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Intermittent Drop in Sync Speed

springtide
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎05-08-2007

Intermittent Drop in Sync Speed

Approx 6 months ago the house got struck by Lightening, and the telephone and broadband services were all down, not surprisingly since one of the ADSL Filters actually expoded.
BT were called out, and they replaced all of the faceplates in the house.  Previously I used to get a Sync Speed of approx 6000/488 (down/up) and all was happy.  The ADSL router was replaced (Linksys WAG300N, Firmware Version: 1.01.06) and all of the filters.
But, the sync speed had never recovered, being around the 3500/488.  I raised a call with Plusnet, and after several weeks of bouncing back and forth on the "My Questions" I gave up and decied to live with it.
But, it's got worse.  Not so much on the download, but the upload now randomly every few days drops to 96 or even 64.  Reboot the router and the upload is back to 488.  Also, in the last 3 months, the phone line has been switched to Plusnet.
So I've raised another ticket with Plusnet to investigate.  So after many tests, Plusnet can't find anything wrong with the line, and BT will not investigate as they will only consider it as being a fault if the download speed drops below ~1250, but no lower limit for the upload.
Plusnet also suggested that it might be the internal wiring. The MASTER socket for the ADSL router is in the main bedroom, so it is not practical to leave the ADSL router plugged into this socket for ever.  I wasn't happy with BT when they first connected us up to this point, since the previous owners were with NTL. But, as I was getting a Sync speed of 6000 isn't didn't seem worth complaining about and they connected this point to the internal wiring.  Anyway, back to the issue...
So, I have gone though the internal wiring and have now soldered every connection for the "loop through" (i.e.  the ends of the cables have been soldered, but the two cables have been inserted as normal into the telephone socket). This seems to have improved the connection somewhat (now get a Sync Speed of 4000-5000), but all is still not well.
My IP Profile is still varies between 2000->2500, and (still) every couple of days get the download dropping to about 2800 and upload to 96 or even 64.  Reboot the router and the upload is back to 5000/488.
To try and rule out the internal wiring I have connected the ADSL router to the MASTER socket with the internal wiring disconnected.  With only the ADSL router plugged in, the Sync speed is around 7600 (I live 1250m from the exchange BTW).
If I then plug any of the telephones that we have in the house into the MASTER socket (with the ADSL router connected, and internal wiring disconnected), the Sync Speed drops to around 5000.   I've tried multiple telephones and ADSL filters and still get the same drop.
If I connect the internal wiring to the MASTER socket (with all telephones disconnected) then the same thing happens - sync speed drops to about 5000.  I even tried at the first socket disconnecting all of the internal wiring but it makes no difference.
My personal opinion is that the fault lines outside of the house, and that any additional load on the line is highlighting the "poor" connection.
This wouldn't surprise me since we were struck by Lighening and all of our sockets needed replacing, so it seems a high probability that the external connections were also effected.
Obviously if the Sync speed stayed between 4000 and 5000 I would be a very happy person, but as this drops to below 3000 download, 64 upload, it's keeping my IP profile down and also "64 up" makes the connection pretty unusable.
The bottom line is that I want this fixed.  Plusnet seem to keep stating that probably the internal wiring (which we did actually pay BT £230 to fix BTW) and I do not seem to be able to progress this any further.
What is more annoying, is that that a different Plusnet Engineer adds to "My Question" every few days replying to my response, asking the same questions that I have already answered - which they are obviously not reading the history.  Not surprising, as the log is now looking like "War and Peace".
All of the tests that Plusnet have run have looked OK from a SNR point of view etc. 
The point is, I just want it fixed.  I'd be happy if a BT Engineer turned up and tested both the internal and external lines, and even if they charged me if they found a fault on the internal wiring.  What I obviously don't want is a BT Engineer turning up, quickly testing their external wiring, charging £144+VAT and leaving me still with this fault.
I would be tempted to actually replace all of the internal wiring if I had confidance that Plusnet's position would change, but at the moment it feels very unlikely.  The fact that all of the internal cables have now been soldered in my mind makes me have some confidence that it's not an internal issue (as well as knowing the Lightening Strike damaged the internal cables, so makes sense that the external cables were also effected)
Can anyone offer any help?  Does anyone have any thoughts on the MASTER socket test I did?  Does this sound like an external fault.  I am so close to switching to someone else, just I've never really liked NTL, but it's looking like a slightly better option at the moment.
Sorry for the long post, but there's a lot of history..  I can share some of Plusnet's test figures if you like.