Migrated to Pulse8

So using the reason that Sky increased the line rental and talk package I left. Pulse8 arranged a new line and simultaneous provide for fibre.

Engineer turned up when expected, did what he needed to do, checked the line 69Mbps down was the maximum attainable and ensured the BT OR modem sync'd.

First 16 hours great, speed at just over 65Mbps (2mb better than Sky) and over 18Mbps up. Friday, 3am for some reason connection was changed to 40/10, emailed Pulse8 who got on the case. 2 days later download was back to 65Mbps but upload was stuck at 6Mbps. Another email and 24 hours later upload speed is back to 18Mbps.

Ping is between 12-14 milliseconds.

Speed test graphs at any time of the day are better than Sky but will keep monitoring on here and SamKnows.

So all in all a good result and great customer service from Pulse8, thumbs up from me!

Now wondering if I would get a better sync with a Billion 8800NL instead of the BT OR ECI modem...

Edited by Skilty (Wed 25-Nov-15 11:39:28)

Your BQM looks like a bit of congestion just starting to show at 9:00pm

That might be down to two kids streaming Netflix around that time

Well it started at 21:00 and finished at 22:30, so ....

Why have you changed it from live to a three-day old snapshot? Live is far more interesting and useful - even to yourself. I find clicking on mine in my sig if I want a check is far simpler and quicker than going to the Main Site >> Profile >> BQM . The snapshots are on file anyway.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Well it started at 21:00 and finished at 22:30, so ....

Why have you changed it from live to a three-day old snapshot? Live is far more interesting and useful - even to yourself. I find clicking on mine in my sig if I want a check is far simpler and quicker than going to the Main Site >> Profile >> BQM . The snapshots are on file anyway.

Thought I had setup a live guessing I pressed snapshot by mistake, should be fixed now.

If you see a something odd from 2030 until 2230 I was download Wolfenstein with two Netflix clients running as well

Yep, that's back to the original, as in your OP.

There's no need ever to reset it. It is live, end of . Until you change your IP address.

Yeah the IP switched a couple of times after my migration, on status IP now.

They seem to be a decent provider, certainly been helpful the few times i've needed to talk to them.

Although tbh I don't really use my pulse8 DSL it just sits there idling most of the time, it's only used when my plusnet FTTC goes wonky or sometimes If I want to play with a different router but don't want to take my main connection down.

As good as Pulse8 are I'm somewhat tempted to replace it with the 50GB EE deal, that said I'm rather put off signing a 24month contract with EE.

Edited by dragon2611 (Sun 29-Nov-15 13:29:34)

In reply to a post by dragon2611:

As good as Pulse8 are I'm somewhat tempted to replace it with the 50GB EE deal, that said I'm rather put off signing a 24month contract with EE.

Yeah this is my issue, I won't sign anything longer than 12 months any longer. Don't see how they can justify a 2 year lock in.

I may switch back to Sky depending on the Sky Q Silver box and what it needs...

Found Pulse8 very good with regard to customer services. At long last my line is sorted thanks to them. Bit of peak time congestion recently that they chased and all 100% now.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14491...

Edited by professor973 (Thu 03-Dec-15 10:26:19)

How come that tests lists your ISP as Pulse8 when mine is Talk Talk? Would assume as they use TT IPs it would go down as TT

Quite simple - When you conduct a TBB speedtest, simply select Pulse8 from the dropdown menu of suppliers.

Oh haha

Didnt know Pulse8 were on there, i just use autodetect

Yes - recognition at last Lol

Your BQM looks like c*** at the moment!

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Your BQM looks like c*** at the moment!

Yeah, I can't even get 1Mbs down even though the modem is synced at 68Mbs!!!

Email has been sent to support!

Post deleted by Skilty

Very weird as the modem is synced at 68Mbps, don't know much about BQM so does the graph suggest congestion?!

Oh dear, it looks to b more serious than congestion but then I suppose its possible, hope you get it sorted

Reckon it's TBB tester - My BQM exactly the same, BUT still getting a 68 meg speedtest and playing online poker at the same time.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/ab5157404df...


http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4885344922

Edited by professor973 (Thu 03-Dec-15 22:44:20)

My BQM on AAISP is fine. The regular spikes are not uncommon many ISPs.

Yes, but got a lot of red on BQM exactly like Skilty, but speed still good.

TBB speedtest still showing 13ms latency, but BQM all over the place.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

Edited by professor973 (Thu 03-Dec-15 22:53:48)

???

I see yours is identical to Skilty's, but you said "Reckon it's TBB tester ...."

Mine has nothing like that. No packet loss at all. Link in my sig.

Could it be the BQM at fault? As I said, full speed and low latency here despite the BQM showing severe packet loss.

The Plusnet page looks fine.

It could be the peering between TalkTalk and tbb, but then I would expect this to happen every day. Unless there is a short-term problem on some part of TalkTalk's backhaul, which would be no surprise on any ISP.

Pulse8 here but on ADSL and fine BMQ

to see here on my BQM's for Virgin and Zen connections...

Low level packet loss here, but that's due to my line rather than the ISP.

Certainly nothing like that on this Pulse8 / TTB line.

Packetloss stops bang on midnight for OP. Suggestd traffic management but TT dont have it.

