Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => FTTC and FTTP Issues => Topic started by: Bowdon on March 26, 2021, 11:22:40 AM
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Before I started testing different things I thought I'd pose the question.
About 2 weeks ago for some reason the BT router went offline and was stuck on green. I ended up having to pull the power plug. I waited a few minutes and plugged it back in, and the router connected.
Usually I get around 67, but it reconnected at 60. Since then it did the 14 day reboot and I expected it to start climbing in speed back to normal. But it didn't. It reconnected at the same 60.
Along side this it was brought to my attention that there is crackling on the line. The crackling is present even when just picking up the phone and hearing the dial tone.
I did the line test on the BT site and it said there was no fault. But of the options I had to select I couldn't select one that represented the issue. The closest I could select was poor quality phone calls. Which it is, but then it's more than that.
So I'm wondering if something happened to the line to knock the router off, or if the line recovered and now its the router causing interference?
I also did the quiet line test and there was crackling. I haven't used a corded phone yet. Though until now I'd never noticed crackling on the cordless phones.
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There is a possibility but it is very small.
You know the correct course of action . . . A wired telephone connected directly into the test socket and perform a quiet line test. If that test fails, report an audibly noisy line to your telephony provider.
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As I found out recently, crackling doesn't tend to trip any of the automated tests. I could barely hear the dial tone over the crackling and it came back fine on the tests.
Worthy of note is it if its crackling or hissing, as hissing can be a failing filter and would go away if the modem/router was unplugged or of course you are using the test socket.
Crackling should always be reported as a "poor quality calls" issue, as theres a good chance fixing that will magically fix the broadband side too. If it doesn't THEN you resort to the tedious process of trying to get to the root cause.
The way I see it, you don't want them sending a broadband engineer if a voice engineer can fix it.
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I decided to buy a new corded phone as the old one I was using is very big, from the old days.
It's a crackling sound and it starts by just picking up the phone and hearing the dial tone.
Hopefully I'll get the new phone early tomorrow then I can start doing the tests.
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A minor update.
After a few days of doing the quiet line test and getting the crackling I unscrewed the bt socket and tested the new corded phone in test socket. The crackling was even louder there.
So I've booked an an appointment for an engineer. He's due to arrive on the Friday 9th of April (1pm to 6pm). I made sure to report it as a land line fault, poor quality calls. It has effected the broadband but I unticked that as a problem. Though later on it said a land line fault can effect the broadband service.
I don't use the phone to make voice calls myself. It's my parents that use it, and they say the crackling is on every call. So hopefully it'll be easy for the engineer to hear the problem.
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After a few days of doing the quiet line test and getting the crackling I unscrewed the bt socket and tested the new corded phone in test socket. The crackling was even louder there.
Good. You have definitely identified a defect.
So I've booked an an appointment for an engineer. He's due to arrive on the Friday 9th of April (1pm to 6pm). I made sure to report it as a land line fault, poor quality calls. It has effected the broadband but I unticked that as a problem.
That is a wise option. You only need the services of a telephony engineer.
Have you been able to make a recording of the problem? Just in case?
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Have you been able to make a recording of the problem? Just in case?
I haven't yet. But I've re-downloaded this voice recorder app on my phone so I'm now on the hunt for a crackle *sits next to the phone with a deerstalker hat on* ;D
I noticed about an hour after I reported the fault BT sent a message which sounded like they had done something to fix it and was asking to confirm the appointment. But the message was confusing how it was written as it might have just been a confirmation message. So I'm not 100% sure they fixed it or not. So I keep checking the phone.
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So far since I reported the fault there hasn't been any crackling on the quiet line test. But I'm told by the parents that the phone still crackles during a phone call.
I had thought about unplugging the router to see if it re-connects at the usual higher sync rate but it did a reconnect on its own today around the same speed as before. So that side hasn't improved.
I think I'm going to have to do some in-call tests to people to see if I can pick it up there. I'm thinking that if the voice line engineer can't hear a crackle that the equipment won't pick anything up and I'm going to end up being charged for the visit?
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I think this is the first disappointing experience I've had with an OR engineer on a visit.
The crackling did come back since my last post, which I was thinkful for so it could be heard.
The engineer got here and assumed it was the master socket that was causing the problem, a known issue apparently. It was the socket with the 2 connectors top (broadband) and bottom (phone line).. and so she changed it to the mk4 master socket with the 2 connectors side by side. I'll post a picture of one similar to it that I got from an online source.
So she left and we assumed everything would be fixed. But just had a phone call and the crackling is as bad as ever. It is so bad it can be heard just by picking up the phone and listening to the dial tone.
I don't understand how she can have come to the conclusion that the problem was caused by a faulty socket when I'd done the check through the test socket. Maybe she was guessing or something?
So the problem isn't fixed.
I noticed in the email BT send out they assume the problem is fixed and don't ask if its fixed. So I'm going to have to be making another appointment soon :(
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I think this is the first disappointing experience I've had with an OR engineer on a visit.
<snip>
So she left and we assumed everything would be fixed. But just had a phone call and the crackling is as bad as ever. It is so bad it can be heard just by picking up the phone and listening to the dial tone.
