Was connecting at 19-20Mbps download, now only 9722Kbps

Hi all

Last Thursday our broadband connection started going haywire - the router would drop the connection every 1-3 minutes over a period of many hours occasionally with up to 12 hour periods of stability. Prior to then we were getting great speeds (Speedtest.net typically 12-16Mbps d/l, 1.6Mbps u/l) and no connection problems.

However, since Thursday it's only connecting at 9.7Mbps and 446Kbps respectively. And when I was on the phone to Orange / EE support on Saturday it again was dropping the connection more frequently than the proverbial wh0re's drawers! Orange are sending an engineer around on Friday because they think there's a fault somewhere, but when we had similar problems a couple of months ago the Openreach engineer said the line was fine, but I guess things can change...

Anyway, it seems to be stable again but as I said, at a much lower speed. In fact Speedtest.net is measuring 1.7Mbps d/l and 350Kbps u/l right now...

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can get Orange / EE to get the speed back up again?

Brightbox router...

adsl status

This page shows information about your ADSL connection if applicable.

status:
configured current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)
data rate information:
stream type actual data rate
Upstream 446 (Kbps.)
Downstream 9722 (Kbps.)
defect/failure indication:
operation data upstream downstream
Noise Margin 30.3 dB 11.5 dB
Line Attenuation 11.7 dB 19.5 dB
indicator name near end indicator far end indicator
Output Power 12.6 dBm 0.0 dBm
Fast Path FEC Correction NA NA
Interleaved Path FEC Correction 4314412 4373
Fast Path CRC Error NA NA
Interleaved Path CRC Error 4283 55
Loss of Signal Defect 6 0
Fast Path HEC Error STR NA NA
Interleaved Path HEC Error 90730 101
Error Seconds 861 90
statistics:
Received Cells 28008903
Transmitted Cells 1721882

Many thanks

Tim

Okay, looks like a bit of a problem. 3 things though;

1. Is the line noisy at all? Does it crackle?

2. Have you tried changing your Microfilter, Plugging your microfilter into the test socket and trying that way?

3. Tried changing your router?

Thanks for getting back to me Chris.

1). No, not that I've noticed

2). Will give that a go and report back

3). No, I don't have another one to swap. We only switched to Orange 2-3 months ago so I assume it's new...

Is there anything in my ADSL stats that indicate a problem to you?

It'll be interesting to see what the engineer says...

Thanks

Tim

If the upstream is still 443 Kbps after a reboot, and lots of spare noise margin 30dB is very large amount of spare, then looks like you have been happy slapped by Orange and put onto a banded profile

Looks more like an ISP/support configuration messing up than a fault with the line

Thanks Andrew, the stats are the same after the reboot...

data rate information:
stream type actual data rate
Upstream 446 (Kbps.)
Downstream 9724 (Kbps.)
defect/failure indication:
operation data upstream downstream
Noise Margin 30.9 dB 10.4 dB
Line Attenuation 12.0 dB 20.0 dB

What should I be saying to Orange to get them to put me back on the faster profile?

Thanks

Tim

Ask them to remove the banded profile they appear to have forced on the connection.

Thanks Andrew, I'll call them tomorrow.

An Openreach engineer, which is what they are sending round, will be of no use at all. He only deals with the cabling but not the BB parameters which Orange can set from their desks.

In reply to a post by timpent:

Noise Margin 30.3 dB 11.5 dB

There's your problem! Both are being held artificially high by Orange. There are quite few reports of this happening. You need to speak to Orange's Fault Management Team to release them.

Thanks xrayspexs. What sort of values do you think they should be set at?

Tim

They should naturally find their own level (not set) at 6/6 or even 6/3 providing your home wiring is good. But all Orange need to do is remove the artificial banding they have put on it.

EDIT: Did you notice what they were when you were getting 19-20 Meg?

Edited by XRaySpeX (Sun 02-Dec-12 21:38:48)

Ok thanks. What do you think might have caused the multiple connection drops we experienced on Thursday, Friday and Saturday?

Dunno, but I had similar, but not as drastic, issues when Orange moved me from LLU to WBC 1.5 years ago. There was about a week of discons after 2 days but I just waited them out in the hope that the training would sort it out and it did.

I'm now getting 20 Meg sync @ 3dB NM, but for 3 months after I was moved I was only getting 11 or 13 Meg, well less than what I had left on LLU.

