broadband fault reported but no further info?
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Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
09-07-2022 1:15 PM
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OK
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
09-07-2022 5:28 PM - edited 09-07-2022 5:33 PM
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when they said a problem with wiring i assumed they'd meant in the cabinet, because the wiring from pole to house is brand new. i'll give a little update on the history i can recall
1998 - 200x the master socket was in the downstairs front room as i imagine is typical. we had a dedicated second phone line installed with the socket upstairs (front of house, directly above the master socket actually) for internet use, as that is where the computer lived. we learned the hard way that bt's "unlimited" dial-up internet service was not quite so unlimited, as they cut our service for "using too much unlimited internet." this isn't actually relevant but it makes me laugh and is a fun trip down memory lane.
when the internet service switched to dsl or whatever allowed filters to let you use the phone and internet at the same time, the second phone line was disconnected and the upstairs socket became an extension. the router continued to live upstairs and worked fine with no problem until later..
200x when we first got the up to 2-30mb broadband (fast?) in whatever year it was, mid or late 2000s, several speed issues seemed to crop up from what i recall, something about a noisy line. they fiddled some settings i guess and resolved the problems mostly.
any issues we had after this were generally faults somewhere between the cabinet and the exchange that engineers would fiddle with and give the thumbs up, and indeed the problems each time were resolved.
2017 we first got the super duper fast fibre broadband (above 30mb, i think specifically it was bt's fibre 1 package or something like that). the pair of engineers they sent to install this (i think they were called barry and paul) came and just generally made a mess. awful service. constant problems.
the next engineer they sent out was amazing. he knew what he was doing. he immediately said "you're using an extension, they should've swapped this to the master socket if you are using this as the internet socket." and he proceeded to rewire the phone line so that upstairs became the master socket and downstairs was the extension. he installed the new faceplate on the socket so no ugly filter, and his little testing machine indeed showed a lovely 90mb down. i can't recall the up speed, but definitely higher than anything we'd need. i believe he commented on the noisy line and noted how they had adjusted settings for it, but didn't seem that concerned given the speeds he was getting on his test and seemed happy.
after this i believe once again, any issues from this point were between cabinet and exchange and resolved with engineers fiddling around at those ends.
2019 the physical phone line from the house to the pole goes through a neighbours tree, this year a big storm caused the tree to do some stuff and the phone line physically snapped. they installed a new phone line from the pole to the house. no problems since then.
June 2022 this is when one night the internet just went weird, this is when there was no dial tone on the phone at all, completely dead, but somehow the internet was slugging along. this is when i first text'd the help thing, they sent an engineer who fiddled at the cabinet or exchange end of things and fixed the issue.
July 2022 at about 1:47am or so on the night/morning of the 8th the router flipped out and flashed purple (bt smart hub, which also i'll note that this has been working absolutely fine with plusnets service since we signed up - i may even have a post on these forums asking how to set it up? or i definitely at least found how to here.). it reconnected sometime later and it was only when multiple people started using the internet at once i noticed something was up, checked the connection speed and yeah, down to slow speeds. but this time the phone line does have dial tone and can make calls. the quiet line test was silent as far as i could hear.
the wiring inside the house is fine as far as i am aware, the engineer that fixed it up really seemed to know what he was doing, he ran new cables and did a super tidy job and was happy for me to watch and explained each step. and barring the physical line snapping, there hasn't been a problem that wasn't somewhere at the cabinet or exchange since 2017.
i do think our exchange is a little overcrowded, there has been a lot of residential development since the last time it got upgraded. we're in the 2022-2024 (i think thats the range) slot for the next big openreach overhaul, but even then i'm not sure what that entails.
i appreciate all the help and intrigue thanks
oh i'll quickly add, so the setup inside the house is, master socket with the cool snazzy faceplate upgrade > router > ethernet to my pc. we might've even had the same smarthub in 2017 when the good engineer came, and he was definitely happy with the setup. so please believe me when i say i am not the potato headed person plugging the cable into the floppy disk drive
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
09-07-2022 5:49 PM
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oops edit time expired and i forgot to say.. please arrange an engineer that can look at stuff outside not just inside. they can come in and check the socket if they must, but i really doubt the problem is inside.
