BT Cease my FTTC connection?

Have been on FTTC since the 7th of last month, first on the exchange (Devoran) and all was well until this Thursday when the conncetion just went dead. Had been using it all day with and have not had any disconnects in the whole month I've had it.

The only issue I had was that my ISP still had me on an 8mb profile within their network on install day, the engineer mentioned that the download speed was not right but left everything in place with a 40/10mb sync (200m from cab), although he was told to put it all back due to the speed. A phone call to my ISP sorted out the traffic profile and since then I had a solid 37 down and 8 up, well over 4.5MB/s for real world transfers with great latency.

After the conncetion went dead and a couple of calls to my ISP, they have found out that a BT 'Frames' engineer went to the exchange and ceased my line! They could not give me a reason why this has happened and I think that some words were exchanged. Two weeks was the original estimate to fix it, the ISP got that down to next Wednesday - BT said that they wouldn't charge for this apparently - cheek!

My guess is that because of the speed issue on first day, down to the ISP's traffic profile and not the line, it was flagged to be removed and it has only just got acted upon. I'm pretty hacked off with BT on this but was wondering if anyone else had heard of this happening before?

Only found a couple of related post on the web so far.

Don't want this to have any impact on the conncetion once they restore it, phone has been fine but suffering on a 3G modem after 40mb is painful.

Tom

.......suffering on a 3G modem after 40mb is painful.

I bet it is.

That's why I couldn't have gone with BT, no matter how cheap they make it. Imagine the stress if you had to make those calls to them instead of your chosen ISP?

.

...although he was told to put it all back due to the speed...

I'm not sure what you are saying here. Was the engineer instructed to remove the installation, and if so, by whom?

After the conncetion went dead and a couple of calls to my ISP, they have found out that a BT 'Frames' engineer went to the exchange and ceased my line! They could not give me a reason why this has happened

OK, but a frames cease (correctly raised to recover the old SMPF ties) would just have you lose dialling tone. Your sync now comes from the street cabinet. So this wasn't the cause.

The two more likely causes of your fault are a dead modem, or a 'rogue' software cease of the FTTC sync.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

After the conncetion went dead and a couple of calls to my ISP, they have found out that a BT 'Frames' engineer went to the exchange and ceased my line! They could not give me a reason why this has happened

OK, but a frames cease (correctly raised to recover the old SMPF ties) would just have you lose dialling tone. Your sync now comes from the street cabinet. So this wasn't the cause.

The two more likely causes of your fault are a dead modem, or a 'rogue' software cease of the FTTC sync.

When I called the ISP after the connecetion dropped, a check on their system showed that they had a note from BT relating to my FTTC order number and that an engineer had been to exchange that day (not requested by me or the ISP. The next day the fibre guy at the ISP found out that he had been to the exchange in order to cease the connection, BT have messed up and haven't given a reason for this.

Still have dial tone on the phone line and modem is showing a solid green on the dsl light (not sure if that warrants a sync though?), although by the sounds of it the BT supplied modems are not great. Could be a software issue like you mention but the fact the guy was at the exchange on a job relating to my FTTC order sounds like they dropped the ball.

Like another poster says, glad that I didn't have to spend the day on the phone to them - get enough of that at work!

Have been informed that it will require a visit to the exchange by BT to resolve, hope they can get this done asap.

In reply to a post by john2007:

...although he was told to put it all back due to the speed...

I'm not sure what you are saying here. Was the engineer instructed to remove the installation, and if so, by whom?

Yep, after showing me it sync at max, a line test showed a fault on the line a couple of houses down. Intial speed test also had it at 8mb down and just over that up, he saw this and thought it was the line fault causing the problem (this was actually an internal ISP profile limit and was resolved later that day).

Whoever he spoke to on the phone during the install told him to put it back the way it was before the FTTC install, failing the speed test (guessing the 15mb min) was brought up alongside the line fault. He left it all in place, as it was 8x better than the adsl connection I had before and he would have been back the next week to put it all back again once the line fault was fixed.

Tom

but the fact the guy was at the exchange on a job relating to my FTTC order sounds like they dropped the ball.

You've missed the point, the only thing coming from the exchange to you is the dial tone, which you state has not been lost. The cease the exchange staff were actioning was raised automatically to recover your old ADSL equipment connections.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

but the fact the guy was at the exchange on a job relating to my FTTC order sounds like they dropped the ball.

