I hate storms !!!!

Power has been on and off today, no probs as after first outage I swiched off the router and didn't power it back up until the weather had calmed down.
All was well until 7:15pm when off goes the juice again. When it came back, the router resynced at 2018!!! agggghhh. The 12dB target SNR coupled with it being dark really killed my speed.

Just before that happened I was looking at the SNR falling as night fell. With a sync of 2788Kbps (oh so close to a 2500 profile) it was steady at 12dB until the light started failing and down it tumbled. Was down to 7dB before the power cut.

I really am thinking that I may as well forget it all, just plug a basic router in and live with it for the next 20 years until BT bother to do something about the network  or move to anywhere else in the world where I can enjoy 20Meg broadband at least. I dont really see the point in keeping this thread going, nothing I can do seems to make any difference.

I came very close to leaning out of my window today and ripping down the aerial cable to my house which was bouncing around in the wind - ironically in high wind and driving rain (but daylight) I had 2788 at 12dB and yet now its calm and dry, just dark, and I'm down to 2018.
I give up 

Could it be a street light  that is giving you interference.

Quite possibly, but do you think that there is any chance of getting anybody to do anything about it if it is? As I get broadband at what is laughably deemed an 'acceptable' speed, BT wont be fussed and I cant see whoever is in charge of the street lights caring.

It is definitely an outside source, I have tried all of the checks suggested by anotherone and none have any effect on the SNR.

What really sickens me is that mother, mother-in-law and sister-in-law all have 8meg connections despite hardly using their computers. I use mine all the time and get stuck with less than 2 

well what a choice, now shall I go for a week at each or move in with Mother in law  - better run away quick

Feeling a little less depressed now so have paid some more attention to this.
Noise is certainly not the street lights. At 7am this morning the SNR was at 12dB with all the street lights glowing happily as they had been since 5pm the previous evening. Router stats showed noise was worst between 11:30pm and around 3am then fairly level until 6am when started to climb back to 12dB.
Currently got a sync of 2560 and SNR didn't drop below 6dB (still a 6dB drop from the target of 12 though).

Looking at my current bit loading, the nighttime graph is taking a pounding between tones 40 to 60 compared to the daytime graph. Anotherone has already said that tone 46 is Radio 4LW so I'm guessing that AM radio is my killer. I guess being a few miles from the south coast of cornwall and having a pole hung cable doesn't help.

As such, I have ordered myself a RF3 filter online. I'm not sure how good they are and have seen mixed reviews online but nothing ventured nothing gained, and it was only £7 delivered.
I know that technically I shouldn't touch the wiring upstream of the NTE5 but I'm happy to give it a go - its not as if BT have an interest in fixing broadband issues themselves.

Once its here I will capture one nights stats prior to fitting then a night with it fitted. Will also see how it affects attenuation.

If this doesn't fix it then I really will give up.


A

Hi Jules,

Very frustrating, but do keep listening to your line for noise periodically, just in case.
Have you tried ringing your Sky faults yet on 151 and doing the "storytime" as I suggested?
You are not wrong, but the variation still seems excessive, and with the "extra" attenuation, this could still be down to a line fault - it is important to get a POTS test done on it - (I still wonder if the line is not 100% balanced or has a low insulation fault or bad joint). The BT spec. on these tests is now quite demanding.
I would also get this done before you experiment with your RF3 filter.

Like you, I don't hold out much hope with the RF3 (it cannot filter the band which is used by ADSL otherwise it will filter out the ADSL!) but if the problem happens to be caused by out of band RF, who knows.
Posting a couple more SNRM overnight graphs (just in case something can be spotted), also current stats (make sure to include uptime) might be useful.
Just to double check (without re-reading the whole thread) you have tried another filter straight into the test socket instead of your filtered plate?

Hi, I have tried another filter straight into the master socket, in fact I have tried a different filtered face plate too since I have bought one for my mother to save her having filters around the place and, as she is about 300metres from the exchange, I figured I would keep the best one and give her the worst since attenuation will not be a problem for her. As she has a fully underground service from the exchange and the armoured cable actually rises under her stairs, RF is not going to be an issue for her at all.

