In reply to a post by youngsyp:

. . . thought I'd check my modem cable. Sure enough, it was incorrectly wired and had pin 3 going to pin 3 and pin 4 going to pin 4.

<snip>

I checked the other cable I replaced with this incorrectly wired one and it was the same, so I've been using bum modem cables . . .

There is nothing wrong with that configuration. Two 6P6C modular plugs may be connected together either 3 - 3 & 4 - 4 or 3 - 4 & 4 - 3. (It's not as if you have "reversed the polarity of the neutron flow". [Quoting Dr Who, for the time when he occupied Jon Pertwee's body.])

So whatever result you have observed when "faffing around with the cabling" it is pure co-incidence.

In reply to a post by burakkucat:

There is nothing wrong with that configuration. Two 6P6C modular plugs may be connected together either 3 - 3 & 4 - 4 or 3 - 4 & 4 - 3. (It's not as if you have "reversed the polarity of the neutron flow". [Quoting Dr Who, for the time when he occupied Jon Pertwee's body.])

So whatever result you have observed when "faffing around with the cabling" it is pure co-incidence.

Interesting. I must admit that I had wondered just what difference it would make, given it's been 'working' for years in the 'incorrect' other configuration.

All the pre-made cables I checked were in the pin 3 to pin 4 etc configuration but I'm usually very particular when I make cables, so there must have been a reason why I made the two 'incorrect' cables, the way I did.

I guess that OR engineer must have fixed something when he was fiddling around in our cabinet.

Paul

Wrote too soon. The gateway rebooted last night and I've lost 700kb/s again on the upstream, plus the U2 tones. Upstream output power is also down.

Sigh.

Paul

I'm now wondering whether I'm the victim of REIN.

I've been monitoring the line with DSLstats and noticed a sharp change in the upstream SNRM behaviour from around 5.30pm which resulted in a rapid 1-2dB fluctuation until around 6.10am this morning. I'm struggling to think what would switch on at 5.30pm at this time of year though. Maybe it's something at a neighbours?!

SNRM chart here.

Paul

The 1dB wander on its own could be considered slightly worse than normal and should not cause errors, the spike at 5:30 though suggests a possible sync event may take place.

If the pattern reproduces and you test first with everything but the router circuit switched off at the breaker in your house then it may be worth listing with a AM radio for noise bursts around 5:30 and a bit of walking to try and ID rough source.

If its not happening on sunny warm days then probably someone's heating.

Maybe your neighbours have their heating still set to come on ... or maybe they (or you) could have hot water set to come on at 5:30 at that will fire up the boiler, pumps, valves &c. So people have their heating set to come on even in warm weather and use TRVs to manage the temperature in each room and the only radiator that warms is the bathroom meaning the pump will run continually.

Monitor it for a few days - leave DSLStats running and see it it happens daily and if/when it goes off.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The 1dB wander on its own could be considered slightly worse than normal and should not cause errors, the spike at 5:30 though suggests a possible sync event may take place.

If the pattern reproduces and you test first with everything but the router circuit switched off at the breaker in your house then it may be worth listing with a AM radio for noise bursts around 5:30 and a bit of walking to try and ID rough source.

If its not happening on sunny warm days then probably someone's heating.

A 1dB wander is about double the norm on my line so for it to wander by 2dB is fairly significant although, actual errors don't seem to be high at 10 ES an hour, on average, on the upstream.

I've been meaning to by a radio for a while, for this very purpose, so may see what's available on Amazon.

I'm not entirely convinced the gateway is 100% so have a new Billion 8800AXL R2 arriving today, in the hope that I can either confirm or alleviate that worry.

Following the random reboot yesterday morning, I'm outputting a syslog to my server too, just in case the gateway reboots again.

Paul

In reply to a post by MHC:

Maybe your neighbours have their heating still set to come on ... or maybe they (or you) could have hot water set to come on at 5:30 at that will fire up the boiler, pumps, valves &c. So people have their heating set to come on even in warm weather and use TRVs to manage the temperature in each room and the only radiator that warms is the bathroom meaning the pump will run continually.

Monitor it for a few days - leave DSLStats running and see it it happens daily and if/when it goes off.

Heating (and/ or water) was my first thought although our heating goes off at 10pm and the water comes on only for an hour in the morning, from 4am until 5am. That doesn't preclude a neighbour's of course and my (overhead and underground) line seems to pass a lot of houses. The 'anomoly' ended at just after 6am this morning (chart) but I will continue to monitor.

We have overhead power to our and a number of other houses in the immediate area and my phone line runs quite close to that in a number of places. So there's lots of places it could be picking up noise from but, this is a new development, as the original issue here started a month or so ago.

I may be clutching at straws by I'm quite sure my next door neighbour, who's stated his broadband isn't performing very well, gets home from work around 5pm.... 2 and 2?! He's quite amenable so I'll ask him some questions.

Paul

Just be aware that many things cause noises picked up on an am radio, that doesn�t mean that they are affecting your broadband.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Just be aware that many things cause noises picked up on an am radio, that doesn�t mean that they are affecting your broadband.

Justin Bieber?
Whilst he may not be a detriment to my broadband, he certainly is to my ears!

Paul