There was definitely an issue and it wasn't BQM. Even the Pulse8 speed test using Ookla failed to complete, speedtest failed to complete. Websites were slow and ping times to the bbc were up to 80ms and a trace route pointed to slow down within the Talk Talk network:

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.71] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.244.71: bytes=32 time=77ms TTL=52
Reply from 212.58.244.71: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=52
Reply from 212.58.244.71: bytes=32 time=77ms TTL=52
Reply from 212.58.244.71: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 212.58.244.71:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 74ms, Maximum = 80ms, Average = 77ms

Trace route to www.bbc.co.uk:

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.246.91]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ASUS-RT-AC87U [192.168.2.1]
2 5 ms 4 ms 5 ms host-62-24-255-34.as13285.net [62.24.255.34]
3 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms host-78-151-230-139.as13285.net [78.151.230.139]
4 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms host-78-151-230-152.as13285.net [78.151.230.152]
5 19 ms 15 ms 12 ms host-78-144-11-51.as13285.net [78.144.11.51]
6 74 ms 75 ms 77 ms host-78-144-10-86.as13285.net [78.144.10.86]
7 72 ms 76 ms 72 ms host-78-144-3-47.as13285.net [78.144.3.47]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 78 ms 78 ms 76 ms ae0.er01.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.93]
10 73 ms 77 ms 76 ms 132.185.255.165
11 72 ms 71 ms 69 ms bbc-vip012.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.246.91]

Trace complete.

My pings to bbc were better than ever last night weirdly and speeds spot on. Im on adsl so maybe just a fibre thing

Edited by bobble_bob (Fri 04-Dec-15 08:28:03)

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Fibre or adsl? My pings to bbc were better than ever last night weirdly and speeds spot on. Im on adsl so maybe just a fibre thing

This was on fibre frim6pm until around midnight. Looking around online other people experienced similar issues.

Sounds like a (possibly regionalised) fault in the network, rather than a long term problem.

My connection is direct with talktalk and I was having problems accessing some sites last night. I don't have a BQM as I don't have a static IP, but my f8lure graph looks similar.

Spoke to Sam this morning and the line is fine so this does suggest it was something to do with the TalkTalk network. Still all back to normal and running as normal...

@Skilty Wonder how your BQM is this evening. Another of those strange evenings here. BQM latency all over the place, but full speed, no recyncs and steady latency showing in all stats. http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/9cd97034afe...

The one in his signature looks OK...

Matt

Been away for a few days for work but I would have got a call if something were wrong. Looking at my BQM no issues since that odd evening last week. SamKnows report looks fine as well. For some odd reason it always reports 50% DNS loss no matter which servers I use. Currently using 195.12.4.247 and 8.8.4.4 but tried 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 with same result.

Wondering if I should use the TTB ones.

BQM is in my sig...

Didn't think to look for a sig BQM. just one of those crazy evenings where the TBB BQM disagrees with everything else.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/b3e8294be54...

Your BQM thats linked looks crazy, I've never seen anything like it, its as if DLM is activating Interleaving and then removing it again and then reducing the interleaving depth... I'm assuming you have a line issue of some sort..

The bit between 4-10pm is a traditional pattern of congestion on TTB's network when they have a link/route failure and are re-routing. There was a confirmed issue that we've found between those times and resolved at 9:38pm~

We saw it affect a handful of customers to a similar pattern but your line appears to have another issue as the yellow is quite high (maybe downloads/uploads in the background).

http://scrn.at/6BsmU.png as a comparison from a non-TBB BQM network.

Matt

Edited by uno (Fri 11-Dec-15 00:50:46)

No problem here, see Matt's explanation above.

Thanks Matt. Full 73 meg and low latency on all tests and stats here throughout, giving the impression it's TBB BQM having a brainstorm. Did fire off a mail to P8 after midnight last night suggesting a routing problem, something you seem to agree with. Not the first time and have not been sure if it was TBB congestion or exchange, which left me considering Sky to avoid it at one time. Don't worry about the yellow - gaming and online poker and a permanent skype link running. It is skype that raises the yellow latency, though it is handy when two of you are giving someone a thrashing on the same online poker table Lol.

Strangely I was having issues with Sky Fibre Pro which is why I moved to Pulse8. It had been going on every night for weeks, no congestion at the exchange according to Sky, new modem, hard wired with one device and then they put the prices up so I left.

The domestic Pulse8 fibre offering uses TTB rather than TTR so I believe there is some priority over residential traffic when there is congestion but not quite sure how it is done.

If you were playing poker and using skype maybe the router was dropping pings due to low priority so gives the false impression of packetloss?

Possibly, but Uno had customers suffering at exactly the same time, last time, my experience mirrored that of Skilty, so seems a congestion/routing issue that effects folks randomly. Other than the TBB BQM, everything whizzes along as normal at these times.

I owe you a thanks anyway. Never heard of Pulse8 before you posted about them but really happy with the service. Few minor issues (one that wasnt a ttb issue) but other than that 100% better than Coms were

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

I owe you a thanks anyway. Never heard of Pulse8 before you posted about them but really happy with the service. Few minor issues (one that wasnt a ttb issue) but other than that 100% better than Coms were

They certainly try very hard to please. Always a fast friendly response, though getting to the bottom of problems and shifting Openreach would take dynamite. Four months on, I am still waiting a pavement dig for a supposed earth fault.

Very unhappy VM customer (paying for 100mbit and getting <5mbit in Northampton) and happened to come across pulse8 by pure chance so decided to give them a go.

Apart from having to go through a manual activation (I have no active telephone line etc) initial impressions are very good for customer service, they answered all my questions and everyone was really nice and friendly (something sorely lacking from other ISP's)

The added bonus is (if I am right) that my exchange is TalkTalk LLU so I will be on TTB network and not BTW.

The only downside is it's costing me £15 more a month over VM however it's not that much more (cheaper than BT) than most over suppliers and the rolling contract is very attractive to me.

The other reason for choosing them is I did try out Vodafone's new broadband and was very disappointed to see a sync rate of 78/20 but speeds of circa 5mbit max during the working day (congestion??) so this really has put me off signing any 12/18 month agreement as potentially I could be worse off speed wise than I am with my current provider VM.