You can see my progress in my "For the Record" posts from here on: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/freeserve/t/3995293...

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

EDIT: Did you notice what they were when you were getting 19-20 Meg?

Hi XRaySpeX

At one point early in the stabilisation period (13th Oct 2012) I posted these figures in this post:

Upstream 1279 (Kbps.)
Downstream 18851 (Kbps.)
Noise Margin 6.9 dB 5.1 dB
Line Attenuation 11.8 dB 20.0 dB

This compares to what we're on now:

Upstream 446 (Kbps.)
Downstream 9724 (Kbps.)
Noise Margin 30.9 dB 10.4 dB
Line Attenuation 12.0 dB 20.0 dB

I'll be calling them shortly... Actually, are the staff at the Indian call centre (ie. first line of support accessed by calling 150) able to remove the banded profile or do I need to ask to speak to another team?

Thanks

Tim

Edited by deleted (Mon 03-Dec-12 11:26:22)

Second tier most likely

You need to speak to Orange's Fault Management Team to release them. If phone support won't put you on to them you need to write formally to Orange as I did.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 03-Dec-12 12:23:34)

Thanks Andrew and XRaySpeX.

I spoke to them a few moments ago and they will remove the banded profile once the line has been stable for 24 hours (it's currently showing the most recent logon was 18 hours ago when I last rebooted the router) so hopefully that will do the trick.

Tim

I bet a chocolate biscuit that you'll still be on the same speeds in 36 hours.

Sounds like a stalling tactic to get you off the line, a stable line will always have the odd resync as people have small power cuts, or move hardware around.

Make mine a Chocolate Oliver.

They tried similar tactics with me, I think your upload speed is a major giveaway as mine did exactly the same (was stuck between 441kbps and 443kbps) when they were messing with my connection. UKDoc (a forum member) helped me get in touch with 2nd line support.

They try their absolute best to stop you from getting through to 2nd line support, I've even ended up in an argument with a particularly lousy member of their 1st line support staff who said I was lying about the problems with my internet connection and it was going as fast as it could go!

So when I called last night the first line support couldn't put me through to the Fault Management Team Agent because their lines aren't manned after 2100. Would have been handy to know that beforehand when they told me to call back in the evening!

Anyway, I'll try again after 0900 however the router rebooted last night at about 2300 and is now branded an EE brightbox as opposed to an Orange box, so they might use this as an excuse to say it hasn't been stable for 24 hours

Fingers crossed!

Well, I spoke to a very helpful person this morning and she removed the banded profile so we're now in the ten day stabilisation period again. Can't check the speeds until I'm home later but fingers crossed...

I might yet be calling in my chocolate biscuit Andrew

last time i talked to orange they seem to have same access now as sky and plusnet (not called them up yet to reset an line profile so unknown at the moment), they should be able to set the noise level to 7-3 if your line is very clean (as long as you talk to an English person do not think the first level support can do it)

do check the router when you get back if its not any higher or lower then before, restart the modem as you end up getting locked at the same speeds again

the weather has been bad so it could of affected the line as well

problem with been on Providers that lock to the most stable speed once your on the lower one they never reset it unless you ring them up (sky do this as well but they have Direct access norm its an 5-10 min call in most cases and will set the line to the best speed as your on the phone/moved onto mobile phone, unless there is an line fault)

I rebooted when I got home as actual speeds were slow (and still are actually), but this is what we're connecting at now:

Upstream 1124 (Kbps.)
Downstream 18605 (Kbps.)
Noise Margin 6.1 dB 6.1 dB
Line Attenuation 11.6 dB 19.5 dB

So much better in theory.

However the actual speeds we're getting are nothing like that - eg:

Speed Down 6064.15 Kbps ( 5.9 Mbps )
Speed Up 863.36 Kbps ( 0.8 Mbps )

Speed Down 5078.86 Kbps ( 5 Mbps )
Speed Up 845.75 Kbps ( 0.8 Mbps )

Any ideas why that would be or should I just be patient?

Thanks

Tim

Check www.speedtest.bt.com to see what the IP Profile is running at

Nearly there! Just need the IP Profile to recover to 16.4 Meg from the 8.8 Meg it was being held at for ages.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Nearly there! Just need the IP Profile to recover to 16.4 Meg from the 8.8 Meg it was being held at for ages.

Yep, the IP profile on www.speedtester.bt.net says the downstream IP profile is 16.42Mbps, and the upstream 0.83Mbps.

