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Enable fast path

DS
Seasoned Champion
Posts: 2,307
Thanks: 504
Fixes: 22
Registered: ‎06-01-2017

Re: Enable fast path

I've done my best to book the engineer according to reports of rainy weather scheduled this afternoon

My kinda thought process too!! Thumbs_Up

Hope they get wet find it!!

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

So here's the latest.

 

Everything was thoroughly checked between cabinet and the NTE. No fault was found but the engineer did say he'd made some cabling improvements in the cabinet.

 

Apparently the manhole is unlikely to be the issue because they always have water in them and some of runs away on a gutter, and often the joints are dry despite anything getting in there. But I'm going to keep an eye on it for a while nonetheless, and if I can show a weeks worth of line drops only when it rains then I'll come back to that with OR.

 

I asked what he thought his suspicions would be if the line is completely clear of faults findable on his equipment and he said he would suspect an HR fault, a cable that is starting to break, or even traffic on the main road that creates vibration and moves the cables around to where  they shouldn't be.

 

I was given a new MK4 VDSL faceplate to replace the one that blew.

 

I'm satisfied that the line was properly tested this time and they were willing to do some physical changes so far, and that strikes cabinet wiring off the list at least. So it's a case of seeing how this goes.

 

Quick quiet line test shows an improvement since earlier today, but it's too early to tell since it was always intermittent.

 

I'm going to put everything back into the test socket though for now because the new faceplate has an RF filter and I don't want to do anything to mask a problem if it's still there.

TheMightyAJ
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,511
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Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Enable fast path

Hi @Anonymous,

I'm glad to hear that engineer appointment has gone ahead as planned and that some cabling improvements have been made in the local cabinet. As you've said it would be best to keep an eye on your connection going forward and if you do notice any issues, just post again in this thread and we'll be happy to pick this matter back up for further investigation.

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Alex H
 Plusnet Help Team
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

It's early days but as far as I can tell the engineer has cleared the noise on the phone line.

 

Good news is that I seem to easily get a touch more speed after I called support to have the line profile adjusted for more speed. I think it may even be slightly better than before the fault occured.

 

Bad news is that there are still drops. So I would like to escalate it again with teamleader as you've said. I think a senior support staff is handling the case of my fault at this point. If you could arrange for them to call me back on this, that would be great.

 

I'm considering whether to ask for this to be raised as an SFI but I've heard of people being charged when no fault is found in testing, despite the SFI engineer outright closing the fault. Any advice or thoughts on that?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

Rewriting this particular post as things have changed after I got through to support. The fault status has been rejected back to BTW who are raising an SFI. Please don't do any tests just now as I'm double checking previous findings and need the line to stay on as often as possible.

 

The noise on the phone line appears to be not fully fixed, there is still some intermittent noise even if it's smaller than before.

 

SFI Engineer arrives Friday morning coming. I'm sure this is the best chance of a fix, but also best chance of being charged if they find no fault during testing. A case of wait and see then I suppose.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: Enable fast path

I've requested our suppliers BTwholesale to escalate this case to a team leader, which should hopefully mean they'll be able to escalate this further with Openreach.

Regarding your request for an SFI visit, as we've raised a broadband fault any engineer we book would be a request for an SFI appointment though ultimately whether an SFI engineer goes out would be dependant on Openreach allocating one.

From looking at the notes on our suppliers portal, I can see the last engineer we booked on the 13th for the 15th was a request for an SFI visit, and I can also see the appt we booked on 17th for the 22nd is also a request for an SFI to go out.

Let us know how the visit goes on Friday.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

Will absolutely let you know how things go.

 

I can confirm for sure now the intermittent phone noise issue is still present, but not to the severity it was before.

 

Currently have an uptime of 22+ hours on the plusnet supplied router after asking for 9DB SNR. But of course I've seen the standard settings being rock solid on this line prior to the fault occuring.

 

Regardless I would want the noise on the phoneline fixed, because whilst it has improved:

 

The phone line started with a small intermittent issue similar to this, and steadily worsened to always being noisy.

 

It's worth noting I asked for the SNR to be increased to 9. The reason was I still had drops after asking for the standard defaults to be put back because of speed issues, and 9db downstream SNR is the maximum I can have before seeing speeds drop below expected.

 

If the engineer is able to clear the noise fault and I get a 1 week uptime on my router, I will close the fault.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 26,563
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: Enable fast path

I'd say that most lines should run at an SNR of 6dB unless it's a very long line. Increasing the SNR beyond that is generally only masking an underlying problem which seems to be the noise on the line in your case.

Fingers crossed the engineer is able to identify and fix the fault on Friday.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

I think the same about raising the SNR, I don't want to mask any problems especially as I know I was getting a rock solid connection on 6 SNR until this fault happened. Since you seem to agree with me I would get it put back on 6db SNR despite anything that happens there after the 2 day mark.

 

I am 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles I think) to the exchange according to one of the engineers that visited so not that far really. Downstream attenuation is 32 (up is 16) roughly with the PN supplied router, which is a little surprising to me for that distance based on other BTW provided lines I've had but I could be wrong.

 

I've made sure the SFI engineer is coming friday so I can retest these things, as I want to make double sure to avoid any potential charges.

 

Despite what they may think about equipment or broadband there is still intermittent noise on the phoneline that needs to be cleared, so I can always focus on getting that fixed.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: Enable fast path

Absolutely. I'd also agree with you that any noise on the phone line should always be investigated first as it's usually the underlying problem behind any problems with a broadband connection.

If the SFI engineer finds no fault on Friday it's unlikely we'd charge you for the visit, it's more likely we'd just arrange another engineer, assuming the problem remained the same and you're still having issues.

We'd only charge you for an engineer visit within 90 days following a fault investigation closing, however they'll go through our billing team who robustly defend all charges and if applicable we'd also review them again before passing them on to you.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

I will still do a small amount of testing again so that I'm double sure, and that I can't be faulted for any equipment problems that went unnoticed or happened after the fault started. But I will limit testing to the SNR change back to 6 tomorrow, and if I've held a connection for 48 hours at 9 SNR that should verify again to me at least that the router isn't faulty.

 

So that should limit their options for passing on any charges with any luck. But I'm very glad you'll fight hard to avoid any charges, that's definitely something I want in a provider.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

On 9db downstream SNR I can now see that I'm having SNR drops as low as to 7.6. When I had some issues before DLM set me to 15db SNR and I noticed that dropped to around 13.5 sometimes. So it would be easy to see how an SNR of 6DB downstream could cause an instant drop if it went down to 4.6 or less.

 

So yeah I think it's better to have 6DB snr so as not to mask the issue. Thanks again.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Re: Enable fast path

I've placed a request to adjust the target SNR back down to 6dB.

It should complete within the next 5 to 10 minutes.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Enable fast path

The last engineer out gave me a replacement faceplate since mine had blown, but it was one of those VDSL faceplates. Taking that out now too, since it might also mask some issues with the RF filter and common mode choke.

 

Just now needed to replug the router to switch the SNR back. DSL uptime here was roughly 3 hours, which is roughly the same time you changed the SNR. Did you happen to notice how long it was up before that?

 

So everything is back in the test socket, and it went back to 6db SNR. Thanks a lot for the SNR change over the forums, it's saved me some time there.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 26,563
Thanks: 10,265
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: Enable fast path

It looks like your PPP session was up for around 2 hours before the re-sync as a result of changing the SNR.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet