cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

SarcasticGuy1
Grafter
Posts: 70
Registered: ‎27-11-2009

Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Hi all,
For the last 5 weeks I've been having issues with my connection. For the most part it's fine, but every now and then my SNR drops into minus figures (usually around -1.5db or -2.5db) for a few minutes. Often this causes my router to lose sync. Then if the router re-syncs while this is still going on it connects much slows (often around ½ normal speed, which wrecks my BRAS profile if I don't catch it!). After a few minutes it usually sorts itself out and the SNR goes back up to around 13db (while at ½ speed), if I then manually reboot the router it will sync at it's normal speed again.
Sometimes the connection doesn't lose sync, but does become unusable (Steam and XBOX Live will disconnect).
It seems to happen completely at random.
Needless to say this is getting very annoying.
Nothing changed at my end around the time this started, I was upgraded to 21CN but that was a few weeks before the problem occurred.
So far I've:
replaced the house phones
disconnected the sky boxes
tried different microfilters
connected directly to the test socket
changed the modem/telephone (RJ11) cable
tried 2 different routers (Netgear DG834GT and Speedtouch 585v6)
On top of this Plus.net have sent out 2 engineers, both examined my home wiring but didn't find an issue (typically the drop didn't occur while they were here, as far as I'm aware, I obviously couldn't see my router's stats). One also checked the nearby junction boxes but couldn't find anything. The other went to the exchange, found and fixed something, but thought it was unrelated. He then performed a lift and shift at the exchange (moved me on to new equipment I believe).
None of this has fixed it.
Plus.net have now arranged for a 3rd engineer to come out to check for electrical interference. My hopes aren't high.
I've got an ticket raised with Plus.net but it feels like they ran out of ideas once 2 engineers couldn't find a problem with my internal wiring. They take about 3 days to reply to anything I post in the ticket (which is also getting annoying) and the reply is usually followed by them saying they'd like to monitor the line for (another) 3 days. 5 weeks of this is getting a bit old!
So I thought I'd come here to see if any of you knowledgeable people had any idea or similar experiences.
Hopefully I've managed to include a graph recorded in Routerstats that managed to capture the problem occurring. (I've also sent this to Plus.net yesterday, so they should get back to me about it in early august I expect. They'll probably want to monitor the line for 3 days  ::))
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestion!
10 REPLIES 10
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

It looks as if every so often you get a huge burst of noise/interference on the line.  As long as "it seems to happen completely at random" then you are in trouble because even if an engineer is lucky enough to catch it in the act I'm not sure they are any better-placed than you are to identify the cause.  The best thing you can do is to log these "events" and see if a pattern emerges. 
SarcasticGuy1
Grafter
Posts: 70
Registered: ‎27-11-2009

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Yeah, this is the trouble, can't figure it out.
Have been monitoring it for 5 weeks and can't see a pattern.
Frankly I'm getting a bit fed up of renting a faulty product from BT.
I believe once when we had problems with our Sky box Sky replaced it. BT have been less helpful and of course they wont talk to me because it's a broadband issue.
matt_2k34
Grafter
Posts: 1,300
Registered: ‎09-07-2007

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Quote
because it's a broadband issue.

Not necessarily.
Interference can come from anywhere, bad central heating system, Faulty electrical equipment ... ive even seen cases when the 'large' next door neighbour goes on their treadmill - it gives off so much interference while its struggling to shift their weight - it craps out the broadband of several neighbours...  Grin
Logging times, and seeing whats switching on/off at the time can help pinpoint it. But these faults are neigh on impossible to notice. If you find its something in your home - pluggin said device into a UPS can 'filter out' the crap being put down the wiring... We do this with most of our house kit now - because even though the house is only 10 years old its all on one ring main - (including the garage) which means when the fridge/freezer kicks up - you get a good chunk of interference spent round the house.  Angry

Regards
nozzer
Hero
Posts: 3,298
Thanks: 676
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎04-08-2009

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Very similar problem for me last year, accompanied by bursts of thousands of errored seconds. Turned out (after six technician visits and a lot of faffing) to be an unidentified line fault, cured by swapping to a new line pair. Took a long time for BT to get to this stage though, around a couple of months.The guy who eventually cured it thought that the old line was picking up volts from somewhere.  Shocked
tstaddon
Rising Star
Posts: 182
Thanks: 27
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Until we had the lamp posts changed, I used to get sudden drops in speed when the street lights came on!
SarcasticGuy1
Grafter
Posts: 70
Registered: ‎27-11-2009

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Quote from: nozzer
Very similar problem for me last year, accompanied by bursts of thousands of errored seconds. Turned out (after six technician visits and a lot of faffing) to be an unidentified line fault, cured by swapping to a new line pair. Took a long time for BT to get to this stage though, around a couple of months.The guy who eventually cured it thought that the old line was picking up volts from somewhere.  Shocked

Yeah, that sounds about right, while the error is occurring I get hundreds and thousands of of errors (and thus quite a few errored seconds).
Wish I could get them to switch me to a new line pair (not 100% sure what that is, but sounds like they just moved you to a new physical line?)
Well I'm 3 engineers and about 1 month in so maybe half-way there  Smiley
nozzer
Hero
Posts: 3,298
Thanks: 676
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎04-08-2009

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Yep. New pair of copper wires to the house.
matt_2k34
Grafter
Posts: 1,300
Registered: ‎09-07-2007

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Quote
New pair of copper wires to the house.

Depends if theres any spare, the mood that BTw are in (if they let BTO actually do the work at the exchange/cab) and which cable hes changing.
D/E side (the bit from the exchange to the cab, or the cab to the premesis)
Having a similar problem this also 'cured' the issue for me, but it required a Cab-to-exchange replacement... and there were none but after about 5 engineer visits they realised i was going to persist, and the engineer swapped me from Alu to Cu D side, from someone who hadnt paid the bill in over 6 months. Win?  Roll_eyes
Smiley
Regards
SarcasticGuy1
Grafter
Posts: 70
Registered: ‎27-11-2009

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Do you guys remember if you had any problems with your phones while the drop in SNR was occurring? Like crackling on the line or something?
I've checked my phones while it's been happening and I can't say I've noticed anything serious, if anything at all.
matt_2k34
Grafter
Posts: 1,300
Registered: ‎09-07-2007

Re: Does anyone know what mgiht cause this behaviour?

Yes, i had a slight "hum" on teh phone
However when BT fixed this (bad join) the problem persisted, if anything got worse.
Regards