Engineer came this morning, let's get the highlights and then you can read the rest in detail:
A) He did a line reset, resulting in the following stats :
6. Data rate: 7640 / 42046
7. Maximum data rate: 7673 / 42181
8. Noise margin: 6.0 / 5.9
9. Line attenuation: 0.0 / 24.7
10. Signal attenuation: 0.0 / 22.4
My Home Hub 5 downstream is rated at 41.06 and my real world throughput is 39.4 via HTTP testing. This is close to what I had on day two of my install.
Sadly, my ping is still 44 to the BT checker(was 20 before) and 25 to BBC.co.uk (was 15 before). Could I still be on interleaving?
B) The Ethernet run up to the master socket(BT installed this), has slight noise/errors on it, while the downstairs number two socket is super clean. It might be causing disconnects (whether that's due to the poor quality of the home hub 5 I can't tell at this time).I am looking to install OR modem tomorrow and just pray DLM doesn't kick in again before then.
It will be interesting to see what BT tech support say in regards to the 'fault' they saw on the line.
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I actually have a journal now because of all the notes I've taken in this on-going saga.
Monday 22/09/2014 : The engineer showed up and ... wow I don't even know if I can face writing about how dismal it was.
Right off the bat he had a poor attitude, clearly not interested, no passion for anything he was doing, not very sympathetic.
He went straight to fiddling with his tools on outside of the house. I tried to gauge his responsiveness and throw in to the conversation about the cabinet, and how that went over the weekend(remember I was told by BT/OR that this is THE GUY that started the repairs). He said he had not been to the cabinet, that he was not the same engineer and he couldn't tell us if any engineer had been to the cabinet or what fault might have been and how it could therefore affect our line, our neighbours line and determine what it might change about how he did his job today.
SUPER START!
He proceeded to hang around for twenty minutes, going in door and out, upstairs downstairs fiddling with the tool - not doing much of anything it seemed. At that point I had to run back to work. I got a call from him shortly afterwards and he says that he squeezed out 37 downstream and that's the best our property could get. 'Squeeze out?' He acts like he adjusted something, but he didn't do anything!
When I posed to him the question of 'how come it was 42 on our day of install, and how come our neighbours was at 50! (forgetting the contrast to my speed) he feigned ignorance saying 'speeds change.'
From here proceeded a back and forth tit for tat where I'd ask a legitimate question and he'd respond with a waffle of excuses that it sounds like he's used before.
Then he tells me 'oh by the way, the downstairs line is super clean but the upstairs connection has a few blips of errors - nothing to worry about, not that would affect the speed 'a lot.' It did however seem odd to him because the cat 5 shouldn't be acting up....
I then tried to plead our case and ask him to help while he was there, not let us face another disappointment.
So would he please :
-Check the neighbours real quick on the outside of the property. He said "I could, but I'm not obliged"
-Can you look at the Ethernet line and see if it was fixable or adjustable as it was BT who installed the master socket run. He said "no need."
-When asked him to go to the cabinet and see if our port was damaged, if there's any obvious issues or simply check the lines, it took several requests and only then begrudgingly he "might consider it."
-Would he do a Qual (??) test and try to give us a cable run distance from the cabinet. Yes he could, but "it wouldn't 'help' you in any way."
Next I queried about whether we're on interleave. He said 'oh ya, I didn't notice that earlier, let me run upstairs and reset that for you, I don't have to goto the cabinet'
I asked him one last time, TO GO TO THE CABINET and let us know what's going on. He actually came back!!! And said nothing is wrong.
I thought OR was sending me a BOOST engineer, whose job is to do everything they can to find faults, fix faults, improve conditions and make any recommendations, reports and analysis they can. And at a normal going rate of £130-£200 a time, you'd think they'd do that. How come I can't ever get one of those awesome knights that people rave about, that come around with a smile on their face and a real interest in making this better for you? Do they only exist on fabricated threads on BT's forums?
As for whatever is going on at the cabinet, I don't know. If he'd just given my a rough cable run read out then we'd know whether it's simply distance or not, that's causing my attenuation to be what I consider high.
