Some exchanges have DSLAMS from different manufacturers. I've asked PN to find out if that is the case with my exchange - if it is a lift and shift would fix it. If I was with an ISP that would fight my cause with BT to demand they fix it I might stand a chance of a satisfactory outcome, with Plusnet I fear there's no chance of that whatsoever - I'm just having to decide which of two compromises I'm going to have to take.

What shook me was that an ISP as large as Plusnet was unaware of the specifics of this issue (and nothing I've had back from them indicates that they are aware even now). Instead I had a complete diagnosis within 15 minutes of contacting another ISP with a reputation for fixing issues and that also stands no nonsense from BT.

Some exchanges have DSLAMS from different manufacturers. I've asked PN to find out if that is the case with my exchange - if it is a lift and shift would fix it.

Sadly, not true. A lift and shift won't get you on to the other suppliers equipment, it'll be a new port on the same stuff, *maybe* another card.

You would need a cease and reprovide.

Instead I had a complete diagnosis within 15 minutes of contacting another ISP with a reputation for fixing issues and that also stands no nonsense from BT.

A and A perchance ?

One thing that I didn't mention about my line fault was it developed over time: for years the DSL wasn't affected by incoming calls, then towards the end of 2011 six or more rings of the phone would cause the DSL to drop and the router would resync almost immediately. Plusnet never "saw" these disconnections because they were so short and that made it really difficult to get anything done about it.

Also, at that time, the ticketing system at PN meant that adding to a ticket that hadn't been responded to by PN staff put the case to the back of the queue - this obviously made the whole experience incredibly frustrating!

Edit: Anyway a valuable lesson was learnt by me: to never get into a contract with an ISP for BB - a minimum term gives one more options, sadly for you though your choice is only based on 20CN kit (ADSL MAX) at the exchange...

Edited by 4M2 (Sat 27-Apr-13 12:07:02)

Post deleted by jelv

I know all about short drops of sync where the PPP does not drop. When that happens nothing appears in the radius logs so Plusnet then reply to the ticket saying something like

I have retested your line and can see the connection has been stable for over 3 days

Which prompts posts like this: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,1130...

Nine days after that post I get

Thank you for getting back to us. I have been testing your connection and the broadband has been stable for 3 days which is good news

And another four days later I get

Unfortunately our testing has not revealed any condition on your line that would confirm the details of the issue as you have reported them. Our connectivity checker has not even been able to see the drops in connection on the 11th that you reported.

I'll leave you to image what my response to those was!

I raised this fault on 20th March. The information from Plusnet still doesn't tell the whole story which I learnt from another ISP within 15 minutes as posted here.

Edited by jelv (Sat 27-Apr-13 15:12:59)

I can fully understand your frustration with PN about this - I had a very similar experience...possibly it's now time for you to walk away?

Well thanks to the information provided to me by Andrews and Arnold I seem to have reached a resolution of sorts; it was they who told me that this issue affected Max Premium users only. Following a point of Plusnet having no further ideas I requested a downgrade to standard Max and the issue has gone away.

thans for the update. Related to lower SNR margin on the upstream perhaps ?

The upstream margin was around 15 on Max Premium - that should have been enough!

In reply to a post by jelv:

Well thanks to the information provided to me by Andrews and Arnold I seem to have reached a resolution of sorts; it was they who told me that this issue affected Max Premium users only.

That's really interesting because it was after I had the ADSL MAX upstream uncapped that I started to have problems caused by incoming calls when I was with Plusnet. Upstream SNRM was 21dB on 448K then SNRM reduced to 12dB on 832K.