Repeated Broadband Dropouts for last month

[#1]

Hi richi, I tried all of that before raising the fault.  The noise only occurs on the line intermittently and when it does, it only occurs when the router tries to connect or is connected.  Disconnect the router and the interference goes, I've changed microfilters, tried another router, both in the test socket and normally and the result was the same.  PlusNet found no fault on the line when they tested but I don't think there was probably any interference at the time, there definitely wasn't an hour later but some hours earlier there had been.  I'm waiting to see what happens over the next few days.  I did wonder if it was when it rained, but we've had rain the last couple of days and no interference again, but it did rain heavily on Wednesday afternoon and evening and there was chronic interference.  It may depend on how much rain is going towards the connection into the house.  The metal cover over the cable up into the house (cable runs underground from the cabinet) I have noticed is pulling away from the brickwork due to rusted nails, hence the suspicion it may have something to do with the weather.  There was definitely a lot of snow blow up into that area when we had the heavy snowfall at the end of last month and the dropouts started after that but not always with noisy line.  I suspect its not the only reason for the dropouts since last Saturday it dropped out every half hour for a number of hours but it didn't rain and there was no noise on the phoneline.  As mentioned in earlier posts, I think interleaving may have been removed from my line recently and that may be possibly contributing to the dropouts where there is no noise involved.  I've yet to find out for definite but it was enabled in 2011 because of instability with broadband connection after a product change.  Have to see how it goes, just hoping the noise will reappear sometime soon but it tends to be, and has been occasionally in the past, intermittent.

[#2]

What you describe is a classic symptom of a bad joint somewhere, possibly caused by water ingress. The remote testing Plusnet can do won't necessarily see the problem. 

Push Plusnet to get an Openreach engineer out. If you've eliminated a problem on your side of the test socket, and there isn't a damp problem in the wall where your master socket is mounted, I see no justification for a charge. ISPs do need to warn you that there may be a charge, in case it's your fault, but if you've done your due diligence, don't worry about it.

[#3]

Hi @nicki77

Thanks for getting in touch.

I can see that my colleagues have raised a fault for this issue on a ticket here and we're just awaiting a response from yourself.

If you could update the ticket when its convenient we can go from there.

Best Wishes,

Dave

[#4]

I hadn't updated the fault ticket yet because I was monitoring to see whether the interference returned, especially as the original fault ticket request showed that I had already completed all the tests that your colleague requested in the ticket prior to raising the fault.  To date the interference hasn't returned but this has happened before in the past few weeks and in the past.  I have now updated the ticket and have asked again, as with this post and the separate post I have on here, whether interleaving is enabled on the line because nobody from PlusNet has bothered to respond to that.  If the ticket is closed because of lack of interference, it means I will have to raise one again when it reappears.  The line over the last few days has been more stable but as DLM has kicked in my connection speed has dropped somewhat.

[#5]

Here's another random thought: These days, many lines receive very few calls. However, the current that flows when an incoming call rings is significant enough to temporarily repair failing joints.

Sounds bizarre, but I've seen it with my own eyes (and had it confirmed by one of the more experienced Openreach engineers).

So if your line problem comes and goes, is it correlated with periods when you haven't had a phone call for a while? Does it go away after a good long ring?

[#6]

Interesting richi, thanks for that.  My line receives very few calls at all, a lot of the time only one a day and as that call is expected, its often answered very quickly.  I shall bare that in mind when (and it will most likely be when since its happened previously) the interference returns and test that out.

[#7]

I can confirm interleaving is enabled on your line.

Your connection seems stable in recent days so I've put through a DLM reset to improve your speeds:

Our faults team will pick up your ticket in due course.

Can you let us know how your speeds look in about an hour or so?

[#8]

Thanks Anoush the DLM was reset about 16 minutes ago when I was trying to load a webpage.  Initially thought here we go again but checked the connection stats to find it had connected at 14mb so knew DLM had obviously been reset.  Currently no interference on the phone so will see how things go.

[#9]

No problems at all.

Let us know if you experience any further issues.

