Dad's SH2

Apologies for asking for more advice. I wish I could contribute with answers!

My elderly dad has received an email about his broadband speeds. He received a similar email in Feb but when we spoke to BT they said no fault could be found. They said the regularly test/monitor the broadband. He moved to BT for BB in May last year.

Looking at his log he does have an issue. Here's a sample of what was shown on the 3rd Apr - there was more!

09:50:49, 03 Apr. DSL Link Up: Down Rate=54998kbps, Up Rate=5148kbps; SNR Margin Down=4.8dB, Up=3.1dB
09:50:14, 03 Apr. WAN connection WAN2_INTERNET_PTM disconnected.[ERROR_NO_CARRIER]
09:50:12, 03 Apr. DSL Link Down: duration was 200 seconds
09:47:00, 03 Apr. DSL Link Up: Down Rate=54998kbps, Up Rate=6000kbps; SNR Margin Down=5.7dB, Up=0.5dB
09:46:26, 03 Apr. WAN connection WAN2_INTERNET_PTM disconnected.[ERROR_NO_CARRIER]
09:46:25, 03 Apr. DSL Link Down: duration was 1377 seconds
09:23:36, 03 Apr. DSL Link Up: Down Rate=54998kbps, Up Rate=6000kbps; SNR Margin Down=10.6dB, Up=8.9dB
09:22:49, 03 Apr. WAN connection WAN2_INTERNET_PTM disconnected.[ERROR_NO_CARRIER]
09:22:47, 03 Apr. DSL Link Down: duration was 637 seconds
09:12:18, 03 Apr. DSL Link Up: Down Rate=54998kbps, Up Rate=6000kbps; SNR Margin Down=9.8dB, Up=7.2dB
09:11:32, 03 Apr. WAN connection WAN2_INTERNET_PTM disconnected.[ERROR_NO_CARRIER]
09:11:30, 03 Apr. DSL Link Down: duration was 10456 seconds
06:17:22, 03 Apr. DSL Link Up: Down Rate=54998kbps, Up Rate=6000kbps; SNR Margin Down=10.4dB, Up=7.9dB
06:16:36, 03 Apr. WAN connection WAN2_INTERNET_PTM disconnected.[ERROR_NO_CARRIER]
06:16:35, 03 Apr. DSL Link Down: duration was 2065 seconds
05:42:18, 03 Apr. DSL Link Up: Down Rate=54998kbps, Up Rate=6000kbps; SNR Margin Down=11.4dB, Up=10.7dB

He is 50 metres or so from the cabinet on Fibre1. Downstream looks fine but upstream seems to be banded at 6000 - possibly due to all the disconnects.

I'm 200 miles away but I'll see if he can do a quiet line test and describe the master socket. Many years ago, when he moved from AOL/TalkTalk dial-up to Plusnet FTTC the line came into hallway (master socket) and then extension wiring provided a connection to the computer in an upstairs room. The engineer moved the master upstairs but the line still enters in the hallway. AFAIK no additional wiring was used so the master may be using the original extension wiring. I think I will need to visit to use the test socket to eliminate internal issues.

Any other suggestions apart from get the engineer in?

Thanks

Paul

Who did the email come from? Are you sure it isn't a spam/phishing email?

Hi ian72,

It was BT. When I saw the first email in Feb I was suspicious but there was a fault tracking reference and I could see it on the BT website. We spoke to BT to find out who raised the fault and was told it was from one of their monitoring systems.


Your Broadband Needs Our Help

Hello

We have noticed that your broadband is not performing as well as it should be, so you might experience problems browsing online or watching TV services.
Don't worry, our expert engineers are on hand to help and you won't be charged anything for a visit.

Are YOU registered with BT as an alternative contact? If not it would be worth doing so, you should then get emails too and be able to speak direct with them.


If they are offering a free visit, then can you arrange it to co-incide with a visit from you?


Potential problems that I can guess at: a bad connection where the line was extended or moved, or a dodgy filter which could be affected both up and down but down is set to 55Mbps so will not show up directly although te SNR is up and down. Or potentially a bad connection from cabinet to pole.

And at 50M, with what is a 55Mbps service, I would be expecting possibly more than 11dB SNR on downstream.

Thanks MHC,

I don't think I am a named/alternative contact on my dad's BT account. I am for the mother-in-law. I'll check.

I only noticed the free visit when I pasted the reply to ian72. I should be able to visit at the same time as an engineer. Just tested -ve for C19 so I would be happier to visit - probably caught from m-in-law on 21 Apr.

My thinking is the fault has developed recently given he moved to BT in May 21, and only received the first email in Feb 22. I will be remoting onto his machine later so I will get some more stats.

BT checker says:
VDSL Range A (Clean) help 80 70.1 20 19 65.8
VDSL Range B (Impacted) help 80 68.8 20 19 63.9

Max Observed Downstream Speed 71.03
Max Observed Upstream Speed 5.14
Observed Date 2022-04-05

Is that predictive infection or trying to avoid teh M-i-L?

I had over 2 weeks +ve, and now three weeks into -ve and still totally exhausted.


What is his contract? Is is 55/10 or 80/20? If the latter he is also banded.

At 50m I would expect a full 80/20, when I was on FTTC at around 450m I stated with 80/20 (95/28 ish max) and it did drop to around 70/19. The max observed defintely point to an issue.

lol, m-in-law visited 19/20 Mar, and on 21 I had runny nose and also found out that m-in-law had mentioned sore throat (more than once) to some of her friends. It wasn't mentioned to us! Very feint +ve mark on 21 Mar. Wife isolated me and I've been wearing a mask indoors. Wife OK. M-in-law tested on 22 and it was +ve. Her middle daughter +ve 23. M-in-law passed on to some others who she met before I raised the alarm on 21. Anyway, I didn't think this was C19 forum...moving on....

It is a 55/10 contract. He did have 80/20 with Plusnet but he doesn't need it and 55/10 is a little cheaper. Every little helps.

Did you not see your original - caught from M-i-L 21 April!


So, the 55 contract means that the line is not seeing and fluctuations there even though it is still happening, the first two with 4.8 & 5.7 SNRs meant it go close! But the rest of te time at 11 or 11 means no noticable effect. But that is, to me too low..

Oops! Yes I meant March not April. Corrected for completeness.

I'll arrange a visit and spend a few days doing other jobs around the house and garden.

Thanks for your help

Got an engineer booked towards the end of April - our choice of date

Stats from the router

DSL uptime 0 days 0 Hours 25 Mins 13 Secs
Data rate 6.0 Mbps / 55.0 Mbps
Maximum Data rate 8.3 Mbps / 83.6 Mbps
Noise margin 4.0/10.2
Line attenuation 3.3/10.0
Signal attenuation 2.8/10.4