topic Re: Multiple disconnects every day in Broadband

Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 21:37:38 GMT

For the past few weeks my connection has been dropping multiple times a day. I’ve raised a support ticket by text but think it’s slipped through the cracks after customer service failed to get through on the phone. Years ago it was possible to update support tickets online but that no longer seems to be the case, or am I missing something?

Anyway I can’t hear any noise on the phone, although I’m unable to do the proper quiet line test given I only have an old pulse dial telephone (yes, really!) and hence can’t select the option. The Hub Two (and phone) are plugged directly into the master socket fitted with a faceplate filter.

To be honest my line has always been a bit troublesome. I always had regular disconnects with the old Hub One - https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Hub-One-keeps-disconnecting-with-PPP-LCP-Send-Termination/m-p/1690041 - so swapped that for a BT Business Smart Hub which was infinitely more stable. Last year I changed to the Hub Two which similarly seemed to be ok until recently.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

jab1 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 21:43:54 GMT

@dleholt Sounds very much like a BT/OR network issue to me. Pity you can't do a line test - ever thought of upgrading the phone?

I would suggest you raise a broadband fault via https://www.plus.net/help/report-a-problem/broadband/ , but be aware it won't be picked up until after 0800 tomorrow, and maybe not until Monday.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

Mustrum — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 21:57:38 GMT

Hey @dleholt many years ago I used to have a small keypad to generate tones, not sure they are still available, but these days there are lots of online sites that do the same, such as

https://pbxbook.com/other/dtmftone.html

Might not help if you don't have internet access, but you can pick up a phone for under a tenner in your local supermarket/argos/b&q and lots of other places.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 08:52:54 GMT

Yeah I raised a fault via text on Friday morning. Unfortunately when they called back it went straight to voicemail. They said they’d try again but I’ve not heard anything since. The support ticket raised on my account looks like it’s been closed and there’s no option for me to add a response to it.

Funnily enough the pulse-dial phone was an upgrade over the old (broken) cordless handset we used to have. We found we used the landline so infrequently that we’d make do with a restored 1950’s GPO bakelite phone. It looks pretty cool and sounds great when it rings!

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

jab1 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 08:55:23 GMT

Can you post the ticket on her - but hide any identifying details?

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 09:01:30 GMT

@jab1 wrote:

Can you post the ticket on her - but hide any identifying details?

It’s literally just

I've tried to call you today but didn't get an answer so I've left you a voicemail As per my message I've placed you back in the callback queue and we will try to speak with you later today.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

jab1 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 09:08:31 GMT

I actually meant the original ticket raised.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 10:20:55 GMT

Oh sorry! The details are in the post I mentioned above from 3 years ago - https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Hub-One-keeps-disconnecting-with-PPP-LCP-Send-Termination/m-p/1690041

Back then I swapped out the Hub One for my original OpenReach modem and saw an immediate improvement. I then purchased a used BT Business SmartHub which was also fine. Earlier this year I was sent a new Hub Two which seemed fine until about 3 weeks ago. Since then I’ve been back to multiple disconnects every day.

I can always try the SmartHub again but would also like to get the line checked to see if there’s a problem.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

jab1 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 11:14:37 GMT

@dleholt If the ticket opened earlier this week is closed, can you try and give us the details requested below - they will possibly give us an idea of any potential areas of concern:

For Community members to be able to help, information from these two sites, as screenshots, posted as pictures within the topic, not as attachments:-

BT Broadband(obscuring your phone number) and BTW Performance Tester - Over a wired (ethernet) connection if at all possible, please report the 'ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTICS', and sight of the broadband connection status from your Hub (with the 'Username' obscured) would be a good starting point.

For the Hub One -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Troubleshooting > Helpdesk

For the Hub Two -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Advanced Settings > Technical Log > Information

It may also be a good idea to report the results of a Quiet Line Test - dial 17070 option 2 from a (preferably corded) phone. After the confirmation of your phone number, there should be total silence apart from the regular 'Quiet Line Test' announcement.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 11:55:42 GMT

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 11:57:26 GMT

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

jab1 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 12:08:58 GMT

@dleholt I think the details contained in that Help Desk shot tell me all I need to know. (1) you are getting DSL drops continuously (2) your download SNR is way too low for the line attenuation - needs to be 6dB as a minimum.

I would report another fault.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

RobPN — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 13:04:18 GMT

@Mustrum wrote:

... many years ago I used to have a small keypad to generate tones, not sure they are still available, but these days there are lots of online sites that do the same, such as

https://pbxbook.com/other/dtmftone.html

@Mustrum

When I read the OP I remembered having one of those too. My first thought was to see if there were any apps available for Android phones which might do the same thing.

I didn't realise there were websites which do the same thing until I got to your post!

@dleholt

If you've got an Android phone or tablet try searching for a DTMF emulator app with which you could then send the required tones if you wish to follow up on the BT quiet line test option.

e.g. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wolphi.dtmf&hl=en_GB&gl=US

Others are probably available.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 15:21:49 GMT

I’ve tried a few apps on my iPhone before. In fact the standard phone app emits tones when you press the numbers. But I don’t know whether they’re just not loud enough or if there’s something else that stops it working through the mouthpiece. Eventually I’ll probably have to buy a pulse to tone converter that sits inline between phone and socket if/when things move over to VOIP.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:27:59 GMT

This is infuriating! I raised another fault via text but when they called back it went straight to voicemail again. I have terrible mobile reception here hence they really need to call the landline.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

jab1 — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:29:46 GMT

Only suggestion I can make in that case is - ask them to reply by email, if they can.

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 08:03:23 GMT

@jab1 wrote:

Only suggestion I can make in that case is - ask them to reply by email, if they can.

I tried replying to their original email last week but no response. I tried DMing their twitter handle yesterday but no response either.

At this stage I’m starting to wonder whether a switch to newly laid Swish Fibre FTTP is in order, and I’ve been a PlusNet customer for almost 18 years!

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

jab1 — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 08:31:14 GMT

I understand your frustration, but can't make any more suggestions at the moment. Staff response on here is close to non-existent, as they claim they are 'very busy', although doing what I don't know.

EDIT: try raising a fault via https://faults.plus.net

Re: Multiple disconnects every day

dleholt — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:20:15 GMT

Thought I’d come back on this. Fault was raised and we had an engineer visit. He could see there was packet loss and after checking a few things in the house he then set off to check joins in the cable between our house and the cabinet. Anyway to cut a long story short they reckoned it was better and closed the fault despite the fact we were still getting regular disconnects.

Eventually I noticed things were a lot more stable, and checking my router logs I could see we now had a 6db downstream noise margin and slightly lower speed. In fact I think it stayed up for about a month. Yay! Unfortunately I had to reboot it a week or two back and now it’s back at 3db and flakey. E.g. Saturday just gone I see 5 drops.

So is there anything I can do to request a permanent 6db noise margin?