Did something just go pop?

[Niall]

I've had a rock solid connection for about 4 weeks, but at 18:08 it dropped and my upload is now 696 where it was just under 1100 and my download has dropped from 14000 to just over 8mb speeds.

Did something just break?

[Glenn]

my connection is fine, still sync'd at 2.7mb

[Niall]

I bet it's those bloody BT workers having a drink with their sunday lunch

[Niall]

I rebooted my router and synced at just under 14000 again, then my line dropped again, and it now UNDER 8mb which it's never been. This is a little bit concerning

As I was typing this, my line dropped again. Hmm. Showing just under 14000 again too. I expect this will last about 2 minutes again 

[Niall]

It seems it's dropped again while I was downstairs and is once again at under 8mb.

It's getting irritating now. I think I'll turn router off for a bit to see if that solves anything.

[Technical Ben]

All I can think of at the moment, is to rule out the router first. Baring in mind it's a Sunday. Hope you get it sorted!

[Niall]

It's flakey as hell. I've just restarted my router and my line is now 6mb which is the lowest it's ever been, that I can remember. Something is definitely knackered somewhere.

[Rik]

Solid here, Niall.

[Niall]

My sisters line is fine too, although in my experience their line does completely different things to mine. I've had 14mb speeds when theirs is constantly dropping. Looks like the shoe is on the other foot now.

It hasn't dropped since I've rebooted the router after powering down for a while, so I'll reboot it again in a mo to see if it resyncs at a higher speed. Although the last time I did that, it started rebooting over and over.

I'm off all week so I can play around with it when I'm bored

{edit} Rebooted again and now it's back at 14mb and seems to be stable. Web pages are loading faster too. That being said, I have just changed my network settings from auto detect, to specific IP and DNS, although I can't see why that'd have an effect.

Still, so far so good

[Niall]

Balls, just went down again. Suppose I'll have to ring support tomorrow if it's still doing it then.

ADSL Link                   Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    11466 kbps    992 kbps
Line Attenuation       31.0 db            18.6 db
Noise Margin            6.4 db            6.6 db   

This is what it's showing now. As I typed this it went all flakey and wouldn't post.

[Niall]

Now posting by phone as my connection is completely knackered. It connects then drops over and over. Ah well, vodka and TV it is

[Bill]

It connects then drops over and over. Ah well, vodka and TV it is

That happened to me once. A router reboot cured it, but shortly afterwards the router went belly up.

Nowadays I make sure I've always got a spare router, all set up and ready for a swap-out.

[Niall]

It's dropped over and over since my last post. I tried posting again while it was briefly up but it died as I was typing. The odd thing is, if I keep a download running the connection doesn't seem to drop, although that could just be coincidence at the moment.

My connection is showing as 13k as I type and things seem almost normal, but it's been doing that for 30 minutes then dropping constantly for an hour then coming back with 11k, then dropping to come back at a silly low figure (for this line) of around 6-8mb and then dropping constantly again.

It wouldn't surprise me if BT are doing work and haven't bothered to tell anyone, other than the people doing the work.

[Niall]

Well, in my usual tempting fate way I shall say that it seems to have stabilised about 20 minutes before my last post, and hasn't done anything nuts since.

[Niall]

Yep it just died. Ace.

[Bill]

Can you hear any noise on the line when it drops (Dial 17070, select option 2)?

[Niall]

I'll check that when it goes again. It seems that the problem is ongoing.

ADSL Link               Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    6654 kbps            993 kbps
Line Attenuation            33.5 db            19.5 db
Noise Margin            8.7 db            6.8 db

I'll reboot now and see what happens.

{edit}

ADSL Link                Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    6652 kbps            1100 kbps
Line Attenuation            31.0 db            18.3 db
Noise Margin            6.9 db                5.8 db

Well, something somewhere has gone all squinky (ace word ). I'll wait to see if the line drops, but hopefully it will just slowly increase as time goes by.

[Niall]

Can you hear any noise on the line when it drops (Dial 17070, select option 2)?

I've just tried that quiet line test now and one thing's for certain, quiet it is not! There's a lot of crackling on the line. I've always had a bit on my line, but this is similar to an issue I had years ago.

I wonder if the line is degrading. Hmm. It wouldn't surprise me as it's been there for over 30 years. I have had BT out to check the line about 8 years ago, who had to do repairs. Maybe the repairs are failing again.

[Rik]

Time to phone your voice provider...

[Niall]

Do what now? You mean phone IDnet support? I don't know much about solving problems with this sort of thing as I VERY rarely have problems.

Oh and on a side note, if I was to set up wireless, which of the following is best?:


WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)
WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key)
WPA-802.1x
WPA2-PSK(Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 with Pre-Shared Key)
WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK

[Rik]

If you have the phone with IDNet, then yes, phone them. I tend to use WPA2-PSK. WEP is a total waste of time.