D'oh! :(
Take a look at this Openreach web-site page (https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/when-to-get-in-touch-with-openreach/complaints-policy) and then urge your service provider to raise a complaint regarding the above.
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I decided to wait it out and write some posts on the BT forum and eventually arranged for another OR engineer visit, that happened today.
This engineer was a lot more thorough. He tracked down the fault. It was a wire at the exchange. He said when he moved it one way the crackling happened. But when he moved it the other way it stopped. So he replaced the wire. So hopefully all is good now :fingers:
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This engineer was a lot more thorough. He tracked down the fault. It was a wire at the exchange. He said when he moved it one way the crackling happened. But when he moved it the other way it stopped. So he replaced the wire. So hopefully all is good now :fingers:
A good result.
Just one thought . . . Was a DLM reset performed?
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Just one thought . . . Was a DLM reset performed?
No, not as far as I can see.
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Ok, I spoke to soon in my last post about the fix. It's back to crackling.
I have managed to record it on my phone and transferred it to the pc.
What is a good upload site that I can use to share this to people?
It's an .mp3 file. It is 1.06MB file size.
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Ok, I spoke to soon in my last post about the fix. It's back to crackling.
:wall:
I have managed to record it on my phone and transferred it to the pc.
What is a good upload site that I can use to share this to people?
It's an .mp3 file. It is 1.06MB file size.
Google drive, perhaps?
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Google drive, perhaps?
Ahh, I didn't think of that. I'll have a look in to it.
Thanks for the idea :)
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The latest update on this phone line saga is that, on the advice of the previous OR guy, I put in another fault report on the line.
Today was the day of the OR appointment. So the OR engineer turned up... and when I mentioned about what the previous OR guy had said she phoned him and she decided to check the pole outside. So while the health and safety pole guy turned up, she finished another job in the centre of town and then come back.
After the pole guy had finished the job the phone line went down and was out of action for a few hours. I was beginning to get nervous of if the line would come on back today. It eventually did.
Though after it came back on the broadband side was still down. Then she visited the house and said the line should be ok now. She was still doing tests on it. But apparently she had to call India for them to put the broadband back on. She said it can happen any time. So give me her number if it hadnt come on by tonight and she'd follow up later.
Broadband did eventually come on, though the speed as dropped to 52.38Mbps when its usually at 60Mbps. I'm hoping thats just the DLM reducing it thinking the line is unstable and it'll gradually go back to the normal speed.
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Well, the crackling is confirmed to be back.
Mum was using the phone today and it was as bad as ever.
To be honest, I don't think they fixed it last time, as when I called the OR engineer back to say the broadband was back on it was crackling then and she said she was still doing tests on the line so I thought it would be temporary.
I've got a feeling this is a high resistance line fault. I've had 3 OR engineers out so far. I'm going to try and contact the last OR engineer later today on the phone number she gave me.
It is disconcerting to keep having to call engineers out to the line. I feel abit embarrassed having to do this. But I know other people on the forum have had these sort of issues before.
I'm thinking the Mods might want to move this thread in to a more appropriate section as its obiously more a line fault than any faulty router problems.
I'll keep the thread updated on the progress.
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Thank you for moving this thread to a better place :)
Ok, so the latest is I had contacted the engineer on the day of the last post and she got back to me today.
She said she had talked to her supervisor and they agree they think they have found the problem and would be working on the line today and she'd contact me when it was done.
I didn't notice the phone line or broadband cut out today, she rang me back later to say it should be good now and to text back after I'd checked the line myself.
I just checked it and so far there as been no crackling. I'll keep my fingers crossed as we have got further than last time were it was back to crackling the day of the last repair.
So hoping its fixed :fingers:
I can't wait till FTTP arrives here. I'm saying my prays and taking extra vitamins ;)
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Wait, there's a vitamin to speed up the FTTP rollout? You must tell us your secret. :lol:
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Hi Bowdon
I know you may be on this now
But what are the newer 2019 faceplates like?
A router that's going bad can up the attenuation that's in my XP
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I think the faceplate I used to use was more modern, the one with the phone and broadband connectors above/below each other, instead of this current one which is side-by-side (I posted a picture of one that looks like the current faceplate they put on in reply 8).
So far the crackling as gone. But I think they did something to my broadband connection i.e. made it worse. It managed to hold the line for the 14 days then dropped connection and reconnected. Now over the past 4 days its dropped connection twice. The speed still is around 52Mb. At this point I thought DLM might begin to take me back up to 60Mb. But I've got a feeling this is as far as I get with my speed. I've a feeling they moved my connection at the cabinet next to another line that is giving me interference, as this is what happened when the neighbours joined Sky's FTTC. After a few months they dropped Sky and went to Virgin and my speed went back to 60.
So the vitamins worked for my voice line quality, but not my broadband. The prayers weren't answered :(
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I've noticed a pattern in this broadband dropping. The line was ok (though not at the speeds I used to have) for 14 days since the engineer left, it's now disconnecting once a day, for the past 4 days.
I usually don't have any problems with the broadband side of things. So what is a reasonable threshold before I complain about a broadband fault?