So we're back to where we were for downstream, just need upstream to improve now as we were getting twice that...

Thanks all

Tim

Only way you were getting 2x0.83 Mbps for the upstream is if you were on Annex M. Which as far as I am aware Orange don't offer

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Only way you were getting 2x0.83 Mbps for the upstream is if you were on Annex M. Which as far as I am aware Orange don't offer

Hmm... Odd, check the screenshot here.

Tim

Good! That's what IPP should be now.

But what did the BT speedtester say your throughputs were? Best to copy and paste the text bits.

You would never have got 1.6 Meg Up on Orange. You need Annex M for that and Orange have (EDIT: ) never offered Annex M. Those speedtest.net up speeds must have been mis-measured. Did you ever see the up sync as measured by router at that time?

No. you are getting the expected 1.1 - 1.3 Meg up sync on Fast Path (would be 888K on Interleaved).

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 04-Dec-12 21:53:09)

And the modem was connected at what speed during those tests?

I happen to know that iOS upload speed tests can be wrong if not coded right, if you can show me a screen shot of the router sync at 2.2Mbps which is what you need to get a result of 1.95 Mbps I will believe you. For now I don't believe ookla

Exactly my conclusion and calculation.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Good! That's what IPP should be now.

But what did the BT speedtester say your throughputs were? Best to copy and paste the text bits.

From speedtester.bt.net:

Download speed achieved during the test was - 9.74 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 4 Mbps-21 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 15.18 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.3Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

You would never have got 1.6 Meg Up on Orange. You need Annex M for that and Orange have offered Annex M. Those speedtest.net up speeds must have been mis-measured. Did you ever see the up sync as measured by router at that time?

I posted these figures a few posts up... Granted it's not 1.6Mbps but it's higher than 0.8Mbps...

At one point early in the stabilisation period (13th Oct 2012) I posted these figures in this post:

Upstream 1279 (Kbps.)
Downstream 18851 (Kbps.)
Noise Margin 6.9 dB 5.1 dB
Line Attenuation 11.8 dB 20.0 dB

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

No. you are getting the expected 1.1 - 1.3 Meg up sync on Fast Path (would be 888K on Interleaved).

I'm going to re-run the test as things aren't particularly stable at the moment...

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

I happen to know that iOS upload speed tests can be wrong if not coded right, if you can show me a screen shot of the router sync at 2.2Mbps which is what you need to get a result of 1.95 Mbps I will believe you. For now I don't believe ookla

Ok, I think you're correct re the iOS app being incorrect - when I log onto my account at speedtest.net the highest upload speed is 1.08Mbps on 4th Nov.

The current router stats are:

Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 446 (Kbps.)
Downstream 17211 (Kbps.)

Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 30.4 dB 8.6 dB
Line Attenuation 11.7 dB 19.0 dB

The upstream speed is poor again and the downstream SNR is back up to 30dB...

speedtester.bt.net results:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 10.23 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 4 Mbps-21 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 15.18 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.37Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

PS. Thanks Andrew and XRaySpeX, I really do appreciate your continued input

Edited by deleted (Tue 04-Dec-12 22:12:51)

Ugh! Both your throughputs are far too low for your syncs and IPPs.

In reply to a post by timpent:

Upstream 1279 (Kbps.)

A perfectly feasible Up Sync for Orange WBC (Annex A), but you claimed in your OP that you speed-tested @ 1.6 Meg which equates to a sync of 1.9 Meg which is only possible on Annex M which Orange never offered.

When posting speeds obtained, most informative to give Down & UP, Syncs, IP Profiles, Achieved Speeds from BT and NMs from about the same time.

In reply to a post by timpent:

the downstream SNR is back up to 30dB.

Upstream!

Also post this bit:

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Fast Path
Operation Mode G992.5(ADSL2+) G992.5(ADSL2+)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by timpent:

the downstream SNR is back up to 30dB.

Upstream!

Oops, sorry, my mistake.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Also post this bit:

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Fast Path
Operation Mode G992.5(ADSL2+) G992.5(ADSL2+)

What does this indicate?

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Ugh! Both your throughputs are far too low for your syncs and IPPs.

In reply to a post by timpent:

Upstream 1279 (Kbps.)

A perfectly feasible Up Sync for Orange WBC (Annex A), but you claimed in your OP that you speed-tested @ 1.6 Meg which equates to a sync of 1.9 Meg which is only possible on Annex M which Orange never offered.

