Hi there,
Retyped this all since I lost it the first time because I had an attachment over 900kB!
I'm new to this forum, but from the few posts I've read, it seems to me that there are a lot of experienced engineers and troubleshooters around!
So we have been with BT since 2004, and we first started with 1/2 Mbps. This was then upgraded to 1Mbps. However it seems to have dropped now (for a good few years) to 333Kpbs. Take a look at a test I ran earlier this evening (theses stats are fairly standard for our connection. It is odd that the upload speed is faster than the download speed!):
According to the BT line speed tester, it reckons we should get 1Mbps.
I've had a look at the Kitz Exchange Checker, and these are the figures it gives:
Distance:- Direct: 2.59 km
(appx)* By Road: 3.22 km
Here is some data I pulled from the BT Homehub 2 earlier:
ADSL line status
Connection information
Line state Connected
Connection time 0 days, 2:42:50
Downstream 575 Kbps
Upstream 462 Kbps
ADSL settings
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation ITU-T G.992.5
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 8.9 dB / 7.6 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 55.5 dB / 29.8 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 17.0 dBm / 12.0 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local) 53
Loss of Signal (Local) 196
Loss of Power (Local) 0
FEC Errors (Down/Up) 515212 / 427
CRC Errors (Down/Up) 2079 / N/A
HEC Errors (Down/Up) N/A / 124747
Error Seconds (Local) 298
Do these stats make sense with the distances involved?
I think there may be some potential issues with the wiring of the house:
When I went to look at the extension wiring in the loft, it looked like a rats nest! I did spot a REN booster; would that have any effect?
I installed a BT iPlate last year, but when it was fitted, the modem could not sync with the DSLAM. The BT Tech Support guys were stumped at this, and they ran some tests and informed me that there was a 'fault' on the line. An OR engineer was sent out (not sure which type), and he ran an attenuation test (not sure if that's the correct name!) from the test point in the house to the exchange, and got a figure in the 50s (sorry, it was a long time ago and I didn't have the foresight to write it down!) he said that the tech support guys had a figure in the 70s, which is why he was called out. He said that as far as he was concerned, there wasn't a fault and left it at that. I didn't really chase the issue up, until now. The BT tech support people also weren't happy to hear that I wasn't using the HH2.
We seem to have always had an intermittent problem that when we receive an incoming phone call (when the phone starts ringing), the modem loses sync with the DSLAM. It seems to come and go. For example it's happened twice today, once in the morning and once late afternoon. There have been a good fifteen incoming calls (admittedly a few were when I was trying to provoke it!). Sometimes it happens with virtually every call, and sometimes we don't see it for a good month or two.
There is also a fair amount of background noise on the line if I try a silent line test.
I have switched to my old Netgear DG834Gv1, and spent the evening logging the line. Below is a bit from this evening. The dip in the SNR coincides with when I picked up the phone to make a call.
Is there any logging which I can do overnight/for a longer period of time? I have noticed that the HH2 does occaisonally lose sync with no apparent reason.
I guess the next thing to try is to plug the router and a phone in to the test point and see if any of the problems are also experienced there. The problem with the disconnection is that they don't happen consistently.
When we learnt that we were in a FTTC enabled area, we jumped at the chance. Because the BT speed estimator gave us 11Mbps, it meant that we couldn't sign up for infinity services, and their Total Broadband FTTC Option 3 cost a bomb, so we're switching to Plusnet. If we were actually getting a reliable 1Mbps service then we may not, but this is so slow that streaming anything is a no no. Don't even think about someone trying to download something while someone else tries to browse the web!
They are coming at the beginning of next week to install this (yeah, I wish I had found this forum a bit sooner!). My concern is that there may be a fault with the line somewhere other than in the house (if it is in the house, I guess it doesn't matter too much any more), which then might also affect the FTTC service. If this is the case, I don't know whether it can be looked at when FTTC is set up- from what I have read, a lot of problems can slip through their 'standard set up tests' (such as LTOK?)?
From what I have read in some of the other topics, I could try to guess some faults, but I think a little knowledge in this area is a
dangerous thing! I was hoping that some of you experts might be able to provide more of an insight in to what is going on!
Phew, sorry for the long post (and congrats if you made it this far
), I just wanted to get as much info as possible out there!
Thanks in advance,
Thomas
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