OMG!

[#1]

@pvmb - Is it vandalism or do you think the last engineer could have not shut it properly? If the former, then it's pretty sad on BT's part.

You would assume they'd do all they could to protect their equipment, especially something as important as their cabinet. Haven't they got any anti-vandalism gear they could use to secure their property if indeed some idiot did try to damage it?

[#2]

The way things have been going around my way I was thinking of asking here if anyone knows where I can get a hold of an Orenreach cabinet locking key, so I could do the job myself whenever the need arises.

[#3]

Lol

[#4]

The last two days I booted up my Plusnet router in the morning I didn't get any automatic connection to the Internet. No particular problems with the ADSL connection, but I had to log in to the router and then manually connect to the Internet. 

[#5]

Latest irony - I have noticed that my last three bills from PN each include a charge of 26p for 'Call Charges', despite the fact I don't use my landline for making calls to chargeable numbers. Further examination reveals each month a charged call was made to the number: 020 88888888.

What indeed! I think I've cracked it, the 88888888 number must be me making 'test' calls using loop disconnect while trying to clear the line before booting up my router in the morning. It being better than 99999999 as it avoids getting the emergency services involved...

 I might have guessed there would be another snag somewhere. There always is, isn't there? But, AFAIK, I have never had a call connected on 88888888, so why should there be a charge? Oh well, it'll have to be 00000000 from now on. Let's hope that doesn't cop for a premium call charge to Zimbabwe or whatever. 

[#6]

Everything has been falling apart today!

Although my landline has been quiet as checked by the phone, since I started up the router this afternoon the broadband SN ratio has been staggering around all over the place. Taking upload and download together my router's SN ratio has covered the range from +10dB to -2.5dB. So either the router has broken or something weird seems to be going on with the line or its exchange equipment.

After rebooting several times without improvement I changed over the filter and tried again. This time things look better and the connection has stabilised, at around 6 dB down, and at higher speed. But it remains to be seem whether this is anything other than a coincidence.

[#7]

Um... Well that didn't last long. After being entirely stable after last reboot, from about twenty to nine instability has set in again. Noise has been all over the shop again. But still can't hear anything on the line via the phone. What is causing all this?

Will have to see what the situation is like after rebooting in the morning.

[#8]

@pvmb I'd try another router and see if things improve. Maybe your current one's kaput? 

[#9]

Don't know how to tell if the router is faulty. Only other router I have available is an old TalkTalk, D-Link  DSL 2680.

Funny thing is, when the instability strikes it mainly seems to be led by the US link, with the DS link following behind and less seriously effected, judging by the NR swings.

Not too bad at the moment though. Just several dips and wobbles during the day.

[#10]

Well things have started of badly again today. It looks like it's to be 'Stagger Saturday'! I'd put an old mains line filter on the router power supply but it doesn't seem as if it's going to help much. Up/Down noise margin leaping about again, although connection was being maintained AFAICS.

Then looked like another DNS issue as I couldn't connect to two sites, including the BBC, while others were connecting. This seemed to clear up, then I listened to the line for a prolonged time and heard occasional very low level varying noise, so switched everything off, disconnected and carried out the usual tests at the master socket. Weird, when I plugged the phone in there seemed briefly to be no dial tone but I heard what sounded like just the end of some pulse dialling, then dial tone returned. Is somebody else doing tests?

Firstly: "All lines are busy, please try later" several times. I am now getting "Earth A" messages. So... What to do?

BTW, anyone happen to know the dial codes for "Next test"?

{Just couldn't reach this site to post this message - noise margin just came up again from minus somewhere}

[#11]

Blimey! It's like trying to get a hole in one here - and I don't even play golf.

First - There has to be a fault on the line
Second - The BT line test number has to be 'available' on my phone (sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't)
Third - The BT line test has to confirm there really, really is something wrong
Fourth - Despite there really, really being something wrong I still have to be able to connect to PN via the Internet
Fifth - There still has to be something really, really wrong!
Sixth - I have to run the online PN phone line check
Seventh - I have to NOT stupidly disconnect the broadband in the middles of the test (like I just did) or I won't get a result
Eighth - There still has to be something wrong (See 'First' to 'Fifth') and I have to rerun the online PN phone line check
Ninth - I get the message "Oops, something seems to have gone wrong - Call us on 0800 432 0200"

First time I have ever phoned the Plus Net support line. Unfortunately, as the waiting time is currently 45 minutes, I think I'll just give up for today.

That's the nearest I've ever come to scoring a hole in one over this issue. Close, but no cigar!

Maybe in another 6 months or so I will be able to get 'First' to 'Ninth' to all line up again? (But not 'Seventh'!)

