Migrated from Be/Sky to PlusNet - Lower than expected Sync

[#1]

I'll pop the MK3 back on later today, waiting for another REIN spike so I can go down and check that Hutchison 3G cabinet. Apparently it's a 20M antenna (roof mounted on this building), operating on the 2100Mhz band, with an output power of 18.7dBw. Obviously the band is WAY out of the realm of ADSL, but I'm guessing to spit out that sort of power it needs a pretty hefty PSU... any thoughts on the likelihood of that being a potential culprit?
I'm using the DG834v4 at the moment, doesn't seem to like much below 20s unfortunately
As for the manager, that's pretty much what I went through with him this morning. He was very much of the attitude of, "you're not getting into restricted areas, if OpenReach want to come out that's fine, but you can piss right off"
Currently experiencing another REIN burst, so popping downstairs to check that box.
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Message didn't post, but had it saved. Went downstairs and checked that box, didn't seem to be any different intensity-wise. When I got back up, I'd resynced at 11mbps with a 5dB SNR, looks like it dropped out a few tones. Interference is still going strong, lots of noise coming from Co-Op at ~ 600kHz, will pop back down later to check their plant room from the outside to see what it's like without the interference in my flat. If it's gone, we know they're the culprit.
Whatever it is, it's lighting up every single electrical device in the entire shop. Everything spits out RF at that frequency in there; fridges, LCD displays, EVERYTHING. It's like whatever noise is being generated is transmitting down every single power line they have in the building, making the entire thing act like one massive antenna.

[#2]

Graphs as it stands currently:

[#3]

No resync, but SNR has shot up and errors have stopped. Interference on the scanner is gone.

[#4]

If you have a resync when interference is present  then because the resync always occurs at the current Target SNRM, when the interference goes away the SNRM will always rise, generally you don't get any resync at that point either.
That interference near 600kHz seems to be ~582kHz on the last graph, and seems slightly stronger than previously. However the interference ~1300kHz has been consistently a much stronger harmonic.
I'd still clarify with the manager "I wouldn't be asking for access to non-public areas if I think I've found something that suggests it could be a piece of your equipment, just for you to switch it on and off whilst I check  the interference levels. I would hope for your co-operation in that."
If he tells you to **** off or even threatens to ban you from the store, I would get straight onto head office but not even warn him of that.

[#5]

Being the Coop I'm not sure how much clout "head office" has.  Many of these are independent "franchise" operators.

[#6]

It looks like this will most likely be out of my hands soon anyway; I called up PlusNet and its being escalated to OR as a REIN issue. Hopefully I'll be able to gather enough information between now and the next engineer visit that I can provide evidence that a problem IS present, and then I can get a full REIN engineer out and nail this thing. Just popping down now that the interference is gone to check their plant room, that should answer the question as to whether or not Co-Op are to blame.

[#7]

Of course the other problem when you have a resync at a slower speed is your IP profile goes down, that will then ultimately cause your Current Line speed (Login required) to be reduced and obviously your throughput speed until it all goes back up again.
Make sure you are now logging when the REIN is occurring and can establish some patterns, because when this ultimately gets raised to BTw/Openreach for a proper REIN engineer (of which there are few), you would obviously want them to turn up when the REIN is most likely to occur.
Wrote the above before your last post.

[#8]

Quote from: mdc

I called up PlusNet and its being escalated to OR as a REIN issue.

I hope that actually happens, post the ticket number here, so one of the Tech CRT guys can keep an eye on it and chase it if needed.

[#9]

The engineer visit is due this morning and fingers crossed he should raise the issue as a REIN case.
If anything else happens feel free to let us know and we'll investigate.

[#10]

Well, it's been over a year now, and the REIN issue is still here. PlusNet passed it over to OpenReach a couple of times, but due to the fact it's unpredictable and occurs at random intervals, and never occurred when OpenReach were on site, it was never isolated and fixed.
So for the past year I've had - at best - a 10mbps service on a line that I KNOW can do double that. Unfortunately, despite the fact that across the road from me (literally 50 feet away) the houses can all get FTTC, I'm stuck on a direct DP with no chance of ever getting fibre, and no cable either. At this point I'm seriously going to have to consider moving, which is a shame because I really did like this place, and I've been here for 5 years. But half of that without a reliable or reasonable connection, in my line of work, makes things extremely difficult.
On top of that, since my 12 month introductory offer has since lapsed, I'm now paying double for half the service I was expecting, so will most likely be cancelling my subscription as well. To everyone who gave advice, thank you very much, and to PlusNet, I'm disappointed that things never got fixed but since the infrastructure is managed by OpenReach, I understand there's little else you can do.

[#11]

Hi Mdc,
In a situation such as yours, you might try taking the matter to your parish council and your MP.  Both are likely to have a keen interest in getting high speed broadband rolled out, especially if it is a rural area.

[#12]

Oh what I wouldn't give to be in a rural area these days
Unfortunately, I'm smack bang in the middle of a city and between 50-100 feet away from a FTTC enabled cabinet. The building, however, is a block of flats served by a direct trunk to the exchange, and it "doesn't make economic sense" for them to roll out fibre to serve those 30 flats. The coverage in the area of FTTC is > 90%, so there's no motivation for them to do anything. Even digging up the road to run a short fibre trunk to the building has been deemed "not financially viable" by Openreach, so I'm basically SOL. I wouldn't have minded so much if I was at least able to get my 20mbit back (line to the exchange is about 1km, so fantastic for interference-free ADSL, but useless for VDSL as well.

[#13]

I did wonder what had happened here mdc!
Whilst the pattern of occurrence seems random, you seemed fairly convinced at the time that it was some equipment possibly lighting at the Co-op, if that's still the case, is there any pattern to the time "bands" when it occurs or does not occur - eg. does it ever occur when the store is closed? Does it tend to occur mainly at times when shelf restocking is happening?
This sort of profiling my help narrow it down a bit - even if it's not the Co-op, profiling in that way may help you consider other sources - eg. it only happens when flat A is occupied etc.
If you still think the Co-op is the likely source, does it still have the same unhelpful manager?

[#14]

If you are convinced that it's the Coop and the manager is being uncooperative, ask them to put you in touch with their head office, adding that if there is no progress in 14 days you will take the issue to the local media.  Coop do not like negative press.

[#15]

I did suggest going to Head Office in reply #48 but you poo-poo'd it in the following reply
mdc, whether you don't tell the manager you are going to do that, or ask him for the Head office address & phone number could an interesting ploy, but going to the local media with a headline of  something like "Electrical equipment at local Co-op suspected of causing interference to Broadband" might prove interesting.
But I think I would try profiling the time-slots as best as possible first.  Then when you get the interference, wandering into the store - pretending to be shopping - with a radio in your pocket and your earplugs in your ears (there are so many people wondering around listing to their iPhone or mp3 player etc I'd think nobody would pay particular attention). See if the signal is stronger in the store and see if there's a particular area where it comes up strongest.
That of course is easier to say than it will be to achieve in practice.