Help me diagnose my VDSL issue
Discussion
Harpoon said:
Are IDNet your PSTN provider? Either way, did you log a PSTN fault (ie not a broadband) faulty that you cannot make voice calls at times?
Yes and yes.They are offering to take a call from the engineer to help explain the issues, but are still saying the line comes back as 'ok' and so a charge may be made. I need to agree to this before they arrange a callout. It's another 1/2 day off work for me too.
I didn't go into the same monitoring depth as you have, but my Infinity 2 line was having all the same issues as yours is having.
BT couldn't blame my internal wiring quickly or frequently enough, even though I paid for someone out of the Yellow pages to come and check all my internal wiring.
After 4 or 5 visits I eventually got a BT engineer who went and checked the green cabinet where he found my line hanging on by one strand of wire.
My speed tripled and has never dropped since (3 months ago).
Assume they've checked your termination at the green cabinet?
BT couldn't blame my internal wiring quickly or frequently enough, even though I paid for someone out of the Yellow pages to come and check all my internal wiring.
After 4 or 5 visits I eventually got a BT engineer who went and checked the green cabinet where he found my line hanging on by one strand of wire.
My speed tripled and has never dropped since (3 months ago).
Assume they've checked your termination at the green cabinet?
Coin Slot. said:
Assume they've checked your termination at the green cabinet?
Unfortunately not!They've only checked the master socket (which I knew was fine), swapped it to new socket and faceplate (pinching my posh filtered faceplate). I'd already tried two faceplates and two filters.
They ran a 5 minutes test, which came back fine, as I knew it would - being an intermittent fault.
My line always came back as fine too, no excess noise etc.
BT blamed my wiring, then my house alarm, the Netgear router (I swapped my Superhub early on to try and diagnose the fault my self) and finally my powerline adaptors.
The first two engineers weren't even BT, they were some kind of 1st line sub contractors who were clueless.
It was only when the BT troubleshooter came to the house that the fault was finally found.
It cost me £75 for the ex BT guy to come out and spend a couple of hours isolating the extensions, putting a filter on the alarm and then he even put the newest kind of master socket in for me so I was confident it wasn't an issue inside my property.
BT blamed my wiring, then my house alarm, the Netgear router (I swapped my Superhub early on to try and diagnose the fault my self) and finally my powerline adaptors.
The first two engineers weren't even BT, they were some kind of 1st line sub contractors who were clueless.
It was only when the BT troubleshooter came to the house that the fault was finally found.
It cost me £75 for the ex BT guy to come out and spend a couple of hours isolating the extensions, putting a filter on the alarm and then he even put the newest kind of master socket in for me so I was confident it wasn't an issue inside my property.
An engineer will have to wait until next week as too busy work-wise to take more time off.
I have swapped the Billion 8800NL (which has been working great for years) for an old HG612. This is the third modem I've tried (the other being a Draytek Vigor 130).
The HG612 appears to hold on to connection with a much lower noise margin. It also shows SNR margin fluctuations, where as the Billion was almost always level. Far less FEC error that the billion (although still lots of spikes).
I still don't think this is local interference, but a line problem which I'm seeing. I still cannot always get an outside line - dial tone never stops. Really intermittent though.
Last 24 hours. Line drop around 10pm and again around 2am (DLM). Still not managed more than 2 days without drop in the last 3 months.
Here's DSLStats SNRM last two days
Far lower margin, it was near 6db for ages before plummeting to just over 2.5 and only recovering to 3. You can also see the line drop at 10pm and the resync at 2am.
I have swapped the Billion 8800NL (which has been working great for years) for an old HG612. This is the third modem I've tried (the other being a Draytek Vigor 130).
The HG612 appears to hold on to connection with a much lower noise margin. It also shows SNR margin fluctuations, where as the Billion was almost always level. Far less FEC error that the billion (although still lots of spikes).
I still don't think this is local interference, but a line problem which I'm seeing. I still cannot always get an outside line - dial tone never stops. Really intermittent though.
Last 24 hours. Line drop around 10pm and again around 2am (DLM). Still not managed more than 2 days without drop in the last 3 months.