Out of curiosity and I know it's off topic but do Vodafone use C&W and their own backhaul for internet access or is it BTW throughout?

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Dec-15 17:08:52)

In reply to a post by durkasmurk:

Out of curiosity and I know it's off topic but do Vodafone use C&W and their own backhaul for internet access or is it BTW throughout?

No such thing as C&W network anymore...Vodafone bought them out yonks ago. So yes, Vodafone use their own backhaul for ADSL2+ & FTTC connections.

It seems it was the old Billion 7800N that was creating high latency (yellow) when running Skype. Switched to my Zyxel VMG8924-B10A combo and much reduced.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/176c22bdc39...
That said, both routers agree on a mental impossible high speed. nearly 90mb at cab and me connecting at OVER 80mb with 75mb speedtest at 425m. Something really mad about my BB. had a massive burst of disconnections this afternoon on the Zyxel.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4908661139

.... but for exchanges where they have no presence/kit, they will use BTW for their "off-net" products.

Matt

I am hoping pulse8 are much better and would anyone know if the percentage against my cabinet P44 means it's 96% utilised?

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm?xid=3...

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Dec-15 17:58:33)

i found my cab take up by asking an engineer I saw working on it. Thay can see the card and how fill it is.

I will do the same and sorry for all the questions does a maxed out exchange = congestion?

In reply to a post by durkasmurk:

I am hoping pulse8 are much better and would anyone know if the percentage against my cabinet P44 means it's 96% utilised?

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm?xid=3...

No not cab utilization ,but percent of lines in that area served by that cab

In reply to a post by tommy45:

In reply to a post by durkasmurk:

I am hoping pulse8 are much better and would anyone know if the percentage against my cabinet P44 means it's 96% utilised?

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm?xid=3...

No not cab utilization ,but percent of lines in that area served by that cab

Much appreciated I am learning already (complete noob when it comes to this stuff)

New line is going in on the 4th of Jan so just under 3 weeks to wait.

Just got my first phone bill, £45ish for line rental, fibre, caller ID and static IP and... 58p for calls compared to the £8 I would have paid for unlimited calls with Sky.

No complaints from me!

So still impressed then skillty?

In reply to a post by durkasmurk:

So still impressed then skillty?

Yep!!!

I was toying with the idea of having a static ip rather than using ddns.

In reply to a post by durkasmurk:

I was toying with the idea of having a static ip rather than using ddns.

I got one for use with BQM etc

In reply to a post by Skilty:

In reply to a post by durkasmurk:

I was toying with the idea of having a static ip rather than using ddns.

I got one for use with BQM etc

Likewise.

You don't need a static IP for BQM, you can just use your dynamic which is quite feasible if your connection is stable and doesn't drop. Ideally I'd just like to enter a DDNS into the BQM but that's been requested long in the past and hasn't had any progress.

And when it does drop, do you disable and delete it, to stop the next poor soul with that IP address getting mysterious pings?

Ive never really found a reason to have a BQM running 24/7. Its good to run for maybe 24hrs max to see any problems on the line, but if there isnt any then ive never found the need to have one active

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Ive never really found a reason to have a BQM running 24/7. Its good to run for maybe 24hrs max to see any problems on the line, but if there isnt any then ive never found the need to have one active

It's a useful diagnosis tool to see when an issue starts. Was invaluable when my fibre went from 80/20 to 40/10 and a routing issue on the TalkTalk network

I am glad of mine, as I am still getting issues. But, I have been waiting OVER four months for OR to dig the pavement outside my home and fit a walkway chamber. 15 metres to last pole needs replacing to cure an earth fault. A fault incorrectly categorised as a PAT fault, meaning OR can take as long as they like to fix. FTTC was promised to fix my line and has not. No job updates for weeks, so am now waiting to downgrade back to ADSL2+.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/5789fdb790d...

Well, yes, because setting up a new BQM takes about a minute and my PPP sessions last for a long time.

Setting up a new one isn't what I asked about. It was deleting the old one . A lot of people forget to do that, and the FB6000 continues pinging the IP address even when someone else gets it.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Setting up a new one isn't what I asked about. It was deleting the old one .

You asked if I deleted my old BQM to which I replied "Well,yes".

[chuckle]
But it was followed by a "because". Some people think setting up a new one deletes the previous one, and your post could have meant you thought that.

Might be worth TBB supporting dynamic hostnames then. The Firebricks now support hostnames instead of just IPs, so that would really solve the issue of those with non-static IP/providers.

Matt

Pulse8 has gone live today and will get my router configured tonight when I am home so hopefully it's better than VM in peak times.

How is pulse8 for all you existing customers so far?

Great, no complaints. Not much more i can say really

No complaints from me. Sorted my line that was beyond Zen - Just kept sending engineers till we got one with enough sense to sort it. I suppose nothing is perfect, but the most willing customer services I have come across so far. No contract tie-in for FTTC a big draw, along with the lowest call costs. All in all not pretty good.

Having issues connecting the BT guy said everything should be 'live' and working by 5pm, he checked the cabinet, telephone line etc and said all is ok.

I get a dial tone but no matter what I cannot get my router to connect.

Can anyone share their connection settings as I think I am going around in circles on this one.

It's a good job I still have my VM connection to fall back on.

For reference I am using a TP-Link VR900 VDSL2 WIRELESS AC Router
VLAN ID is 101
PPPoE
Username and Password authentication.

From the status page on the router.

Internet Status:

Please check if your phone cable is properly connected.
Connection Type: PPPoE
IP Address: 0.0.0.0
DNS Server: 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0
Gateway: 0.0.0.0

Edited by deleted (Mon 04-Jan-16 19:13:54)

Sent you a PM regarding Pulse8 connection details you can try...