Different filters have not really made any difference to be honest. I haven't rang sky yet, I'll make sure I brush up on my Indian before I do 

I will post a few more graphs soon for you to view.
Annoying I had resynced at a time which gave me 2560sync and a margin which only dropped to 6dB at night so very low errors. Unfortunately last night the router resynced for no apparent reason giving an exit code of ERR_DMA. Having looked on the web this seems to be caused by certain P2P applications allowing too many connections, the suggestion being that 'too many' is over 50 - the wife was using emule and it was set to allow 800 connections. I have tweaked that down to 40 and router has not given the same error since, unfortunately it happened around 8pm so sync was appalling all night.
I have resynced this morning just after dawn at 2304 which will do for now - should give a stable 2000 profile providing nothing untoward happens and noise margin shouldn't drop too low at night.
The RF3 has been dispatched, I will have a play once it gets here and let you know what happens, it will be good info for people if nothing else.
Cheers
Jules

Well I've got the RF3 today and fitted it. It seems to be helping already. Managed to Sync a couple of minutes ago (in the dark) at 2304kbps with 12dB margn after fitting the little white box. I will see how it goes through the night, router stats is up and running.

@julesandtash

CAn you post where you ordered the RF3 filter from please, as they sound like a good idea.

IAn

Certainly, here is the link...

http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/BT80BRF3.html

Very quick service too - very impressed.

Just for info, still connected at 2304kbps, SNR has dropped a little but still at 10dB. I have noticed that the bit loading graph seems better and there are far more bits on tone 46. Previously this was down to almost zero where now I have 5. There seems to be a dip at tone 58 though.

Only time will tell overnight I guess but its looking better at the moment.

The RF3 seems to make a difference. Last night the SNR did not drop below 9dB and from midnight onwards was hovering between 10 and 11 (I synced at 2304 following installation of the RF3 with 12dB target SNR)
That seems much better than the night before (pre RF3) when SNR was dropping to right down to 6dB.
By 7am it was back up to 12dB where it is right now.

Attenuation has only increased slighlty, now 58.1dB. I think it will solve some of my issues. Now, I just need to get my target SNR lowered so I can get better sync speed again. Potentially as its only dropping 3dB through the night, I may be able to keep a stable connection with a 6dB target SNR. Maybe I need to plead with Plusnet to get it lowered manually. Does anyone think they will do it for me?

Do the error stats look any better now ?

Hi julesandtash,

At present looking at the number of disconnections on the line (whether deliberate or not) I'd say it wouldn't be worth raising as chances are it would just raise itself again within a couple of days.

I could be wrong about this, but I suspect it'd be better to wait until things are more stable with the new filter before we try that. If it stays stable for the next few days then sure.

Hi Jules,
Glad to see some improvement, going to be interesting to see a before and after SNRM plot and current stats.
There must be some strongish transmitters not too far from you, do you know of any, or do a search for any?

Hi Anotherone,
I have been at work all day and its too late to try a resync now to push sync up so still at 2304kbps.
Stats are :-
Connection speed 2304Kbps (Downstream) / 448Kbps (Upstream)
Noise 12.0dB (Downstream) / 14.0dB (Upstream)
Attenuation 58.1 dB (Downstream) / 31.5dB (Upstream)
Power 17.2dBm (Downstream) / 11.9dB (Upstream)

Errors are much better, the following are recorded for the last 25Hrs
ATM Cell Header Errors 684, ATM Loss of Delineation 54, DSL Cumulative Errored Seconds 580, DSL Corrected Blocks 20125, DSL Uncorrected Blocks 782.
All other error counters are zero!

The Caradon Hill transmitter is around 4 - 5 miles in a straight line. Its a main TV transmitter and also carries FM radio (dont know if there is AM on it).
There are also 3 mobile phone masts within 1/2 mile of me although being microwave frequency I dont imagine they have too much effect.

I will record a plot for tonight although to show the whole night will take a fair few screen shots. Last nights trace was pretty good, noisiest time was around 2200 to midnight (9dB) it then picked up to 10 for the early hrs.

Orbrey - thanks for the update. Many of the disconnections have been down to me messing about with new face plate, fitting RF3, trying to sync at best time of day, disconnection due to ERR_DMA error last night and the power cuts during the storm. I wont mess with it for the next few days. If its stays OK then would it be OK to ask for a target SNR drop on Monday?

from http://en.wikipedia.org/w...Hill_transmitting_station