[Niall]

As you can see, I know lots of stuff

[Niall]

Oo you know what, something has just occurred to me. My mum said to me yesterday that her phone isn't working. I assumed it was her actual phone, but it may just be a line fault. She said all she could hear was a loud whining noise when she picked up the phone. She can receive incoming calls that leave messages (she missed a VERY important call about her pension too!), but not the call themselves.

Why this has only just occurred to me I don't know. I'll go and check her phone now, and try it with my phone too, then report back. Arming myself with all the info I can, can only help!

[Bill]

Do what now? You mean phone IDnet support? I don't know much about solving problems with this sort of thing as I VERY rarely have problems.

If you pay your phone bill to IDNet, phone them. If you pay it to BT, phone them (150 I think).

If it's BT, tell them you have a noisy VOICE line, DO NOT mention broadband or ADSL or you'll be going around the houses forever.

[Rik]

She said all she could hear was a loud whining noise when she picked up the phone.

Have you tried a new filter?

[Niall]

Her phone is fine now, I just checked it (and got my sisters other half to phone her from work). There isn't any noise at all on her side of things. My line hasn't dropped at all today, although the sync is very low. I'm tempted to leave it and see what happens, although I suppose I should speak with IDnet, or send them an email just to be on the safe side of things.

Oh, and my line is connected via a faceplate that I managed to con BT into fitting. They tried to take it back at one point but couldn't get to it due to all the junk in the corner years ago, and as they're not allowed to touch it, asked me to return it, which I never

[Rik]

It would be better to. They can run some tests for you.

[Niall]

I've sent them an email with as much info as I can provide. Basically everything that's in this thread really

While my mums phone line is quiet, she doesn't have broadband on her line so I can't get any info regarding that side of things. I've mention it's a second line into the house, the issues she had yesterday, my broadband dropping and the noise on the line, and the work BT did on the line about 8 years ago.

I can't think of anything else that could help. To be honest I'm not sure there's anything they can to if it's a physical cable problem (although it may not be), but I'm confident they'll do their very best as usual

And on that note I better set up an email program on this PC I've also got to go and buy my cat some climbing frames and toys, as he's all depressed

[klipp]

Your Line Attenuation is up and down, you have the same problem as me.  IDNet will just say it's line degradation and offer you a BT visit (with obligatory £160 charge warning).  You have my sympathy.

[Niall]

They've checked my line and there's not a problem with it, but it's been stable all day, only dropping when I assume they did the test at 14:10 as I had an email 4 minutes later. They've asked me to do the usual test socket check to test noise on the line. Although I think that whatever happened has now sorted itself out as the line is stable now, but 8mb slower than it was. I assume it will climb over the next couple of days. I'll reboot the router in a moment to see if it syncs higher, although it probably wont now until it's settled.

The only thing is, the noise I have on my phone line has been there for years. Some days it's fine and others it's noisy, so I think it's more to do with line degradation personally as I know there's nothing wrong with any of the hardware at my end. The only thing it could possibly be is the filter in the master socket, or the line leading from it to the road.

[Niall]

Gah, busy afternoon!

I've bought a new Commtel faceplate but (here's a snippet from the email I've sent support)

... when attempting to connect it, the cables inside do not match the colour of the instructions. That faceplate on my line contains blue, black, white and orange wires whereas the faceplate I've bought lists in the instructions - white with orange band, orange with white band, white with blue banding and blue with white banding.

The plate I was using which was fitted by BT has a white wire and an orange one. The rest hadn't even been stripped back to be used.
I've tried just connecting the white and orange cables in each of the points the filter is suggesting but nothing works with it. I'm at a complete loss with regards to what I'm supposed to connect to where!

Incidentally, I've reconnected the original plate after cutting off a centimetre of wire on each of the orange and white wires and I've just tried the phone on it, and it is clear as a bell still. I don't know if the wire itself was the problem, but I might as well replace the unit. I'd appreciate any light you could shed on which wires are supposed to go where though!

Also it's just occurred to me that the wire itself was unlikely to be the source of the problem as connecting to the socket behind the filter had a clear line too. This is why I thought it was the filter. I suppose it's possible the wire was loose. It did crumble pretty easily as I was cutting it back a bit.

Anyway, I'm at a total loss. Nothing SEEMS to be knackered, but I'd still like to use this new faceplate to at least eliminate ALL problems at my end.

[Rik]

Could you take a photo of the wires on the back of the faceplate, Niall?

[Niall]

Could you take a photo of the wires on the back of the faceplate, Niall?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallallen/4875885685/

Only way I could think of doing it quickly

As you can see though, orange, white, black and green. Not banded wires as the instructions on the new faceplate/filter indicate.

[Rik]

That looks like they've used external cable to do the internal wiring. Very odd.  With a filtered faceplate fitted, it should make too much difference though.

[Niall]

That looks like they've used external cable to do the internal wiring. Very odd.  With a filtered faceplate fitted, it should make too much difference though.