Here's DSLStats SNRM last two days
Far lower margin, it was near 6db for ages before plummeting to just over 2.5 and only recovering to 3. You can also see the line drop at 10pm and the resync at 2am.
buggalugs said:
It’s gonna be water in a junction or a failing cable or something on your BT line
This... I have recently had issues with dropping connections after heavy rain/bad weather; having Nest security cameras means that I get a notification that a cmaer is offline as soon as the connection drops. BT came out within 48 hours of me reporting issues (my BT contract guranteees minimum of 52Mb/s); they checked the wiring in the house (no issues) and then checked the connection back to the green box. The technician changed/replaced something in the green box and the internet has been fine since but he also diagnosed an issue between my house and the junction at the end of my drive and BT plan to replace the cable in the next few days.
jesusbuiltmycar said:
This... I have recently had issues with dropping connections after heavy rain/bad weather; having Nest security cameras means that I get a notification that a cmaer is offline as soon as the connection drops.
BT came out within 48 hours of me reporting issues (my BT contract guranteees minimum of 52Mb/s); they checked the wiring in the house (no issues) and then checked the connection back to the green box. The technician changed/replaced something in the green box and the internet has been fine since but he also diagnosed an issue between my house and the junction at the end of my drive and BT plan to replace the cable in the next few days.
Unfortunately the BT engineer I had simply checked the master socket (was fine) and replaced it anyway. They didn't check the cabinet, exchange or pole.BT came out within 48 hours of me reporting issues (my BT contract guranteees minimum of 52Mb/s); they checked the wiring in the house (no issues) and then checked the connection back to the green box. The technician changed/replaced something in the green box and the internet has been fine since but he also diagnosed an issue between my house and the junction at the end of my drive and BT plan to replace the cable in the next few days.
They now want to charge me if "no fault found" which is quite possible considering the intermittent nature of the fault. Has anyone been charged and contested it?
They wanted to charge me, it used to be £125 but I'm sure I saw somewhere that it had gone up to £250?
What gets me is that they constantly blamed my equipment, my internal wiring etc and yet it was their equipment all along.
Who pays for my time and effort, there really should be some way of countering the charges that they try to impose on people.
I finally got a 2 month credit, but my issues went on for 4 months and I took 4 or 5 mornings off and their compo doesn't even begin to cover my costs.
If they'd sent a proper engineer on the first visit they could have resolved this without sending out contractors on 4 or 5 other occasions.
Crazy, absolutely crazy and no way to appeal or find an alternative.
What gets me is that they constantly blamed my equipment, my internal wiring etc and yet it was their equipment all along.
Who pays for my time and effort, there really should be some way of countering the charges that they try to impose on people.
I finally got a 2 month credit, but my issues went on for 4 months and I took 4 or 5 mornings off and their compo doesn't even begin to cover my costs.
If they'd sent a proper engineer on the first visit they could have resolved this without sending out contractors on 4 or 5 other occasions.
Crazy, absolutely crazy and no way to appeal or find an alternative.
page3 said:
jesusbuiltmycar said:
This... I have recently had issues with dropping connections after heavy rain/bad weather; having Nest security cameras means that I get a notification that a cmaer is offline as soon as the connection drops.
BT came out within 48 hours of me reporting issues (my BT contract guranteees minimum of 52Mb/s); they checked the wiring in the house (no issues) and then checked the connection back to the green box. The technician changed/replaced something in the green box and the internet has been fine since but he also diagnosed an issue between my house and the junction at the end of my drive and BT plan to replace the cable in the next few days.
Unfortunately the BT engineer I had simply checked the master socket (was fine) and replaced it anyway. They didn't check the cabinet, exchange or pole.BT came out within 48 hours of me reporting issues (my BT contract guranteees minimum of 52Mb/s); they checked the wiring in the house (no issues) and then checked the connection back to the green box. The technician changed/replaced something in the green box and the internet has been fine since but he also diagnosed an issue between my house and the junction at the end of my drive and BT plan to replace the cable in the next few days.
They now want to charge me if "no fault found" which is quite possible considering the intermittent nature of the fault. Has anyone been charged and contested it?
Since BT have already checked within your house it stands to reasone that the issue is between your house and wither the juction on your street or the green box - without getting it checked by a BT technician there is not a lot you can do.
