topic Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening in Broadband

Line fault - Late Saturday evening

mrtullyhubbert — Sat, 02 Jul 2022 19:55:44 GMT

Hi all, I've been quiet for a while so hello again.

I've an FTTC connection, I have quite a lot of copper wire (1/4 to 1/2 mile at a guesstimate) from the cabinet to my house (Mostly overhead) Its frequently give problems over the years, from slow speeds to no connection at all.

My line has been troublesome for many months with frequent disconnects and seemed really slow. I've been uploading a lot of GoPro videos to Youtube lately and it took forever, almost literally!

So I done a speedtest this evening, 7.8 down and 2 up, so pretty bad and explains the slow uploads. Thought I'd try a different (I use a HH6) router, tried another HH6 I hadn't used before and it wouldn't sync, put my own HH6 back in and it wouldn't sync again either, grrr. So back to my trusty openreach modem and a HH4 which eventually sync'd but is still giving me approx 8 down and 2 up.

What I have noticed is I have no voice line, even in the test socket at the back of the main incoming BT master socket (Do they still call that the NTE5?) So I'm certain the line is giving problems again. Trying to raise a fault online has defeated me, phone lines don't open to the morning so if anyone here connected with PlusNet can start things rolling that would be great.

mrtullyhubbert

BT236BY

Thanks

John

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

jab1 — Sat, 02 Jul 2022 20:02:10 GMT

@mrtullyhubbert You won't get any Plusnet support tonight. My only suggestion is to raise a PHONE fault via this link: https://www.plus.net/help/report-a-problem/phone/ and hopefully they will pick it up in the morning.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

Baldrick1 — Sat, 02 Jul 2022 20:05:00 GMT

@mrtullyhubbert

This is symptomatic of one of the two cable cores to your property being disconnected. Report a phone fault:

For a problem with your home phone,

Text PHONE followed by your landline number to 07800008121.
e.g. PHONE 01234567891
(charge may apply at your standard rate)

We'll run tests on your connection to find out what’s going on
If you need an engineer, we’ll text you in 15 mins to book a slot
If you don't need an engineer, our award-winning UK based support team will aim to call you within 30 mins to help sort the problem, though we're really busy at the moment, so this may be a little longer.
Service available Mon-Sun: 8am to 8pm
Outside of these hours please see our Help and Support guides, and if you’re still having trouble we’ll pick up your message when we’re open

Edit

@jab1 got there first

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

jab1 — Sat, 02 Jul 2022 20:03:50 GMT

@Baldrick1 -Snap

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

mrtullyhubbert — Sat, 02 Jul 2022 20:36:15 GMT

I've just send the message, thanks Jab1 and Baldrick1.

I got an instant response saying initial checks didn't find a fault, asked for approval to run further checks that might disconnect me. After I approved this the last response said we are now closed for the day and they'll get back to me when they re-open.

I'm good with that, feel like I'm making progress

Thanks again guys.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

mrtullyhubbert — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 07:05:38 GMT

Quick update, shortly after my last message I received another SMS to say there was a line fault and it was hoped an engineer would repair within 1-4 working days and that they wouldn't need access to my property to do so. They provided a fault reference number. So sit back and wait and I should get back to normal My line really is troublesome, this must be the 6th, 7th maybe even 8th time it's required an engineer (In 20 years) Next door doesn't have internet but they loose their voice just as often.

At best I get about 28 down and 5 up. Given the state of the line, if I were to upgrade to a faster connection is it likely to be any faster, likely to be more stable, likely to be more unstable?

Even after the last repair, I was getting 28ish down 5 up from memory using an openreach modem and HH4 or a HH6. However if I tried using the brand new Plusnet supplied router or a HH5 that figure reduced dramatically (Can't remember exactly but something like 5 down) That sort of indicates to me that my line is rubbish even when it's at its best, surely the PN and HH5 routers aren't that bad?