[#12]

And there it is...

Checked line this morning, sounded OK. Booted up router. Everything mysteriously returned to normal. Both DS and US noise margins immediately go to 6 dB and appear stable, line speed quite respectable again. Though I have noticed operating the phone does still put a large dent in the US noise margin, though this returns to normal soon after the phone is hung up and the DS seems unaffected.

I thought I would anyway check for the "Earth A" fault, it was still present yesterday. Silence! BT Line Test* service has flown in the night.

Is it a coincidence that the Line Test number has gone AWOL at the same time as the line seems to have returned to normal? Was the Line Test service on my line because of a line fault, or was it causing the fault, or was it simply a sypmtom of the fault? Was the line being tested? Was the exchange being tested? Why does the Line Test number come and go from my line? When will it return? Why will it return? What is the meaning of life?

What's it all about? As usual, I haven't a clue.

*N.B. Just to be clear, by BT Line Test service I am not talking about the normal 17070 service.

[#13]

Ha! ADSL works in mysterious ways, including the DLM which sometimes seems to lose its script and make it up as it goes along!

I had severe problems with my connection a few years ago, (which eventually went away without any clear reason for the resolution) and have kept Routerstats running ever since just to see what fun and games can happen while my back is turned.

I've had occasional noise on the line and line drops which don't seem to coincide with any particular weather conditions or time of day, and am currently playing cat and mouse with the DLM to get my connection to sync at a speed and SNRM which is sustainable, given that at the moment it seems to think that a 3dB DS SNRM is a good idea (with interleaving on, which I never used to have ) even though I'm currently experiencing 3.5dB drops at about 1830 each evening which coincides more or less with sunset, but also with the installation of new LED street lighting last week.

Blessed are they whose connections are stable most of the time, and who also have the 2704n router so can't delve very deeply into the black art of ADSL!

[#14]

Black art indeed!

Out of general interest, and so I do at least have a back up router, I have been playing around with my old TalkTalk D-Link DSL 2680 router. I have now got it up and running on Plusnet. I much prefer it's web configuration interface to the Technicolor TG 582n, which even after all this time still leaves me confused. The D-Link has a far simpler CLI to the massively complicated Technicolor one. What is it, 1000 documented CLI commands!

Snags - steady 6 dB noise margin but it is currently running about 2000 kbps slower than the Technicolor. Possibly caused by all the rebooting while setting it up on PN? Or could be because it hasn't yet been tweaked correctly for the PN service. I'll have to try and find out if I can get more router setup details on here.

Also, I don't know how to configure DLStats for the DSL 2680.  RouterStats Lite is working as it includes this router in its configuration.

[#15]

What a week. I switched over to my old TalkTalk router just to see if I could get it up and running on Plusnet. Yes I could - though I had forgotten I had previously enabled it's MAC address Access Control List, so it was quite a while before I got my laptop (which I didn't have when last using that router) connected via WiFi.

It worked OK but was running about 2Mbps slower than the Plusnet Thomson TG582n router. Funny, I remember in the old days using this on TalkTalk at 17Mbps, not 13Mbps or so. What's changed? Not the line loss, that is exactly the same as it always was. Perhaps it can be improved by twiddling some of the many broadband settings? I am going to look into how the Plusnet router is set up, if I can. Does anyone know if there is a full technical spec anywhere on this site that gives ALL the commnications settings necessary to work with PN? I don't mean just the obvious ones, Username, Password etc.

But it worked - until Wednesday! All hell broke out sometime in the afternoon. Noise all over the place, link up and down like a bloody YoYo. I decided it couldn't cope and switched back to the Thomson. This maintained a link, but there was terrible noise and errors. Then following a reboot, perfect (well 16Mbps, not a 'perfect' 17Mbps). And so it has remained. Well, I am getting high FEC errors and sudden spikes up in CRC errors, but it is still going. As usual, no explanation. Broadband is just an Act of God, and BTOpenreach...

Talking of BT, while browsing this site I came across a link to the BT ADSL Checker, I haven't looked at it for years. I looked. As I'm on ADSL2+ I get.... 9Mbps! What? Surely even I get more than that. Whatever happened to 24Mbps? OK, that's the sync speed and you would only actually get that if you were next to the exchange. But I did use to get 17Mbps sync on a 30dB line loss. I know it used to say 24Mbps. Is there something they aren't telling us? Has ADSL quietly been downgraded? Or has BT switched from technical specs to estimated real world download speeds in its ADSL Checker? At least I found the BT Cabinet I am hooked up to - about 350 yards away - not the one I thought it was.