broadband fault diary

[#1]

I will keep this short but this is what basically happen.
Had connection drop issues, engineer appointment booked. Engineer blamed my equipment. A faulty RJ11 cable. Engineer replaced cable.
Problems continued.
Second engineer appointment booked. Engineer came advised found a loose connection at the exchange that should of been picked up on first visit.
Problem continues.
Lift and shift order and carried out
During all of this continued blame on my equipment. Even though I have tried 3 different modem/routers in test socket including a brand new one I purchased
Another engineer appointment booked Three engineers arrived and a cherry picker. Advised that my pair was faulty and they have moved me to a known good pair.
Problem continues but not as a disconnection now but a drop in SNR margin to about 2db resulting in no throughput this would randomly happen and then would jump back to the standard 6db when it felt like working.. Graph attached.
I was advised that this seems like a rein issue and will continue to monitor, but rein issues are notoriously difficult to find and rectify.
Having checked as many electrical appliances and sockets etc. in my house I was sure it was not coming from me.
Ask about upgrade to fibre and was told it was ok to order.
Ordered upgrade.
Waited 2 weeks for FTTC to be install while problem continued.
Engineer came to install FTTC, changed faceplate, screwed modem on wall, plugged in his tester no signal, phone was still working. Engineer scratching his head, you have phone so you should have data. I will go back to the cabinet and check there. Engineer returns 10mins later you have a fault underground 267metres from the cabinet underground, I am not underground trained. I cannot complete the install I will have to raise it as a fault. Reverted me back to ADSL2
Now I have to wait another 2 days for BT to investigate fault and hopefully fix it before I can have FTTC installed. Probably have to wait another 2 weeks for another install date. So far this has been 3 months.
See what happens in 2 days time.
I would like to say that Matt@plusnet has been absolutely brilliant during all this and has kept me fully informed on what BT have/are doing. But BT don't seem to be competent, and very keen to blame anything but there cables.
I will update with the next episode of this continuing saga as and when it happens.

[#2]

This chart shows what happens when my next--door-neighbour but one uses one of her stable of cheap TV sets.  They each run off a 12V input provided by a prone-to-be-faulty switched-mode power supply. 

[#3]

Hi devontex,
Sorry to see this is ongoing, I can see Matt has this in-hand and I hope it gets sorted soon for you.

[#4]

Can someone explain what all of the below means the only ones I got was EU end user NTE is my master socket VDSl is fibre broadband


[mremoved] - BOT - DSL Logged Faults
1:34pm, Tuesday 29 Oct 2013
2013-10-28 13:46:42 : Dial tone present af ter jumper at NTE. N o pick up of VDSL at NTE. Unable to PQT at NTE. TDR from D s ide at PCP shows dis 267 meters from pcp . Fault UG. EU advis ed. EU has history o f issues with feed t o premises.
Delayed in processing. Review On 30-Oct-2013
Completion Planned Date : 28/10/2013
Waiting for update tomorrow
Kind regards,
[mremoved]
jim:csa

[#5]

I'll try and de-cipher those notes for you!

Quote

Dial tone present af ter jumper at NTE.

This means that when the engineer tested at the Telephone Socket, a Dial Tone was present.

Quote

N o pick up of VDSL at NTE

No VDSL connection was found at your Telephone Socket. This could mean that there was no connection coming into your premises from the broadband side of things.

Quote

Unable to PQT at NTE

The engineer was unable to complete a Pair Quality Test from the Telephone Socket (Unsure as to why, but further information may be provided when the ticket is updated next).

Quote

TDR from D s ide at PCP shows dis 267 meters from pcp

Time-domain Reflectometer (TDR - This is used to locate faults on metallic cables such as twisted pairs), this was tested on the D-side of the network (between your Local Cabinet and your Telephone Pole. A fault has been detected 267 Meteres from your Cabinet.

Quote

Fault UG. EU advis ed.

Fault location is Underground (UG) and the customer has been advised of this.

Quote

EU has history o f issues with feed t o premises.