When posting speeds obtained, most informative to give Down & UP, Syncs, IP Profiles, Achieved Speeds from BT and NMs from about the same time.

Will check again before I go to work tomorrow. And yes the 1.6 Mbps was from the iOS app so clearly that seems to have been an error.

Thanks

Mainly

In reply to a post by timpent:

Link Type --- Fast Path or Interleaved

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Mainly

In reply to a post by timpent:

Link Type --- Fast Path or Interleaved

Thanks, I'm learning a lot here. Just hope it stays in

Stats at 0838 this morning...

Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 446 (Kbps.)
Downstream 17211 (Kbps.)
Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 30.5 dB 9.0 dB
Line Attenuation 11.7 dB 19.0 dB

speedtester.bt.net

Download speed achieved during the test was - 10.55 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 4 Mbps-21 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 15.18 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.37Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

Not that special really... Any ideas as to what my next step should be?

Thanks

Edited by deleted (Wed 05-Dec-12 08:43:36)

It's only 1 day. Give it a few days before getting back to them.

Fast or Interleaved?

EDIT: Did you last reboot about 18:00 Tues? Best to reboot in daylight. Reboot now.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Wed 05-Dec-12 14:20:17)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

It's only 1 day. Give it a few days before getting back to them.

Fast or Interleaved?

Interleaved this time...

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

EDIT: Did you last reboot about 18:00 Tues? Best to reboot in daylight. Reboot now.

Yes. Done.

After the reboot:

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)
Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 446 (Kbps.)
Downstream 17181 (Kbps.)
Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 30.9 dB 9.0 dB
Line Attenuation 11.6 dB 19.5 dB

We're now seven days after the stabilisation period started again and we're syncing at a decent speed:

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)
Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 444 (Kbps.)
Downstream 15285 (Kbps.)
Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 28.8 dB 12.3 dB
Line Attenuation 11.6 dB 19.5 dB

However the actual throughput as measured on thinkbroadband's speedtester has only once been over 10Mbps (11.6), and most of the time varies between 6 and 8Mbps with occasional brief drops right down <1Mbps.

Any ideas why we aren't seeing the speeds we we were getting before the problems started (14Mbps +-2Mbps approx)?

How should I broach this with EE?

Thanks

Tim

Well the sync speed up is only 444Kb/s - it ought to be faster. You are on interleaved which usually limits the up speed to 800Kb/s.

Have you tried any other speed tests? speedtest.net is usually reliable.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/broadband.html What does the graph look like when using that test? Nice and flat or very spiky?

Interestingly speedtest.net gave a result 2Mbps faster than TB just now:

ST = 10.5Mbps
TB = 8.5Mbps

The ST graph was smooth except for two large spikes. I've just re-run it and it was 10.1Mbps and this time there weren't any big spikes, but there's no way you'd describe it as smooth. Think Alps compared to rolling Dorset hills...

speedtester.bt.com:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 10.3 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 4 Mbps-21 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 13.48 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.33Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

Thanks

Tim

So I tested at regular intervals throughout the day yesterday and TB was giving 7.5-8.5Mbps, and ST 9.5-10.5Mps.

The router stats are:

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)
Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 444 (Kbps.)
Downstream 15165 (Kbps.)
Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 31.2 dB 12.3 dB
Line Attenuation 11.7 dB 19.5 dB

Bearing in mind we were seeing speeds of 14-16Mbps on SpeedTest.net a month ago should I be happy with this (it's stable) or can I ask EE to tweak the downstream SNR a bit more? It seems odd to me that it's syncing at 15Mbps but the throughput is only 10Mbps... Or am I missing something?

Thanks, as always.

Tim

If you are downloading from multiple places, are you able to get speeds any faster?

Maximum throughput should be 88.2% of the downstream connection speed, then allowing perhaps 5 to 10% for the things like protocol overheads and PC effects.

Also all these speed tests, they are using Ethernet?

With a 12dB target margin there is still a lot of scope for improving speeds, and the upstream is still borked.

Nope, speedtester.bt.com gives the same speeds as speedtest.net. It's just the TB tester that seems to record 2Mbps lower.

Most of the tests are over wireless, however when I've done some over ethernet the results are the same.

From what you're saying the throughput is a bit low for our given sync speed, but that the real improvements will come if we can get the target SNR reduced (downstream and upstream).