My BQM is in my sig but absolutely no complaints, it just works as it should and when I did have to contact support Adam and Sam couldn't have been more helpful.

Cheers man just replied to your PM.

I am beginning to think even though I have a dial tone it's not gone live yet as it's not even attempting to connect whatsoever.

I had that problem. No exchange tinkering needed as was already on TTB with my previous ISP, but Pulse8 said the migration had happened but i couldnt connect.

Called CS and Sam changed my password and that sorted it.

Will give hem a call tomorrow just trying to check and make sure I can access my router and/or pc from work tomorrow so I can test the connection.

If you have an old BT OR modem you could plug that in to check that the connection has been enabled as it doesn't require a username and password to sync...

Have you tried using PPPoA? Thats what im using

Hmm my router only lets me select PPPoE and not PPPoA

Ah is your connection FTTC or ADSL2?

Edited by deleted (Mon 04-Jan-16 20:22:35)

In reply to a post by Skilty:

If you have an old BT OR modem you could plug that in to check that the connection has been enabled as it doesn't require a username and password to sync...

Combo modem/routers should do the same. It just isn't as obvious. Most have a DSL/Broadband (sync) light and also an Internet one (PPP session).

Sure you probably have setup instructions for your router, but a link just in case.
http://wiki.kitz.co.uk/index.php/TPLink_Archer_VR900...
So long as the DSL lights are on, then it should be a fairly straightforward job. Wonder if there was a mistake in your P8 user connection details. Username should be your phonenumber @pulse8broadband.co.uk with your phone number again used for connection password. Sure you probably have this, but just double checking. Not sure about the up by 5.00pm statement, as mine was up and running upon the engineer connecting it.

Edited by professor973 (Mon 04-Jan-16 21:23:02)

This is the bit which is bugging me (I have tried 3 different rj11 cables or whatever they are called)

Please check if your phone cable is properly connected.

Will check the link as well which you provided and have also changed my login details for the username and password and still no dice.

Looks like there is no DSL light on just wireless and power only.

Edited by deleted (Mon 04-Jan-16 22:15:15)

If no DSL light, looks like Openreach may not have got you properly connected. As a matter of interest, is this a new line, or was the broadband switched from another supplier, as some switching combinations can be problematic.

It's a brand new line so to speak (new number etc) as I was with VM before and my old BT line was dead for 2 years or more so they re-activated it, added a brand new faceplate, checked the line for dial tone, checked the cabinet etc and said it all looks ok.

Edited by deleted (Mon 04-Jan-16 22:45:29)

When mine was installed, the engineer tested the installation at the master socket. He was able to tell me there and then that I was hooking up at 74Mbps. Drop Pulse8 an email. They might even get back at this hour. They do sometimes.

The BT OR engineer should connect his tester up to the master socket and be able to tell you your max line speed. I remember mine doing the same thing and the line syncs pretty much where he said it would, give or take a bit.

Dropped pulse8 an email this morning as wanted to give it a bit more time to see if it connects so will wait for a response.

Many thanks for the help as well I definitely appreciate it.

They usually get back very quick, but just in case, you can phone them on 0800 042 8888
select option 1 for broadband. That should take you to Sam or Adam at their control panel, where they should see the problem and start things rolling. I also found them very helpful at helping with router settings with one obstinate beast I had.

Edited by professor973 (Tue 05-Jan-16 10:32:33)

Had a very long call with pulse8 and they also connected to my pc from teamviewer and they are just as stumped as me.

No dsl connection yet everything looks 'live'

We went through every setting possible and they are seeing zero connection attempts on their side from my router.

They are sending out a BT OR modem free of charge as a test and I will more than likely get a Netgear D7000 on the way home to rule out a hardware issue with this router.

Cannot fault their support too be honest and they said if the D7000 and/or BT OR Modem does not work then they will raise a early line fault to get BT back out to check everything within 48 hours.

Edited by deleted (Tue 05-Jan-16 11:24:18)

Interesting thread.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8096...

Getting a Netgear D7000 tonight after work definitely now.

Looking like it may be a router problem. I had the same nightmare with combination VDSL modem routers. To be honest, not found one any real good yet, certainly nothing that compares to the OR modem feeding a router. Folks may debate if Pulse8 are the most technically able compared to some, but as you are seeing, they try their very best and will get it sorted in the end and unlike some, never afraid to call an engineer out.

Edited by professor973 (Tue 05-Jan-16 15:44:49)

My early impressions of pulse8 despite the connection problems (which are no fault of theirs) is very positive and dealing with knowledgeable chaps (not first line tech's who try and fob you off) is very refreshing.

Hopefully later on today I can pop into Maplins grab the D7000 plug it in and it just works and worst case scenario pulse8 are supplying me with a BT OR modem for free so I can use that.

And I have pretty much came to the same conclusion it's a hardware fault on the router as it's not even getting to the stage of connecting and/or authenticating which I believe it should be doing at the very least.

Bah brought a D7000 and that does not see a DSL connection either so sent pulse8 an email asking for a early line fault to be raised and for a BT engineer to attend site again to fix the problem.

Bit of bad luck and a strange install, as Pulse8 always give an assisted FTTC install with an OR modem, or always have up until now.

They where surprised the BT guy did not leave an OR modem but I should get one tomorrow and will take it from there.

It will be nice to get it working if possible before the weekend and before my VM connection gets cancelled.

Seeing as you weren't at home, I suppose you don't know if the engineer was Openreach, or a subcontractor such as Kelly's?

Other half said he came in a BT Openreach van so not Kelly's I think.

