Unstable Connection

[#1]

Hi Anotherone

I did initiate the current problem with the online phone fault but it found nothing to proceed. Then I phoned support and mentioned the crackling along with the connection problem and again there was no faults showing at that time. He advised to try again when the problems returned. I'm content, at the moment, to check somethings out myself out of curiosity.

This line has always been unstable which I put down to its' length. I had an engineer down 4 years ago through BT but he found nothing and I got the impression it was a waste of his time.

I have received an email from Plusnet support about turning on interleaving which I had done for me in March. I requested this via this forum as mikehvy a username that I had to change when the new forum became live because of the password reset problem.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Broadband/Interleaving-On-Request/td-p/1303074

https://community.plus.net/t5/Broadband/Current-Line-Speed/td-p/1310421

That was with the Billion router so these routers seem to behave differently. I also have a BT HH2. I may try the Billion again later this week but today I will test the phones with the Technicolor TG582n. The stats have changed again, now showing 26db upstream SNRM which is strange. The connection seems to have dropped last night just a few minuets before the email was sent!

[#2]

It really makes me sick to hear that users are still fobbed off with things like hearing crackling noise on the phone line (which obviously ends up having an effect on the broadband) as being solved by turning on Interleaving. You've had 14 line drops there since you rebooted/powered up the TG582n.
I would chase Plusnet up by what ever means you find convenient - ticket, phone, chat, it might get some attention here and get them to pursue this Intermittent Crackly Noisy Phone line with Openreach. Make sure it's recorded on your ticket as Intermittent and if/when an OR engineer turns up, make sure he is made aware it's Intermittent because the relevant information doesn't always reach the engineer. Such faults can be a real pain to get resolved.

btw CLS updates should generate an automatic PPP drop/reconnect but don't always, which is why you have to do a manual one!

As far as the password reset issue is concerned, you should be able to recover your username mikehvy and @HarryB or @bobpullen may be able to help with that.

[#3]

To be fair to them the email says interleaving may help but that I should contact them again if it doesn't.

I'm checking the phones this morning and will listen for any noise.

[#4]

Obviously best to pursue it when it's all crackling nicely - have you noticed if any particular weather conditions tend to provoke it - ie. just wind, just rain or both?

[#5]

Yes I have noticed rain is fine but heavy showers do affect the connection so I presume it's a combination of wind and heavy rain. I think wind alone is OK.

[#6]

Have a look on your DP where the connections from your drop-wire (and your neighbours) are made to a larger cable. Has the box got a cover on it - properly fitted? If you are going down the road that the line follows at any time, keep an eye open for any other cable joints/connections to see if any aren't properly "weather-proofed" (watch where you are driving mind!).

[#7]

Forgot to say the crackling has occurred whatever the weather, seems to be noticed at the beginning of a call. When I've put the phone down to recall because of the noise it has gone. It is still quite rare to occur.

[#8]

As far as the pole goes that was replaced 5 years ago and I have a connection box outside the house to join the cables. I did have concern about a pole half a mile away at the start of our lane which had the cables pulled off at the bottom quarter, seems to have been caught sometime maybe by grass cutting? I don't know if this is part of my line and I mentioned it to the engineer 4 years ago but he showed no interest. I had a pic of it somewhere?

There are no other properties down this lane the line terminates with us

[#9]

Photo could be good at some point if you are able

[#10]

I will take a new one I've lost the picture ok. I will post it later.

[#11]

I finished with the phone check and there is no difference. I doubled filtered the phone just in case. 

I Unplugged the dect phone and used the corded phone to ask a friend to call me back. The D/s margin drops when I end the call. The friend calls and after a few seconds the broadband connection drops and re-syncs during the call and the margin recovers but the D/s margin drops when I end the call. Then tried the dect phone and similar pattern but the connection holds. I've found the first call of the day tends to drop the connection and then it holds in later calls.

There was no noise present during any of these calls. After these calls the FECs increase massively. A puzzle?

[#12]

Might be good if @HarryB could get a CLT run now. It's possible a steady fault might be showing at the moment.

[#13]

Here are the photos of the Pole 1km away at the start of the lane. The cab is 1.8km away from us and there are just 2 properties before the lane. The lane comes off the main road which continues to the village. There are no other properties down this lane, just ours. The pole is connected to another pole which feeds cable to a farm. I don't know if this pole is anything to do with my line as the cable is underground till it reaches the level crossing, so I have 2 poles with the cable over the crossing and to us. These poles were new in 2011 replacing 2 older shorter poles.

[#14]

@Anotherone Automation applied interleaving off the back of the fault report, I wouldn't really agree that we've tried fobbing Mike off on this one with interleaving. On the initial fault report, there was no mention of problems with the phone line, it looks like "My phone line is fine" was selected as an answer when asked about the phone.

Checking for a phone fault hasn't returned any results

@mikeh Our suppliers are asking to book an engineer appointment in order to proceed with further investigations now. Your ticket should be updated shortly asking for your availability for an appointment

In regards to your forum account, have you tried resetting the password using your yahoo email address?

[#15]

Thanks for the Update @HarryB, that's fair comment. Pictures of this cable damage may be a clue to what's going on.