Thanks again all, was going to edit my last post but doesn't seem to be possible now.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

jab1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 07:16:03 GMT

@mrtullyhubbert Given your reported speeds 'at best' I would doubt very much that going for the faster product would be of any benefit, in fact it could cause even more problems.

What kit are you running now? It would be interesting to see the connection stats.

Out of interest, what does BT Broadband report? A screen shot, with your phone number obscured, would be interesting.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

RobPN — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 08:49:12 GMT

@mrtullyhubbert wrote:

At best I get about 28 down and 5 up. Given the state of the line, if I were to upgrade to a faster connection is it likely to be any faster, likely to be more stable, likely to be more unstable?

@mrtullyhubbert

As @jab1 says, upgrading to a faster product using your existing line probably wouldn't be beneficial, but it might be worth checking to see if FTTP (full fibre) is available to you.

Enter your phone number into the checker linked below to find out. You're looking for WBC FTTP (not 'FTTP on Demand') in the left hand column, also if FTTP is NOT available it'll say so in the dialogue below the table.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

jab1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 09:14:27 GMT

@RobPN - that's the link I posted, but mine is slightly 'renamed'😉

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

RobPN — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 09:17:08 GMT

Sorry @jab1, I wasn't fully awake!

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

jab1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 09:26:33 GMT

No problem, @RobPN , I'm surprised I succeeded in posting a coherent response that early in a morning anyway. 😀

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

mrtullyhubbert — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 14:25:03 GMT

Stats as requested, hopefully they make sense to someone

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

Baldrick1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 14:34:53 GMT

@mrtullyhubbert

They say that your line should sync somewhere between 18.3 and 29.3 Mbps. Also FTTP is not available to you. FTTP On Demand is a different product and costs a 5 figure sum to install.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

jab1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 14:36:12 GMT

That is a very nasty Broadband checker in more ways than one. You must be a long way from your fibre cabinet with max achievables like that, and the max observed figures certainly need investigating - hope the sort it for you in the next week.

From that data, it is definitely not worth going for the Fibre Extra product from PN (or anyone else), and you appear to be way down the list for FTTP (or Full Fibre, as some like to call it).

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

Baldrick1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 14:41:20 GMT

The current low speed will almost certainly be caused by one leg of the telephone cable being disconnected. Once this is fixed a normal of 28 down and 5 up is within expectations.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

jab1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 15:15:41 GMT

Agreed, @Baldrick1 , but it is still a 'horrible line' in respect of what it can provide.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

Baldrick1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 15:18:40 GMT

@jab1

It is but there's nowt that we can do to improve it.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

mrtullyhubbert — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 15:27:19 GMT

I know it's a horrible line, it's been nothing but trouble for the 20+ years I've lived here lol.

My Plusnet minimum guaranteed download speed is 22.4

Thankfully I have fairly limited needs speed ways, I live on my own so if it can stream 1080 for one person without interruption/buffering then I'm good, not much to ask but atm I can only do 480 though that's almost certainly being caused by the line fault. It's the frequent disconnections that bug me most, on a bad evening it could happen 6 times. Other evenings things are fine. Maybe the cable that is now broken was flexing and making and breaking and causing the disconnections, fingers crossed.

As for full fibre that is never going to happen, i live on a concrete lane around 300yds from a very rural road, none of the house's on that road have an option for full fibre either.

Thanks for all your contributions, I'll let you know when the line is repaired and hopefully I'm back to using my HH6 (Because all my wifi things are connected to it)

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

Baldrick1 — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 16:36:18 GMT

@mrtullyhubbert

Have you got mobile reception out there in the wilds? Mobile data is not that expensive these days.

Re: Line fault - Late Saturday evening

mrtullyhubbert — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 18:07:41 GMT

Wilds? I'll have you know I live 8 miles from Belfast City Centre ... oh right, fair point

Tesco/O2 LTE, average of 3 speed tests = 7.9 down and 2.8 up. Worst test 6 & 0.3!!! EE is worse, not tested Voda or 3.