Edited by deleted (Tue 05-Jan-16 19:13:53)

That does not guarantee competence by a long chalk. Had eight sent in under three weeks for a noise fault. Everyone came without a clue what had gone before and each came up with a different diagnosis. Until one day, one had the sense to check a badly bodged joint about four foot up a pole outside. Loads of masking tape and silicon. He spent all afternoon in the rain sorting it, but said he would get stick for spending so long on the job. I met some with a terrible attitude, that stated that nobody cared and certainly did not want to run around after the likes of Talktalk. Still waiting five months on for a pavement dig and fitting of walkway chamber to fix a supposed earth fault, though most engineers gear disputed any earth fault. Personally, from my experience of them, I am one that hopes they get split from BT. I don't think it could be any worse.

Edited by professor973 (Tue 05-Jan-16 19:24:04)

Got a bit of good news well kind of took my D7000 to my mates house who has BT Infinity and hey presto worked pretty much right away after putting in his username and password so at least I know it's not an issue with this router.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the cabling work the BT guy did was not tested properly.

There is a (now not used) BT master socket which has a rj11 cable hard wired into it from a previous install by BT for when I had infinity and the cable runs across the top of the skirting board and did run into the router.

Now the BT guy plumbed the existing rj11 cable (from the BT master socket) into another telephone socket (was used by VM and repurposed with a new VDSL faceplate) as this according to the BT guy was easier and a lot neater and the VDSL router cable now plugs into this new socket which in turn has a cable going back into the old BT master socket.

My suspicion is because it's not seeing any DSL connection whatsoever that cable which he used from the old master socket to the new face plate is not wired or faulty.

Now this begs the question how could all tests work ok when there is no DSL signal?

My knowledge of this is limited so please feel free to berate/correct me

Edited by deleted (Tue 05-Jan-16 22:27:13)

I read that post as saying there is a BT master which will be the live one and the engineer has just used the VM socket as it was the first NTE5 he saw.

Try putting an ordinary dangly filter into the other master socket and plug your router into that.

The old master socket now has a blanking plate on it so no connections whatsoever to plug into on the front and the only socket I can use without removing blanking/faceplates is the repurposed VM one which does not work.

Edited by deleted (Tue 05-Jan-16 22:30:47)

Take the blanking plate off and you should see the test socket. Just try a phone in it if you like, to see if it is live. If it is, do as I said.

BT OR modem arrived got it plugged in shows a LAN1 connection but the DSL light is off so Pulse8 are raising a early line fault with BT as I type this.

Now it's time to wait grab a cup of coffee and see when an engineer can attend my house to get it fixed.

Not a good start but cannot fault Pulse8 for support fantastic service so far.

Edited by deleted (Wed 06-Jan-16 10:43:18)

Does your phone work from the phone socket alongside the master DSL socket?

I have no home phone to test that but if I dial my home number from my mobile it rings out (no engaged tone or automated messages to say the line is dead etc)

Gave VM a call my internet access with them ceases on the 09/01 so cutting it very fine to get this resolved with Pulse8

We know the line isn't dead, the tests say that.

What I keep trying to get across is that the socket you are using may be. That the old BT Master with the blanking plate may be the live one.

You can get a corded phone from Argos, Maplin, many DIY stores for under £7. Useful for line quality diagnostics and this sort of exercise.

That's what I am thinking and I told Pulse8 exactly that as well I suspect the master socket with the blanking plate is live and working but the socket which everything plugs into is dead or the cable which connects them both together..

Will try and get a phone to test it and I am tempted to remove the NTE5 plate from the new socket and put it back onto the old master socket and try plugging the router into that and see if it then works.

I am guessing this should be possible?

At the very least if I can get a phone I can plug it into both the test socket and the new socket to see which one has a dial tone etc.

But despite all of the above BT should of tested the new socket fully and if they had of done they would of seen the DSL was not working.

Edited by deleted (Wed 06-Jan-16 12:02:35)

It ties in with the "We are not interested in running around for Talktalk" that I got from one engineer. We also see a lot of bad installs for Plusnet from Openreach, though that was another flaming for me when I pointed it out long ago. I know what the rules are and what should be, but like everywhere else, rules are bent. Strange we don't see the numbers of bad installations for BT, despite their number of customers. If the installation engineer had supplied an Openreach modem as contracted, the lack of DSL light would have flagged the problem, quite apart from a line test - Sounds as if he avoided the modem to cover a problem that was beyond him. You already have proof that he was lying about your connection all up and working.

Edited by professor973 (Wed 06-Jan-16 14:15:46)

It has confused Pulse8 as well as they have the paperwork stating it's all tested and live.

Seems the same OR incompetence I suffered, with a obstruction/lying twist Lol - Suffering the same here at our EE location. Line fault now into fourth month and an 8Mbps service at an unusable 300Kbps - Usual EE lies that an engineer booked for this morning. Luckily this time next week will be about to travel 400 miles south to my home and near 70Mbps P8 FTTC, though spend so much time away am about to downgrade to ADSL2+ again. Only went to FTTC to cure a line fault - but it didn't lol. 14Mbps ADSL2+ was serving me fine until the line fault hit.

Edited by professor973 (Wed 06-Jan-16 14:46:20)

It certainly brings into question the competency of OR engineers judging by what you have said and how long you have waited for the problems to be resolved.

The saving grace for me is that I believe Pulse8 will do whatever they can to get this problem resolved unfortunately they have no control over the quality of the OR engineer which attends my home.

Going to swap faceplates tonight and plug in the D7000 into the original socket where my telephone line comes into and I suspect it will work (depending on of course if the OR engineer has changed anything which could stop it from working)

Good luck, but I would switch back before the engineer arrives and see how long he takes to sort it!

