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Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

FIXED
archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

Today the ADSL is connecting at about 1/4 the available download speed (as displayed as soon as the status summary shows the connection) and will not reconnect any closer to the limit, even after rebooting the modem/router (there is no problem with the upload speed just now).

For the last few days, it has been re-connecting at low speeds (both down and up) then gradually reporting higher achievable speeds. Rebooting the modem/router early in the morning would give decent speeds for a while before becoming unstable and reducing speed. When connected at higher speeds, the HEC Errors have been occurring at a rapid rate.

But today, it has failed to provide a good download connection, and we are having to avoid clashes of online meetings, lectures, and presentations.

The quiet line test is giving varied results.

How do I reconnect at the maximum available download speed?

Status Summary after second disconnect in less than an hour:

DSL Status
Line State: UP [0x0]
Line Mode: G.992.5 (ADSL2+)
Line Uptime: 16m 30s
Annex: A
Profile: -
Data Rate: 6.653 Mb/s / 1.087 Mb/s
Max. Attainable Data Rate (ATTNDR): 24.012 Mb/s / 1.088 Mb/s
Latency: 0.50 ms / 0.25 ms
Line Attenuation (LATN): 13.6 dB / 6.3 dB
Signal Attenuation (SATN): 11.6 dB / 6.2 dB
Noise Margin (SNR): 32.3 dB / 6.7 dB
Aggregate Transmit Power(ACTATP): 18.3 dB / 9.9 dB
Forward Error Correction Seconds (FECS): 0 / 0
Errored seconds (ES): 8 / 40
Severely Errored Seconds (SES): 8 / 1
Loss of Signal Seconds (LOSS): 7 / 3
Unavailable Seconds (UAS): 221 / 221
Header Error Code Errors (HEC): 21 / 738
Non Pre-emtive CRC errors (CRC_P): 0 / 0
Pre-emtive CRC errors (CRCP_P): 0 / 0
ATU-C System Vendor ID: Infineon 113.200
Power Management Mode: L0 - Synchronized
 
Regards,
Alistair
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,916
Thanks: 9,534
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

I think we are still at first base on this.  Those SNRM stats look grim and there is little that YOU can do to address them.

What does the QLT look like when you encounter these issues?

Have you raised a fault report?

Have you established uninterrupted routerstats recording?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

@Townman 

The QLT ranges from almost quiet, through significant white noise, and recently has added strange machine generated noises and whines, I thought I heard an old dial-up modem signal. TBH, I thought the connection had stabilised in the cold weather, but it wasn't so.

There is an open ticket, and connection settings change at times (latency  increased/decreased - ?interleave/fastrack?) and I have some phone calls and emails related to it.

I gave up trying to run the routerstat utility on linux, and the features/performance of the Plusnet Hub one do not impress me at all, especially compared to OpenWrt running on the BT HH5.

I think I have now managed to configure a Win 8.1 box to run continuously with routerstat, so I will set that up with the 'hub one tomorrow and see what happens.

I looked at a forum that supports TI AR7 based modem/routers - I had raised the problem there soon after the (Plusnet) connection was upgraded to ADSL2+ early in 2012. The connection has been fairly stable for most of the intervening time with only brief unstable episodes - until this summer.

Regards,

Alistair

 

archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

Attached are some RouterStatsHub5A logs and chart images.

Why are we stuck at such a low downstream speed, with a huge SNR Margin?
We are struggling to cope, the younger two in the household need a better connection for both work/study and relaxation.

I have had no phone call, email, or support call entry to explain why the connection settings have been changed.
The last email is an automated one from your 'Customer Operations Director' on Tues 24/11/2020.
The last entry on the support call, was made on Sat 07/11/2020, where the CSC Analyst put their name only, with no added notes.
Plusnet Staff:
Please provide an email update on why the settings have changed, how long the current settings will last, and what is the expected outcome.

Regards,

Alistair

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

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

Thanks for the post @archerry 

I'm sorry for the issues with your connection.

From what I can see the last adviser on the fault ticket passed the ticket 206678774 passed it back to you as it dropped into a faults workflow in error after being passed back following your conversation with another adviser previously. Also I can't see any changes we've made to your connection since then.