You've missed the point, the only thing coming from the exchange to you is the dial tone, which you state has not been lost. The cease the exchange staff were actioning was raised automatically to recover your old ADSL equipment connections.

What is worrying me all the way through this thread is why the throughput speed from the ISP even entered into the original testing.

I thought the engineer was supposed to test the sync speed quite independent of any ISP relationship?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

but the fact the guy was at the exchange on a job relating to my FTTC order sounds like they dropped the ball.

You've missed the point, the only thing coming from the exchange to you is the dial tone, which you state has not been lost. The cease the exchange staff were actioning was raised automatically to recover your old ADSL equipment connections.

BT have told my ISP that the change at the exchange is what has caused the problem and an engineer visit to the exchange is needed to resolve it. Don't have an intimate understanding of the exchange hardware, but understand that I now sync with the cab - are there no endpoints at the exchange that can affect FTTC connectivity beyond the enpoint at the cab?

Would love to get onto the modem and check the sync just to rule that out as a point of failure, it has showed solid green from day one.

RE the speed issue, I think that the line fault found after the install was the deciding factor in him being told to abort the install, it was mentioned during the conversation though and I showed him the intial result. The line fault was fixed a couple of days after install day but made no odds to the conncetion.

I thought the engineer was supposed to test the sync speed quite independent of any ISP relationship?

They are Bob.

Just ruled out the modem and router as they work fine at a mates a few doors down, his did not work at mine however.

They dont all do that though. A friend recently had an Infinity install and the guy just used one of the rehukar speedtest sites. He's now having to run the gauntlet of BT customer services as the speed has never been greater than about 8Mbits with a 38Mbits profile even using the BT Speedtester.

When we got ours installed last July by one of the "first fttc engineers" (the engineers own words) he just used speedtest.net.

Needless to say it was fast then and fast now.

In reply to a post by Ribble:

They dont all do that though. A friend recently had an Infinity install and the guy just used one of the rehukar speedtest sites. He's now having to run the gauntlet of BT customer services as the speed has never been greater than about 8Mbits with a 38Mbits profile even using the BT Speedtester.

Could be an internal ISP profile limit, same as mine. One call to the ISP removed the 8mb MaxDSL profile and I was up to full speed - until they disconnected me at the exchange a month later! I think that it may have been a stop/start on my line that caused the problem, phone worked all the time but apparently a cease and re-connect will keep the phone working but drop the data service on that line until put back in place.

Still waiting to hear from the ISP today regarding this but have Wed or Thurs as a fix date from BT - fingers crossed.

ISP finally managed to get some sense from BT. My order was never completed on BT's system and as such, exactly one month after install day, the order was cancelled and subsequently stopped my data conncetion.

Thanks for the useful tips on recovering ties at the exchange and modem failure, but in this case it was a clerical error as the job was never put down as finished. Have next Monday as a provisional re-connection date but senior staff at the ISP are trying to push this through sooner. Modem is still showing green so hopefully it won't require a visit to my house, just the exchange.

Hope I get my 40meg pipe back this week, don't really want another weekend on the 3G!

Tom

Engineer came yesterday to re-connect the FTTC connection, replaced the modem as he couldn't get the original one to sync - even though it was sync'd until the day of the re-install.

Sync'd at 40/10 (again) and an initial speed test showed the same as before, 37 down and 8.3 up with ping at 12ms. Great, all sorted. Went to work, came home and ran another test - this time it won't go over 27 down and the upload is stuck at 0.5mb. BT speed tester shows IP profiles at 38717 down 10000 up, but only getting 25 down and 0.5 up so something is choking it somewhere along the way. Each speedtest shows exactly the same upload and you can tell it wants to go way faster.

Pretty fed up at this point, just knew that the reconnection would screw up the perfect conncetion I had before!

Raised with ISP and has gone to Wholesale as they can see something is not right, pings have gone up by a few ms also. All it needed was some paper work doing properly when they did the original install and I wouldn't have the problems I do now.

Tom

Just had a further chat with my ISP and got them to run another test on the line, they can see my IP profiles at 38717 and 10000 but the BRAS profile is not showing and was told they would expect to see both profiles on any xDSL connection. I've asked them to pass this on to BTW and ask for them to be manually reset to max.

