Welcome to the forum.
I dont know about pushing it on more quickly.
If you have not done already read the top 2 "stickies"  at the top of this forum. Carry out as many tests as you can.
and report back with the stats from your router. Leave the router running all the time and leave any tests requiring
a restart. It will help if you read through and you will find you can do several things where a switch off is neede
so if you can do them all at once it is better.  For example if you are not plugged into the test plug then moving to that will
be an off so while doing that examine your sockets for loose wires carefully look at the back of the sockets and if possible
post pictures.
Intermittant faults are always hard to pin down and you need to do a good check of your own wiring. Check in any connection boxes from where the wires come into your house for loose wires corroded connections. signs of damp etc.
When you are having problems try the BT silent line test 17070 option 2  preferably with a corded phone. is probably the first and easiest test.

Thank you very much for the suggestions.  I shall try the silent line test.  Unfortunately the 'I have a fault' and 'frequent disconnection' links on the Broadband Fault & Order Support Guides threat don't work though.

Sorry about that worked the other day but looks like the whole community.plusnet site is down  - maybe try later.
Well the forum is on there and that works but not the library where the links are.

Thanks for visiting, we'll be back soon
We've had to take this site down for maintenance.
We'll be as quick as we can, but in the meantime you can find the latest updates and talk to us on:
   Our Twitter page
   Our Forum page
   Or you can call our Support Team on 0800 432 0200 or 0345 140 0200
   (For residential customers we're open from 7:30am until 10:00pm, 7 days a week. If you're a business customer, you can call us 24 hours a day 365 days a year. We won't be able to answer any questions about your account, but we'll do our best to help with any general enquiries)
Sorry for any inconvenience we've caused.
See you soon.




Hahaha   just spotted I had left the page open in my browser of one of them
A dropping connection fault can be one of the most frustrating faults to have on your broadband connection. I’m writing this guide to explain what can cause drops and what we do to try and resolve this issue on your behalf. This guide will go into quite some depth into the changes that can be made remotely as well as changes that can be made by engineers on the broadband network.
If you are reading this and having a dropping connection fault, it may be worth reading the I have a Fault topic.

What can cause my connection to drop?
A broadband connection may drop from time to time which is actually quite normal. We would generally say that if your connection is dropping more than 3 or 4 times a day, this could be considered a problem. We generate a graph via our internal system which shows us the times as which your connection drops, they look very similar to this:


This is called a ‘Visual Radius’ graph. This information is collected on a back end server called a RADIUS Server which registers each and every connection. All of the information is collected from the past week/month and put into a form of the above graph. The lines on the graph show the disconnections and connections detected. The line with a red square at the bottom shows the connection being dropped and the green square at the top of the line shows the connection coming back up again.

If your connection is dropping out it could be caused by:
   A fault with your own broadband equipment
   Internal Wiring
   REIN (Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise)
   A fault on the Broadband Network
For more information on what checks you should do before raising a fault to rule out your own equipment and internal wiring please visit our I have a Fault topic for more information.

REIN, what is REIN?
REIN stands for Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise, which is essentially electrical interference which can cause your broadband connection to drop periodically. REIN can be caused by something you might have set on a timer within your premises or could be caused by a third party piece of equipment external to your premises.
An example of this is, if you have your Christmas Tree lights set to come on at 19:00 and this ties in with your connection dropping out, it’s likely that the drops are being caused by electrical interference from the lights themselves.
An example of external interference causing a problem; if your line goes past a takeaway which has a flashing ‘Open’ sign, this is likely giving off electrical interference which might be strong enough to cause your connection to drop out.
So, what can we do to help with interference that is outside of your control and outside of Plusnet’s control? Well if an engineer finds the interference to be caused by your internal electrical appliances, it will be up to you to resolve this issue. If the interference is being caused by an external source, it might be worth having an engineer locate the source of the REIN and have them raise a REIN Case.
A REIN Case gives us the pathway to arranging for a REIN trained engineer to visit your premises – sometimes out of hours to detect the interference you have experiencing. If the engineer locates the source of REIN to particular premises, a letter will be sent to advise that this is causing a problem to make the person/business aware. We do not have any authority to ensure that the offending equipment be removed; this is purely at the discretion of the owner. REIN Engineers can take some time to get booked in due to the out of hours work involved.

