Multiple brief disconnections since joining Plusnet in July

[#1]

I'm posting this for a sanity check and for any advice that might help. I switched to Plusnet at the end of June this year, after 3 years of flawless connection with BT (on a line that was newly installed when I bought the house in 2017). Almost immediately after switching I started suffering from regular, brief, total disconnections to the internet (i.e. complete disconnections to the outside world, regardless of whether connected wired or wirelessly). The disconnections are random, can happen at any time of day, last no more than 5 to 30 seconds, and can be repeated (i.e. loads in quick succession) or occasional. This is what I have done since:

1. Replaced microfilter and RJ11 cable. Didn't help.

2. Replaced Plusnet Hub with a Draytek Vigor 130. Didn't help (the disconnections happen even with my laptop connected directly to the modem via PPPOE).

3. Ran all the tests required by Plusnet, which showed the problem persisting and triggered the first engineers visit.

4. Openreach Engineer (visit 1, 5th September). Fixed something at the cabinet and said the problem was solved. It didn't make any difference to me - the problem continued exactly the same.

5. Openreach Engineer (visit 2, 9th September). Replaced master socket; checked all wiring coming to the house; replaced a junction box on the outside of the house. He replicated the problem using his own testing device which seems to confirm the issue is definitely external.

6. Openreach Engineer (visit 3, 10th September). Replaced corroded cable at the telegraph pole. The problem still hasn't been fixed.

I'm now slightly at my wit's end. After the most recent visit, the problem is exactly the same as it always was and is rendering working from home extremely difficult (I rely on extensive video calling etc.). I've resorted to tethering to my phone as it's the only way I can get anything done without interruption.

What am I missing here? I'm not sure what else to do, or indeed what else can be done? It seems very odd to me that this has all started after the switch to Plusnet, though I accept this could well be a coincidence. I should add that everyone at Plusnet and Openreach has been extremely courteous and helpful, so this is more a cry for help than I complaint about the way things have been handled!

Any thoughts / ideas / etc would be kindly welcomed.

[#2]

Just to add, in case it's useful. The telephone line seems to work flawlessly and is completely noiseless. And the internet speed, when it's working, is excellent (55 down and 15 up, which is the best I could have expected).

[#3]

Hi @alexjhemingway,

Thanks for your time on the phone this evening. I've updated the open fault ticket on your account following our conversation.

[#4]

Hi Alex - have they sorted the problem? We get the same and I can't get anyone from Plusnet to take any notice - have tried posting on Forum and notifing of a fault and no response whatsoever from Plusnet. May have to try the dreaded call centre if they can't be bothered to respond in a modern way!

[#5]

Hi Adam,

Sorry for the delay in responding. In short, the issue still isn't fixed but it feels like we are creeping towards a solution. So far this is what they've done:

- Replaced master socket

- Re-crimped all the junctions between the telegraph pole and the master socket

- Replaced the underground cable between the main road and the telegraph pole.

- Replaced some corroded hardware on the telegraph pole.

- I've also replaced all my hardware (modem, router, all my cabling) with brand new stuff.

Replacing the underground street cable appeared to solve the problem, because we had a completely stable connection for 24 hours. Then the dropouts started again, and have been regular ever since.

The Openreach engineers have been very impressive and diligent and seem eager to help. They feel there are two remaining possibilities:

1. The port in the street cabinet needs replacing. Apparently each port serves approx. 9 houses.

2. External interference. This is a tricky one to diagnose and fix. Did you see this story yesterday? https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/22/the-old-telly-that-brought-down-a-welsh-villages-bro....

I've done my own door knocking and leafleting in the surrounding area and I've found four other houses all suffering identical issues. They are the houses closest to us. I wonder whether this would be a good approach for you? It's certainly helpful to know the problem isn't isolated to our property, and I'm hoping the clustering of the affected houses will help Openreach diagnose the issue more quickly.

Good luck!

[#6]

Alex - thanks for the update as I've had diddly squat from Plusnet! Interesting that Openreach have been going through the 'play book' for faults and still not sorted it - guess I'll need them to investigate here as well so I'll show them your post before they start work!. Yeah I saw the article - incredible that one telly can take out a whole village broadband!  I'll follow your advice and ask around and thanks again for letting me know.

Good luck for a successful resolution for your issue as well.

[#7]

The Openreach engineers have all said that random disconnections are the hardest thing to diagnose and fix, and I don't think they were saying that to cover themselves. I've actually been genuinely amazed at how much effort they've put in so far - I reckon they've spent 10-12 hours here over the last couple of weeks. Incidentally, if they do go down the route of investigating interference, it's a separate team of people with different equipment.

[#8]

Evening @adaminkent, 

Thanks for reaching out to us here. 

I'm sorry you've had some trouble getting in touch with us recently and for the broadband issues you've highlighted. I've ran a couple of tests and provided the results and next steps over this support ticket. 

Thanks. 

[#9]

Adam - Just a further update for you. Openreach came last Thursday and replaced the port in the cabinet, and also moved it onto a different card. For about 36 hours the connection was flawless, which I can't remember happening for months. But then at the weekend the disconnections started again and just went downhill from there.

The two most recent engineers are both convinced it is a REIN (interference) issue, so I assume that's what will be investigated next.

[#10]

Thanks for the post back @alexjhemingway 

I've just picked this up so I've decided to have a look at the issues you're having as Alex is out of the office this weekend. I'm sorry to see the ongoing problems you've had with your connection since joining us. I've added the latest test results on to your fault ticket 205045587 to follow things up after the latest engineer visit we arranged. 

From reading the engineer's notes it looks like they couldn't find a definitive cause for the issues but advised to monitor this for the time being. Since the engineer visited your broadband's been more stable, although still with more drops than we'd like to see. I'll leave the next steps with Alex, but it's likely it'd come to another engineer visit, if that's the case we can look at escalating this with Openreach beforehand to investigate further.

It's possible this may be REIN and an escalation should help progress the fault down that path because only an engineer can raise a REIN case. Personally I'd hope this isn't REIN as those type of issues as you've seen can be down to third party equipment and sometimes difficult to prevent, although other times fairly straight-forward it seems from reading that news article you've linked above about somebody's old TV causing an issue. 

We'll follow things up with you next week.