If you dont want to risk having to pay (and I don't blame you for not trusting them to find the fault) it may be worth changing your ISP to BT and selecting one of theier packages that guarantees a level of service - you'll be amazed how quickly they wil sort it out.
jesusbuiltmycar said:
If you dont want to risk having to pay (and I don't blame you for not trusting them to find the fault) it may be worth changing your ISP to BT and selecting one of theier packages that guarantees a level of service - you'll be amazed how quickly they wil sort it out.
I did think about this, but I could just be getting myself in to a whole lot more trouble!BT's website seems to suggest I can either get SUPERFAST FIBRE ESSENTIAL (16 - 26 Mb, guaranteed 12Mb) for a 24 month contract. No idea where the 16 Mb comes from as that's below their Range B impacted line estimate - and I get 28 mbps right now anyway. Also I'd love to get 16 Mb, I suppose they mean 16 mbps but that's not what it says! For a bit more I can get SUPERFAST FIBRE (Average speed 50Mb) which is ridiculous - I'll never get that.
With IDNet I get around 28/3 which is brilliant for the line length. Just wish it was stable like it had been for years before now.
page3 said:
jesusbuiltmycar said:
If you dont want to risk having to pay (and I don't blame you for not trusting them to find the fault) it may be worth changing your ISP to BT and selecting one of theier packages that guarantees a level of service - you'll be amazed how quickly they wil sort it out.
I did think about this, but I could just be getting myself in to a whole lot more trouble!BT's website seems to suggest I can either get SUPERFAST FIBRE ESSENTIAL (16 - 26 Mb, guaranteed 12Mb) for a 24 month contract. No idea where the 16 Mb comes from as that's below their Range B impacted line estimate - and I get 28 mbps right now anyway. Also I'd love to get 16 Mb, I suppose they mean 16 mbps but that's not what it says! For a bit more I can get SUPERFAST FIBRE (Average speed 50Mb) which is ridiculous - I'll never get that.
With IDNet I get around 28/3 which is brilliant for the line length. Just wish it was stable like it had been for years before now.
jesusbuiltmycar said:
Does the Superfast Fibre include a guarantee? I only found out about the guarantee recently. I have a package which has been renamed to 'BT Halo' it offers a mesh network of wifi disks to cover the home and they guarantee 50Mbps downlink.
Don't know. BT tried to call me last night (I guess a sales call following on from looking on-line) but my line went down!Anyway, usual 2am resync (with no change to anything) and a drop at 8:40am today during which as usual I couldn't dial out as dial tone wouldn't break. ISP is still saying "no fault" and wants me to agree to pay if no fault found by engineer.
@gottans Don’t think so, but I’ll check tomorrow in daylight.
As I’ve hit an impasse with IDNet (who basically are saying live with it) I’m thinking of moving to Zen which is £16/month cheaper anyway! Does anyone know when you move provider is anything actually changed at the exchange or cabinet? Can I request it, or should I keep my current issues to myself? This might be be way to get a clearer line?
As I’ve hit an impasse with IDNet (who basically are saying live with it) I’m thinking of moving to Zen which is £16/month cheaper anyway! Does anyone know when you move provider is anything actually changed at the exchange or cabinet? Can I request it, or should I keep my current issues to myself? This might be be way to get a clearer line?
Digger said:
I’m with Zen & they are ok. I would personally approach your isp with your stats / logging evidence first.
You have told them the phone line loses its connection as well?
I’ve approached them time and time again. I’ve given detailed stats and graphs 24/7 for the last month, during which my connection maximum uptime has been 15 hours. I’ve done detailed internal diagnostics, master socket and filter has been replaced. I’ve swapped everything, several times - cables, micro filters, faceplates, routers, switches, modems, power supplies - for example I’ve tried four modems and three phones!You have told them the phone line loses its connection as well?
In their last email they simply state the line test comes back fine, the fault is too intermittent, they cannot do a longer term line test and an Openreach engineer will charge if they find no fault. The fact that I have 3 years previous with them during which the connection was stable is ignored.
I’d pay for an engineer to check the cabinet, pole and exchange and fix the issue but not for them to come to my home, plug in their tester, declare all is fine and sod off.
The isp is totally disinterested in offering any further assistance, unless the connection gets worse. Costs - £47/month for 26/3 and a phone I can sometimes dial out on.
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