Why does my connection only drop when it rains?
We do get a large number of faults that filter through where the connection only really disconnects when we endure adverse weather. It is very common that we are not made aware of this fact, so it is really important that you tell us this, if you know that this is the case so we can resolve such issues as quickly as possible.
Generally this type of fault is due to water/damp getting into some of the cabling on the Exchange Side of the broadband network. Over time, cabling can become exposed which can lead to intermittent issues a lot of the time. Ultimately, if there is a network fault, we are unlikely going to be able to locate it straight away – we send engineers to test and locate a fault in these instances.
You may notice that your connection becomes very slow after experiencing a number of drops; this is likely due to Line Banding. Line banding can be removed, but won’t necessarily resolve the issue for you. Further information can be found on this via the above link. If you’re wondering what some of the testing we have done means, please take a look at our Faults Testing guide, this will also explain how we intend on fixing faults based on the information we have collated from our testing.
Remember, if you have a fault, and have carried out the checks outlined here then do head over to http://faults.plus.net and complete the Broadband Fault Checker

IN fact both are open  
Customer Own Domain Checks
We ask all of our ADSL customers to complete a couple of checks to rule out their broadband equipment or internal wiring that might be the cause for the fault. It is best to carry out the checks in the below order:
1) Swap your microfilter for an alternative. If you have received a router from us, you should have received two microfilters, swapping these over will rule out a potential fault with this piece of equipment.
2) Connect your router into your Test Socket with the alternative microfilter. This will rule out any internal wiring. Our suppliers network is up to your Test Socket, so it is important to ensure your internal wiring is not at fault. If we were to arrange for an engineer to visit and the fault was found to be caused by your equipment or internal wiring, charges may apply for the call out – so it’s worth just carrying out those two quick checks so we’re sure the problem isn’t internal.
Note: If you do not have a Test Socket, please ensure you remove any extension cabling and that you are connected directly into your Master Socket.
If you are reporting a Speed Fault, we will require you to complete the BT Speedtester which can be found at http://speedtest.btwholesale.com it’s imperative that you complete ‘Further Diagnostics’ as per below, so that we receive your results.

If you have an alternative router that you can also try – that would be a real bonus. We do appreciate that not everyone has a spare router to try but if you do, then please do give it a go!
If you are unable to authenticate with your details, it’s important you log into your router and configure your router with your correct details which should be username@plusdsl.net, if you are unable to connect, please try: bt_test@startup_domain – if this connects then please try bt_user_test@plusdsl.net. If they both connect, you should be able to connect with your details, so please check your spelling and that your password is correct!
If you are unable to connect with either of those usernames, please raise a fault or give out Support Team a call on 0800 432 0200 or 0345 140 0200 (0345 uses minutes from your mobile call plan).

How do I report a fault and what will Plusnet do to resolve it?
In the first instance, it is really important that complete the above checks. Once complete, it would be best completing the Broadband Fault Checker. Our Faults Team will then take a look at the condition of your line from when you reported the fault to us. We can see information such as:

   Your connection rate between your router and your Local Exchange
   What exchange equipment you are connected to
   The quality of your connection (historic information is available)
Our Faults Team has access to various other tools which can help us identify, where we believe the fault is or what is causing the fault. We aim to respond/update our Fault Tickets within 48-72 working hours. It’s really important that you provide as much detail as possible when completing the Broadband Fault Checker so that our Faults Team gets all the information they need.
You will notice that we provide all of our testing on the Fault Ticket for you to see along with engineer notes and a summary of what has been done as well as a short summary of what the next steps will be, if required.

Engineer Visits
From time to time, engineer visits are required to resolve faults that may be outside of your premises. Most engineer work does require access to your premises as engineers are required to test at your telephone socket before conducting any work and again when completing work. This is to check for the location of the fault and for any other faults that may exist with the service that we may have not detected. Once the necessary work is carried out, the engineer should then test at the telephone socket again to ensure that the line is clear and clear of any faults.

Engineers operate two timeslots, typically between Monday-Friday which are 8am-1pm or 1pm-6pm – we are unable to specify the exact time that an engineer will attend within those slots due to the nature of the work that the engineer might be carrying out for another customer before attending. If an engineer does not turn up within the agreed timeslot, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can investigate this for you, as well as getting the appointment re-scheduled for you.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on email
More Sharing Services

