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[Coremancer]

Hello all, new user on kitz here, greatly appreciate any help.

Recently been suffering (last 28 hrs) extremely intermittent internet connection this weekend, this behavior is not strange as i have had issues with my ISP TalkTalk several times this year (but not last year...). However for the last two weeks its been working like a charm, only since this Saturday (9:40am) has it reared its ugly head yet again.

After frequent calls with TalkTalk and getting now-where fast decided to take matters into my own hands instead. Having spent the last 4 hours educating myself on both my DSL-3780 and general workings of a router i found the following information that gave cause for concern

When my internet is active using Wireless:

[see attached file]

Strangely enough these readings usually coincide with connection loss, somehow its still connected 
these readings are with my phoneline disconnected, only the router is connected to the filter. All electrical devices in the house are off, i have near line of sight to the router at the bottom of the stairs, estimate 8-10m, signal readout is 97-100%. LAN has been attempted but no change.

[Coremancer]

Here we are approx. 10 minutes later, no disconnect yet but.. hardly reassuring statistics. If this wasn't destroying my weekend id almost find the increase of errors amusing (already gone up by 1320ish wireless errors in the time this was posted)

[roseway]

Welcome to the forum.

The first thing to notice is that your connection is seriously underperforming. With that level of attenuation you should be expecting ~10000 kbps downstream and the TalkTalk maximum upstream rate of 1020 kbps. So something is very wrong, and it's hard to tell where the problem lies.

Do you have any stats from the period when it was working well? (It could be that the problem is always there, but has recently got worse). In any case it's worth carrying out the normal diagnostic tests - see http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/troubleshooting.htm .

When (if) the stats improve again I suggest that you reboot the router during the daytime and copy the new stats here so we can get a clear understanding of the differences. If it really does prove to be a weekend-only problem, then it can only really be some big source of interference which only occurs at the weekend. Are you aware of any electrical equipment which you or a near neighbour only use at the weekend?

[Coremancer]

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately I don't have any statistics to hand from earlier this week when it was running well, I've followed the troubleshooting tips, no change, tried a roommates laptop downstairs, 5m range from the router, direct line of sight, no change from before with wireless or lan, tried 3 different RJ11 cables, no difference, changed from an undesignated TalkTalk filter to an older BT Z-350UK filter from a previous router however, changes as follows;

Unknown TalkTalk Filter

              Downstream     Upstream
SNR:             3.5db  - 17.1db
Attenuation :  36.8db - 19.8db
Data rate :     7547kbps - 238kbps

BT Z-350UK Filter

              Downstream     Upstream
SNR:             6.4db  - 8.8db
Attenuation :  37.5db - 19.9db
Data rate :     7203kbps - 331kbps

The Z-350UK went in about 10 minutes ago, yet to disconnect so far.
Looking at a XF-1e filter which seems to have favorable reviews
http://www.tandyonline.co.uk/electronics/telecoms-dsl/xf-1e-professional-adsl-microfilter.html
But at this point I'm taking blind shots in the dark, TalkTalk service status notifies me I should have a rather hillarious 7.1-8.8mb download rate (1.5miles from exchange), lucky if i get 10% that at 500-900kbps

As for sources of interference, nothing we have in the house comes to mind, roommates moped is left indoors the entire weekend. But then is also left indoors weekday evenings and seems to have no detrimental effect, some junk under the stairs in between both laptop and pc upstairs, but that doesn't change through the week. Can't say for the neighbors, quite a few SSID's in the area, 5 are picked up by my dongle, but those are all channel 6 and 11, deliberately set ours to 1 to avoid them.

Guess I`ll have to wait for Monday to see our so called `good` internet service statistics



update: Z-350 disconnected twice in 2 hours, one of those times i disconnected from the wireless via the taskbar only to click connect to have it reconnect in about 3 seconds. On the second disconnect however, it couldn't be roused and took a 6 and a half minute nap. Unfortunately we don't seem to have another router to hand to experiment to see if the router is at fault, i know this one is approx 4 months old now, went in november, ran fine till feb, had one disastrous week of no connection for 6 days, then its been fine for about 3 weeks (seemingly fixing itself?) roll on monday...

[Coremancer]

Went to sleep early in defeat, only to wake up at 3:20am to see what i can see. Needless to say it goes down again briefly as I'm posting this at 3:45am

[see attached images]

I`ll try again in the morning, thanks for the weekend TalkTalk?

[Coremancer]

Seems to have hit a peak this morning after near constant disconnects from 3:00am till about 7:00am, now holding at second image (11.png)

[roseway]

The connection speeds (both upstream and downstream) are still bouncing around, so the interference is still there. One thing I should have mentioned is to ask if you can hear any crackling or hissing on the telephone. If so, it's most likely that there's a line fault, and you should report it as a voice fault, not a broadband fault.

[Coremancer]

[see attached file]

Tried G.DMT, no changes just a drop in data rate, 500kbps and 100kbps down/up respectively, will check the phones now

[Coremancer]

Tried phonelines, can definitely hear interference on the lines, these drop however when the router is turned off, line is crystal clear. tried popping the old Huawei Echolife HG521 router in (apparently we didn't throw him out) stats as follows:


Seems slightly worse but I`ll give Huawei a shot, still interference of comparable volume on the lines though.

update: removed the phone from the filter, upto 12.4db up and 9.4db down, leaving it for now and seeing what happens, will call TalkTalk shortly about a voice line fault

[roseway]

If removing the phone from the filter gave an immediate improvement in the stats (without a re-sync) that suggests the possibility that the filter may be defective. Have you tried changing the filters?

[Coremancer]

I only have two filters, the Z-350UK (currently with the Huawei) and an undesignated TalkTalk filter, both of them seem to perform the same, I was considering the XF-1e as an upgrade, just a little reserved spending money on something I'm not 100% sure on yet

[Blackeagle]

Plug the router directly into the test socket with no filter and see if that helps.  The filter is only there to stop the noise of the ADSL signal getting into your phone.  I'd also suggest getting a monitoring program to continuously monitor the stats from the router.  It should also be able to give you some graphs regarding bitloading and SNR per tone, which may help diagnose your issue. 

I find it very doubtful that TT telephone support will be able to help you.  Their customer forum however may be able to do so, although time resolution is usually longer.

[Black Sheep]

I don't think he's be able to plug into the test socket without a filter, BE ? I'm of course assuming his DSL lead from the router has the bog-standard RJ11 jack-plugs at either end ??

[burakkucat]

Risking an avian peck to my tail, I will have to agree with you B*Sheep.

Not everyone possesses a lead with a Plug No. 431 at one end and an RJ11 plug at the other end. 

[Blackeagle]

I don't think he's be able to plug into the test socket without a filter, BE ? I'm of course assuming his DSL lead from the router has the bog-standard RJ11 jack-plugs at either end ??

Risking an avian peck to my tail, I will have to agree with you B*Sheep.

Not everyone possesses a lead with a Plug No. 431 at one end and an RJ11 plug at the other end. 

Ahhh, sometimes forget that other people don't necessarily have access to the leads/equipment that I have 

However, lots of 'phones have the necessary lead to do this with