Right, I'm back online again, but I haven't cracked open the champagne just yet.
On arrival the engineer confirmed that nobody had informed him of the issues history or previous visits.
So I gave him a very quick summary.
He also confirmed he could stay as long as it took to sort this issue out.
The engineer visually checked my internal wiring - all O.K, apart from one plug on one of my telephone extensions.
He said it needed a quick clean as it could potentailly cause a problem.
He plugged in his JDSU & laptop, but point blank refused to let me look at them.
He said he was only allowed to give me any stats verbally & there was no way he was going to risk being sacked for letting me see them.
Is that really the case
razpag, that BT intentionally hide from end users the statistical details of the service that they are actually paying for, & that engineers can be instantly sacked for allowing users to see the stats?
We already know that the user interface for obtaining connection stats has been intentionally locked/hidden in the BT supplied modems.
He also added that strictly speaking, he should only be confirming whether or not speeds were higher than BT's minimum of 15 Mb.
Verbally obtained stats:-Downstream Max Rate - 22 Mb
Downstream Actual Rate - 19.2 Mb
Downstream Line Attenuation - 23 dB (this is down from the 30.2 dB that I was allowed to photograph last time, but is it good or bad?)
The engineer stated that the attenuation value takes the whole telephone line from the exchange into account & not the distance from the cabinet.
Again,
razpag, I suspect your findings from your recent installation job would confirm otherwise.
SNR - 5.7 dB (down slightly from 5.9 dB last time)
PQT - O.K.
REIN - O.K.
Line Length - Wouldn't confirm - said the JDSU does not report it. (I'm sure I have seen a photo somewhere of a JDSU showing line length)
Line generally is O.K.
He said that the results would be emailed immediately to Plusnet from his laptop, but he was not allowed to actually speak to them.
Off he went to the cabinet & I saw the modem disconnect.
Quite a while later he phoned me to say he had found that the speed was only 22 Mb at the cabinet. Hence me only receiving that speed at home.
I suppose that confirms that the D-side line is
currently good enough to get whatever the cabinet is able to throw at me.
He also mentioned that had been unable to locate any faults on the E-side.
He went on to say he had been on the phone for ages to BT explaining the position & to request a "port flex".
I have never heard that phrase before & the engineer wouldn't expand other than to say it is not a "lift & shift".
I can only assume for now that is his terminology for a resetting of my profile and/or resetting DLM back to the starting point.
razpag, are you able to expand on what this actually means to BT?
He said I should get my fast speeds back anywhere within a few minutes to 24 hours from now as my line is good enough to support "quite a lot more" than the current 22 Mb.
This is the current speedtest.net result:-
The engineer did also mention that a lot of major wire & fibre cabling work is going on in Oldham Town Centre to make way for a new tram system (Metrolink) & this could potentially be causing a number of disconnections/speed issues for any number of Oldham's residents.
It seems like I will have to play the waiting for a while longer.
Alex from Plusnet has requested feedback from today's visit. Once I have updated him I will post any confirmation of what happens next on here.
It
may be the case that Plusnet now have to nudge something at their end as was the case when FTTC was initially installed.
Paul.