ZEN, BT, and 21st century technology

Let me make it quite clear at the outset that this will not be a rant about ZEN

I am on Zen 8000 LITE since February 2008 using a Speedtouch 536 purchased from ZEN.

From mid-December, after 42 days uptime, I began to experience multiple disconnections with the modem reconnecting almost immediately. By the end of December the modem had logged over 200 of these events so in January I began to query this with ZEN and began the process of eliminating my side of things ie changing filters and using the master socket directly. To eliminate the modem itself I borrowed another type of modem, which did not improve the situation.

Afterwards a ZEN Fault Reference was applied and I was visited 4 times by BT Engineers: all of them said the line was good and that there was no problem at the exchange. On the last visit the engineer checked my internal wiring and even fitted a filtered master socket in my home office. I showed them all graphs sent to me by ZEN showing the drops by days and also by times of day - they were all impressed but said the line was fine.

My dedicated Fault owner at ZEN pushed BT all the time, got them to change my connection at the exchange etc., and when we still did not have a stable line he arranged for a Cease and Re-Provide. We had meanwhile gone onto 21CN. After the Re-Provision my sync speed had doubled and all was well until I began to experience disconnections from the internet even though the router was showing me as being connected. A reboot of the router would get my Internet connection back.

Consequently, after over 2 months of trying I now have a connection that is actually worse than when I started to investigate the problem - at least I was automatically reconnected!

At the moment I am sinced at 6655 with S/N of 15db down.

Thankfully I use Virgin cable for TV so I can get a connection from them, although their reputation deters me.

Meanwhile I am toying with the idea of using an LLU provider like Be - a 12 month contract including modem is no big deal and perhaps their exchange equipment will solve all my problems....

I suppose the moral is do not trust modern technology which relies on 2 copper wires that were put there for an entirely different purpose

In reply to a post by DELEVENE:

I suppose the moral is do not trust modern technology which relies on 2 copper wires that were put there for an entirely different purpose

Those two copper wires are doing very well:-

- They supply the AC power to make your telephone ring.
- - And the signals giving you the number of the person ringing
- - And they carry the signal that you have answered the call
- - And then finished the incoming call
- They supply the DC power to make your telephone work.
- - And they carry the signals that you want to make a telephone call
- - And the signals containing the address of who you want to talk to
- - And the signals back about the progress of the call
- - And then your voice is carried over the same wires
- - Together with the voice of the person you are talking to
- - Followed by the signal that you have finished the outgoing call
- And all of it, whilst connecting half a dozen computers to the Internet.
- - And, of course, handling another internet telephone or two.

Not bad for two analogue copper wires, laid in the ground 50 years ago, or more.

Ahh, that's why my broadband is bad ..... I have analogue wire !

Sandgrounder, very smart reply but the might of BT can't give me a simple stable internet connection in spite of all the other wonderful things you list. Perhaps you have some constructive ideas, after all I have been very patient for a very long time ( ZEN have commented on how co-operative and patient I am!).

Regards.

You should probably pray that the condition devolves into a hideous voice fault, then 151 it. There is no other way.

A modem should not lock up, that suggests that while the primary cause may be spurious noise a modem that auto reconnects would help.

That is down to experimentation, as what works on one line, may not work on another.

If the issue is impulse noise, and BT has looked at and found no wiring issues, then talk to neighbours see if they have similar, if yes, then an AM radio and some hunting to find the source.

An after thought.

Have you tried forcing the modem to connect using ONLY ADSL G.992.1 mode?

Saffron, thank you for your response. I will liaise with ZEN on the idea you suggest.

There is a PTO engineer being dispatched which will look for specific faults on the line and equipment. He has also been given the number for the REIN Helpdesk to help try and source the issue.

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

In reply to a post by DELEVENE:

I suppose the moral is do not trust modern technology which relies on 2 copper wires that were put there for an entirely different purpose

Those two copper wires are doing very well:-

- They supply the AC power to make your telephone ring.
- - And the signals giving you the number of the person ringing
- - And they carry the signal that you have answered the call
- - And then finished the incoming call
- They supply the DC power to make your telephone work.
- - And they carry the signals that you want to make a telephone call
- - And the signals containing the address of who you want to talk to
- - And the signals back about the progress of the call
- - And then your voice is carried over the same wires
- - Together with the voice of the person you are talking to
- - Followed by the signal that you have finished the outgoing call
- And all of it, whilst connecting half a dozen computers to the Internet.
- - And, of course, handling another internet telephone or two.

Not bad for two analogue copper wires, laid in the ground 50 years ago, or more.

Being picky, but they don't carry all of those items as separate signals. E.g

calling number, call answer, call disconnect, off-hook, call number, voice, etc

are all the same signal insofar as the twisted pair are concerned.

50 years... and if BT has their way, they'll still be there in 50years time too.