That's the trouble though, I have no idea how to fit a new one as the wiring is wrong. Well I'm assuming it is

[Rik]

Sorry, we're getting at cross purposes I think Niall. That's the back of the NTE5, isn't it, not the faceplate.

[Glenn]

http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/wiring_info.htm

Orange  - 2
White  - 5

[Niall]

This is the plate they installed when I ordered ISDN years ago, then found out that the end of the week saw ADSL being introduced in Wrexham. They wanted the plate back but as they couldn't get to it because I keep junk (guitar & photo mags actually!) in that corner mainly to shield the plate from damage, they told my mum they weren't allowed to move personal items and I got to keep the plate. Today is the first time in about 10 years I've actually opened it, as you can tell by the dust from the original fitting a decade ago, still in it!

I'll leave it tonight anyway as I'm off to an open mic night tonight, so if whatever the problem was has gone/been fixed by BT, my line may increase over the next day or so anyway. As I mentioned though, I did snip the wires that were pretty brittle so maybe they were a bit cr*p. That being said, it's a bit coincidental that my mums phone line went very odd and unusable at the same time my internet started dropping. Now her phone works and my line isn't dropping, and my phone line is as clear as it's been since I had a phone fitted in my room about 14 years ago!

[Niall]

Sorry, we're getting at cross purposes I think Niall. That's the back of the NTE5, isn't it, not the faceplate.

The plate in the background of the photo is my BT fitted ADSL/Phone plate that I'm connected to  (showing the orange and white wires connected) as I type this, which is what I normally use. The plate at the bottom of the photo is the commtel one I bought today.

[Niall]

Oh and the plate with the two wires connected, has a filter connected at the front, as you can just make out if you look at the right of the photo. It's just a normal phone connector (whatever that's called) that it plugs in to.

I've just noticed how poo the iphone is at showing orange from red in low light too

[Rik]

Sorry, Niall, about to go offline, but do you have any extensions running from that socket. From the look of it, you don't, in which case you don't need to worry about colour coding.

[Niall]

No it's just that. I don't understand what you mean about colour coding? Are you saying I should be able to connect those cables, once I strip them back, to any number I want, apart from the two the instructions tell me are not used?

I'm more confused now

Nevermind, no rush. I'm off work and about to go for a kip as I'm shattered. I'll check back later.

ADSL Link     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    6652 kbps    1120 kbps
Line Attenuation    31.0 db    18.1 db
Noise Margin    6.1 db    6.0 db

These are my current stats after rebooting a minute ago. It seems to be stuck at 6652 now no matter what the noise margin is, although I don't know much about that sort of thing so it could be meaningless

[Niall]

http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/wiring_info.htm

Orange  - 2
White  - 5

Oo only just noticed this. I'll have a go tomorrow if my liver hasn't exploded

[Rik]

What I was getting at is that you appear to be wiring the back of the master socket, not the faceplate, Niall, so the colour schemes are different. If there are no extensions fitted, then just switching faceplates is all that's required.

[Niall]

I was told this by my sisters other half when we were out last night. I'm special

Also, the plate I bought doesn't fit as it's the wrong type. I've found an ADSL nation one that I'll order, which will do the trick, although I'm not sure if there's much point now. I've got no noise on the line at all now, although my profile seems to be stuck at the figure I mentioned before, no matter how many times I reboot the router. I'll try turning it off for a bit when I cut the grass after to see if that helps.

I've also discovered that after mentioning the fault my mum had on her phone line, that there was no fault. I checked the phones and they were the problem as one of the bases was warped, it wasn't sitting correctly, which was making a weird noise through the other phones!

Still, since first thing Monday, all the problems went away, I'm starting to wonder if it was a local problem that BT reset when the working week commenced. It could have gone after I cut back the wires on the master socket which removed corroded wire, but I'm sure I did that after IDnet support checked the line and found no fault, and the test socket revealed no noise.

I have absolutely no idea what was broken, and what was fixed!

[Rik]

Re-booting the router won't help your profile, Niall, if anything it will make things worse. The DLM software needs to see a stable line before it will increase the profile, this takes up to 5 days, depending on how much the sync speed has changed.

[Niall]

Yeah I think it's best if I leave well enough alone. When BT did work in this area the other month, my profile lost 6mb but recovered in a couple of days. At least it's stable and the upload speed is back to normal, so that'll make it easier to upload photos.

/backs away from tool box

[Rik]

 

[Niall]

ADSL Link                     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    11781 kbps    1127 kbps
Line Attenuation            31.0 db            18.1 db
Noise Margin            5.6 db            6.1 db

Seems to be sorting itself out already. Shame they've taken Mock the week off iplayer, I've got nothing I want to watch now

[Niall]

Oops, I just checked my emails and it was Brian that asked BT to reset it for me, which they obviously have

I'd forgotten I'd cheekily asked them to reset it if possible

[Rik]

 

I have that kind of memory.