Print

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

[bbnovice]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve experienced several broadband disconnects, usually occurring during the night. The last time it occurred I could not log on as the ISP’s authentification servers (Virgin) refused to recognize me. After several very long telephone calls to support the problem eventually got resolved; during the trouble shooting the support analyst did mutter about disconnects in the main BT network which I didn’t follow up at the time. However I was advised to switch off my router at night and to leave it switched off until the next morning which I have done ever since.

I noticed the recent thread on this forum referring to the new broadband status checker for ZEN customers. Trawling through the ZEN site I discovered notices for loads of planned maintenance outages from BT, usually for 2 hours whilst they swap line cards in the exchange. My exchange is one of those covered by those notices and it was then that the penny dropped.

Why can’t BT themselves publish their maintenance schedule? I could then have avoided wasting several hours of my life on the phone with my ISP trying to sort out the consequent issues and switched off my router in advance.

One other weird side effect. Prior to the authentification issue I had a 10Db SNR which declined dramatically at night but the connection remained stable at about 8Db. Since the authentification issue and its resolution the SNR has been a steady 11+ Db and the expected decline at night much less. A coincidence?

[razpag]

The EU's contract is with the SP, therefore they are responsible for informing you of planned outages.

[AdrianH]

Status pages >> http://statuspages.co.uk/isps.asp  <<

your ISP should have a advisory page/system , most also have RSS Feed systems for this.

[jeffbb]

Hi

Quote
Prior to the authentification issue I had a 10Db SNR which declined dramatically at night but the connection remained stable at about 8Db

A 2 db drop does not seem excessive  most connections will see 2 to 3db drops during this period .

Regards Jeff

[bbnovice]

Hi

Quote
Prior to the authentification issue I had a 10Db SNR which declined dramatically at night but the connection remained stable at about 8Db

A 2 db drop does not seem excessive  most connections will see 2 to 3db drops during this period .

Regards Jeff

I'm aware about the typical drop off during the evening period, and my connection displayed exactly that behaviour prior to the BT work. The point I was making is that since BT have worked on the exchange, my SNR has increased by a factor of over 10% during the day and the decline during the evening period is now very much less.

The weird thing is that I now learn that the BT work was about wholesale replacement of ATM cards in the exchange. As I'm on ADSL2 I thought this would not be relevant to me, but I definitely experienced disconnections over exactly the relevant maintenance period which I can therefore only attribute to BT.

I'm not complaining about seeming improvements in my broadband connection, I just thought it odd and worth mentioning.