Swapped over the faceplates and not looking good so far neither the OR modem nor the D7000 detect a DSL signal.

Any more sockets to choose from?

Finished the testing and a bit confused.

1) Swapped the blanking plate with the NTE5 plate (the blanking plate covered the original BT Infinity socket)
2) Plugged in the OR modem into the NTE5 plate (no DSL SIGNAL)
3) Plugged in a landline phone into the socket below (no dial tone)
4) Plugged in a landline phone into the master socket (no dial tone)
5) Rang the landline number rang out but the phone did not ring (as expected)
6) Plugged in a landline phone into the ex VM master socket and got a dial tone
7) Rang the landline number and the phone rang
8) Swapped back the faceplates and blanking plates
9) Plugged in a landline phone into the phone socket (ex VM) phone rings and there is a dial tone
10) Plugged in the OR modem and no DSL signal into the NTE5 socket

I would of expected both sockets to work however the OLD BT master socket where the phone line comes into seems dead?? i.e no dial tone and no DSL whereas the Ex.VM socket has a dial tone but again no DSL.

Any further suggestions would be much appreciated if anyone can think of any.

Thanks for all the help as well guys its very much appreciated.

Edited by deleted (Wed 06-Jan-16 18:27:22)

Don't think there is much you can do until an engineer visits to sort what seems a birds nest. It seems the various lines left the installation engineer at a loss and he did a bunk, just like one who visited here on the 29th Dec. Doubt he even checked the cross connection jumpering at the cabinet, which should be the first port of call for a suspected HR fault. No show here today today due to the usual EE total lies. Now talking the 12th.

Edited by professor973 (Wed 06-Jan-16 18:38:08)

Are you with EE for fibre then? I heard they are absolutely awful for customer service and make TalkTalk look good.

Silly question but is your line provided from a pole from outside the property? Easiest way might be to trace where the drop cable enters the house and go from there.

If it were me I would be tempted to take a look behind the old master socket to see what he did At the least I would expect to find two Jelly Crimps connecting the drop cable to your existing cable and the socket he re-used for the master socket.

Now it could be they haven't tied the DSLAM in the Fibre cab to the PCP but the engineer should have checked from the property before he left!

As far as I am aware and I am 99.9% certain it's not provided over a telephone pole and comes from the nearest cabinet.

Will try and explain it the best I can.

The original DSL cable which is hard wired into the original BT master socket has 2 wires coming out of it which are then crimped to their respective cables from the drop cable which comes in from the outside.

Unfortunately I cannot see how the other one is wired up (the re-used master socket) as it's right in the corner and a right pig to see what's even in it let alone how its all cabled up.

My suspicions are.

1) The OR engineer tried to be clever by linking two boxes together and messed it up
2) The OR engineer tried to cover this up by NOT leaving a OR modem when they are told to do so.
3) The OR engineer could NOT of checked everything as he would of easily seen their was a dial tone yet NO DSL signal
4) The OR engineer tried to get my wife to sign the paper work to say it's completed to cover his back (my wife refused to sign it)

Edited by deleted (Wed 06-Jan-16 19:43:10)

No. I am 400 miles north in the land of the fried Mars bar, where my partner seems glued to EE just for the minutes included to mobiles on her ASAL2+ package, though little + about it or EE. I am trying to persuade her to switch from EE and the literally hours of stress on the phone every day. When you consider she also has and Orange (now EE) contract mobile seperate from the BB and line package for when out and about, Plus the 3rd Gen 4G Moto G I bought her for Christmas, which will make all calls free when indoors through Wi-Fi on the 3 network, I can see no reason to put up with EE, free calls to mobiles or not. Not easy to work out the logic of women, especially those north of the border, who invariably suffer from short arm deep pocket syndrome. Even harder when Pulse8 and Uno are both better and cheaper than EE. But not to worry, not long before Suffolk bound again for a while.

Edited by professor973 (Wed 06-Jan-16 19:49:37)

Harumphhh! So I was wrong . Sorry.

Except by phone checking you've established something works.

Question. AIUI you are now set up as he left it. If you plug the phone into the phone socket on the NTE5 and ring in from your mobile, does it ring?

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 06-Jan-16 20:58:29)

Could it be that the engineer has installed telephone on on the wrong line (ie old vm) but installed fiber patch on the correct line ( but as it isnt activated does not work)?

I imagine it's quite a birds nest to sort, so possibly we should run a sweepstake Lol

If I plug the phone into the NTE5 socket which was the ex VM one it does ring if I ring the landline number from my mobile.

Whatever has happened it's confused the hell out of me so god knows what the OR engineer has done or more the point what hasn't he done.

My wife has just joined Vodafone and she gets 2 months unlimited data as part of their test drive so worst case scenario I can tether with her phone and/or use my 20gb data allowance I have with EE which also allows tethering as I do not think this will be fixed before VM ceases on Saturday.

Well, the phone ringing in the old VM socket points to half of the problem, if only you knew the direction of your BB. Let's hope it has not been connected to someone else's number, as happened when I joined Plusnet a few years ago - A reign of terror that still causes nightmares Lol - At least you have Adam and Sam onside - Just think if you were dealing with EE script-monkey's in India! - Not that I have anything against the poorly qualified staff or India, after all, you cannot blame them for wanting a job - EE themselves are a different matter. They control the structure of the shambles, with even level 2 managers just refusing to pull OR out when obviously needed, along with serious talent for lying.

Edited by professor973 (Thu 07-Jan-16 08:24:55)

This is a response this morning from Pulse8

Hi Dale,

Thanks for that, I�ll pass it on.

It might be that the engineer completely bypassed the connection in on the original BT socket which would explain why it doesn�t work.

I�ll let you know what I get back.

