More Disconnection Problems

[#1]

I live in a fairly rural area, but I've had a good, solid connection for some two to three years with almost no problems. However, some three weeks ago BT/openreach did work on the copper cables around our village, and since then I've been having random disconnects at all sorts of times, but today has been the worst.. According to my router logs I have so far had nearly thirty WAN disconnects since midnight, with 20 of them between midnight and 0500 this morning when all computers etc were off line.. Sometimes there only a few minutes between disconnect, restoration and disconnect again, sometimes hours - there was only one occurrence between 0500 and 1100, and then another seven to the time of writing. Download speeds have remained much the same (between 3.5 and 4 mbps, which is OK for this distance from the exchange) when it's working. Needless to say this is driving us mad, and trying to listen to the radio on Sonos impossible.
Before you start going into the usual routine, I can confirm my modem/router is connected direct to the incoming line through a Clarity adapter face plate for the NTE5 master socket, and there is no noise apparent on the phone line. I could also post a copy of the log file, but at the moment it is a .txt file and quite large.
Any thoughts gratefully received.

[#2]

Hi Shackman205,
I can see from your account we've picked up on a phone fault which we've reported with Openreach.
I hope to see that fixed within the next few days.

[#3]

Yes, thanks for that Adam. I finally carried out a phone check on Sunday after loads more drop outs, and discovered lots of crackling on what has/had always been a very clear line. I tried to use the Plusnet troubleshooter but gave up as I couldn't stay on line long enough and kept going back to the beginning, and used the BT noise checker. I should have done it sooner!  However, it does beggar the question as to what Openreach have done to my line whilst working on other faults in the village whilst trying to sort out the myriad of problems very old copper lines produce.
Of interest is the variation of download speeds in the village - people closer to the exchange on 'my' telephone line get 0.5 to 1.5mbps, whilst others further away are getting up to 10 - and we're all on the same ADSL type connections!

[#4]

Unfortunately the drop outs have come back with a vengeance, together with a very noisy, but unfortunately intermittent , telephone line. Question now is whether I should continue with my original ticket or start a new one? When I said it was starting again earlier it was sort of shrugged off, but by Thursday it was almost unworkable. I tried phoning - wait time was horrendous, then went on chat (whilst it lasted) and they advised adding it to the ticket, which I did, but as yet no response, so an extended time before Openreach even do anything. So far today, (as at 1100) the connection has dropped out 36 times - 25 of them in the wee small hours when I wasn't using the line, but it was raining, which seems to affect it.

[#5]

It looks like thing improved for you over the weekend but do let us know if this is a problem again and I'll give our faults guys a nudge for you.

[#6]

Whilst things did improve, it was still apparent there were random drop outs overnight, although daytime usage was generally OK. However, at 0209 this morning the dropouts have started with a vengeance - in fact there are too many to count on my log page, and broadband is scarcely on long enough at any one time to send an email. It was so bad I tried ringing customer services this morning - I really wish I hadn't as I felt I was going round in circles trying to explain the problem, and half the time I couldn't hear the 'help' at the other end due to the noise on the phone line. It also didn't help that he didn't seem to listen properly and has now (I believe) logged it as a phone problem at my end, and would not link it to my earlier ticket, and I have had to have an appointment (for whom?) next week (NEXT WEEK?) for a visit to my home. This is highly frustrating to say the least, and all the time my internat connection is too unstable to use. In the time it has taken me to write this the line has dropped out 5 7 times, and I am now waiting for another connection to send it. PLEASE HELP

[#7]

and half the time I couldn't hear the 'help' at the other end due to the noise on the phone line

That sounds like a phone line fault. The advisor should have gone through some troubleshooting with you to eliminate your equipment before reporting the fault and booking an engineer.

Noise on the phone line often causes problems with broadband and you'll probably find that when the noise is resolved, the broadband is stable again.

[#8]

I know it's a line fault - the openreach engineer who came out last time confirmed he had done a temporary fix but that it would probably re-occur and that a proper fix would need roadworks on the A41 (a very busy road). I still feel I'm going round in circles since openreach started working on the (very old) overhead cables in the village to sort other users problems. I thought you (Plusnet) were still monitoring the line and would see the irregular drop outs - according to my log almost always in the early hours of the morning, when I'm not on line, but not every day. However today has been appalling; even as I'm writing this I have lost connection twice. Now waiting to post when I get a window of opportunity.

[#9]

I only hope I/m not going to go down the extended route of my next door neighbour's almost identical fault: first a telephone (only) engineer - no fault found - then a two week wait for another telephone (only) engineer - there might be a problem - and then two weeks later finally a broadband engineer who fixed the problem (in the exchange) within the hour. It's the frustration that gets to you as you watch your modem drop out, reconnect, drop out, reconnect etc etc, whilst waiting for a brief good connection to log on to this site and send a post. As for watching/listening to any stream - forget it.

[#10]

Now what do I do? Last night we had a thunderstorm and heavy rain, and my whole system went down thanks to a brief power outage. Didn't bother switching on again until this morning - guess what?  So far no dropouts, no line problems, no nothing, yet yesterday (and Thursday and Friday) I was lucky to get three minutes on line. BT Engineer coming tomorrow morning!

[#11]

As expected, BT Openreach engineer came, tested, no fault found. System has been almost solid since the thunderstorm (only one apparent drop out overnight). I know intermittent faults can be the bane of an engineer's (and user's) time, but I assume I will now have to wait for it all to go wrong again (I also assume Visual Radius will show the problems up to Saturday night!)