frequent disconnections

[#1]

Hi,
For the last couple of months I've been experiencing frequent disconnections from my broadband. At first I put it down to bad weather but the problem hasn't gone away. The disconnects seem to happen randomly, although an incoming phone call does seem to make them more likely. Sometimes the connection will reestablish itself but other times I'll have to do a soft reset of the router (a 2wire bt1801hg, don't have another router to try).
I've tried changing the microfilter but this showed no improvement, and it's an old style phone socket so no removable faceplate, and there's only the one socket with no extensions. The router stats when there's a problem tend to show a lot of ATM cell header errors (e.g. tens of thousands) and a similar number of dsl uncorrected blocks, and I've spotted a negative noise margin as well. With all these connection problems, I've only had one decrease of connection speed that I can remember.
I don't use the landline very often but haven't noticed any noise on the line or any other problems. Also tried the bt quiet line test but seemed fine.
example of working stats:
downstream rate: 7424 kbps, upstream rate: 448 kbps
channel: fast
current attenuation: 32.7 dB (down), 17.0 db (up)
current noise margin: 5.0 dB (down), 10.0 db (up)
example of not working stats (taken just as connection has dropped, but before router has refreshed and noticed the loss of connection)
downstream rate: 7520 kbps, upstream rate: 448 kbps
channel: fast
current attenuation: 32.6 dB (down), 17.0 db (up)
current noise margin: -6.0 dB (down), 10.0 db (up)
Before I officially report an error (and not sure whether it would be a plusnet (broadband) or bt (phone line) issue), I thought I'd try here. The only obvious possible issue I can spot is that while my plusnet acccount shows interleaving to be on, the router is showing the channel as fast not interleaved (noticed the same thing a year ago when had speed issues, but was fixed then). By my understanding fast channel can't cope as well with any noise on the line, but not sure whether to believe router or plusnet as to whether interleaving is on or not.
Any help/ advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Paul

[#2]

To know whether this needs reporting to BT as a line fault as ourselves it depends on whether there are any noticeable problems using the phone, i.e any audible noise or loss/lack of dial tone? (i.e if there is I would check with BT)  Also does the broadband disconnect each and every time the phone is used? If it is and you're not having issues using the phone that would point more clearly towards a broadband fault that we could help with for you.
Adam

[#3]

Hi Adam,
Thanks for the reply.
As I mentioned in the original post there doesn't seem to be any noise on the line that I've noticed, even when trying a quiet line test. There definitely haven't been any losses or lack of dial tone that we've noticed. If there had been I would have registered a fault with bt first, but as it stands there was nothing obvious to report to them.
I've seen the connection drop most times that I'm on the internet and the phone goes, but I can't say for sure that the broadband disconnects each and every time the phone is used. The router will often recover it's connection so if I'm not on the internet at the time the phone rings I'm not likely to notice the connection has dropped. Also the broadband drops frequently when the phone is not in use.
Any idea on why the router is showing the channel as fast when according to my account settings interleaving is set to on, or is this not important?
Hope I've answered your questions,
Paul

[#4]

If the issue was related to the phone line it most likely would cause the connection to drop each time the phone was used.
I've just completed a line test to check what interleaving permissions are set for your line and it is on at present so I'm not sure why your router might think otherwise, I'd not worry too much about that though. One interesting thing though is that the line tests indicates that there may be a "metallic bearer fault" that type of fault is often found on the line card at the exchange so I'd advise dealing with this as a broadband <a href="http://faults.plus.net">fault</a>

[#5]

Thanks for that. I've registered it as a broadband fault as advised.

[#6]

Cheers, I can see an engineer is booked to visit you on Friday so let us know how things go with that.

[#7]

Hi Adam,
Sorry I didn't see your reply as I've only been paying attention to the fault question page.
The engineer came and after extensive testing found no problems with the line, no noise, minimal errors. However Plusnet's error reports have still been showing errors and I've still been experiencing disconnects.
I got a phone call from Plusnet offering me two options: 1) another engineer visit next week, 2) try another router as they think the problem is on my end. As I've already shelled out £50 on a new microfilter and router (which has been plugged in since last Tuesday), neither of which alleviated the problem, I've had to opt for another engineer visit. Hopefully something will show up this time, as I'm not sure what the next line of action would be.
Cheers,
Paul

[#8]

Quote from: ptdavies

For the last couple of months I've been experiencing frequent disconnections from my broadband. At first I put it down to bad weather but the problem hasn't gone away.

Neither has the bad weather!

[#9]

Quote from: ReedRichards

Neither has the bad weather!

Hehe, true. Although obviously with the way of these things it was a relatively nice day when the engineer visited. However, even in the terrible weather we've been having today and yesterday there has been no noticeable noise on the phone line, and with all the errors and disconnects that have been being recorded by Plusnet the downstream sync speed has stayed relatively stable (and high), and it's still showing as being on fast channel at this end (which was confirmed by the engineer) when Plusnet say that interleaving is switched on, none of which makes sense to me.

[#10]

Hi Paul,
I can see that we have booked another engineer appointment in, let me know how it goes. We've also got the additional info on the ticket from you.

[#11]

Hi again,
So after the first engineer found nothing wrong last Friday the second turned up yesterday and it was a bit of a different story...
He's changed something at the exchange (can't remember the details), replaced the main phone socket in the house (as the original was about 30 years old), replaced the cabling from the house to the pole and a fair distance of the overhead wires as well. Things are looking good at this end (as you'd probably expect with all that work) but I'll give it 10 days as I'm told this work will have automatically set off a retrain of the broadband.
The fault report/ question has been noted by Plusnet as being on hold until the end of December. If everything still looks okay for me after the retrain is done is the recommended course for me to just mark the question as resolved or is there something else that needs to be done to mark the fault as closed?
Cheers,
Paul

[#12]

Hi there,
Glad to see that this has hopefully been resolved, your fault ticket will be updated. It was placed on hold until the engineer visit but had been put to the wrong date.
We'll check over your connection and review the engineer notes and update you, I'd also advise to leave your router turned on throughout the 10 day training period.
Any questions let me know.