Noisy line and slow broadband speeds

Hi, I've recently changed back to BT wholesale ADSL (via Post Office broadband) after being on cable and 3G for a couple of years due to a house move and I've been getting really slow broadband speeds and intermittent popping and crackling on my phone line. I'm hoping someone here can help as it's getting really frustrating.

The main problem I have is that my modem periodically disconnects/re-connects and when my profile is reset it quickly downgrades until its at 160/448 or thereabouts, also I can hear the modem on the phone line regardless of which filter I use and the modem quite often disconnects when I pick up the phone (especially when I use an old corded phone).

I have a new openreach master socket, no extensions and a Asdl Nation XTE 2005 face plate. The only problem I can see is that the incoming wires on the master socket are reversed from what is shown at http://www.rob-r.co.uk/other/UKphonecatwiring.htm, ie - blue/white is connected to A and white/blue to B so my questions are:

A) If I reverse the connections is it likely to make any difference?
B) More importantly can BT tell if I do this?
C) I've read through a lot of the other posts and I'd guess it sounds like it might be a high resistance
problem. Does this sound likely?

My stats currently are:

Modem Status
Connection Status Connected
Ds Rate (Kbps) 544
Us Rate (Kbps) 448
DS Margin 17
US Margin 12
DS Line Attenuation 11
US Line Attenuation 7
Trained Modulation ADSL_G.dmt
LOS Errors 0
Peak Cell Rate 1056 cells per sec
CRC Rx Fast 0
CRC Tx Fast 0
CRC Rx Interleaved 0
CRC Tx Interleaved 0
Path Mode Interleaved

My modem is a Linksys ADSL2MUE. The Post Office supplied Zyxel has exactly the same problem except it disconnects more often.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

In reply to a post by g_jarvie:

intermittent popping and crackling on my phone line.

Do you get this with router discon'ed?

Do Quiet Line Test (dial 17070 Opt 2) with corded phone in test socket behind face plate and no router. If any noise report to voice provider as a voice fault. Do not mention BB.

Yes, I tried it with just the phone in the master socket for 5 minutes there and still got some popping. I had an engineer out on Friday, he ran though some tests including a Quiet Line and it all came back ok with a connection speed of around 6000 so he said he'd reset my profile to 5000 and away he went. It was fine at first but it started dropping/re-connecting and by Saturday morning it was back at 160. I'm worried that if I phone back again the next engineer is just going to do the same as the last, report it as ok and reset my profile, which doesn't help.

You've got a voice fault. Fix that 1st before worrying about the BB. Do not mention BB.

Right, I'll get on to the Post Office then. Thanks for your help

Edit - it's Post Office phone as well.

Edited by deleted (Sun 06-May-12 15:38:51)

I too have a Post Office Broadband account, and was getting 5mb download up until last week, where I now get 1.4mb.
Router homepage still shows 5mb, but I cannot get any higher than 1.4mb.
Line was noisy on phone but that has passed.
Used PO Zytel router and Linksys WAG354G with same issue.

Had a BT Openzone phone engineer out Friday, who tested line - no problem.
Now have a BT Openzone broadband engineer due tomorrow.

Wondering if it could be download to P2P hoarder in my area ?
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-enjoys-12-million...

A single P2P user cannot cause congestion with the DSL services, as exchange backhaul is a lot larger than any single user can use.

Generally congestion will improve in the hours 1am to 9am.

What are the router stats? If the noise margin and sync are all good, then unlikely any number of engineers attending will help.

Is the noise present when all the ADSL hardware is disconnected, and you test from the test socket?

ZyNOS Firmware Version: V3.40(BOD.1) | 06/08/2010
DSL Firmware Version: DMT FwVer: 3.11.11.84_A_TC

WAN Information
- DSL Mode: ADSL_G.dmt
- DSL Noise Margin (Down/UP): 5 dB /17 dB

noise margin upstream: 17 db
output power downstream: 19 db
attenuation upstream: 31 db
tone 0- 31: 00 00 00 22 66 77 88 76 77 77 77 77 77 66 55 20
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 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
noise margin downstream: 6 db
output power upstream: 12 db
attenuation downstream: 59 db
tone 0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 32- 63: 00 45 67 89 9a ab ba 6b ba cc cc cc cb bb 9c cc
tone 64- 95: 0c cc cc b9 8b bb cc cc cc c9 bc cc cc cc cc ba
tone 96-127: bc cc cc cb ba 8a aa bb bb aa a9 9a 99 aa aa aa
tone 128-159: 97 78 89 88 88 88 77 74 43 02 45 55 66 54 44 44
tone 160-191: 20 45 66 44 66 77 76 66 53 34 55 55 35 55 53 42
tone 192-223: 02 34 44 34 33 22 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 22 22 20
tone 224-255: 00 02 22 22 22 20 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 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

Need the connection speeds as well to make sense of the figures.