ADSL Low Sync Speed Puzzlement

Hi,

I am completely baffled to an ADSL problem that I've been having since January.

Having been with Zen Internet since last June on their Active 8000 product (connected through their LLU) I have been synced at over 7000Kbps. Then all of a sudden one Friday evening in January my router (BT Voyager 2110) started to re-sync like crazy and wouldn't stop and thought a fault had developed somewhere so I tested my connection through the BT master socket and I synced instantly at over 7000Kbps again.

This all lead to suggest that their was a probem with the internal wiring somewhere so after diagnosing this I removed all the phones and filters from the line and reconnected my ADSL in the usual manner but the problem of constant re-syncing returned. Fortunately I had the idea of reconnecting using the SMR command on the router to connect at a lower speed and that worked but unfortunately I was connected at around 4000Kbps.

I thought the only solution was to maybe replace the internal wiring but as I could connect again and was still achieving decent speeds I delayed rewiring. This is where it gets strange.

About 6 weeks ago on a Friday evening at around 6PM out of the blue my router re-synced but back to over 7000Kbps again! I thought great it looks like whatever problem was occuring had fixed itself but after about an hour or so the router re-synced and I was back to 4000Kbps again.

I decided to forget about it and carry on as normal but tonight the same thing has happened again, but this time between around 7PM and 8PM my top sync speed returned but now I'm back to a 4000Kbps sync speed again.

Would anyone have any idea what could be causing this - I assume it is internal wiring related or could it be something else?

Thanks.

First of all you must ensure that everything your side of the BT Master is optimal. If you think your extension wiring may be faulty then, especially if it's a fairly simple run, replace it with BT approved cabling and sockets. Likewise your DSLconnection equipment, voice telephony equipment and filters etc etc should also proved good, repaired or replaced as this type of fault can be difficult enough to track down without having your own kit throwing curved balls into an already complex equation.
We have to accept for now at least that your ISP and BTw/BTo have been honourable in their diagnostics etc and that the problem lies outside of the exchange and line etc.
If the problem now persists, you need to take note of exactly when the fault occurs.
You now need to consider if there's any event inside your property that ties in with these times. Perhaps you or someone uses some electrical machinery that generates inductive or reactive spikes etc. Maybe someone is reminiscing and breaking with his good buddies over the CB.
Consider and list any activities that coincide with the fault occurring however unlikely any links may seem.

Could there be any external occurrences such as a local factory starting a process, a telecoms or radio event of some sort at a nearby office or even a neighbour who fires up his poorly tuned Wartburg occasionally.

You're about to find out that intermittent problems are the bane of the troubleshooters life, whatever field they may occur in. This is why it's important that wherever possible, all known components are certified as fully functional. You could spend 3 months chasing ghosts when all along, it was your router or cabling etc at fault.

In reply to:

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I assume it is internal wiring related or could it be something else?

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The only way you are ever going to know is to eliminate the internal wiring. If you have the new-style (NTE5) master socket fitted, that will be quite easy to do - just remove the front faceplate and connect your ADSL directly to the test socket revealed behind. If you have older sockets and wiring, you will need to disconnect extensions manually. Disruption of this magnitude is unlikely to be from interference picked up by the cables - it's more likely to be due to short-circuits or open-circuits in the cables themselves. Once you have eliminated your internal wiring, the onus of fixing the problem is on BT.

Hi zebedee,

I do have a NTE5 master socket which I did test the ADSL equipment on and it worked fine just like it used to - I may have contradicted myself somewhere in my initial post about the internal wiring, sorry about that if I did.

The phone cabling from the BT Master socket (situated in the kitchen) to the outside was replaced about 10 years by an engineer because of crackling on the line which fixed the problem so it could be the internal wiring going the same way now when you mention short-circuits or open circuit - the internal wiring in our house must be over 30 years old.

Hi Deadbeat,

After reading other peoples posts on intermittent problems I wished that it would never happen to me but as they say be careful what you wish for.

Thanks for you suggestions - I can't think of anything that's changed in our house since this problem started to occur. Maybe a piece of electrical equipment we have has started to faulter and causing it but it's the hour of the ADSL connection re-syncing to it's normal speed before losing it which is very strange and I hope it's not a problem outside such as neighbours introducing something causing it.

Some more thoughts - there is a factory across the road from us which has a mast of some sort on its roof and also we have had some new modern street lighting installed on our road but both of these events happened long before I started having this problem in January.

All that you can realistically do for now is get your own house in order as it were and keep a diary of fault events. If the problem still persists when everything under your control is certified problem free, it's then that you have to start considering external influences and events.

I'll start doing that and hopefully the next time I'll be able to track this problem down or maybe before then I'll have some luck and find out what's been causing this.

Thanks for your help Deadbeat.

Post deleted by Muscle

Edited by Muscle (Tue 03-Apr-07 14:54:17)

Argh I pressed delete instead of change post as I wanted to correct some errors.

I've just managed to regain full speed again but I'm not sure exactly how. I thought I would restart the router with the default SMR values as before (this is when the router started to constantly re-sync previously) and then to unplug all the filters on the line (4 altogether with a phone connected) but this had no effect.

However, I've just plugged all the filters back in checked the router and found it has now synced at 7900Kpbs.

So it looks like it is an internal problem but I wasn't in view of the router when I did what I did to correct the problem so could it be a filter (they are all plugged in at the moment and everything is working) or maybe one of the extension sockets could be faulty?

And I do not want to touch anything unless I know exactly what it was that was causing the problem in case I break it again.