Long Line - New ISP

Hi,

I moved into a new build property nine months ago and got circa 5mb downloads from TalkTalk LLU on the Mitcham exchange. Unfortunately the cabinet has not been updated to fibre, (see my other post from last year) and although Virgin are about 10 metres away, they are not interested in connecting up the development.

Suddenly, two weeks ago, I lost complete sync with TalkTalk with both a Bright Spark and BT Openreach engineer coming out to my property. In two weeks, I've only been connected to the internet for an hour. However, service can not be restored as the BTO report back to TalkTalk states that the line is too long to hold service. The BTO engineer could sync at the cab at 6mb, but when he put 30m of cable on to replicate my line, absolutely nothing. However, all the BTO (voice?) tests completed passed as part of a two hour SFI.

TalkTalk have written me a 'we are cancelling your contract without penalty' letter but I need to find a new ISP to restore broadband service. Hopefully in a number of months, Hyperoptic are going to install services but that is still a hope as they haven't had formal confirmation from the development freeholder and that doesn't solve my immediate need.

Getting a short term broadband service is essential to my job. Any suggestions?

The obvious ISP that springs to mind is AAISP. They generally excel at fixing these sorts of issues (assuming that anyone can get BT to fix it). Expect to pay a bit of a premium though as you are looking for someone with the skills and resources to fix an issue but you are not planning to use them for long enough for them to shape any costs over length on contract.

Next time you connect to the exchange can you obtain and post the router line stats,

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Still haven't connected since but the stats from 3rd of May were:

ADSL (Sync) Summary
System uptime: 177:23:49
Modem ADSL (Sync) uptime: 2:58:51
Interleaving: On
ADSL mode: G.DMT
ADSL settings: PVC:0/38
ADSL line speed (kbps): up 704 down 4960
Line attentuation (dB): up 31.5 down 51.0
SN margin (dB): up 6.0 down 8.3
Total errors seconds: 0

Line is not excessively long or slow, but you were runnimg on ADSL1 when ADSL2 or even ADSL2+ would be faster.

Getting a short term broadband service is essential to my job. Any suggestions?

So you will be looking for an ISP who can provide a monthly contract as opposed to 12 or 18 month contracts?
More well known ones e.g. Zen, Plusnet spring to mind plus there are others called resellers like Xilo/Uno, Vivaciti, Aquiss

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/otherisp.html

I too would say that your line isn't that excessively long especially when compared to the one I have to use.

I don't know which router you are using, but have you tried one that has a reputation for holding onto synch on longer lines? I've had success with the older BT Business hubs 2700HGV made by TwoWire on a couple of friends problematic lines, they are daft cheap on fleabay. Billion also have a good reputation, some models have firmware features that really help with long lines.

If you are at all able to fiddle some of those 2700s with earlier firmware can be easily unlocked to work with all ISPs

http://bt2700hgv.tripod.com/002.htm

Came home tonight and it was connected with the following stats:

ADSL (Sync) Summary
System uptime: 45:30:40
Modem ADSL (Sync) uptime: 0:08:46
Interleaving: On
ADSL mode: G.DMT
ADSL settings: PVC:0/38
ADSL line speed (kbps): up 608 down 3072
Line attentuation (dB): up 31.5 down 52.0
SN margin (dB): up 10.0 down 17.0
Total errors seconds: 0

I have a 60 dB line and get 3.5 Meg so this sounds odd to me.

Try Zen or AAISP

Edited by techguy (Fri 09-May-14 19:09:42)

In reply to a post by thewillows:

Came home tonight and it was connected with the following stats:

ADSL (Sync) Summary
System uptime: 45:30:40
Modem ADSL (Sync) uptime: 0:08:46
Interleaving: On
ADSL mode: G.DMT
ADSL settings: PVC:0/38
ADSL line speed (kbps): up 608 down 3072
Line attentuation (dB): up 31.5 down 52.0
SN margin (dB): up 10.0 down 17.0
Total errors seconds: 0

So another recent fibre enabled exchange, where problems have occurred with adsl line Strange.
Looks like plenty of room for faster speeds. Maybe worth re checking with TT forum.

If you can take another set of line stats with router connected to the TEST socket within the master socket (if you have that type) :-

http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/master-socket-...

Make sure the PC is wired to the router as you don't want to be using a wireless connection when obtaining the line stats.