There has been a history of problems with the feed (cabling between your telephone pole to your premises).
I hope this helps.

[#6]

Engineer supposedly dispatched at 1.00pm but nothing has happen?!!!!!

[#7]

Line has now been fixed apparently, but no it is a fault at the exchange have to wait for another engineer to go out on Friday

[#8]

Latest update - Does your parent company know what they are doing
            - BOT - DSL Logged Faults
4:34pm, Friday 1 Nov 2013
Dear Mr Sleeman,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Our phone system is stopping us from making outbound calls due to a high inbound call volume so I'm unable to call you at the moment. I've only just got off the chat with our suppliers and unfortunately we've been given conflicting advice.
We've been advised that there never was a exchange fault and that the fault still exists with the underground cabling. I've raised this contradiction with them and i'm still awaiting a update on that.
On top of this I've been told that a engineer won't be assigned on this until Tuesday. I've expressed my huge disappointment at this as its a week after when the service should have been installed so please accept my apologies.
I've asked for this to be escalated further to see if we can get this done quicker.
Apologies for the continued inconvenience

[#9]

Can I ask which exchange you are on?

[#10]

st marychurch (westhill road)

[#11]

So presumably you are serviced by the same idiots.. I mean OpenReach 'Engineers' as I am, being on the Paignton exchange.
All I can say is good luck then!
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,111551.0.html

[#12]

I feel that some commiseration is required, however just to cheer you up things could be worse and probably will get worse, but if you persevere things may eventually improve. 
By now you are undoubtedly wondering 'what is this fool rambling on about'.  The answer is that is that until August this year I was a relatively sane individual with a phone line that started at the St Marychurch exchange.  Then I requested an FTTC connection.  I was given an estimate of 31.1 Mbps down (+/- 1 Mbps) by those nice Plusnet people but when connected the speeds were 9 Mbps down and 0.5 Mbps up.
It is now 10 weeks later and the down speed has been through several weeks at 7.5 Mbps down and 0.45 up but, having constantly nagged those poor individuals at Plusnet support, I now receive 15/16 Mbps down and the upload speed is now an abysmaly constant 0.41 Mbps. 
Another BTO engineer is due on Monday (I am not sure whether he will be the 10th or the 11th).  I started to keep my own notes on the tests carried out by each engineer and the results as, whilst they are supposed to write up the details of each visit, either they forget to do so or the new engineer (it is always a new engineer) will not have read anything about the fault.  The popular excuses are 'line is too long from the cabinet to you' and 'there is a lot of aluminium wiring in this part of South Devon/Torbay'.  If you happen to get one of the Plymouth engineers who usually looks after the farms on Dartmoor he is very good, the others are more than a bit variable.

[#13]

Latest update after speaking to plusnet last night to confirm engineer is going out today to fix fault. Advised that there is no reason that it will not be fixed today. Then I receive this.
The engineer will is assigned for this Thursday and he will investigate and clear the fault by 11/11/2013.
Nitin Poojari (12:00:11):
I will request you to please check the updates on 11/11/2013.
Why is there so much conflict info underground then frame problem then it's back underground and as per post above a different engineer each time who does not read up or know the full history. It can't be that difficult to fix as the installation engineer has already pinpointed the fault to 267 metres from the cabinet.
It would be nice if BT were honest and just admit they don't know what they are doing. I don't believe that on 3 of the occasions a engineer has supposedly been sent out he actually was

[#14]

The delay has been getting permission from the council to dig up the road to fix the fault. Strange for what was diagnosed as a electrical interference problem

[#15]

That has reminded me that the REIN (electrical interference) was one of the first likely causes of my problems that Plusnet and BTO suggested.  So I duly patrolled the neighbourhood at various times of the day and evening for 3 days with an AM radio set to 612khz, listening for REIN, which was not evident to any significant degree.  When the next engineer turned up I explained this and the cause then quickly changed to long line/aluminium wiring.
The BTO check planned for Monday did not take place but Plusnet have arranged another visit for tomorrow.  The saga continues.