Chris
Contributing Authors : Chris Pettitt
This entry was posted by Chris Parr on Tuesday, November 5th, 2013 at 2:10 pm and is tagged with and is posted in the category Broadband, Faults. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
6 comments on "Broadband Faults Guide - I have a fault"
ejs
ejs said:
November 7th, 2013
What about the people who don't have a test socket (due to having older sockets)?
chrispettitt1989
Chris Pettitt said:
November 7th, 2013
If you don't have a Test Socket, then this check doesn't apply to you. We would ask that you are connected with an alternate microfilter into your Test Socket if you have one - if you don't, you can connect into your Master Socket.
The idea behind the checks is to rule out any potentially faulty internal wiring or equipment before looking at the possibilities of arranging for an engineer to visit.
townman
townman said:
November 11th, 2013
Chris,
Is there merit in adding to the fault reporting journey "No test socket / NTE5 available".
It is a different answer to test not done when same s available.
Cheers,
Kevin
chrispettitt1989
Chris Pettitt said:
November 11th, 2013
Kevin,
There is an option for 'I do not have a Test Socket' on the fault reporting journey.
Geejay
Geejay said:
December 10th, 2013
My internet connection keeps dropping out when I reboot the router the internet connection is OK (green light) but the after a while the internet connection drops out again. I have tried the broadband troubleshooter but after it has asked to reboot the router the problem appears to have been solved to the troubleshooter why can't I request that technical support ring me to sort it out
chrispettitt1989
Chris Pettitt said:
January 18th, 2014
Hi Geejay,
It'd be a good idea to select the other option which states that it doesn't resolve the problem so that our Faults Team can investigate this issue for you. Rebooting the router should really only be done once to try and clear the problem completely. If this is something you have to do on a regular basis, we need to look at this.

There are links in the original but they obviously dont work

Here are the links in my saved paged that still do work may help you
Info on Microfilters

http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/microfilters-how-and-why.shtml

Info on seckets

http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/master-socket-guide.shtml
Radius graph mentioned in  the disconnection fault guide

http://community.plus.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DCN-VR-Example.png

Link to report a fault
https://portal.plus.net/apps/kbdfaults

If you're still unhappy about the 72 hour wait time for a fault, then I would highly recommend changing your account to a business one, which has a 24 hour turnaround. This can only be done over the phone though by calling 0800 432 0200.

Here's the latest connection logs, from this we're really not seeing many disconnections since the 21st.

Quote

I *think* that the problem occurs after wet and windy weather, which makes me wonder if there's a line fault.

It's possible, however intermittent faults can take persistence to get resolved. Can you ensure you're connected via an ethernet cable to rule out the wireless being the cause of any drops.
If the line does start dropping out again, plug a single handset in to the master socket and dial 17070 running the quiet line test - listen out for any noise, crackles, hisses etc.

An update.
An engineer visited my house last Thursday and found a fault on the line.  He replaced the line between my house and the telegraph pole.  He then re-tested and found that there is also a fault between the telegraph pole and the exchange.  He said he would log this for it to be investigated further.
Since then the problem has been getting worse.  On Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings I have had several hours with no service.  My router (wired) is plugged directly into the test socket.
I telephoned Plusnet on Sunday night and was told nothing further could be done - I would just have to wait for the problem at the exchange to be investigated.  I was unhappy about this and chased again on Monday night, only to be told that the line problem was recorded as 'resolved'.  This is in spite of my call on Sunday night and the connection logs which clearly show the continuing fault.  I was promised last night that someone would call me today to arrange another engineer's visit but no one from Plusnet has been in touch.
I am currently on hold (estimated wait time 45 minutes), waiting for the third evening in a row to try and get someone at Plusnet to move this forward.  It seems that if I don't call on a daily basis, the problem is simply left to drift. 
I have to say that my experience over the last few weeks doesn't tally with the company's claims about its approach to customer service.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to the next steps I should take?

Quote from: sheffers241

He then re-tested and found that there is also a fault between the telegraph pole and the exchange.  He said he would log this for it to be investigated further. I have to say that my experience over the last few weeks doesn't tally with the company's claims about its approach to customer service.

Hi Sheffers,
This is quite disappointing, but not unusual for a BTOR engineer (or was it a sub contractor) to walk off a job half complete.  He really ought to have got on and checked it out, calling up underground assist if necessary.
The consequence of this is user frustration and increased call volumes (and waits) on PlusNet's support lines.
What can you do?  Best thing is to raise an on line fault report using one of the links below.  If there is noise on the line (dial 17070 option 2) or no dial tone raise a phone fault otherwise raise a broadband fault.
HTH.

Sorry to see this is still ongoing.
I can see a engineer is booked for this afternoon.
Let us know how you get on.

An update.
A second open reach engineer visited.  He identified that there was a fault between the telegraph pole and the cabinet so he swapped me to a different line and I've now had an uninterrupted connection for 4 days so am assuming problem solved.