, in test socket: Usually if I get a router disconnect, by the time I have run to the socket, unplugged all equipment and plugged in a wired phone the noise will have gone away. However today I was actually on the phone at the time when I had some bad noise so I connected to the test socket and still heard the noise. Now to me, this proves that it can't be my equipment as I am only using a wired phone, nothing else.
After todays test socket cofirmation I rang BT. Unfortunately the whole intermittency of the noise makes it hard to diagnose and even harder for BT to help me. Of course the standard line test came up fine. During my call to BT I had a perfect line, just like I do 95% of the time. I was warned of the charge I could incur for the engineers visit if the issue is found to be of my own equipment. I am pretty confident he/she won't find an issue my side of the master socket, but the woman at BT also said "if no fault is found then I am also liable for the charge, and any subsequent callout found to have no fault is chargeable". Now I'm worried. I know when the engineer comes my line will be fine, its sods law. But I can't afford to spend £115 for each callout until a fault is found.
What is the usual procedure for a problem such as mine?
An intermittent line fault must be darn near impossible to diagnose. As my neighbours aren't sufferent from the same issue, can I get switched to a different pair of wires regardless of whether a fault is found at the time?
Can my router graphs be used as evidence?
Should I buy a phone recorder or any proper line quality testing equipment?