OMG! - Continued

[#1]

Firstly an explanation. This ought naturally to be a a continuation of my original OMG! thread. BUT, as that has now been locked by an administrator (Gee! Thanks...) I am forced to proceed thus:

Would you Adam & Eve it!

I was actually thinking of posting on here [i.e. on OMG!] earlier - along the lines of "It's been a great success! My line has been fully stable since the last reset (above) [> month ago on OMG!]. I have been getting my lines 'proper' ~17Mbps sync for the first time in YEARS. I have had no disconnections, line's been up continuously for around 20 days..." etc.

There has just been an 'event'. First time since repair of landline.*

Line speed on reconnection very slightly slower both Up and Down. There is some low level periodic noise audible on the line. I will continue monitoring the situation...

Broadband - The land where eternal vigilance is called for.

* Looking back through the RouterStats record for today I see there was an earlier 'event' around 2.30pm. Oh dear.

[#2]

Right.

They don't make 'em like they used to!

This one seems to have been traced PDQ. It looks like it's the recently installed Openreach new environmentally robust, 'tool less' NTe 5C main socket. Not to put too fine a point on it, it seems to be [-Censored-].

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/08/bt-openreach-moot-replacement-uk-master-sockets-nte5c.h...

In the battle between environmentally robust and low cost, low cost seems to have won the day. None of the electrical connector surfaces anywhere in the new design of socket have gold flashing.

Removing the consumer faceplate revealed slight condensation (not unexpected) but nothing looking serious. However, two of the consumer side socket splines had darkened ends, looking like oxidation, and the contact surface of the unplugged Plusnet ADSL filter's BT plug had two dark spots.

After a bit of cleaning of the ADSL filter plug I found, at the TEST socket: Plusnet ADSL filter - unuseable; old D-Link ADSL filter - better but still noisy; corded phone direct - better but not good.

After much use of cotton buds, liquid Brasso and isopropyl alcohol on the consumer faceplate unit and replacing it in the NTe5, pretty well any combination causes much crackling and noise when disturbed in the main (not Test) socket.

How much crackling and noise? Well, embarrassingly I managed to get connected to the emergency line operator. That is NOT 'good' is it?

Meanwhile, my old LJ2 (?) extension socket (which is what I actually use) dating from the 1980s with it's SRBP printed crcuit board and all, is still solid as a rock. I have removed the extension phone and ADSL filter from the main socket, I only ever need and use the extension socket.

This new socket looks like it is going to be a high maintenance design. I don't know how typical this is but, if it is, BT/Openreach need to go back to the drawing board. My advice currently would be to resist having one of these new design sockets installed and I may have to consider buying and installing an old style NTe5 unit myself to replace the new Openreach one.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Avoidance of swear filter edited as per Forum rules.

[#3]

Q. How's it going?

A. Badly.

After finally finding and getting fixed two faults on my line (one in the old NTE 5 consumer faceplate and one in the line behind the NTE 5), having a new NTE 5C unit installed and my line reset via PN, everything was going fine. I even had the router up and running continuously for 20 days. A record!

After a while things started to go downhill. The odd disconnection here and there, followed by a very slight speed degradation. I find the sockets in the new NTE 5C to be very noisy and cleaned up the consumer plate plug/socket.

Things are getting worse, in fact everything seems inexorably to be returning to the previous situation: SN margin all over the place, more and more frequent breaks, drops and hesitations. The DLM getting involved, line speed that bit lower every time there is a reboot.

I have made a discovery wrt the BT Line Test I had found was "intermittently" available when dialled (Not 17070) on my landline. Sometimes it was there, but mostly the line just dropped out and I hung up. I have now found that, even when the line drops out to silence, if I hang on the BT test will eventually run - "Start test". Useful to know, though at the moment it is reporting "Line testing OK" and I don't know how to "Dial next test".

To try and rule out a router fault I am currently running on my old TalkTalk DSL-2680 router. It's different. Quite a bit slower than the Technocolor on the same line. Particularly on Upstream where, at 444kbps, it as about one third the usual speed. But then RouterStats Lite is currently showing 27dB Upstream SN Noise Margin! RouterStats unfortunately doesn't have a setting for the DSL-2680.

I definitely have the impression there is something dodgy with the upstream link, and not just on the DSL-2680. But why should this be so?

[#4]

I suspect from your sync speed that your upstream has been capped for some reason. This seems to happen sometimes when PlusNet are changing line profiles or other adjustments. They can get it uncapped if requested. I had an Openreach engineer visit yesterday and he failed to find a noise fault on my line but fitted a new NTE 5C which I didn't really need. I'm not happy with its connectors and the flimsy clips on the filter section so may replace it with my old master socket once the noise problem is sorted.

[#5]

I suspect it too. At 27dB SNM and 444kbps it does sound like a capped Upload. Not too important for now as I'm not a gamer. I don't know if it's just a coincidence but this seems to have happened after switching to the DSL-2680 router. I saw it happen, the router originally started around 6db for both Up and Down and after a while the Upload SNM lurched upwards. It will be interesting to see what happens when I switch back to the TG582n.

The engineer who switched my NTE told me it is now policy to change to the NTE5 C whenever access is gained to the consumer's premises. He took away the old model, though I did ask for my newly purchased consumer plate back. However, I found it to be entirely incompatible with the new NTE. Do you find the consumer and test sockets on the NTE5 C as noisy as I do?