I think the issues you're seeing are the work of the automatic dynamic line management (DLM) software at the exchange as there may still be a fault that needs further investigation.

If you can reply to the ticket with when you'd be available for an engineer visit (timeslots 8am to 1pm, or 1pm to 6pm) posting back after we'll be happy to make sure that's booked as soon as we can.

 

[edit]

I'm just attaching some test results if it helps:

xDSL Status Check
Circuit ID: [redacted Service ID: [redacted]
Telephone NO.: NA Test Executed On: 29-11-2020 12:45:43
xDSL Status Test Summary
Sync Status: Circuit In Sync
General Information
NTE Status:   NTE Power Status: PowerOn Bypass Status:  
 
  Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 5.8 12.1
SNR Margin: 6.5 21.1
Errored Seconds: 0 0
HEC Errors: 0  
Cell Count: 16702261 361576176
Speed: 1076 6648
 
Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS): 18176 Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS): 14541
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds): 13787 Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds): 56
Indicative Line Quality: A Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds): 17234

And a log of the last 7 days of your connection:

image16066541705329

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
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Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

@Gandalf 

Thank you for the update.

I have replied to the open ticket to ask for an appointment, stating that I am available all the coming week.

Regards,

Alistair

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

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

Hi Alistair, I've booked the engineer and added the appointment details to the ticket. Smiley

We'll follow things up with you as soon as we can afterwards. Let us know how it goes though

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

The Openreach technician visited this morning. He has replaced a short length of wire (~three metre) between the external drop-wire and the master socket (the joint is a GPO branded telephone junction box).

The ADSL connection is back up and the quiet line test is fairly quiet.

The connection went down at 05:23 and reconnected at 1085kb/s UP, 18056kb/s DOWN, Interleaved.

Currently connected at 1082kb/s UP, 18258kb/s DOWN, Interleaved.

What happens next?

Regards,

Alistair

archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

Replacing that short length of wire has not resolved the fault(s) on the phone line.
Last night just after 20:00 the connection went down three-four times. At that time a friend was on the landline, and it became impossible to continue due to the noise on the line. We had to call back on the mobile.
We had a few disconnects this afternoon as well.
This time the QLT revealed squeals and loud white noise, and a quiet bit.
Attached are the modem/router WAN log, the captured charts, and log from RouterStatsHub5.

Regards,

Alistair

jab1
Legend
Posts: 16,815
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Registered: ‎24-02-2012

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

@archerry Looking at those Logs, you have a POTS problem, which, as you state, hasn't been resolved by whatever the last engineer did. I would suggest, from experience, that you re-report this, and suggest they send a SFE - Specialist Faults Engineer (think that's the correct term). I had a similar problem early last year, and the fault was finally traced to faulty exchange equipment, after two engineers spent almost five hours checking everything from my incoming line all the way back to the exchange.

 

EDIT - Could be SFI (Specialist Faults Investigator)

John
archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

Plusnet Staff:

How do I escalate this problem to the attention of the "Specialist Faults Investigators"?

Regards,

Alistair

jab1
Legend
Posts: 16,815
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Registered: ‎24-02-2012

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

@archerry Do you have an open ticket on this problem? If so, update it, referring back to this topic, and especially your post from yesterday evening. Only PN can contact Openreach on your behalf.

John
archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

@jab1 

Yes I do have an open ticket, to which I have added the escalation request and the log files.

Regards,

Alistair

PS. How do I attach more than one file to a comment on the open ticket? - it only uploaded the last file I attached.

Regards,

Alistair

jab1
Legend
Posts: 16,815
Thanks: 5,339
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Registered: ‎24-02-2012

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

@archerry Good - maybe it will get looked at soon. Sorry, can't answer your question, it's been a while since I had any faults ticket open.

John
archerry
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 101
Thanks: 37
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎15-06-2013

Re: Unreliable ADSL2+ Connection

Started today with absolutely appalling connection.

Trying the helpline...

Regards,

Alistair

No further forward, apparently the 'faults team' have not reviewed the call since the Openreach visit last Tuesday!