My phone line is now back up and running. Broadband working again too. Cheers for all the info everyone.

Just got to hope my speed increases now. Getting 0.15-0.20Mbps down.

Might ring BT in a bit ask for compensation and see if they can reset the speed (IP profile?)

Can you post all of your current stats - attenuation, sync, SNR for both Down and Up.

ADSL Line Status
Connection information
Line state: Connected
Connection time: 0 day, 02:25:55
Downstream: 283 Kbps
Upstream: 444 Kbps

ADSL settings
VPI/VCI: 0/38
Type: PPPoA
Modulation: G.992.5 Annex A
Latency type: Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up): 7.3 dB / 12.4 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up): 60.5 dB / 33.6 dB
Output power (Down/Up): 18.0 dBm / 11.8 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up): 3115 / 285
CRC Events (Down/Up): 0 / 0


Recorded line length to Exchange 4614m
CAB at least 800m away

Ta

Don't worry about a reset, it will soon rectify itself.

Perhaps, tomorrow morning at around 8:00 AM, power off the modem, but do not disconnect the line. After a couple of minutes, disconnect the line. Power the modem, wait another few minutes for it to fully boot and stabilise, then reconnect the line and see what sync you get.


What modem/hub do you currently have? For a line with 60dB attenuation you may be able to get one which works well on long lines.

It's the home hub 3 that came when I first took up the service.

They may well be slightly dated, however the BT Business Hub can perform very well on long lines. It can drag a little extra speed out and will hold the line as the SNR drops.

If you are willing to take a chance - look to see if you can buy a 2wire 2700HGV - typically around £10 (NOT the 2701 ...) It should work fine on a BT residential service - or may (but I don't think it does) need unlocking which is easy and well documented. The functionality as a router is much the same as the HH3 and I actually preferred it!

In reply to a post by MHC:

Don't worry about a reset, it will soon rectify itself.

Perhaps, tomorrow morning at around 8:00 AM, power off the modem, but do not disconnect the line. After a couple of minutes, disconnect the line. Power the modem, wait another few minutes for it to fully boot and stabilise, then reconnect the line and see what sync you get.

This reset procedure is interesting and not one that has been recommended to me before - I'm just told to switch off for a few seconds and switch on again. Is this time-of-day and more complex disconnect procedure better?

Also I don't understand the 'settling in' period (after a reset or other disconnection).

Why am I told, for connection speed reasons, to keep the router on at all times? I think it's because of the operation of dynamic line management (DLM) but ........

My (normally) 1.9mbps line can have an SNR reset done by my ISP and instantly its speed can jump up to 3.7mbps, and hold that speed for several days, until the exchange's software (DLM?) pulls it back to around 2mbps.

This past week, the engineer who restored my phone connection left behind yet another BB fault (hence my current speed of only 0.9mbps and, worse, an upload speed of only 0.08) That fault initially, and for more than 4 hours, showed up as a cityscape line graph of my sync speed/SNR - ie the router couldn't maintain a connection for more than a few seconds and constantly reconnected/disconnected.

When the ISP did another reset of my connection a couple of days later the result was the same, though this time the line settled down from being completely unusable in 'only' an hour or so.

It seems as though Openreach engineers can't identify the problem, or where it is, or - if they can - they can't/won't do anything about it. B31, and many others, seems to have the same kind of problem.

Is fault analysis and rectification really this difficult?

By powering off the modem, it realises the loss of power and sends a "last gasp" message to the DSLAM telling it that there is a power failure. The DSLAM should note this and not react in the same way as a line disconnection due to noise or similar and hence it will not cause a downgrade in speed. By restarting the modem before connection,also means that there is nothing else happening at connection apart from trying to establish sync.

As for time of day - a couple of hours after sunrise has always shown to give the best sync speed.


And yes, try to keep teh modem on permanently - and if you need to disconnect do it the way suggested to avoid DLM.

Is fault analysis and rectification really this difficult?

If looking for an incredibly minor fault, then yes.

Couldn't you just login onto the modem/router and click on the disconnect button wait a few seconds and then un plug it?
By clicking on the disconnect button your telling the other end that you are going and the other end shouldn't react when you unplug it.

Paul