Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[roseway]

Like wading through treacle isn't it? Here's hoping that an engineer visit does resolve it.

[idlewilde]

This is heartbreaking, mate. I've got daily screengrabs of Routerstats, and it looks like someone's got an etch-a-sketch and drawn piccies of the Pyrnees!

[idlewilde]

There's an engineer coming onsite at 8am tomorrow - watch this space! 

[roseway]

I can't wait!

[idlewilde]

Update:

Roger (who is my new hero!) came round at 11:30am and spent 2.5 hours replacing the old faceplate and junction box, the cable from the rear of the house to the pole, drinking 5 cups of tea, scoffing one delectable sausage & egg sandwich, four biscuits and an eclair.

The result?

Downstream:

Noise Margin:     15.1   dB
Connection Rate:  576  Kbps
Line Attenuation: 63.5  dB
Power:            15.2  dBm

Upstream:

Noise Margin:     20.0  dB
Connection Rate:  288   Kbps
Line Attenuation: 31.5  dB
Power:            11.8  dBm

When he did the initial test on his laptop (prior to the work being done), it dropped synch and generated over 1400 CRC errors (in less than 4 minutes), whereas afterwards the test passed with 1 CRC error! He said that the fault was more than likely with the old cabling, but he'd keep an eye on it for me when he went back.

Been connected for over an hour now, SNR margin staying around the 15db mark, no disconnections so far, no fluctuations on routerstats, and the happiest camper you've seen is sitting in front of the PC grinning like I've slept with a coathanger in my mouth.

Thank you all so much for your invaluable assistance in this trial by fire. I just hope it stays like this now!

[roseway]

Good for Roger!

[UncleUB]

Nice one.  All that remains  is re stock the fridge. 

[Ezzer]

By the way was the replaced cable a light grey type ?

[kitz]

Excellent news - thanks ever so much for letting us know how it went.   

btw it looks like your line is on a fixed rate 0.5Mbps.  Whilst it may be able to cope with a bit more now, I'm not sure that I'd recommend dslmax - at least not yet until you are certain that the line is stable otherwise you may end up with slower speeds on max due to the IPprofile system.

But if the line does continue to remain stable with few fluctuations, then it could be something to consider for the future.
Dont worry about the 1 CRC error.. When on a fixed rate product my router always gave me 2 or 4 CRC errors during sync-up and would stay like that for days.

Evenings are normally the time when SNRM fluctuates the most... so fingers crossed that all remains well for you.

[idlewilde]

Oh, I may have spoken to soon. 

Connection stayed up for 22.5 hours, and whilst reading BBC news, the connection dropped, and has not come back up yet.

Roger had re-wired from the demarcation point to the drop-line anchor point on the outside front of the house, but due to the height of the pole, he could not wire it all the way across, and terminated the new wire onto the existing wire. he then left this tucked under the eaves, awaiting some fellow Openreach engineers to complete the work with a platform. Maybe the join has become damp, or loose, but there's no viable connection, and also a faint 'tapping' noise on the line. About 4 taps per second, not that I've timed it or anything.

Virgin (hello, Phil!) have told me that Openreach have not closed the job on their system, so I am hoping that at some stage this week they will come and finish it.

Will this ever end?

[kitz]

>> the connection dropped, and has not come back up yet 




>> Openreach have not closed the job on their system, so I am hoping that at some stage this week they will come and finish it.

If youre now without a connection, then perhaps a prod from your ISP wouldnt go amiss.

[idlewilde]

By the way was the replaced cable a light grey type ?

Sorry, Ezzer, I missed this. Yes, it was. It was ancient, by the look of it. There were quite a few points where it had become corroded to the point that you could make out the copper wire inside!

[idlewilde]

If youre now without a connection, then perhaps a prod from your ISP wouldnt go amiss.

Done and done, mate. There are now 2 people in 2nd line technical support in Virgin who are on the case for me. When this gets resolved, those two are getting a beer bonus!

[Ezzer]

If a cable is less than 5.2m above the carrageway then we are  not allowed to climb, so this has to be put back for a hoist crew (oh yes if you come up to an Openreach engineer who's got the measuring rods out to check the height of the cables, go and make some quip about going fishing because chances are we've never heard that joke before and we will be sure to roll about with laughter  )

By the sounds of things the drop wire to the pole is a real suspect, he's done part of the solution by changing the Lead-in hence the improvement. I would think as soon as a hoist crew can get round this should solve your problem.

it depends how much work there is in your area for the hoist guys as to how long it will be before thay can come round. Unfortunately there are only so many hoists, Would you belive they cost in excess of £73000 per vehicle 

[idlewilde]

Bit of an update for you lovely people.

2nd engineer visit 2 days ago, and he had to re-do the work that Roger did in terms of where the replacement cable terminated onto the old cable from the anchor point on the house to the telephone pole. He said that there were bare wires showing, so he re-did the joint, and put a waterproof clamp over the join. He then did a whoosh test, and the SNR's dropped by about a decibel, but the line's good. He also mentioned that there was no open work order for a hoist team to complete the work, but he would raise it for me. This morning, I got a text from my neighbour warning me that there were "BT people crawling all over your house". The mind boggles! They have completed the job for me, and also raised the cable as it was (allegedly) too low.

For the last few days, the connection comes up between 8am and 5:30pm and then dies overnight. Completely. 2nd engineer was hopeful that the new join would eliminate this problem, but sure enough at 5:30-ish yesterday, the connection went down. Came up this morning at 8am-ish.

My neighbour, who has been without internet for over a month now, tells me that there is a serious REIN fault about 850 feet from the house, at a large house nearby. I drove past it yesterday with the radio on MW, and about 150 feet away from the house, there is audible static that increases exponentially until you are past the house, to where you are opposite the house, when it's *really* loud. after which it dies away about 150 feet past. Said neighbour has told me that the one REIN-qualified specialist in Openreach in the Midlands area is booked to come on-site to the house of horrors and investigate what the problem is, or alternatively to investigate what the faulty appliance is.

I am now waiting to see if the problem has been solved with the new drop-line or, as I suspect, it will drop off for the night at 5:30pm. The timing is a bit of a giveaway for me, as I am now sure there is something being switched on/off when this person finished work, and switches it on/off when they go back to work the next morning. Either way, thanks to Virgin (Phil!!) I've gotten the main culprit sorted (the cabling to the drop-line) and established that there is indeed a problem knocking people off the net at a relatively fixed point in time.

If you hear a blood-curdling scream coming from the west-midlands area at about 5:30pm tonight, it's just me pulling out the remainder of my hair!

Watch this space.