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
09-07-2022 5:59 PM
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Interesting explanation, @lortfort . I'll probably get shouted at again for saying this, but I honestly believe a Qube engineer won't be able to sort this, and you need a proper Openreach one, as I honestly think the issue is somewhere in the BT/OR infrastructure.
Based on what @Gandalf said about the fault they found, is it possible to give us a current view of BT Broadband again? Also, and I honestly don't know if the BT Hub provides this, but is there anything, probably called an 'Event Log' or very similar on the Hub?
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
10-07-2022 12:54 PM - edited 10-07-2022 1:00 PM
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Some good thoughts here. Interestingly I've retested the line and while the bridge tap is still showing, the tests are also detecting a high resistance fault, so I've arranged an Openreach engineer.
The problem could potentially still be down to internal wiring, but in case the HR fault and bridge tap are caused by different things, I figured it'd be sensible to call out Openreach to investigate further.
@lortfort, thanks for the private message. I've arranged the engineer visit for Tuesday 12.07.22 between 8am to 1pm.
Let us know how it goes.
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
10-07-2022 9:00 PM - edited 10-07-2022 9:09 PM
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@jab1 edit: oops this first test result is the one plusnet wanted in the ticket, but the one you asked for is exactly the same result (i guess it didn't retest so soon) as the previous photo i posted, even kept the same date so yeah
here is the event log when i force disconnect and reconnect the connection, hid the ips just incase lol:
@Gandalf thanks for booking the engineer
is anyone able to explain what a bridge tap is and why it might be installed in the first place? all this is quite fascinating but wiring stuff tends to go a little over my head. even a link to an article on the whys and hows would be helpful to ease my curious mind while i wait thanks!
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
10-07-2022 9:09 PM - edited 10-07-2022 9:15 PM
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@lortfort - quick explanation C&P'd from Google:
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
10-07-2022 9:13 PM - edited 10-07-2022 9:16 PM
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oh for sure, i used to get almost the full 90mb down when they first installed the fibre connection back in 2017, i think it hit around 85-88mb on average.
over time it slowed down a bit, to 70 and then 60 and it sorta settled out at about 55mb. its been around 55mb for as long as i've been with plusnet (2019? maybe start of 2020, cannot recall exactly!).
i figured it was the exchange getting busier with all the new residential development and the speed had to be shared around - again i'm not sure how this stuff all works. but even 55mb down is.. about enough speed for our demands. more always welcome of course
edit: ah for clarity, i know there is like a "settling in period" where the line determines the best speed.. i don't mean it started at 88mb and then degraded to 55mb over a week or two. it absolutely first settled at the higher end and the gradual reduction was over the 2/3 years from 2017 to 2019/2020. to the best of my recollection at least, maybe it settled at 70something originally. definitely not 55 though
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
10-07-2022 9:39 PM
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No problem and what @jab1 said
Yeah definitely is interesting stuff and hopefully the engineer's able to fix the problem to bring your speed back!
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
12-07-2022 10:26 AM - edited 12-07-2022 10:27 AM
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back to the usual
engineer tested the line from inside and replaced the master socket faceplate with a "mark 4" version. the wiring inside it looks exactly as it did before (i checked it last night just out of curiosity) so i am hoping they don't try and charge us for any internal stuff, because frankly changing the faceplate had no overall effect as far as i could see and i'm sure the old one would've sufficed. hey-ho.
so yeah whatever the problem was was outside (as expected) and we're back in business, hopefully for longer than a month this time
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
12-07-2022 10:30 AM - edited 12-07-2022 10:33 AM
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Sounds like the master socket/faceplate was the issue, but it is good to see you back close to a reasonable speed.
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
12-07-2022 10:40 AM
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Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
12-07-2022 10:43 AM
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@RealAleMadrid OK, see your point and yes, we really need to see the engineers notes to make an informed assessment, but they are unlikely to be available until tomorrow - at the earliest.
Re: broadband fault reported but no further info?
18-07-2022 12:35 PM
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Hi @lortfort
Sorry for us taking such a long while to check back in with you. I can see the engineer fixed the line fault for us and a line tests shows that the speeds are back where they should be. How are things looking for you?
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