topic Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault in Broadband

Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 16:27:59 GMT

My Internet connection keeps dropping. I have tried 3 routers, changed the ethernet cable and the power adaptor and connected to the test socket but have not been able to resolve the problem. The quiet line test is OK. Would you kindly check your end?
Attached are stats from my Netgear DG834 router and the BT performance test.
I have tried to report a fault but the system says "Broadband fault checker is temporarily unavailable."

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

Gandalf — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 19:21:59 GMT

Hi @redsox9

I'm really sorry to see you're having a lot of issues with your connection and can't report a fault. I believe the fault checker's undergoing maintenance this weekend. Things certainly don't look good from our logs I've attached below as a picture:

I've tested your line tonight and the tests are showing a high resistance fault somewhere along the line outside. I've raised this across to Openreach now for further investigation and I've created a support ticket for us to monitor Here.

We'll provide an update as soon as we know more, but feel free to post back with how it goes over the next few days.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 19:34:30 GMT

Thanks, Anoush. With you on the case I am sure we are well on the way to a solution.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

adam945 — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 08:29:47 GMT

Good morning @redsox9

Just letting you know that I've reviewed your fault, no updates as of yet, but the Ticket is on hold until tomorrow, so you can expect a further update from our faults team then.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:51:28 GMT

Thanks for the Plusnet help team's quick response despite the weekend fault checker maintenance downtime. I see the engineer reports the fault has been rectified in the underground network between the Exchange and my house. While you are monitoring the stability of the connection I have checked the router stats and would like to point out that DS at 17194 is about normal for my line attenuation of 21 but US at 441 is about half of what it was in July.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

TheMightyAJ — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 12:40:24 GMT

Hey @redsox9,

As the connection remains stable, hopefully the upload speeds should start to gradually improve. Please let us know if there are any further issues over the coming days and we'll be happy to help.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 22:18:53 GMT

The dropouts have become more frequent despite the engineer's report that the line fault has been fixed between the Exchange and my house. Any indication from Plusnet's end on what could be causing the problem?
I have had to reboot to get back online but the connection never lasts more than half an hour.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

Gandalf — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 13:39:15 GMT

Hi @redsox9

I'm very sorry to see your connection's still really bad. I've tested your line just now and the tests aren't showing any issues unlike before (Although I can see the drops) so we'd need to arrange an engineer visit to investigate further.

Could you reply to the fault ticket logged on your account Here or the text we've sent, with when you'd be free for a visit?

If you can post back once you've responded to the ticket, we'll make sure the engineer's booked for you as soon as possible.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 15:28:33 GMT

My Internet connection has been stable for more than 24 hours after the second engineer came, checked my equipment and wiring and fixed a fault at the Openreach cabinet. Both DS and US speeds, however, are below what I used to get.
It may be because my line attenuation has risen from 20 to 25, which is puzzling because my house has not moved and neither has the Exchange. The second engineer came after the first reported three days ago that a line fault between the Exchange and my house had been fixed but the dropouts persisted.
Will the speeds increase after a few days? I used to get DS 17,500kbps and US 1100kbps. Attached are my router stats and the BT performance report.
Thanks to the Plusnet help team for monitoring this Forum for reports of problems while the broadband faults checker took an extended summer holiday.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

Gandalf — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 20:59:18 GMT

Thanks for getting back to us @redsox9

There are a variety of factors that can affect line attenuation other than distance, for example the quality of a line. I can see your upload speed has returned to 1mbps with an SNRM target of around 9dB, and your download speed's still hovering at around 12mbps, because the SNRM target for the downstream is still at 12dB due to the fault with the line previously.

I've reset both the downstream and upstream SNRM targets down to 6dB. Can you retest in about an hour or tomorrow?

Let us know how it goes, and no problem regarding the help. The broadband fault checker looks to be refreshed and back in action now ready for a nice long winter ahead (Already feeling slightly chilly having said that)

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 09:06:29 GMT

The line is stable but the DS is a bit below the 17.5mbps I was getting. Hopefully it will improve in the next 10 days. I had upgraded the ethernet cable from Cat5e to Cat6. Would this have caused the higher attenuation? Attached are the latest stats.
Thanks for speedily resolving the dropping connection problem.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

RealAleMadrid — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 09:21:33 GMT

@redsox9 The attenuation figure relates to your phone line and is nothing to do with your network cables, CAT5E is perfectly adequate for home networks ( Up to 1000Mbs) so changing to CAT6 will make no difference at all.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

Gandalf — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 12:05:09 GMT

No problem @redsox9

Keep an eye on it and let us know how it goes

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 16:04:01 GMT

Frequent connection drops today. A little crackling in quiet line test. Is it due to yesterday's problems at Plusnet?

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

adam945 — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 08:07:56 GMT

Good morning @redsox9

Thanks a lot for reaching out and I'm really sorry to hear that you're still having problems with your service, after the initial fault was resolved (apparently). I've just run some tests on the line which aren't showing any underlying faults with the network, although the visual radius. which I'll pop below, does look pretty bad.

Have you made any recent changes to the internal set up at all? If not, I'd suggest stating your availability on the open fault Ticket so that we can raise another fault and book in another engineer appointment. I might be wrong, but the initial fault was caused by issues with the Openreach network so I'm assuming that this is a similar issue.

Our KBD hasn't picked anything up with the phone network, but it might be worth contacting your phone provider to see if they can spot anything on their end.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:17:38 GMT

Thanks. No changes made to my internet setup.
Available for engineer today Friday am/pm, Saturday am and Monday am/pm.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

Gandalf — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 12:23:21 GMT

Thanks for getting back to us @redsox9

I'm really sorry to see you're still having issues. I can see we've booked an engineer and updated the appointment details onto the ticket ref 217679587. Let us know as always how it goes and fingers crossed the problem's sorted this time.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

redsox9 — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 15:42:56 GMT

My Internet connection has now been stable for 72 hours. Thanks to the Plusnet help team for speedily arranging an engineer visit for the third time in as many weeks. I am reminded of the old light bulb replacement story. How many engineers does it take to fix a flaky Openreach line? Three so far in my case. The last one was more thorough than the others. He checked my wiring and then went off to the exchange from where he phoned, three hours after he knocked on my door, to say that he had located the fault and fixed it. I hope the drop outs have gone for good. But I shall keep a close eye on the line for the next couple of weeks.

Re: Connection dropping, unable report the fault

adam945 — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 07:49:21 GMT

Thanks a lot for letting us know @redsox9

The honest truth is that some engineers do do a better a job than others, all we can really do from our end is to raise the faults with Openreach, they then assign available engineers to the job. Let us know if you have any further issues though and we'll be happy to investigate.