Unsolvable Internet Problem!

Hairboi · 9 Dec 2009 at 04:14

For the past 12 weeks, my internet has been very unstable. I decided to find out why, and rang my ISP (ADSL24), and they detected an error on the line, and advised me to contact BT. I did so, they asked me to plug a phone into the test socket and listen for a dial tone, there was none. The technician said that the problem is in the phone line, and sent out an engineer to fix it. He put in a new wire that goes from the street to my house, and now i get a dial tone. I figured this would fix it, and he went home at around 5pm yesterday evening, he's sending round another engineer to tidy up the wiring in the next 24 hours, so essentially, the new wiring is done. However I'm still getting disconnects on my line. So i tried yet another new router, new microfilter etc, and it's still unstable. Sometimes, every few minutes the router loses sync with the exchange, then reconnects, sometimes it will last a few hours.

Downstream Rate: 284 Kbps
Upstream Rate: 445 Kbps
Downstream Margin: 31 db
Upstream Margin: 23 db
Downstream Line Attenuation: 24
Upstream Line Attenuation: 13

Those are my router stats at the moment.

I have actually exhausted all options, it's definitely a problem between the BT faceplate and the exchange, but i can't figure out what. Could ADSL2+ be contributing to the problem, which I upgraded to for no extra cost a while back. Back when i was on normal ADSL, it was stable for over a year, i didn't notice even one disconnect.

Hairboi · 9 Dec 2009 at 18:44

tolien said:
ADSL24 were feeding you a line. You should never be told to contact BT about an ADSL fault unless BT Retail are your ISP - if nothing else, there's no one at BT you can speak to who can do anything about it.

It sounds like you've got a voice fault as well though.

ADSL24 looked into the line and came back saying it's a copper line failure and that it's a fault on BT's end (who i rent the line off). They came, found the fault (wasn't getting a dial tone with a phone plugged in), they went home earlier today, however i'm still getting disconnects (had about 30 today)

Hairboi · 9 Dec 2009 at 18:44

PistolPete said:
Indeed.

Whilst you should contact BT about the voice fault, only your ISP should be contacting BT about an ADSL fault.

However, I'd be tempted to wait until BT clear the voice fault as this may clear the ADSL instablilty....and I'd get the ISP to reset the SNR margin as 31dB margin is about 25dB to high, and you should be getting MUCH faster sync speeds but the margin is limiting it dramatically.

They won't reset the SNR until they know the line is stable.

Hairboi · 9 Dec 2009 at 20:22

tolien said:
Unless you had a voice fault, ADSL24 should still have been doing the running.

They detected an error with the actual phone line, surely that means only BT can come and fix it?

Hairboi · 9 Dec 2009 at 20:23

Rroff said:
Highest managed SNR target margin is usually 15db - its so high because his sync rate is so low.

Have you made sure the line is filtered correctly internally and that the ring wire is disconnected? also while you shouldn't have to if the main socket is filtered before any extensions I've found in some cases adding a filter before any telephones at the end of long extensions can help - not sure why.

Yep, it's all filtered correctly, the BT engineer checked it all. I have a feeling it's that my line dislikes ADSL2+.

Hairboi · 10 Dec 2009 at 00:16

I have tried 3 different routers, 2xDG834GT and a Linksys one which i installed yesterday. The BT engineer assured me the line is completely fine, and i've done everything possible on my end, tried different routers, microfilters, ethernet cables, in test socket, in the faceplate. No matter what it still d/cs. We have another line in this house which works perfectly, it's right next to my line and never d/c's, but its on a different ISP.