Broadband connection problems

Bruce,

I just googled BT test socket vs master socket and found this:

http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Kn...socket?Keywords=adsl

It seems that your performance us guaranteed at this point and everything beyond it, including the master socket, is subject to potential degradation?

I had problems at my old house for years which turned out to be the line to the house - took them countless goes to find it, extremely frustrating... I seem to recall that Richard also had problems recently, worth searching for that thread?

phil

Thanks

I've spent ages perusing BT's help pages never found that!

If it all works fine through the test socket then can I just keep using that??

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

We recently had our line checked by an Open Reach broadband engineer. No dropouts but Sky Broadband were insisting we should be getting a much faster speed (I did try & explain we were right out in the sticks & their quoted speed wasn't feasible, but they seemed to know better...).

Anyway, the engineer who came out was extremely helpful, confirmed anything faster than our nominal 1.5 Mbits wasn't possible, but kindly fitted a new type of socket that incorporates the filter. This did seem to improve the speed and was a better solution than the dangly filters because it separated the phone line directly at the master socket.

Maybe might be a good solution for you?

Yup, I endured 3 years of constant BB dropping which BT seemed unable to fix.  In the end I had an engineer come who finally managed to pinpoint some tiny little abberation on the line about half a mile away.  He went to investigate and found a junction box with severe corrosion on the connections.  He spent a bit of time cleaning them up and things have so far been great, although I do notice that drop outs are starting to happen again after periods of lots of rain...

Thanks all

if the issue was at some junction box down the line would that not also affect the test socket connection?

Have you any 'phone extensions going off from the main socket? My understanding is that with a normal master socket box because these are connected before the output socket they can degrade the line, hence when you connect directly to the internal master socket you bypass these connections.

 Only one extension in the main house. We have a long wired extenson to an adjacent building.

It has been there for 3 years and nothing has altered but the line is quite exposed to the elements as it crosses over.

I may take it out of the system and see if that helps

A few years back I suffered from intermittent drop outs, a BT engineer tested the signal to our master socket and advised that there was no problem with the incoming line. I then decided to reroute buy a separate modem/cable router connecting the modem to the master socket and running some 50 Mt of cat 6 cable round the exterior of the house to where my router is sited.This gave a useful boost to my download speed. However I still suffered drop out  issues. 

Some time later when we were having our front drive replaced the workman knocked on our door, and apologised for the fact that he had sliced through a cable in running under the driveway. It turned out it was the BT line into our house. we called BT to repair/replace and when their engineer removed the old cable there were 3 electrical connectors joining the wire together, presumable due to it being cut in the past. He agreed that this was the cause of the intermittent drop out issues due to rain water penetration, he replaced it with a the current grade of cable which was laid in conduit. We have never had a drop out since and our download speed hits the advised maximum for our site, and the ping measure is exceptionally low at 12 ms which is indicative of very good connections along the line.

Gerry

I suspect that if it works fine from the test socket but not from the master socket the fault is internal.

A jolly few days swapping phones around beckons

Bruce

I'm not sure whether you can just keep using the test socket. No harm for now I guess?

As regards the long extension to the adjacent house that could well be a problem. As I understand it telephone lines are sensitive to capacitance, hence the 'ren' number that used to be a major consideration in how many appliances that could be plugged in at home - this is less of a problem now without multiple analogue telephone extensions (most are now digital/DECT), and without fax machines/separate answer machines etc.  However, an extra long line may have a larger amount of 'parasitic capacitance' than a regular one - think what a 100m length of NACA5 would 'look' like to a NAP 250 for example...

I wonder whether you have an ADSL filter on your extensions? Including the long one to next door? If you've already covered this, try again on the standard socket without the extra long extension in etc etc.

A process of elimination I expect. Good luck!

phil

This makes interesting reading as I spent a significant time at the weekend speaking to BT about our broadband dropping out.  We are in a rural location and are lucky to get 2Mb download speeds but for the last few days we have had regular flashing orange lights on the hub.  BT said it was a problem with the area in general and are going to monitor it over the next few days.  I'm a bit irked as we get rubbish speeds and then no service at all - I wonder what I am paying for!

Update

We seem to have identified that the phone plugged into the cottage exetnsion (via a microfilter I should add) was the problem. Taking it out made the line stable, and using a different handset seems to have not caused any blips. Maybe early days but looking OK.

I know everyone slags off BT but during this process we have had very good service from the help desk. We had an external fault check by two engineers on a Sat pm within 2 hours of my call (and being advised it may be up to 48hrs). We've had helpful methodical advice from the telephone and online service with no long queues. They seem to have rapidly had access to our file and not had to start all over again and they have booked several follow up calls to us that have taken place exactly on the dot.