Sam

Some folks looking in will find actually passing info onto and calling out OR quite Alien Lol - I took a lot of stick here when I first switched to Pulse8 and praised their service. All sorts of allegations were thrown about - That they could not possibly be selling TTB at that price, were not affiliated to this body or that and were downright liars - Fortunately, many here have seen them to be a decent supplier since. They may not be the absolute top of the knowledge tree, but they are way down from the price of some and as you see try their very best. Just hope they don't get too big, as it's nice to get straight through to someone that knows you and what has gone before on your line every time.
I got the same response from Adam with regard to trying to get my partner here to switch from EE to P8, but she hates Talktalk.
"Tell the missus that we can keep the line rental with Open Reach and only do the Broadband via LLU (Talk Talk Business), also note that we only use the backend and support is NOT affected by them i.e. it�s good and I�m confident we�ll get you sorted but it�ll no doubt be a struggle l.o.l.



All the best & speak in the New Year!!!

Adam"

Edited by professor973 (Thu 07-Jan-16 09:22:29)

Hopefully once this is all resolved I will have a rock steady 80/20 connection at full speed anytime of the day like I had before on BT Infinity.

And if it wasn't for ispreview.co.uk and this forum I would never of known about Pulse8 and would of gone the BT/PlusNet route for definite.

Like most other products, all the comparison sites actively avoid the likes of Pulse8 that don't bung them a referral fee. The fact that they are still doing this after it was highlighted and apparently stopped is nothing but pure deception.

Might have some good news Pulse8 have just emailed me asking for 3 dates I am available for them to come back and they are trying as hard as they can to get an engineer back out tomorrow.

I would think that is the least OR can do considering the level of service so far, sadly, a level of service I've seen quite a bit of

I think we've eliminated that possibility, as the phone is correctly connected.

It did occur to me yesterday that he may have connected to the wrong connections at socket you are using, but then you couldn't have removed the VDSL2 filter plate.

Pulse8 believe he has bypassed the master socket which is why the DSL is not working.

That's exactly what I was saying earlier, but I've changed my mind.

Hi Dale,

Just to confirm your appointment is booked for the 08/01/2016 PM (13:00-18:00)

If you have any issues or require a different appointment then please let me know as soon as possible.

Making do with my Moto G and a little cheap MiFi box up here at the moment. Speeds quite an eye opener for a poor signal area.
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1661914335

That is pretty dam impressive specially the upload speed.

I could not agree more - Over double the 18-19 Mbps I get down south on 80/20 FTTC. Even more so when you consider the signal around here, how far south the test server was and that it was done on my 2nd. Gen Moto G, Not my partners 3rd. Gen 4G Moto G I bought her, though they are both very fast quad processor phones. I have heard folks sing the praises of 4G broadband but always thought it would be a pain and expensive. In this case though, due to a 280Kbps sync down from 7500Mbps that has been beyond EE since September, they gave us a little 4G modem and a 12 month 24Gb preloaded sim. It certainly is an eye opener for me.

Edited by professor973 (Fri 08-Jan-16 10:14:14)

Well I am connected finally it turns out the wiring in my home was fine and the OR engineer managed to connect me twice to the cabinet which caused havoc with the connection.

Only downside is over wireless and wired is the speeds are very erratic from 6mbit/sec right up to 60mbit/sec with no consistency (I think in part due to the 10 day line training etc)

Sync rate currently is 68 down 18 up and I found out my cabinet is basically on the opposite side to the road from my house so the copper is very short so if they ever release FTTP in my area I should pretty much get the max the line supports.

The main thing is I have an internet connection now and will keep an eye on the speeds over the coming weeks to see if they settle down

.

Edited by deleted (Fri 08-Jan-16 15:45:23)

Great that it is connected. I wonder how on earth he did that!!!!

There is no such thing as 10 day line training, particularly on FTTC and even more particularly on a TalkTalk Business system. It only ever was a BT Wholesale thing on BT Wholesale ADSLx circuits, where all it did was record the lowest sync in the first ten days then set a lower speed as the limit it had to fall below before a fault would be considered.

Link. (Page needs updating as above).

Openreach documentation states that the line is initially set on an open profile so connects as fast as it can, and will normally be adjusted downwards if necessary at the end of day two.

In most cases it should be in a fairly stable state after day three.

Nice to know that and I have seen it connect before at 79/19 so I know I can get a bit more out of it but will leave things well alone and see how it goes.

Doing a few speed tests and found a server which gives me 60 down 17 up all the time so hopefully that will stay static.

No idea how the other guy did that and the guy who came earlier didn't know how he managed it either and without a doubt the previous guy definitely lied through his teeth about testing everything and it was all working!

Seen some of it at both our locations, but good it's sorted at last. Got to wait until the 12th for next engineer here, but not holding breath for a fix. line down south regraded today, so hoping all OK this time next week when there. Have phoned in and checked number working OK, something that I was told from some would be lost.

Hopefully the engineer will turn up and fix the problem(s) unlike the last no show you had and many thanks for the help and advice as well

Sometimes problems turn up nice friendly conversations. Hope it all runs smoothly for you now.

Well so far so good my sync speed has gone down due to the D7000 rebooting itself whilst I was out 68mb down to 63mb but as my line definitely supports 76mb I am hopefully it will go back up given time.

However the main thing is it's 58/60mb down and 18up pretty much 24/7 which is exactly what I wanted rather than 'you get 100mbit but only when you sleep on VM'.

Fingers crossed for you tomorrow as well with the engineer visit.

Regrading my Pulse8 ADSL2 to FTTC , hoping to "bond" it with my plusnet if I can get Multipath routing working correctly over tunnels (GRE, probably)

Do you have to pay 2 sets of line rental to do that?

