No phone line and extremely slow broadband

Hi all,

Been monitoring my line with MDWS (fishpan) for a long time and was proud to see over past month or so, the line steadily increased to 75mbps sync with an ultra low ping of 5ms.

Today around afternoon, I noticed MWDS had reset with an RDI=1 and my sync was ~12000kbps and my phone line was dead. Now it has hit ~2000kbps and the internet has slowed to a crawl. None of the modem/router equipment or telephone wires on my property were touched.

Anyone know what caused this and the quickest way to fix? Thanks.

Power off your modem and disconnect from phone line
disconnect all telephones etc. from your phone line
Reconnect only modem to the phone line and power it on
does that fix it?
Reconnect telephone
does it work?
Report problem to Sky

Have just done what you suggested. Result:

Speed increased from 2mb to 15mb. (Far lower than usual 72-75mbps sync)
Phone line remains dead.

Have reported to sky who state that it is an external fault and has been logged with Openreach, with a fix due within 5 working days. Surprising that the broadband still works but the phone is completely dead with no dial tone.

Hopefully I can get some compensation for the downtime as both internet speed is far lower than the Sky/BT estimate for my line? (also for lack of phone line too)

Thanks.

Sounds like 1 wire is disconnected (Leg off) happened to me when Openreach were testing my line in an underground chamber and forgot to connect one of the wires. No dial tone and very low speeds.

Sounds like it could be that. However, have just lost sync completely now

Time to dig out my 4G modem...

In reply to a post by Banger:

Sounds like 1 wire is disconnected (Leg off) happened to me when Openreach were testing my line in an underground chamber and forgot to connect one of the wires. No dial tone and very low speeds.

I was about to say the exact same thing, we had the same thing happen to us when we was on ADSL where our phone went dead and our broadband speed dropped lower than half our normal speed.

So I disconnected everything coming from the BT80 and checked the line and there was nothing there and when I phoned our landline the voltage was very low, so I connected everything back up, crimped everything and then phoned BT.

BT instantly knew it was a fault on our line externally due to I explained all the steps I did, and they sent out an engineer for the next day.

The engineer came fixed the line and said one of the wires broke loose up the pole.
The engineer also reset the line due to this fault would of caused issues.

Paul

Just an update to this thread.

Engineer arrived to fix the no phone/broadband issue yesterday (Saturday) - since fault was reported on Tuesday. Phone line and broadband was working fine for a few hours after the engineer finished working on the cab.

This morning (Sunday), however, the broadband has been constantly disconnecting and MyDSLWebStats shows all sorts of errors:

- SNRM fluctuating like crazy.
- Resyncs often.
- US sync keeps changing from 20mbps to 8mbps and back
- SNR/tone graph shows no US tones in use in lower range
- G.INP disabled (though is this part of a DLM reset? - however, line was not on fast path after fix)

Probably more things you can find.

I reported this to Sky who have booked a BTOR broadband engineer to have a look. However, I am quite sceptical that they will find and fix the issue permanently without requiring further visits still.

Would appreciate if someone could theorise what is causing these new issues?

MyDSLWebStats : Fishpan

Thanks

Edited by fishpan (Sun 09-Jul-17 13:58:43)

Third post concurring with the 'one leg dis' diagnosis.

Engineer visits, measures dis, finds and clears fault. Pay close attention to the PQ test they should run after fixing .... politely ask them to explain the results, leg resistance/balance, a/c balance .

Good luck.

Another update. After I reported the fluctuating SNRM issue, frequent disconnects and banded speed (SNR was 8db US, 9db DS), Sky verified an external fault yesterday. Engineer came out today to have a look.

His meter showed a potential HR fault with distance 17 meters. He said it could be something with the telegraph pole. He did a pair quality test just under the telegraph pole and the results showed up as excellent so he ruled out the cabinet. He then did some tinkering at the top of the telegraph pole and rearranged some wires. He conducted a test after and there was no HR fault any more.

In addition to this, he also replaced the old external junction box at the eaves with a brand new one and also replaced the existing NTE5C/MK4 with another. Pair quality test was done at the internal NTE as well and no problems were shown.

