connection/speed/nobody knows issue

I'm having a 'mare of a time with my connection. I'm with Zen who are being really great, but we appear to be getting nowhere fast.

I'm connected to the test socket, no other sockets in the house, have tried 4 different filters and 2 modems (Thomson and Siemens), 3 different phones, different cables, wall sockets, you name it.

Current log details below...

Uptime:
0 days, 15:07:47

DSL Type:
G.992.1 annex A

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:
448 / 192

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]:
0.00 / 0.00

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]:
11.5 / 12.0

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]:
22.0 / 37.0

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:
11.0 / 25.0

Vendor ID (Local/Remote):
TMMB / ALCB

Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):
39 / 0

Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):
34 / 0

Loss of Power (Local/Remote):
0 / 0

Loss of Link (Remote):
0

Error Seconds (Local/Remote):
94 / 0

FEC Errors (Up/Down):
98 / 2,715

CRC Errors (Up/Down):
98 / 2

HEC Errors (Up/Down):
71 / 1

The story: My broadband has been set up since July or so and although the line was noisy the connection speed was fast enough that I didn't have to think about it. No stuttering youtube videos etc. I left the house on the 17th Oct for a trip and when I got back about 10 days later I couldn't get a connection and when I finally did, it was down at the 127kbps level and dropping all over the shop. Since then Zen have been trying to fix the problem and I've had a BT engineer out, who found that there were no problems with the line (obviously)

Even with a corded phone you can hear the modems syncing and things have got so bad that I can only connect by picking up the phone first. The connection is a more stable today, so I'm getting this off before it goes again. The line was put in in 2008 and I had this problem then. It was only remedied then by killing the broadband and living someplace else for a year (due to work)

Having gone through a similar thread here I think my only options are buying an AM radio and walking the streets or getting Virgin cable.

I'm running a Mac, so the stats software isn't an option unless someone knows of a mac based job.

Oh and the best bit....Bt's estimate of what broadband speed I can receive by postcode is 6mbps, but by phone number 0.256mbps (down from 6mbps last week). This is also what happened the last time.

Any ideas?

Edited by deleted (Wed 04-Nov-09 08:59:31)

In reply to a post by nomadros1:

Even with a corded phone you can hear the modems syncing

That should never be possible with a valid setup. That suggests a lack of filtering and would certainly explain your problems.

In the above scenario where is the modem plugged in and where is the telephone plugged in?

If you had a master faceplate I would wonder if there might be some frayed insulation somewhere allowing the external line to leak into your internal wiring. But a more typical installation with telephones plugged into filters should never allow you to hear the modems syncing.

The fact that making a call allows the modem to connect suggests a resistive fault. Using the telephone can be enough to overcome the problem ( http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/connectionprobs.htm )

Oh and the best bit....Bt's estimate of what broadband speed I can receive by postcode is 6mbps, but by phone number 0.256mbps (down from 6mbps last week)

Not sure what you mean by that. If true it suggests a rare example of BT updating their database. Are you sure you're using the same tool? There's an estimator which is largely based on guesswork then of course there's the speed tester which is a specific benchmark. The latter can vary every time you run it but the former (I'd have thought) is updated once in a blue moon if BT can be bothered or remember how to.

Edited by Andrue (Wed 04-Nov-09 10:37:39)

From my experance have you got noise with the modem removed, if not its likly a problem on that side effecting the line (it was, it turned out, with my line when a fault ended when I was moved to datastream and back (it didn't work!) with the result all my line noise went! and speeds etc went up.

Edited by john7 (Wed 04-Nov-09 11:08:19)

Thanks for the reply. The modem and phone are plugged into the same filter which is plugged into the test socket. The engineer from last week said the problem was probably at the exchange with Zen's equipment. But when Zen pointed out that they don't have any equipment there, he wouldn't note that down officially and another engineer is coming out tomorrow morning to listen to the sync and have a fiddle about and hopefully agree that the fault is in the BT splitter card there. The last engineer also said that the house setup and line were kosher and all the boxes were ticked on his kit.

I only mentioned the "suggested" line speed thing because the last time this happened, I had the broadband disconnected and stayed someplace else. Then I waited until the suggested speed went back up to the correct value and then had everything reconnected and moved back in. Don't really fancy going through that again though!

Yesterday I had to make a phone call in order to make a connection with the modem, so yup high resistance and noisy modems.

In reply to a post by john7:

From my experance have you got noise with the modem removed, if not its likly a problem on that side effecting the line (it was, it turned out, with my line when a fault ended when I was moved to datastream and back (it didn't work!) with the result all my line noise went! and speeds etc went up.

No modem, no noise. Doesn't matter what modem you plug in, as soon as it starts to sync you get noise. If only it was a duff modem, I'd be happy.

The "smoking gun' in all this is that someone entered the exchange on the 17th Oct to fix something after a major outage and my problem started then according to the logs. Try convincing BT of that though.

Yes I had noise/problems with 3 diffrent modems. I was never told to see if the line was OK with no modem only no phone. Even now with the problem removed I get the feeling those invoved don't really accept it was a problem in the exchange removed when I was physicly moved to datastreem and back.
The resion I rased it was my ISP insted I got the phone line sorted, but that was OK and ended with me being charged for call outs as there was no voise line problem but a ADSL one effecting the phone line and expencive diffrence the way BT works.

if you have an engineer visit make sure you see it is in sync and note the speeds, anything under 288k downstream connection speed is a fault and obviously you should be getting close to 8M with your downstream attenuation.

f true it suggests a rare example of BT updating their database

active BT wholesale lines provide the BRAS profile as an input to the number checker so it does update with "real" data, but has the downside of reflecting faults as in this case.

Not a rare example, database does follow line data fed into database

Cheers peeps...the engineer is due tomorrow a.m. so I'll update after he's poked about. All advice taken on board and armed with!