Not sure if I need an engineer visit or not - please help

I'd welcome the advise of someone who knows more than me here.

So I move into a new house. Same router and laptop equipment as before, but I get a new DSL account from my ISP. Now all my speed tests are showing a consistant 128Kbs download on an 8 Mbs DSL line, with uploads in 376 Kbs region. This has only really got this bad in the last week, but been in the new house 2 months (Perhaps sunny weather to blame?). Also dropping connection quite a lot.

Changed routers (both Zyxel 2600's) . Using a microfilter that worked previously. There is still a slight hiss and a bit of clicking on the line but nothing major.

The outside telephone line comes out of the ground into a master relay box, with a T symbol on it, where the right hand branch of the T is made with dots. Probably BT, as they provide phone to house. It doesn't contain any routing equipment itself but inside, all coming out of one thick cable coming out of the ground, I can see two covered copper wires going direct into a downstairs socket and three more covered copper wires going into an upstairs one. I've tried the router in both sockets, with same outcome. 128Kbs.

The ISP, Hotchilli, had this to say:

Received following updates from BT:

The circuit is dropping sync heavily which seems to be caused by errors. The Noise margin is within acceptable limits. RRT gives result for a period of 14 days from 21-May-2010 to 03-Jun-2010.
- As per the grid lines there are Errors in downstream and/or high number of retrains seen on almost all the times. Due to the regularity of these errors it is likely to be interference from an external source picked up by poor wiring or equipment.
- I would recommend that the CP thoroughly checks the Customers kit. If issues persist an SFI appointment will be needed to investigate the problem suggesting.
- However we are unable to identify our network as the source of this problem. Please resolve the matter directly with your customer eliminating any home environment issues.
- RRT indicates your customers circuit is experiencing the fault symptoms you reported.
- Diagnostics show no fault condition.
- If you require a BB SFI engineering visit the fault status will change to make an appointment. Please note a charge will apply to repair activity beyond the NTE.

According to the above updates, BT has informed that there is no fault identified on the their network but can see that there are errors incrementing all the day and this could an issue at customer's premises and advised to book an SFI engineer visit.Plese let us know if you require an SFI to be scheduled.

NOTE:
According to the recent updates, please be informed there would be a charge of ?175 for the SFI Engineer visit if the fault is found at the customer's premises. If the issue is found to be on BT network there would be no charges. Please confirm if you accept the charges if the fault is found at the premises so that we can invoice you eventually. "

I have no idea what any of that means. What should I do?

Many thanks

noise margin upstream: 22 db
output power downstream: 19 db
attenuation upstream: 8 db
tone 0- 31: 00 00 00 02 45 66 77 77 77 77 77 66 66 55 54 00
tone 32- 63: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 64- 95: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 96-127: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 128-159: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 160-191: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 192-223: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


noise margin downstream: 12 db
output power upstream: 11 db
attenuation downstream: 10 db
tone 0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 32- 63: 00 00 00 99 aa ab bb bb bb bb bb bb bb bb bb bb
tone 64- 95: 0b bb bb bb bb bb bb bb bb bb ba aa aa aa aa aa
tone 96-127: aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa 9a aa
tone 128-159: aa a9 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
tone 160-191: 99 99 99 99 99 99 89 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88
tone 192-223: 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88
tone 224-255: 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Things that you could try, Dial 17070 select option 2 (quite line test) and with the secrecy function on just listen, best to repeat this several times at different times of the day if you hear pop's cracking,buzzing whistling , basically anything other than the recording saying" quiet line test" then you have a fault on or line that maybe voice (PTSN) related,that in turn affects your ADSL signal
However if no odd noises are heard then you may still have a fault but it may only affect the ADSL side of things
Best thing to do, is plug your router/phone into the test socket behind the fact plate on the bt master socket , you could also try a new adsl filter ,
download and install routerstats lite, to monitor the SNR ect
With the low attenuation figures reported by the router it would appear that you are very close to the exchange and should be able to get faster than 8mb based on the reported figures

Edited by tommy45 (Fri 04-Jun-10 19:51:09)

what does speedtester.bt.com say ? What ISP ?

Thank you for your advise Tommy. I'm most grateful to you for taking the time to think about the issues I'm striggling with.

The quiet line seems nice and quiet so I don't think it's that. I don't know about the test socket you refer to - are you saying that if I unscrew my face pklate form the wall there's another socket behind it?

I attacked one of those faceplate things that disconnects the ringer and it seemed to increase the download speeds by a factor of 2 or 3 on some, but not all of the speed tests. It always seems to come back to 128 Kbs, but maybe that's an artifact of teh speed testing

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

But torrents seem to behave the same. Spike past 128 Kbs then drop back down again.

Thanks Yarwell. It's Hotchilli.

That BT test said:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 185 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 50-250 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :7456 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 135 Kbps

Well, the sync speed is very good, but the actual IP Profile you have is the lowest possible. The mention of "retrains" is bang on. It's pretty much certain that something is causing the line to drop and resync frequently.

Time to do the much-described-on-here tests, stripping out all the phones, connecting at the test socket, etc.,etc. Lots of info on here, have a search about.

In reply to a post by tpbeta:

I don't know about the test socket you refer to - are you saying that if I unscrew my face pklate form the wall there's another socket behind it?

Yes, very probably.

http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.as...

I will. I think I've done everything bar the test socket, of which I was not previously aware. Perhaps I should cut the wires to the second socket altogether. After all, it's not doing anything.

Now this morning, without doing anything, it's back up to 3000 Kbs. Weird. SHould I deduce from that it isn't my filters or my router?

Download speedachieved during the test was - 3407 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :6624 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 5500 Kbps

noise margin upstream: 26 db
output power downstream: 17 db
attenuation upstream: 8 db
tone 0- 31: 00 00 00 02 45 66 77 77 76 77 77 66 66 65 54 00
tone 32- 63: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 64- 95: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 96-127: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 128-159: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 160-191: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 192-223: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


noise margin downstream: 15 db
output power upstream: 11 db
attenuation downstream: 13 db
tone 0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 32- 63: 00 00 00 88 99 99 aa aa ab aa bb aa aa aa aa 99
tone 64- 95: 09 aa a9 99 9a aa aa aa 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
tone 96-127: 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 89 99 98 89 89
tone 128-159: 99 89 98 89 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88
tone 160-191: 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 77 77 77 77 78 77 77 77 77
tone 192-223: 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77
tone 224-255: 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 88
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Edited by tpbeta (Sat 05-Jun-10 13:16:42)

I can recommend using RouterStats free software to monitor your router/line.

This should help you to see if if your line is (un)stable...


EDIT: Just seen your downstream attenuation! You 'should' be on a very good connection there!
What have your ISP advised so far?

Edited by b4dger (Sat 05-Jun-10 17:38:44)