Weeks of problems and IGNORED by plusnet on open ticket! FED UP!

[#1]

Thanks for the reply.

Actually a slight decrease in dl speed as was 8807 and is now 8625.

It is the 8704N.

Max attainable rate is shown as 1296/9332.

Connecting by lan to pc a metre away.

Yes, the first ever sent on 27 Jan. Shows 4 outage in 6 days. However, I have only noticed two I think, certainly one I had to unplug router adsl input line to reconnect. 

Occasional disconnects with auto reconnects are not the concern, it is the times when the only way to reconnect to internet is by disconnecting the router and reconnecting.  Surely in this day routers should be able to auto connect?

In fact never heard of radius before, so looked it up. Seems to be mentioned very little but looks useful for these situations. A very useful page all about interference problems and affecting broadband signal. Is there a log accessible on my router do you know? I am familiar with such emc problems, having spent over 50 years involved in radio communication repairs to component level. 

The bt special investigation team 10 years ago used an ordinary MW portable radio tuned around 600KHz IIRC to df the noisy pc psu which was about 150M down the road.  A few years back my OWN  router smps started interfering with broadband signal and reducing the speed, I found it using the same method. I replaced it with an old type heavy transformer type to cure the fault.

I will probably enlarge on this subject for the benefit of others at a later date, when my existing problem is solved.  

UPDATE. I accidentally hit the power switch when turning the router over to read the number. Upon re[powering, It took 2 or 3 minutes to reconnect to internet, far longer than usual. Now, stats show speed as :

910/9132

[#2]

Hi @joseph1,

Thank you for connecting your router to the test socket with a microfilter. I'm pleased to hear that your speed looks to have improved already.

Please leave the router connected to the test socket for the next 48 hours, to allow the connection chance to settle in. Please let us know if you continue to experience any problems with the speed or performance of your connection after this.

[#3]

Thanks for the reply.

Speed dropped slightly immediately after fitting the filter. I will not touch anything near it!

1030 today it reached 910-/9312  noise margin 5.4/5.9

1440 today, 910/7937  noise margin  5.5/8.9

Speed has never been the issue though. It is the loss of internet that needs manual intervention by me to restore.

The interesting thing is the radius graph showed more drops than I actually experienced, meaning sometimes the router musthave been reset or reset itself?? Why can't it do this all the time, then I would not be bothered about the occasional drop out. 

Looking at a plusnet advice page, evidently drop outs are to be expected. It is only since Nov 2018 it has caused me operational problems though.

There are 2 main consequences.

1, my wife often uses iplayer etc. and is reluctant to touch the router. Sometimes, this is in the middle of the night as well.

2. We rely on a femtocell permanently for mobile signal around the house as the cell signal is so weak.

[#4]

Wife's phone just now indicated a facetime call. But NOTHING on her 2 ipads. Investigation showed we had lost internet yet again. 

From my router page (had shown "uptime" almost 5 hours less than 30 minutes ago):

6 - Uptime:	0 days 00:05:14
7 - Data rate:	910/7611
8 - Maximum data rate:	1292/8356
9 - Noise margin:	5.6/9.3

So, seems the plug in adsl filter has had no effect?

[#5]

Hi @joseph1,

The connection appears to have dropped outside of you making changes and our testing. As this is the case, I have raised the fault to our suppliers and updated the ticket requesting your availability for an engineers visit.

Once you have replied to the ticket, please reply on here so we can pick it up as soon as possible. Just so you are aware the recent drop that your wife is reporting was from my further testing.

Thank you.

[#6]

I have just replied to the ticket thus:

"Sorry, those are unfair terms that I will not accept. "or if no fault is found, you will receive a charge of £65 to cover the cost of the engineer." In view of the very intermittent nature of this fault, it is most unlikely the visit will coincide with the fault!

Any suggestions without those unfair terms please? Can you blame me for not agreeing?

[#7]

When i last had a complicated intermittent fault, I saved numerous dated screenshots of my actual router stats. Plusnet arranged for a visit. When the "engineer" arrived, i said I would start my pc so he could view the saved screenshots to see that the fault occured at 2100 approx, not in the morning when he attended. He arrogantly told me he was NOT interested as his sole job was to plug in to my master socket, run a test with his pc (?) and if all was ok, leave and report as no fault found! It was because of this occurence that BT at Birmingham was contacted and the special investigation team and work was done at NO COST to myself.  Can anyone agree to pay for a NO fault found given my fault history?

[#8]

@Jubby Thanks for your effort in this matter. The second part makes sense, but does that not invalidate your first statement? Sorry, if I am being thick, but do not understand the reasoning in the second statement.

