BT Option 3 w/ Fibre Installation FAILED to sync with cabine

So, with ADSL+ from Be I get 2 Mb down and 0.8 Mb up.

http://speedtest.net/result/1432500989.png

Yesterday, BT Option 3 w/ Fibre was going to be installed, with a predicted download speed of 5.5 Mb.

The engineer set everything up, and we went on to speedtest.net and got a download speed of over 7 Mb!

http://speedtest.net/result/1446316132.png

However, then the DSL light started going on and off on the Openreach modem, and the internet obviously was intermittant. "Dropouts" he said.

He replaced the modem and vDSL filter many times, and then we got on to the web.

We could view an iPlayer HD program perfectly with no interuptions, and did many speedtests.

Also tried pingtest.net many times, and got 0% packet loss.

He almost left, and then it started dropping out again.

After many attempts to fix this, and multiple phone calls he made, he said that it just wasn't syncing.

Apparently, the copper from the cabinet to my premesis is in perfect condition (he found this out in his phone call)

So, he put it down to "distance". 0.8 miles.

I have a few questions:

1. Shouldn't we have left it 24 hours?

2. Is this REALLY a distance problem at 0.8 miles to the cabinet???

3. I saw in the news that copper cables near my area had been cut by thieves in my area... could this be anything to do with it? Once the installation failed, I went back to ADSL+, and it worked perfectly.

4. I just found out that there is another cabinet within 50m of my house. If there weren't some trees in the way, I could probably visually see it... is it possible to get connected to THAT cabinet?

If BT can sort this out, I plan to stay with them for years.

However, they'll be getting none of by business if it's not from FTTC.

Any advise and/or answers to my questions?

Is teh 0.8 miles as the crow flies or actual distance from premises to cabinet? It should be OK at that distance if it is actual and you should be seeing reasonably decent speeds.



If he could watch iPlayer then the line must have achieved sync but something is causing it to drop out. Did he try changing the port at the cabinet?

Indeed, sounds like a faulty line card/port on the DSLAM.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Is teh 0.8 miles as the crow flies or actual distance from premises to cabinet? It should be OK at that distance if it is actual and you should be seeing reasonably decent speeds.



If he could watch iPlayer then the line must have achieved sync but something is causing it to drop out. Did he try changing the port at the cabinet?

Fraid your stuck on the cabinet your with until BT decide to add one closer to your residence. I'm in a similar situation, there is a cabinet at the end of my road, but instead the one I'm actually going to be connected to is 0.4 miles away.
There is something significantly wrong if you are only getting 7Mb at less than a mile. You should be seeing speeds in the range of 16Mb on ADSL2+ (if connecting to that cab) and possibly higher on VDSL2. Do you have any neighbours who are online could you find out what they're connecting at? If there is something wrong with your line, possible you could ask for a new one?

Edited by LeJimster (Thu 25-Aug-11 13:01:23)

I got connected at the start of the month and I am 1.3 miles from the cabinet and get an average of 15Mb down and 1Mb up

With ADSL you aren't connected to the cabinet but to the exchange which is why the distance is longer and the speeds lower.

The ADSL speed is essentially irrelevant when it comes to FTTC/VDSL