In reply to a post by durkasmurk:

Do you have to pay 2 sets of line rental to do that?

2 Sets of line rental, 2 broadband connections, A dedicated server or co-location with a 1Gbit/s uplink. Static IP's on both connections (Well that could probably be worked around, but it's easier in my case as I'm using GRE tunnels)

I'm still not even sure the routers I have will actually be able to handle it, I've managed 400Mbit/s raw GRE throughput through an ER-X when testing on the bench but that was without asking it to do PPPoE and firewall/nat on top. It wouldn't surprise me if I need to offload the PPPoE to another device.

I've managed to "bond" the connections using a L3 Multipath approach however the split has to be even (I.e 50/50 to each line) to do that.

It also helps at the moment that edgeOS isn't doing ECMP as far as I can tell (So it literally just puts packet1 line1 packet 2 line2.etc instead of doing it based on the flows). I'm not doing it at the moment as whilst it was successful in testing until the upgrade of my 2nd line to FTTC happens it would actually slow down my connection (Because the ADSL line is only 10Mbit/s).

In theory I think I could "bond" un-even lines using a slightly different approach but utilising the mangle feature of IPTABLES and nTH packet based marking, the problem with that alternate approach is it's really CPU heavy on the routers/firewalls which means I'm pretty sure the current kit I've got lacks the grunt to actually do it.

It's a lot easier to simply find an ISP that offers line bonding and pay them, it's just I already had a pulse8 ADSL connection as a backup for my FTTC line and also had a server in co-lo with sufficient (in theory) bandwidth to pull it off. That and It's one of those things that I thought I'd do to see if it works, more as a learning experience than anything else.

Whilst moving it to FTTC reduces the redundancy somewhat I figured hell why not i've always got 4G if the cab dies and now i'll actually use that circuit rather than pay for it and have it sitting Idle.

Anyone once the 2nd line gets upgraded to FTTC and I get the balancing/bonding working I'll post a speedtest result and we'll see if the routers can actually manage 120Mbit/s +

Got DSL stats running on my D7000 and getting a high?? FEC/ES count so wondering if anyone can take a look at these stats and let me know what they think?

adslctl info --stats
adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Last Retrain Reason: 0
Last initialization procedure status: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 18897 Kbps, Downstream rate = 74863 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 18756 Kbps, Downstream rate = 62691 Kbps

Link Power State: L0
Mode: VDSL2 Annex B
VDSL2 Profile: Profile 17a
TPS-TC: PTM Mode(0x0)
Trellis: U:ON /D:ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 6.3 6.1
Attn(dB): 18.1 0.0
Pwr(dBm): 13.8 6.8

VDSL2 framing
Bearer 0
MSGc: 18 13
B: 51 238
M: 1 1
T: 64 62
R: 12 16
S: 0.0264 0.4056
L: 19400 5029
D: 1227 1
I: 64 255
N: 64 255

Counters
Bearer 0
OHF: 85480655 1706901
OHFErr: 137 34
RS: 408061569 3237145
RSCorr: 6065151 351
RSUnCorr: 6470 0

Bearer 0
HEC: 1547 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 295005324 0
Data Cells: 157810136 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 30 34
SES: 0 0
UAS: 28 28
AS: 144946

Bearer 0
INP: 3.00 0.00
INPRein: 0.00 0.00
delay: 8 0
PER: 1.69 6.31
OR: 113.22 24.08
AgR: 62804.66 18780.45

Bitswap: 7406/7876 14/14

Total time = 1 days 16 hours 16 min 14 sec
FEC: 6065151 351
CRC: 137 34
ES: 30 34
SES: 0 0
UAS: 28 28
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Retr: 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 1 min 14 sec
FEC: 269 0
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Retr: 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
FEC: 13092 0
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Retr: N/A
Latest 1 day time = 16 hours 16 min 14 sec
FEC: 2196991 167
CRC: 79 15
ES: 16 15
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Retr: 0
Previous 1 day time = 24 hours 0 sec
FEC: 3868160 184
CRC: 58 19
ES: 14 19
SES: 0 0
UAS: 28 28
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Retr: 0
Since Link time = 1 days 16 hours 15 min 45 sec
FEC: 6065151 351
CRC: 137 34
ES: 30 34
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Retr: 0
NTR: mipsCntAtNtr=0 ncoCntAtNtr=0
#
#

Doesn't look like you have G.INP active.

Connected to an ECI cabinet

Stats recorded 13 Jan 2016 12:05:40

DSLAM/MSAN type: IFTN:0xb204 / v0xb204
Modem/router firmware: AnnexA version - A2pvbH042b.d26b
DSL mode: VDSL2 Profile 17a
Status: Showtime
Uptime:
Resyncs: 0 (since 12 Jan 2016 19:36:09)

Downstream Upstream
Line attenuation (dB): 18.1 0.0
Signal attenuation (dB): Not monitored
Connection speed (kbps): 62691 18756
SNR margin (dB): 6.3 6.1
Power (dBm): 13.8 6.8
Interleave depth: 1227 1
INP: 3.00 0
G.INP: Not enabled

RSCorr/RS (%): 1.0986 0.0086
RSUnCorr/RS (%): 0.0012 0.0000
ES/hour: 0.74 0.84

Edited by deleted (Wed 13-Jan-16 12:06:29)

I don't think your ES error rate is high enough for for DLM intervention. If your connection remains stable you should see a reduction in interleaving, takes a few days though.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I don't think your ES error rate is high enough for for DLM intervention. If your connection remains stable you should see a reduction in interleaving, takes a few days though.

I was going to say this, looks like about 30 errored seconds, and FECs are usually ok as those are errors corrected so not really a problem.

That's good to know will leave it and see what happens.