Thanks

[#9]

As at 19.33 today

6 - Uptime:	0 days 01:11:09
7 - Data rate:	910/7611
8 - Maximum data rate:	1292/8284
9 - Noise margin:	5.6/9.1
10 - Line attenuation:	22.3/40.5

[#10]

@joseph1 Clearly the service the service keeps dropping, but not so clear if that is you resetting the router, or line problems.

Have you had sight of a radius log, and if so do the drops match what you expect?

Going back to basics, how is your phone line, is it quiet when you dial 17070 from a corded phone?

Alas the 2704N router is not great, well it is free, but does the basics, but there are lots of better ones available on your favourite online auction sites for not a lot of money that you may wish to consider.

It is not yet clear to me if your issues are the line or the router, but answers to the above will help. 

[#11]

@joseph1 - i'm really sorry to hear you do not wish to accept the engineer charging statement. 

I'm afraid we are unable to proceed with booking in an engineer to investigate the issue without this acceptance - I'd like to point out that this is only a potential charge and if you have completed all the steps we have advised on prior to booking this appointment then the chance of this £65 being levied against the account is greatly reduced, unfortunately we need to make every customer aware of this every time an engineer visit is required. 

For a bit more information on this - the charge is actually from our supplier, and is much more than the £65 which is passed onto customers should any of the points in the statement hold true. 

if you could let us know when the best time to book this engineer is via the ticket @Jubby left on your account we will get right on this. 

Thanks,

MoR

[#12]

@Mustrum 

Thank you for your time and comments.

Stats from a few minutes ago: Uptime starts after PN reconnected it following their test yesterday pm.

6 - Uptime:	0 days 16:30:55
7 - Data rate:	910/7611
8 - Maximum data rate:	1292/8592
9 - Noise margin:	5.6/9.8
10 - Line attenuation:	22.3/40.5

You may note the deterioration in speed and increase in noise margin. Mind you, I understand s/n ratio applied to signal measurements, but what is margin? If it is s/n, then 9.8dB is an improvement. However, those sort of speeds are not the complaint issue, just the internet drops that require manual intervention.
17070 from a line connected phone is quiet. I cannot remember the last time we had a TELEPHONE problem. I have an overhead from my house to the dp on the pole at top of my short drive about 10 metres away, where it then goes down the pole and disappears underground. Wiring from dp to my new socket was all replaced about 10 years ago when investigating my other bb fault. No extensions are fitted at all.  

The radius shows 5 total in 8 days, with 4 drops in 6 days, which show 3 very short ones that I did not notice and the longer one that I had to reset myself.  Drop times approx 0400, 1030. 1730 and 1930 on different days. There is the first one and last one that I did have to reset and prompted me to put updates to my ticket. It was the last complaint that eventually got a reply from PN after all those weeks! 

Only once have I reset (stopped) the router myself when it was working ok. This was when I accidently switched it off whilst handling it to read the 2704N label to confirm model for you. All other breaks shown on radius have not been my doing.

My Plusnet Technicolor was replaced by the 2704N in November 2018 on advice from PN when I first reported the loss of internet. The intermittent losses continued despite this change. 

[#13]

@MasterOfReality:

Thanks for replying.

This statement from Jubby yesterday:

"The connection appears to have dropped outside of you making changes and our testing. As this is the case, I have raised the fault to our suppliers and updated the ticket requesting your availability for an engineers visit" indicates to me that PN can actually see there is a fault occurring. Am I understanding this correctly?

If you agree there is a fault, and BT visit and don't see it, then surely I will be reliable for the £65 NFF charge? They won't wait all day to see if it happens will they?

Words like "chance" and "potential" are a gamble on my paying £65.00!

[#14]

@joseph1 - i do see where you are coming from, however, we are aware that there is an issue which is why we have been asked by our suppliers to raise this engineer visit. 

To progress we have only the one choice I'm afraid. 

Please let us know how you wish to progress. 

Thanks, 

MoR 

[#15]

@MasterOfReality

Thanks again,

Can you let me have the radius log that covers from the last one please, when it has run the 7 Days?

ie Sunday 27th Jan to Sunday 3 Feb

Based on what you have seen so far on radius logs and your tests, I think you agree with me there is a definite fault somewhere between my new router and wherever it ends up for the internet? Is this correct?

I must also apologise, but power to the router was interrupted today, maybe off 2 minutes around 1405. Please bear this in mind. I will do my utmost to ensure things don't get disturbed again!

here is the log as at 1610 today:

6 - Uptime:	0 days 02:01:43
7 - Data rate:	948/7887
8 - Maximum data rate:	1296/8516
9 - Noise margin:	5.5/8.8
10 - Line attenuation:	22.2/40.5

I will then see on Monday about the engineer visit. Thank you.