Our rural location gets about 3.5-4Mb/s on a good day. I'm sure we will never get fibre where we live and since I don't feel the need to stream movies or TV this is actually fast enough.

Dave-that is a different fault to ours. I'm pretty sure that implies a line fault

Bruce

Bruce,

Glad to hear that your problem is sorted.

Took about 20 minutes to get through to BT on Sunday afternoon but once you do, I agree that they are pretty efficient.  We had the same issue some 2 months ago which eventually an engineer came out to fix (problem with a local junction box) so I am a bit annoyed that the same fault has re-occurred so soon.  They have since phoned back to say this time that it is a line fault and that they have fixed it.  We (and they) are continuing to monitor the line.  Fingers crossed.

We have been told that we may get BT Infinity some time next year if we are all good girls and boys!

Thats a good tip for all forumites with similar problems

I used to have a lot of problems that BT help-desk peeps(bless'em) tried for too long to solve. They said they can see a problem but could see no line faults.  Long story later a BT man with a van turned up & pronounced the problem was the rats nest of the BT installed cables around the house left over from my working days with phone(s) fax & telex (remember them)

He ripped them all out & installed a single cable to just one socket with integral filter & we use only a pair of cordless phones.  Line speed doubled, no drop outs & happy customer again

The tip is not to have wired extensions all over - I'm sure someone from the Suffolk area can tell us why but my guess its got RFI somewhere

Separate subject also on BT technical problems

Just last month after a month or so of constant drop outs, the help desk said nothing wrong, growing anger & frustration finally ended with the help desk offering engineer visit but couched in the threat that if its my problem I get charged £130.  

The engineer arrived & with his standard tests & very quickly diagnosed a line fault 500m away - thats at the exchange j-box he said,  I'll be back in 15 mins

He came back & said he has put me on "another pair" & he tested & reported line test as good. I've had no more drop out & a line speed of around 16mbps meenz I'm a happy camper

.......... makes me wonder how effective the BT remote testing system is,  u can't beat a man with a toolbox 

I have just recorded a connection speed of 82.32mbps and I live in the jungle!

Must be Eywa-driven.

Good thread this. My father's been having similar issues in deepest Kernow.  Very helpful.

Slightly off topic, but I have an engineer scheduled to install Infinity (FTTC) in early May and this will involve changing the master socket and micro filter with a different socket that separates voice from data.

So, I am wondering whether BT are phasing out the micro filters or whether it's specific to the VDSL architecture that goes with FTTC/FTTP? I notice that if you go for a slower Infinity connection you don't need an engineer visit and micro filters are used, so instead is it to do with the speed vs noise on the line?

The excellent thing for me is that after being persistent and persuasive, I am to be supplied with a modem only (rather than a Home Hub) , so I can use my router as I wish and have not turn it into a bridge or switch off elements of the homehub and then have it revert back when BT do automatic firmware updates to the Homehub. Worth knowing for some, I guess.

Also, the Openreach site has good information on the rollout plan for fibre, exchange by exchange. My exchange was due to be live in June, it quietly went live last week.  

Very excited 

Jude

I had FTTC installed last July and its excellent I consistently get over 70 mbs. I use the BT modem, without a micro filter, with a separate (Netgear) router some 50 metres away.  

I also got mine earlier than the scheduled date as I believe the date they quote is when all cabinets in the exchange area will have been updated, but they will offer activation to  properties when their cabinet has been updated.

Gerry

Just caught this thread. Absolutely the best way to go with ADSL is to use one master ADSL filter on the master socket. This usually really improves performance if extension sockets are used. Also try and keep your master circuit as close to the cable entry point into your house as you can.

The other to watch is modem type. You find that BT and carriers such as Sky where LLU has occurred use different MSANs (exchange ADSL modems). Each MSAN uses a different DSP and chipset and so you find work most effectively with specific consumer ADSL modems.

Therefore a modem that is  optimum for BT might not be optimum for Sky for example.

Because of this there are advantages in using the recommended ISP modem unless you know what you doing.

I increased my sync stability and my line speed by over 30% simply by changing modem chipset and DSP. This differences tend to be more dramatic on long lines or rural ADSL lines.

Mike indeed RFI is a curse to broadband. Both natural and man made, with the latter cheap/poorly engineered  solar panel inverters, Ethernet over Powerline, and noisy SMPS can be bad culprits.

As far as natural RFI, one tip is to power cycle your ADSL just before sunrise. With many rural lines you will get a better sync speed than just after sun set or during the day. But only do this infrequently as the line monitoring equipment might think there is an issue with your modem and initiate a lower sync speed and adjust your profile.

Simon