Connection Dropping, What Next?

Hello,

I am a business broadband customer on plusnet.

I am been having constant internet drop outs, at least a few times a day, and usually when the phone rings. I created a post about this before on here, and most people seemed to think that it was high resistance on the line.

I have my filter plugged into the test socket of the bt line, and the modem into the filter, there are no extensions at all in the building.

Finally got bt to come out to test the line, and they basically said the line is fine, it must be your modem.

I have tried 2 dsl cables, 4 microfilters & 3 different modems (Linksys AM200, Siemens SpeedStream 4100 & Zoom X3)

Every combination of microfilters, dsl cables & modems will loose sync within 3 test calls to my landline.

There is no cable here, no llu, this is DSL Max.

Am i likely to ever get this fixed or is my best bet to move premises?

Thanks

Edited by deleted (Fri 19-Feb-10 14:35:44)

On a side note, i created videos of me doing tests that they asked me to do before calling an engineer, so i sent them to plusnet today with this message:

Here are links to two videos i made. The first video shows me testing 3 microfilters & 2 dsl cables on a linksys AM200, and you see it loose sync in all scenario's.

The second video is me testing 3 microfilters & 2 dsl cables on a Siemens SpeedStream 4100, again, you see it loose sync in all scenarios.

No extensions in the house, All landline phones were disconnected (and turned off at base and handsets - they are cordless).

To get the modems to loose sync each time i was ringing my landline from my mobile.

Linksys AM200: http://www.tmt.co.uk/matt/Linksys%20AM200.avi
Siemens SpeedStream 4100: http://www.tmt.co.uk/matt/Siemens%20SpeedStream%2041...

I can make videos of me testing with a further two modems (Zoom X3 and a netgear modem) but i have already tested these personally and i get the same issues.

So how a BT Engineer can not find any faults and state that my modem is to blame is beyond me.

Thanks

Maybe i seem a bit rude or angry in my messages, but its amazing how long this problem has been going on for and i still havent had a fix, or even bt admitting there is a fault

It's obvious you need something to measure what's happening on the line.
When your connection drops does it re-connect at a lower rate ?
If it does, then I would suggest it's the line that's being affected not the modem. BT have a cop-out by saying it's your equipment not ours before they investigate properly but, they don't investigate properly either.
I would suggest you use routerstats from http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm or, use Wireshark to monitor your link in the background i.e. if your modems (most are) communicate with a web page for your settings passwords etc.. then you can view the returns from the modem to your PC and see what happens around the dropped connection times.
I found that there were numerous REIN (Random Electronic Impulse Noise) issues in my area and were down to a Sky digibox/BT Home Hub/A Monitor/Something else still not known.
What happened was that at certain times of the day the SNR level dropped this then in effect caused the modem to re-connect at a lower rate for that time of the 'interference' so I went from 3700kbps to 160kbps which is the fall-back rate... after measuring these times I could see it went at 0700-0730, 1230-1330, 1530-1630, 1830-2230-ish what nice time frames where you could say, I'm up and watching TV, I'm in for lunch and watching TV, I'm back from school so TV is on, I'm not at work so it's TV on....................... if you see what I'm getting at - usually the BT engineers called in between those times until I gave them accurate zones and then the REIN man cometh... they spotted it straight away and you could do the same by just getting an AM radio and wandering around your street you'd be surprised how much gunk! is out there.
cheers
Rockywr

Thanks for the suggestions.

It seems to happen whenever the phone rings, regardless of the time of day. I have looked at the stats on my router and it always syncs at over 7000k, usually around 7800k infact, and the upload always syncs at 832k

My problem is that this is a business connection connected to our server, which hosts our mail and domain & proxy. So we have the server run a ppp daemon to authenticate, using the modem in bridged mode. Because of this, the server has the isp assigned ip, rather than an internal ip which the modem has assigned. So unless we drop the ppp connection, and assign an internal ip to the interface the modem is connected to, we cant actually access the modem to login and get the stats.

Maybe on sunday i will connect one of our other modems which is setup to connect to our isp, and run router stats on that for a day while we ring the line to see what routerstats picks up.

Thanks

Have a quick look at this now that you've mentioned when the phone-rings....

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-broadband-help/27...

cheers

Rocky

Forgot to add with that url.. just look at the part where it's a removal of the ring wire (3) on the terminal. Sounds like it could be this.... possibly.

cheers
rocky

Is the problem easily repeatable when the phone rings?

Do you still get the problem if you ring the number with no phone connected?

Are you definitely connected in the test socket behind the master faceplate?

You're obviously not on a marginal line because you connection speed is good (can you post the downstream noise margin figure) so, if you can answer 'yes' to all three above, it's your ISP's responsibility to get it sorted.

John.

This link may assist with the wiring & telephone ringing problem:-
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

I replaced the front plate of Master Socket with an ADSL Nation, I believe similar in many ways to BT offering. Apart from not requiring filters all around the place, it also cured a noisy voice line.

I have found RouterStats Lite a super tracking tool, simpler that the more comprehensive RouterStats which has a number of other features.

With two BT visits courtesy of PlusNet, I did not find I made progress with dropping out & line speeds. Seems after they plug in,verify that the line is OK [assuming one's own phone set up is all in order] claim its capable of 4/5 megs down, 448kbps up, they push off, declaring its your supplier/ISP. What I have been told is that it will not replicate the situation the user faces when connected to their ISP.

Back to another other Kitz site; a section I found helpful in explaining why many of our problems go back to the local BT xchange; you may not wish to know this in terms of technicality but:
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/equip.htm#dslam

I have suffered for 3/4 weeks v. low speeds to do with dropping connections & noise. Until the reason for noise has been sorted & stability returns, it was suggested line speeds will always be a lottery. Now, I am no expert and others may well shoot me down but that's my pennyworth. All I want is a steady reliable b'band.

I am still with PlusNet but only after badgering and a lot of forum help. PN have to push their BTWholesale back up hard, to get things moving. Moving to another ISP may well prove out of the frying pan . . . .

You also could set up to broadband quality meter on the main site, it basically pings your router,so the router must be pingable, most already are by default, and you can also share snapshots or realtime graphs to you isp to help them identify the cause,

if you have tried all the obvious stuff, ie, tried several filters, corded phone,or a different one and even a change of router and it's incoming adsl lead, and also had it plugged directly into the test socket, then there is a line fault ,

Problem being it maybe PSTN or ADSL your isp is the only one who bt listen to for ADSL faults,All we paying customers can do is raise a PSTN fault with bt, the hard part is determining which type of line fault you have, as if you phoned bt and logged a pstn fault all they would look for would be pstn related,if none found during the engineers visit or he decided that your internal wiring or any thing that you have connected was the cause, then they would

charge you around £100, should your isp ask bt to do a sfi visit and they don't find any fault or again say it down to you connected equipment ect they will charge your isp £150 i think or maybe more, which they may pass on to you,so it pays to be really sure it's not at you end first,
I take it you are on sky llu ?
I myself have been having drop outs too but not caused by the phone ringing, mine was noise bursts, which seems at the moment mysteriously gone ,just the same as when it suddenly started after over 12 mths of no problems,

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 20-Feb-10 17:20:03)