Intermittent disconnects

[#1]

Things are looking hopeful at the moment. New router arrived on Friday but, as we were going away for the weekend, we didn't unpack it. Now I can see that we have had no disconnects since 02:32 on Thurs 9th May, the OpenReach engineer having visited on the 8th. Since the line may have stabilised, I propose to keep the current router in place for the moment. I will keep monitoring the router logs and, if problems start to reoccur, I will then try installing the new router.

[#2]

Thanks for the update, @aeneareid

Glad to hear that this has settled down since the engineer visit - keep an eye on things and let us know if there's anything else we can do.

Best wishes

Dave

[#3]

Oh dear, after a few quiet days, we have had a flurry of disconnects in the last couple of days.

Following a phone call from a PlusNet member of staff, we installed the latest new router on 15 May. Since then, performance has been as follows:
Thu 16 May: no disconnects
Fri 17 May: Disconnects at 00:07, 05:16, 05:21 and 13:49
Sat 18, Sun 19 and Mon 20 May: no disconnects
Tue 21 May: Disconnects at 04:29, 12:36, 12:41
Wed 22 May: Disconnects at 17:55, 18:18, 21:16, 21:20

Note: We were away from home from Fri 14:30 – Sun 17:30. Router was left switched on while we were away but computers and most electrics were switched off. We were home for a day and a half without any interruptions before disconnects started happening again.

Concerned that disconnects may be starting to affect line speed again. Current line speed (on ethernet connection) is 21.4 Mbps. On 17 May it was 28 Mbps; on 20 May it was 27 Mbps.

[#4]

Hi @aeneareid 

Sorry to hear this is still happening. 

Looking at your RADIUS, the drops we are noting seem to match up with what you are seeing; 

I've tested a few bots and pieces to see if the drops are being caused by anything which we have control over - the copper line tests all past without issue meaning there is nothing wrong with the physical cable itself. A GEA test, however, failed; 

Test OutcomeFail

Test Outcome CodeGTC_FTTC_SERVICE_1613

Description Potential HR Joint detected on GEA service. Please continue to submit a trouble report

Main Fault LocationCE

Sync StatusIn Sync

Downstream Speed23.8 Mbps

Upstream Speed7.1 Mbps

Appointment RequiredY

Fault Report AdvisedY

NTE Power StatusPowerOn

Voice Line Test ResultPass

Bridge TapNot Detected

Radio Frequency IngressNot Detected

Repetitive Electrical Impulse NoiseNot Detected

Cross TalkDetected

Estimated Line Length In Metres1045.8

Upstream Rate AssessmentVery Good

Downstream Rate AssessmentGood

Interference PatternNot Detected

Service ImpactNo Impact Observed

Home Wiring ProblemNot Detected

Downstream Policing Discard Rate0.0

Customer Traffic LevelUpstream and Downstream Traffic Detected

TechnologyVDSL

Profile Name0.128M-40M Downstream, Retransmission High - 0.128M-10M Upstream, Retransmission Low

I've created an appointment ticket here for you to reply to so that we can get an engineer out to investigate this further. 

Thanks, 

MoR

[#5]

Thanks for that. I have replied to the ticket with times when an engineer could visit.

Can you explain what a GEA test is and what the message 'Potential HR Joint detected on GEA service' means?

We had a fair bit of noise and crackle on our phone line last night in the same time period (21:00 - 22:00) as some of the disconnects. Could there be a connection?

[#6]

Thanks for your post @aeneareid.

A GEA test (Generic Ethernet Access) is a test of your fibre broadband line which we use to determine if a line is faulty, as well as to gain useful insights into what could be causing a specific issue.

A HR joint is a High Resistance issue, whereby something is causing excess resistance on the line and potentially causing you issues in using the service.

We've just booked in the appointment for tomorrow, 24/05, between 1pm and 6pm.

Please let us know if you need any further assistance in the meantime.

[#7]

Thanks. Was a GEA test done on my line when it was tested previously?