[#10]

Line had been stable since DLM was reset on Wednesday until just before 21:30hrs this (Thursday) evening.  Had been on a phone call for just over half an hour when interference began, nothing major just crackling and the odd squeal.  However, I was near the router and saw it drop out (red light) then reconnect, then almost immediately dropped out again and then reconnected (interference continued).  In light of richi's comments about a long incoming call current, asked the person who'd phoned to hang up and ring again and I would leave it ringing for just over a minute as a test.  When answered, no interference and none for the rest of the call, albeit not very long.  So far the line hasn't dropped out again tonight, although its connected at a slightly lower speed than it was prior to Thursday's dropout (13411kbps DS and 1097 kbpts US).

The phone doesn't get used that much but there is almost always a call of 30-45 minutes in the evening, sometimes they ring me and sometimes I ring them.  At times there will be a missed call when incoming has rung for up to 2 minutes because I'm either out or not able to get to the phone in time.  Admittedly, there have been a couple of those this week. 

Will update the fault log with Thursday's issue and monitor.

[#11]

Sounds about right. The only advice I can give is to get Openreach out for a voice fault.

Tell the engineer it's an intermittent problem (9 times out of 10 they won't have any notes to tell them that). Be prepared for several engineer visits, because they'll want to try several things, one at a time (and there might indeed be several things wrong).

We had 11-or-so visits in 2016 for an intermittent crackle. Roughly in order, Openreach engineers:

1. remade connections in the PCP
2. drank my tea, ate my biscuits, complained about his manager 
3. swapped my entire D-side for the spare pair that came into the house
4. swapped it back, because "the previous guy was an idiot"
5. drank my tea, ate my biscuits, swore blind there was no such thing as TN-S (good job he only works on 48-Volt systems)
6. swapped the entire E-side for a spare
7. said it was "definitely" a problem up my distribution pole, but "elf&safety won't let me work on it"
8. spent an entire hour at the top of my distribution pole, H&S be damned
9. drank my tea, ate my biscuits, complained about his manager, gave me a new NTE5C
10. did something daft that gave me someone else's phone number for a couple of days
11. replaced my tie pair (it was an LLU/MPF service)

And indeed the actual problem was a dodgy tie pair (the thing that links Openreach's frame to the LLU provider's). But diagnosing those sorts of problems is freakishly hard. And the range of engineer competence at Openreach is frightening.

On the plus side, we now have a line that's far better than it has a right to be: 17Mb/s over 3km of copper.

[#12]

richi, your no 10 I've had from Openreach albeit that they must have been working on someone else's line because I came home to find no broadband and not my number.  Reported to BT to be told this is your number, my reply no its not its somebody else's who doesn't have broadband on their line either.  Thankfully got fixed within 24 hours.

Well having been stable from Thursday evening until about 20:18hrs last night and 35 minutes into a phone call, interference reappeared and the line dropped out three times over about 6 minutes with a lot of crackling.  Reconnected at 11833 kbps DS and 649 kbps US.  Subsequent 50 minute phone call no issues although bit of crackling on the line intermittently.  Stable for 14 hours out of curiosity I disconnected and reconnected though the router webpage.  Reconnected at same speeds suggesting DLM has kicked in again.  Strangely it dropped out again 5 minutes later and reconnected, but the router logs are showing it as a disconnect/reconnect yet I didn't do anything.  Definitely something not correct.  During first Friday night phone call didn't have a chance to test the line ringing theory as wasn't convenient but its strange the way it started after 35 minutes into the call, similar time span to interference on Thursday night.

[#13]

Keep plugging away at Openreach to fix the voice fault

[#14]

I'd be very grateful if any support team member could get tests run on my line at this immediate time please rather than in 7 days time as has happened the last few times I've updated the open ticket in recent weeks.  My broadband has fallen over 3 times in the last 10 minutes and I have chronic interference on the line again.  Now would be a good time for tests to be run and not when the interference disappears again.  Many thanks.

[#15]

Typical.  Having just updated the open ticket about this morning, went to phone PlusNet support on the affected line to find the interference has gone again.