Could this be causing my 0.5 meg upstream issue and the loss of 10meg downstream after BT re-connected me on Wednesday?

Also not sure about the difference between the two profiles but can see with a perfect sync that something is holding the line back?

Tom

Made some headway on this, ISP phoned twice yesterday to keep me up to date and then to confirm an engineer visit to the exchange first thing Monday. Upload speeds yesterday were still capped at 0.68Mb (on 40/10 product with 40/10 sync), but downstream is now running as it should. Something seems to have changed overnight and would tie in with a 3 day period.

A few tests this morning have shown the upload increase to 1.68Mb and latency has gone back to what it was before BT disconnected me a couple of weeks ago. This seems to be the exact upload that people on the 40/2Mb service seem to get, can anyone confirm this?

I still think that there is a profile mismatch somewhere in the system. My IP profile is still at 10000k upstream but instead of the 677k up I was seeing after the re-connection, I'm now seeing 1690k up, as you would expect for a 2Mb upload profile. How common are profile mismatches between DSLAM and BRAS and does a 3 day period have any affect on changes to these profiles?

Wondering if those profiles cannot be reset remotely and why it would change by itself, unless BTW did something last night.

Thanks
Tom

There is no 3-day period involved here. Profile changes on FTTC are almost instantaneous when the sync changes.

I believe the difference between a 2Mbps and 10Mbps upload is an engineer setting at the exchange, so I think you are right. Instead of correcting it to 10Mbps from something spurious he has set it to 2Mbps. (Edit - Rot, as pointed out by Zarjaz. Also see my next reply to you).

Round you go again it seems.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 15-May-11 12:54:40)

and then to confirm an engineer visit to the exchange first thing Monday.

Sorry to keep harping on about this, but ....
Please ask your ISP what exactly an engineer will be able to achieve with an exchange visit ? Your problem is with, by the looks of it, IP profiles, this is not governed/produced/monitored/supplied/measurable by an engineer visiting the exchange.

After all your hassle, I'd be pushing for a cease and reprovide of port in the FTTC DSLAM.

I believe the difference between a 2Mbps and 10Mbps upload is an engineer setting at the exchange,

Not correct Bob, the sync rates are all set on software remotely. If the engineer has to speak with these guys they are known as the 'AOC' (not a clue on the acronym), something like the old BOU (Broadband Operational Unit) back in the day.

OK. I think I have been confused by something said about what is required (at ISP level) to change beween them.

I was a little concerned about what I wasted though, as a 2000sync would give a 2000 profile, not the 10000 he has.

Which makes me wonder about ...

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 15-May-11 12:54:58)

You haven't said who your ISP is. As another anonymous poster said earlier, some ISPs hold a copy of the IP Profile and apply that, but that copy can be incorrectly set.

The two I know of are AAISP and Plusnet. If it is Plusnet, you can see it in your control panel as Current Line Speed, or I think I recently saw someone say the word "Fibre" is in there as well on their FTTC.

Worth checking with your ISP. There is also the point that Plusnet only provide 2Mbps upload anyway.

ISP is Eclipse and have double checked with them that the profiles within their network have been left unchanged from before BT cancelled the order/connection (40/10) - will let them know that this has now seeming risen to a 2Mb upstream profile overnight.

My IP profiles have stayed the same at 38717/10000 for the whole time I've had the connection (over a month now). What I find strange is that after re-connection, my upload speed was exactly what you would see on a 'premium' max product at around 85Kb, with it rising last night to the 1.68Mb you would expect to see out of a 40/2Mb product. All this on a 10000k sync to the cab and 10000k IP profile, the numbers seem to point to a limit being applied somewhere along the line as they are always at the limit for the upload profiles I mention above.

Hope they get to the bottom of this tomorrow, I do see that FTTC profile mismatches are coded in the KBD and this seems like a clasic case of it to me. Agree that this should be sortable remotely, I've had stuck profiles before and the ISP normally resloved it in a couple of hours.

Edit - worth mentioning again that the ISP couldn't see the BRAS profiles that they expect to see when testing the line and this was put to BTW.

Thanks for the further info.
Tom

Edited by deleted (Sun 15-May-11 14:50:42)

Good luck. Let us know how things progress.