REIN
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REIN
01-10-2008 11:36 AM
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Just a wild guess, but could this be a source of REIN?
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 12:57 PM
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BT actually quote arc welding as a cause of REIN. Some others we have come across are electric fences, sodium street lights and moths bumping into an outdoor security light.
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 1:16 PM
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Maybe a discrete call to the council and the health and safety executive - re the wiring ?
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 1:46 PM
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But if there is now an impact on my broadband (and if other neighbours are similarly affected) due to his operations I would like to gather evidence/proof before I speak to him about it.
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 2:15 PM
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Certainly this is one thing that I used to have to do when transmitting on the 2m band and neighbours detected interference. It's much better to work together to come to a solution than involve those 'higher up' without first trying to reach a resolution.
Ideally, set up a test where you have a good sync, and he can start the arc welder under controlled circumstances. If you can visibly detect a drop in SNR that is bad enough to cause potential resyncs then this is fairly categoric proof of interference.
Thus armed with this information, you can approach PN (and ultimately BT) and ask them what can be done to alleviate this as a source of REIN. It may mean fitting special 'chokes' on your line, or it may involve advising your neighbour as to any modifications he can make to his welding equipment (choking the mains power may be an option, although I'm not overly conversant with ways of preventing interference of this manner!)
HTH
B.
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 2:31 PM
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hope it works out amicably
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 3:13 PM
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For the moment all I will do is glance out the window from time to time and if I see any welding taking place I can power up the PC and check for SNR variation on the router stats. Have been doing the same as street lights power up.
However, this would not explain the resyncs that have occurred overnight. I anticipate that any evidence I can gather will not be conclusive. But at least it is encouraging that there is something that can be done by BT. I didn't know about choking the line, I was thinking along the lines that either the cables were screened and that some breakdown had occured, or that if the existing cables did not have any screening that they could be replaced with screened cable.
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 3:30 PM
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This will be fitted before, but as close as physically possible, to the NTE.
I have attached a picture of an RF3 filter.
Unfortunately, I don't know how effective an RF3 filter is against high-voltage surges like Arc welding, and I'm certainly not a qualified electrical engineer. However, the SFI team at BT should have a qualified REIN engineer who can advise accordingly.
Another trick is to get a portable AM radio and tune it to 612Khz and wander around your house with it. If there are any sources of interference then the radio should act as a cheap detector!
B.
Re: REIN
01-10-2008 4:57 PM
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Re: REIN
06-10-2008 12:31 PM
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Thanks for all the replies and advice. Here's an update.
Last Thursday (2nd Oct) I arrived home from work to find that the neighbour discussed above was using his welder. Expected to find that my connection had dropped, and was surprised that it hadn't. Did the quiet line test, in which I could hear a continuous but faint hiss, which did not seem to vary in pitch or volume whilst the welding was going on outside. Router logs showed no drop in connection since the last time on Sunday evening (28th Sep), and a SNR margin of 16.4dB downstream (pretty normal). Tried tuning the kitchen radio to 612kHz and noticed nothing untoward.
My connection dropped on Saturday (4th Oct) sometime whilst I was out between 9.30am and 5pm, and was restored using a trick of picking up the phone handset, getting a dial tone, and hanging up after 30 seconds. Noticed also whilst doing this that the hiss on the voice line was louder than before, even subsequently when doing a quiet line test after the sync had been restored. From last Sunday until this point, this was the longest continuous period of connection I have been able to achieve (or at least record) since my connection was first activated in January this year. Over this period the SNR margin varied between 9.8 and 17.8dB, based on two or three spot checks per day at different times (morning, late afternoon and around 10pm). Sync rate was 544kbps throughout.
On Sunday there were two further drops, which left me with a sync speed of 160kbps. Tried using an AM radio around the house but did not find any obvious source of electrical interference. A reboot this morning recovered the sync speed to ~600kbps, after I had noticed that it was at 288kbps with an SNR margin of 19.3dB.
Whatever is causing the noise variations appears to be intermittent, but I could not find any internal source. Another explanation could be that the rain and wind on Saturday caused the dropped connection, but in either case I'm pretty much convinced that the source is external. And at least I don't have to ask my neighbour to stop doing any welding! It appears that I need a REIN trained engineer (technician, if you prefer) to pay me a visit, and possibly fit one of those RF3 filters.
[Gentle Prod]
So I'm just waiting now for Plusnet CSC to contact me to arrange another BT SFI appointment.
Re: REIN
06-10-2008 12:42 PM
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Maurice
Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.
Re: REIN
06-10-2008 2:42 PM
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Re: REIN
06-10-2008 2:58 PM
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That's correct - current router is third one to be tried in past 3 months.
But thanks for taking an interest in my problems.
Re: REIN
06-10-2008 3:10 PM
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Have you tried raising this with your voice line supplier given the intermittent noise that you're getting on the line.
Re: REIN
06-10-2008 3:22 PM
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I originally raised this as an intermittent fault via the broadband faults checker. In the course of resolving this the CSC have been monitoring the SNR margin on my connection and recommending a further visit by a BT SFI to check for noise rather than poor connectivity.
When I was with the Post Office as my phone provider they told me that since the noise went away when I disconnected the broadband equipment, it was outside of their responsibility!!!!
I am now with Plusnet for phone, so its down to you guys however I try to resolve it. I'm happy for you to pursue by whatever means you think will get it fixed, so long as I don't have to pay a call-out charge.
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