BTW, when the Openreach engineer visited last Friday he simplified our wiring and installed a modern socket, and ran the usual tests which showed a very low number of faults over a 5 min test period (16 on upstream, 2 on downstream to be precise) so there's nothing wrong with the line...

I'll be getting on the blower to EE shortly.

Thanks

Tim

Edit - Have just spoken to EE and it turns out we're still in the stabilisation period so they're saying nothing can be done for another few days...

Edited by deleted (Wed 12-Dec-12 14:09:27)

In reply to a post by timpent:

she removed the banded profile

She didn't! Nothing's changed!

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by timpent:

she removed the banded profile

She didn't! Nothing's changed!

Back on 4th Dec, following the removal of the banded profile, I wrote:

Upstream 1124 (Kbps.)
Downstream 18605 (Kbps.)
Noise Margin 6.1 dB 6.1 dB
Line Attenuation 11.6 dB 19.5 dB

So much better in theory.

However the actual speeds we're getting are nothing like that - eg:

Speed Down 6064.15 Kbps ( 5.9 Mbps )
Speed Up 863.36 Kbps ( 0.8 Mbps )

Speed Down 5078.86 Kbps ( 5 Mbps )
Speed Up 845.75 Kbps ( 0.8 Mbps )

Any ideas why that would be or should I just be patient?

Doesn't the fact that we were connecting at 18Kbps on 4th Dec, and are now connecting at 15Kbps, and the fact that the sync speed is still changing a bit (given that we're still in the stabilisation period), indicate that the banded profile was removed? After all, it was syncing at 9.7Kbps after the initial problems...

I agree the upstream is on a profile, but the downstream too? Do you think it should be syncing at a higher speed whilst in the stabilisation period? It has been at approx 15Mpbs for a few days now...

Thanks

Tim

Ah, OK, I overlooked that reading where

In reply to a post by timpent:

Noise Margin 6.1 dB 6.1 dB

shows the banding gone, but since then they show

In reply to a post by timpent:

Noise Margin 30.5 dB 9.0 dB

or higher, which shows banding back.

Excuse my ignorance XRaySpeX, but couldn't that be just showing the SNRs that the "equipment" is currently testing during the stabilisation period? Or is that not how it works?

Thanks

Tim

i would just give it an another week, then get them to reset the profile if the upstream does not reset, still high 18mb speeds would be nice to have

i only know of orange that do this low speed profile "stabilisation" thing (maybe they do it so they can try to get your speed as slow as they can so you cant use as much data)

but the running theme on here with orange is just getting to talk to some one who is not an monkey in front of an computer (reading an script off the screen) at orange would seem annoying something that should take 5 mins takes 3 days to do

sky and plusnet there tech support have direct access to do all the stuff right away normally

We've had a very stable connection for five days now so clearly the stabilisation has finished:

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)
Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 444 (Kbps.)
Downstream 15165 (Kbps.)
Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 30.2 dB 11.5 dB
Line Attenuation 11.7 dB 19.5 dB

speedtester.bt.com results:

Download speed achieved during the test was - 10.04 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 4 Mbps-21 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 13.38 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.34Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

I'll get in touch with them again today and see what happens...

Finally got onto a tier two support person and she reset the SNRs...

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)
Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 1137 (Kbps.)
Downstream 19267 (Kbps.)
Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 7.3 dB 6.1 dB
Line Attenuation 11.6 dB 19.0 dB

speedtester.bt.com:

Download speed achieved during the test was - 15.83 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 4 Mbps-21 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 17 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.98Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

Fingers crossed it'll remain stable at this speed...

Tim

That's more like it again. Still about 1 Meg shy. Surprised you are getting 1.1 Meg Up on Interleaved; usually 888K.

But how long will it last? Just hope they don't interfere with it again like they did before.

I can live with it being 1Meg shy

As to why they messed with it before I don't know. We had the two days of terrible connection dropping issues after which it went onto a banded profile, but they appeared to have removed that at some point, then reinstated it.

Fingers crossed it'll remain like this now...

Thanks

Tim

I thought you could!

For two days we had near perfect connectivity however on Thursday afternoon the connection started dropping again, at a frequency varying from once per 3-5 mins to once per 20 hours. Having just checked the log it appears to have dropped about three times in the last three hours.

I'm wondering whether it might be something to do with all the rain we've had (although it's been dry today)...?

Any other ideas?

NB. We're still getting good speeds so no problem on that front...

