TBB Broadband Quality Monitor - what is it telling me?

[#1]

For the 15th May the Broadband Quality Monitor looks rather strange, any comments on the cause?
Dan

[#2]

Hi,
Would you be able to PM me your account username please so I can take a look at your connection. It's handy to have a look so I can identify any drops on the TBB Graph in correlation to what we've seen on our side?

[#3]

Hi iDan,
"Strange" in what way?  What about the graph disconcerts you?
One could possibly make some guesses, but they might be "looking" in the wrong direction.
The green segment is not smooth, this could be down to multiple gateway changes, but apart from the two around 6pm & 7pm there are no discernible red spikes indicating no response which might be expected if the PPP session had dropped.  The other cause of a non-smooth green segment could be variable best responses due to a number of matters.
The yellow spikes are indicative of heavy usage on your line or possibly exchange congestion.
Anyhow, Chris' first line of investigation - looking at PPP session drops - will determine if the line (PPP session) is getting dropped repeatedly.
Take a look at your router log to see how often it reports disconnections and reconnections of the PPP session.  If it is the TG router, you'll see something like this...

Quote

<132> May 15 10:46:49 PPP link down (Internet) [84.92.128.230] <38> May 15 10:47:02 PPP CHAP Receive challenge from rhost bras-red7.mr-dh (Internet) <38> May 15 10:47:17 PPP CHAP Receive challenge from rhost PCL-AG07 (Internet) <38> May 15 10:47:18 PPP CHAP Receive success (Internet) <132> May 15 10:47:18 PPP link up (Internet) [x.x.x.x]

[#4]

@Townman
Thanks for your reply, I was indeed wondering about the green segment. Normally it would not vary that much, 15th was the worst I've ever seen.
I do suffer a few ppp link downs which are very short in time which coincide with crackling on my line.
After 6 Openreach visits visits over the past year I just given up trying to get it fixed. I am not prepared to have another Openreach engineer attaching poorly maintained test equipment to my test socket and declaring NFF. I have an open question for crackling but I do not want yet another home visit to find nothing.
I doubt Chris's investigation would really find anything as while the intermittent fault is not present it will be yet another NFF.
@ Chris
I thought my forum account was  linked to my free-online account, I have PM'ed my account name
It's now the weekend so not much will happen now.
What I would like to find is an ISP who has power over Openreach and make them do some proactive work with my problem. Maybe after 11 years with free-online its time to move on.
Thanks again
Dan.

[#5]

Dan,
The problem with intermitant faults is that if they are not there when the engineer looks, they are not likely to be found.
No ISP has any real clout over BTOR, so I would not out any hope of a different ISP doing better, in fact I suggest most would be worse.  Sometimes it can be a matter of accepting a number if NFF visits until it can be escalated within BTOR for specialist examination.
Chris is ultimately the right man to make this happen.

[#6]

Hi Dan,
Thanks for your PM, I've got your account details up now.

Quote

What I would like to find is an ISP who has power over Openreach and make them do some proactive work with my problem. Maybe after 11 years with free-online its time to move on.

No ISP has any power over BT Openreach, it unfortunately doesn't work in that way. We have a really good relationship with BT Wholesale and BT Openreach and we do our best to work with them to get any issues sorted out.
With regards to the issue that you're having; I can see a number of disconnects and retrains. It would appear that your line errors quite heavily, and more than the amount that it can cope with which causes your line to drop. Can I just ask which router you're using and how long you've had it too? I'm not saying it's causing the issue as I'm sure it's not, but I'd like to get as much information as possible.
I've attached a screenshot of your line details (nothing personal don't worry) and you can see a number of disconnections to the exchange as well as your sync rate and how this has deteriorated.

[#7]

Chris,
I am using a TG582n supplied by PN, I have also used a TP-Link router.  Both device have been connected to the TEST socket and the fault persists. Further information, when I was switched to 21CN the connection became so unstable that Jojo made the connection ADSL on 21CN, if that is the correct term, I also beleive I have had my download speed capped to try and make the connection more stable when I raised a complaint.
As the years pass the situation is becoming worse, the last Openreach engineer was going to give a new E pair but for some reason he didn't he just recrimped the E to D connectos in the cabinet.
Fault history
Question #71017311 20 June 13
Question #72690250 1 august 13
Question #74384137 12 September 13
Question #75528611 8 Oct  13        broadband fault – closed as I opened a complaint
Question #75528795 8 Oct Complaint
The issue did continue but not very often.
Router stats from last week.
Uptime: 0 days, 0:25:45   
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.1   
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 96 / 2,592   
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 87.88 / 1.38   
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 11.3 / 18.0   
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 28.0 / 51.5   
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 11.0 / 9.8   
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----   
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN   
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 36 / -   
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 5 / -   
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / -   
Loss of Link (Remote): -   
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 3,450 / -   
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 3 / 17,954   
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 18   
HEC Errors (Up/Down): - / 91
Over the winter the fault occured less but the longer days and warmer weather things are back to where they were 11 months ago
Dan.

[#8]

Thanks for the info, Dan.
I'm happy to help investigate this issue for you. If you want to go ahead with this, if you could raise a fault at http://faults.plus.net and I'll get this picked up for you.

[#9]

Chris,
Do you want me to raise a broadband fault? Curretly I have Question #84836332 opened for crackling on the line. This is waiting for me to provide time for another home visit from Openreach. To date all Openreach visits have been a waste of my time as nothing is done and unless there is an intention to do something positive I am not happy for another home visit.
Please advise
Many thanks
Dan.

[#10]

Dan,
It's very unlikely that we're going to be able to progress anything without an engineers visit. An engineer won't investigate an issue on the line without a home visit unless they can remotely detect a fault on the line (which they can't).
I appreciate that it's very time consuming, however, it's completely up to you. There's no need to raise a fault, as I can use the same ticket you referenced once the Phone issue has been cleared.

[#11]

Chris,
Well we are stuck in an infernite loop then!
Unless the fault becomes solid, which it hasn't done for over five years Openreach won't do anything unless the fault is present at the time of visit, which it NEVER is.
I give up.
Dan.

[#12]

Dan,
I can only do so much. The offer for help and an engineers visit is there, if you change your mind.
Whether BT can see a fault there or not, I'm happy to escalate the issue until it's been resolved. As I say, I appreciate it's time consuming having engineers out to try and investigate an issue, which, to be fair, they can't replicate.

[#13]

Chris,
If you take a read through Question #75528795 you'll see I've been down this path. Only to be presented with this statement.

Quote

As discussed, given that yet another engineer has managed to find no fault, I believe we are at the point whereby we cannot expect to have this intermittent noise/drops issue resolved.

So unless I can be assured something will be done regardless of NFF I will not take any more time off work.
Dan.

[#14]

I understand where you're coming from Dan given the history of this issue.
All I can promise, is that I'll do my best to get to the bottom of the issue for you.

[#15]

Chris,
I have update Question #84836332 with my booking times.
many thanks