Advice re BT Line Fault & Error Reporting etc

I'm on MaxDSL, normally sync at 8096 with Interleaving on and when problems arise, like now, alternate between a Speedtouch 546 and 585.

I'm beginning to experience problems following rain and find that associated with sustained errors, up to 300 downstream CRC's per 5 secs, I can lose the Internet Connection but not necessarily the DSL connection.

With the DSL still connected and the Internet connection down, I find on occasion for up to several hours, the Router continuing to report this level of errors and I'm unable re-establish the Internet Connection from the Router Web Interface.

In this situation does the Router realistically report CRC errors, SNR etc ?.

Re-starting the Router typically results in everything connecting with the errors having disappeared and the SNR back to 6 db.

I find that following loss of the Internet connection the re-connection may take place automatically and at other times not.


To clarify my understanding of this and with apologies for what may be a rather basic question can someone please explain the distinction between 'DSL' connection and 'Internet' connection.

Does the DSL connection simply confirm the presence of a Broadband enabled line and the Internet connection the successful connection of your Router to it ?.

Presumably following a significant or sustained error/fault the DSL 'enabled' line cannot be recognised and the Router re-starts in the hope that the 'fault' has cleared up ?.

Edited by deleted (Mon 19-Oct-09 14:23:29)

I'd say the DSL connection is active once your modem and the exchange at the modem have synced (agreed a speed).

The internet connection will be available after the DSL connection is active and you have been "logged-in" to your ISPs network (to complete the link between your PC and the WWW).

Many thanks John

What surprises me is that once I lose the Internet connection but not the DSL, the Router continues to report huge ongoing CRC errors, SNR down to 0.5 db and I consequently can't re-connect from the Web Interface.

This situation can continue for hours and yet as soon as I manually re-start the Router the errors cease and the SNR is back to normal.

I can only assume that the Router is not correctly reporting stats once there is a sustanied and significant build up of errors and/or a loss of Internet connection.

I just resurrected an old thread of mine as I encounter the opposite in that my ADSL connection regularly goes down but my Internet connection reports that it is up.
When the ADSL goes down then my ability to browse disappears.
I'm being told by the tech desk that since my Internet connection is reporting that it's been up for a number of days then there isn't anything wrong with my line....

What sort of modem/router are you using, and how is it connected to your PC ?

What is reporting that the Internet connection is still up? At a guess you are talking about an Icon in the operating system that is part of UPnP and I would not trust that at all.

Tech support I suspect are confused, since you are telling them the Internet connection is reported as working, but it is also not working.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

What is reporting that the Internet connection is still up? At a guess you are talking about an Icon in the operating system that is part of UPnP and I would not trust that at all.

Tech support I suspect are confused, since you are telling them the Internet connection is reported as working, but it is also not working.

I'm sorry, MrSaffron, but who are you addressing? I am not assuming that a symbol on an operating system is the gospel.
The BT HomeHub has 2 different sets of information, 1 for Internet and 1 for ADSL.
I've never intentionally confused the tech support team and it is pathetic for you to assume so.

Edited by Fantasmo (Sat 31-Oct-09 19:44:47)

Apols if it sounded harsh.

Now we know its the hub then what may be happening is the the ADSL is resyncing, but the router retains the IP based info (i.e. Internet) in the hope that the modem will resync quickly. Then if the ADSL takes too long the Internet settings will be cleared out.

Or put another way, it is possible for the ADSL to drop out, but the connection is only dropped between the home and the exchange, the bit all the way to the ISP remains up and running. Of course as there is a gap in the chain you get no actual Internet traffic.