[#8]

Thanks for getting back to me @aeneareid.

Yes - I'm able to see the results of at least 6 different GEA tests on the account. It's generally the first step we take when checking a fibre account.

[#9]

And did it fail the GEA tests previously?

I'm hoping there might be something different in the test results this time as this will be our fourth engineer visit, previous engineers having been unable to detect any faults on the line.

[#10]

Thanks for getting back to me @aeneareid.

I can see that the first 2 GEA's failed with the same error, but that the following 4 returned NFF (no fault found), with the HR joint being detected again by my colleague @MasterOfReality  this AM and then again by myself this afternoon. (8 in total)

I would point out though that the same error being detected doesn't necessarily mean that the fault is even in the same place or point on the line and so I am hopeful that we're getting closer to resolving this issue.

[#11]

I think there has been some confusion caused by two tickets having been opened - 189394230 and 19044723.

Engineer visit has been arranged through ticket #19044723 but that ticket has now been closed, having been identified as a duplicate of #189394230. However ticket #189394230 doesn't record that engineer visit has been scheduled and seems to have been put on hold.

Hopefully, engineer will turn up this afternoon and results correctly recorded within ticket #189394230. Can you check up on this for me? Thanks.

[#12]

Thanks for getting back to us,

Sorry for the confusion we've caused, I can see we've closed the duplicate ticket 190447234.

I can definitely see your engineer appointment is booked in for this afternoon and is currently assigned to an engineer. As the notes we've received so far mention more time is required, I've got in touch with Openreach and they've tried calling them for an update but the call went to voicemail. 

Let us know how it goes over the next few hours.

[#13]

OK. Engineer #4 has just been and gone. Unsurprisingly, he did all the tests he could and the line passed them with flying colours (just as happened when engineers #1, 2 & 3 visited). What he did say, however, was the the problem should now be escalated to a specialist broadband engineer who can look deeper into the situation. Irritatingly, this is exactly what was said to me in a telephone conversation with a member of PlusNet support staff on 15th May. He said that if we still had problems after installing the new router, then they would call in a specialist engineer. This doesn't seem to have happened, however, as today's engineer, delightful as he was, was a regular 'copper' engineer who wasn't able to do anything further than had already been done by the previous engineers.

Today's engineer has promised he will submit a report that recommends the calling in of a specialist. Once you have received this report, please can this fault be escalated.

[#14]

Thanks for the update.

Sorry that the engineer again was unable to find the cause of the fault. Any engineer we arrange on the back of a broadband fault should in theory be a broadband engineer, we don't get to choose we'd either raise a phone or broadband fault. It should then rest with our suppliers to allocate the right type out and I'm sorry that this didn't happen.

The engineer hasn't yet passed the job back to us so we'll need to wait until they've done that then we'll arrange another engineer and make sure this is escalated directly with Openreach.

I've moved your ticket 189394230 into my workflow now as I'd like to take ownership of this for you moving forward.

We may have to wait until after the weekend before we get another update though, but I'll keep an eye on this over the course of the next few hours before placing the ticket on hold until Monday.

[#15]

Thanks @Gandalf All the engineers we've had visiting so far have been what today's engineer called 'copper' engineers. They are the first level support, able to test the integrity of the line and detect any faults internal to the house. If they fail to get to the root of the problem, then there appears to be a second level of support engineers who have more sophisticated knowledge and testing techniques for broadband faults. Today's engineer had just come from a job where he and another two engineers, one at least of which was a broadband specialist, worked together to get to the root of a fault.

Since we've already had 3 first level engineers visit without being able to identify the fault, it seems crazy that OpenReach haven't escalated this to the second level. Surely there must be something that you, as our ISP, can do to point out the situation and request a higher level of expertise.

Anyway, pleased that you have taken ownership of our problem. Hopefully, this will at least provide some within-PlusNet continuity. I will keep monitoring the router logs and noting any outages.