Result:

- SNR down from 8.2/9.0 to 6.1/7.0
- Speed up from 52/13 to 62/20 (G.INP was disabled on Saturday when phone line was fixed - speed was 72-74 down, 20 up with G.INP enabled)
- Attenuation DS down from 17.9 to 16.7 like it was before. Attn US not reported by modem.

He did say, however, that no DLM reset needs to be performed and that the line should retrain back to normal. I hope that this is the case as I am eager to get my G.INP back for those ultra low pings (for gaming ) as line is currently interleaved.

Will keep monitoring via MDWS and report any relevant changes.

Edited by fishpan (Mon 10-Jul-17 18:18:01)

Sounds like he was fairly thorough then, fingers crossed.

Seems like the fault was not resolved 100%.

New thread started at:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4558731-man...

In reply to a post by fishpan:

New thread started at:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4558731-man...

Why?

I thought it would be best to get a fresh thread as the title of this thread is no longer relevant to the newer issues I'm now experiencing.

Sounds the same to me. Does your phone work?
Any noise on the line?

An update to this case.

Problem of "dropping SNR and disconnections" returns intermittently. Managed to catch it again today on MWDS. Was at home for once so I could check the phone line - very staticky and could hear a morse code-like tapping on the line as well. Downstream sync dropped from 62 to 53 and upstream dropped from 20 to 5.

Managed to call Sky before the inevitable resync happened and the problem vanished. Operator suggested a potential REIN/SHINE issue and has arranged a broadband engineer from BTOR to visit on Wednesday (26th July).

Will keep this thread updated.

Link to MWDS snapshot

Edited by fishpan (Sat 22-Jul-17 09:53:55)

From some testing I did - I realised if I pick up the phone and dial out, the upstream SNR drops significantly from 9db to around 4db and the downstream SNR drops by 1-2db.

The problem is now no longer intermittent and my speeds have been decreased on both DS/US while the SNRs are still unstable.

BTOR engineer changed the NTE5C to another NTE5C. Replaced the MK4 SSFP as well. From reading around the net, some kind of resistance fault perhaps?

In reply to a post by fishpan:

From reading around the net, some kind of resistance fault perhaps?

From what you have typed, there is possibly one joint showing either semi-conductive or high resistance tendencies.

Thanks for your reply.

Since this morning, the phone line has gone completely dead apart from a very few crackles.

Broadband is completely dead as well - this coincided with the activation of G.INP today. G.INP activated, 3 minutes later the broadband lost sync and phone went dead.

Sky said they have got BT to send a fibre SFI engineer out to take a look. I am assuming they are able to fix the phone line together as well since the proper function of both seem to be linked.

Over two weeks since I first reported the problem so fingers crossed it gets sorted soon.

In reply to a post by fishpan:

I am assuming they are able to fix the phone line together as well since the proper function of both seem to be linked.

Correct. The problem is clearly in the D-side, probably in a discrete joint . . . somewhere. Find the joint, fix the fault and both services will be restored.

probably in a discrete joint

Discrete ... ? It's hard enough finding an HR in the bleedin' obvious joints

Final update! (Hopefully)

SFI engineer arrived to take a look at my setup. The problem presented to him was super-slow BB (only 7mbps DS sync) and no dial tone. Luckily due to the no dial tone, his tester was able to pick up a HR fault around 430m away from the master socket, heavily hinting at the cabinet.

He then went to the cabinet and found that my initial fault around the 4th July was caused by a faulty strip - deduced from a note inside the cabinet. Unfortunately, the engineer who arrived to fix the strip did not properly wire up between the PCP and the fibre cab. When the second line engineer arrived, there was no evidence of a fault which is really strange I find.

Line was fixed on Wednesday and G.INP back today - re-enabled in only 2 days!

Continuing to monitor via MDWS but looks like the SNRM is rock solid and errors are within thresholds as usual. No noise on line either. Thanks to everyone for their input

Edited by fishpan (Fri 28-Jul-17 18:33:53)