Thanks

Up and down all day today (and it's been pretty unreliable for the last few days too) - dropping every 10-30 minutes

Current stats:

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)
Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 1276 (Kbps.)
Downstream 17211 (Kbps.)
Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 7.6 dB 9.1 dB
Line Attenuation 11.7 dB 19.5 dB

Indicator Name Near End Indicator Far End Indicator
Output Power 12.6 dBm 0.0 dBm
Fast Path FEC Correction NA NA
Interleaved Path FEC Correction 1035 0
Fast Path CRC Error NA NA
Interleaved Path CRC Error 7 99
Loss of Signal Defect 84 0
Fast Path HEC Error STR NA NA
Interleaved Path HEC Error 86 445
Error Seconds 3855 2388

Is our line simply not up to the job, or could it be anything else? Any ideas?

Thanks...

Tim

PS. Merry Christmas all!

Edited by deleted (Tue 25-Dec-12 19:51:42)

It just went down again - here's some edited stats from the log:

Tue Dec 25 19:52:35 2012 PPP connection down (VC1)
Tue Dec 25 19:25:53 2012 PPP connection down (VC1)
Tue Dec 25 19:04:50 2012 PPP connection down (VC1)
Tue Dec 25 18:37:11 2012 PPP connection down (VC1)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

But how long will it last? Just hope they don't interfere with it again like they did before.

For the last week our connection has been dropping every few minutes (occasionally hours) and we're unsurprisingly syncing at lower speeds. These are the current stats:

Time Connected: 00:07:21

Status
Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)

Data Rate Information
Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 888 (Kbps.)
Downstream 12384 (Kbps.)

Defect/Failure Indication
Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 12.4 dB 17.4 dB
Line Attenuation 11.8 dB 20.0 dB

Indicator Name Near End Indicator Far End Indicator
Output Power 12.6 dBm 0.0 dBm
Fast Path FEC Correction NA NA
Interleaved Path FEC Correction 13509 1997
Fast Path CRC Error NA NA
Interleaved Path CRC Error 372 406
Loss of Signal Defect 94 0
Fast Path HEC Error STR NA NA
Interleaved Path HEC Error 21444 1329
Error Seconds 3975 1157
Statistics
Received Cells 1408424
Transmitted Cells 131453

An OpenReach engineer is now booked for 5th Jan (he'll be the third one), but I wouldn't mind betting that he won't find anything wrong with the line (as per the last two visits). The disconnections occur when the router is plugged into the test socket as well, so unless it's the router (how likely is this?), I guess it must be an intermittent problem with the line. Could wind and/or rain affect it?

The annoying thing is that we're less than half a mile from the exchange and when the connection is working fine we get very good sync speeds and throughput, but at the moment our broadband is unusable for streaming films and music and online Xbox gaming, so my teenage kids are naturally giving me a lot of grief!

Any advice on keeping my cool with EE will be gratefully received...

Thanks

Tim

In reply to a post by timpent:

An OpenReach engineer is now booked for 5th Jan (he'll be the third one), but I wouldn't mind betting that he won't find anything wrong with the line

He won't! He has no control of the NM.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by timpent:

An OpenReach engineer is now booked for 5th Jan (he'll be the third one), but I wouldn't mind betting that he won't find anything wrong with the line

He won't! He has no control of the NM.

I totally realise that, but hopefully he might get to the bottom of the disconnection issues...

Have any of the previous engineers had a look in the cabinet in the street? The connector in mine had gone mouldy so it was replaced and really helped with my connection speed.

Hi BW

Nope, they've only tested the line from inside the house (and found it ok - in fact the last one on 5th Dec IIRC only measured 16 errors in 5 mins which he said was much less than normal). But this time I'll make sure he does some external checks as well.

Tim

In reply to a post by timpent:

Hi BW

Nope, they've only tested the line from inside the house (and found it ok - in fact the last one on 5th Dec IIRC only measured 16 errors in 5 mins which he said was much less than normal). But this time I'll make sure he does some external checks as well.

Tim

My line test was fine the or the first visit as well, and even on the second but he then went up to the cabinet and found a dodgy connector.

Fingers crossed the latest visit from an Openreach engineer has done the trick - see my other thread... http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/freeserve/t/4196164...

It's definitely looking promising...

Time Connected: 2 days 18:44:34
Downstream Rate: 20695kbps
Upstream Rate: 1279kbps

Thanks for everyone's help over the last few months!

Tim