Loss of sync

[Ninny]

It is a normal wired handset, Rik, this is why I find it odd to make that screeching noise. It's second hand though so who knows what could be wrong with it. I have a spare BT model phone somewhere and give that a go.

[Rik]

There should be nothing in that to cause a problem, Ninny. 

[Ninny]

Yes, but I'm clutching at straws here!

[Rik]

Sadly, so am I.

[Rik]

I've had a word with support, Ninny, who tell me that your line is showing upstream errors, despite having a good sync this morning. That almsot always indicates a noise problem within the house or in the immediate vicinity.

IIRC, you have your master socket in the loft and it is an NTE5? Can you, initially, move your router to the test socket, ie remove the faceplate and connect the router to the test socket which will be revealed? Keep it like that for a day or two. If the problems stop, then you are looking at an issue with your extension wiring. Do you have multiple extension sockets? If so, it would be a case of re-connecting one at a time and waiting a couple of days to see if they have an impact on stability.

It's always possible that the issue is external, but you'll need to 'acquit' your wiring before being able to tackle that. I have known a case where one faulty Sky box took out an entire street, it put so much noise on the line.

[Ninny]

Thanks Rik. I've tried this before though and was still getting line drops. We only have one master socket with no extensions, and wires are unconnected apart from the A + B pair.

The router is connected to this socket via a cat5 extension cable which goes through the loft, piped along right next to a tv aeriel wire, though I don't think this is the problem as when the router is moved to the master socket and plugged directly into the test socket I still get line drops and noise on the line.

But I wil plug the router directly in again via the test socket for a day or two just to see if there's any difference/improvement, and will monitor the results.

[Rik]

If there's no improvement, Ninny, you're looking at asking BT to sort the problem which could, depending where (or if) they find a fault, prove expensive. There's definitely noise there somewhere, the more you can do to track it down the better. I am right in thinking you've tried an alternative router, aren't I?

[Ninny]

Yes, I was using an eTec router, and Ted very kindly gave me a 2wire he had spare. Also Gary sent me a filtered faceplate to rule out fault filter issues. So I'm pretty convinced it's something external causing the problem as I've tried almost everything else. You never know though...

[Rik]

I think you're right, but we want to get you to the point where BT can't point the finger at anything after your master socket.

[Ninny]

It's been in the test socket for a day now and I'm still getting lots of line drops, this is what my noise margin looks like at some periods of the day:

[Rik]

Let IDNet have that graph, Ninny (and any more you collect). I think they are going to have to get BT out to you.

[Sebby]

Yep, think it's the only option.

[gwidnet]

Actually strangely I've had 3 losses of sync since yesterday as well

Sun, 2002-09-08 12:00:25 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.15
Sun, 2002-09-08 12:00:36 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2002-09-08 12:00:37 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2002-09-08 12:00:44 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2002-09-08 12:00:46 - Send out NTP request to time-g.netgear.com
Sat, 2009-06-13 10:19:24 - Receive NTP Reply from time-g.netgear.com
Sat, 2009-06-13 10:20:09 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.15
Sat, 2009-06-13 10:18:38 - Router start up
Sat, 2009-06-13 10:29:03 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.15
Sat, 2009-06-13 11:51:29 - Loss of synchronization :1
Sat, 2009-06-13 12:29:19 - LCP down.
Sat, 2009-06-13 12:29:35 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2009-06-13 12:29:35 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2009-06-13 12:29:56 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2009-06-13 12:30:00 - Loss of synchronization :2
Sat, 2009-06-13 12:34:43 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.15
Sun, 2009-06-14 07:49:54 - Loss of synchronization :3
Sun, 2009-06-14 07:50:08 - LCP down.
Sun, 2009-06-14 07:50:13 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2009-06-14 07:50:13 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2009-06-14 07:50:33 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2009-06-14 07:50:44 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.15

obviously not too much to get too worried about but I just thought I would let you know. this is unusual, it's been rock steady ages

(dg834g v1)

Glyn

[Rik]

Can you run Routerstats, Glyn, and see what your noise margin is doing over time?

[Sebby]

Also, as you're using a v1 Netgear, have you ensured you're running the latest firmware?

[Ninny]

Gah! I'm at my wits end, for the last 3 days my IP profile is set to 750k, without my sync ever dropping much below 3,000k it seems. The BT speedtester should have updated my Profile within a few hours of registering a 3,000 k sync but this is days later and still nothing.

I have tried sending copies of my Profile and routerstats screenshots but I keep getting told I need to contact BT about the issue. I have contacted BT about the issue a number of times and the same thing always gets done - nothing! The problem is INTERMITTANT so when the engineer turned up he just listened to the phone and said there wasn't a problem and then tried to charge me £160 before he left. BT's staff are so useless at doing anything I completely hate having to call them up, as I just get told lies about the line being tested and being fine.

I really wanted to IDnet to use their expertise to sort the problem out through BT directly, have someone visit the exchange or something. But they have said that since there is noise on my line it is a BT voice line problem. The point is my line is contantly dropping even when there is no apparent static on the line, but only rarely is there actually lots of noise when the phone is picked up. So I regard it as an ADSL problem more than a voice line problem. So what can I do about this? If I need to ring up BT is there anything specific I can use to actually get them to go to the exchange and run some tests, rather than just turn up at my house, do nothing, and try and charge me £160 again?

[Simon]

I know it's probably already been said, but you need to report it to BT as a VOICE fault, not an ADSL one, as they will take no notice otherwise, as long as you have some sort of ADSL service, no matter, it seems, how poor it is.  It does make things difficult when the problem is intermittent, but does it tie in with any particular weather events, or time of day / night, etc?

[Ninny]

Simon, I have already lodged a complaint about it a number of times registering it as a VOICE problem, no mention of ADSL. As I said, nothing gets done, an engineer turned up the first time and didn't do anything. They were going to send an engineer around again recently, but he never turned up - and as I said - I don't want an engineer coming to my house, I want someone to run tests at the exchange. I don't want someone to turn up here again and charge me £160 for nothing!

The point is there is rarely noise on the line yet my ADSL is dropping constantly - so I don't think this is a voice line fault. And there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it as far as I can discern. If I have to contact BT how do I get them to test things from the exchange? As I've had my router linked up to the test socket for days and the problem is exactly the same. It's driving me spare to be honest!

[Simon]

I understand the frustration, and it's ridiculous the lengths you have to go to to get BT to accept that there's a problem their side of the line.  I have to admit, I struggle with the technologies, so forgive me if this is useless, but it seems, reading back through the thread, that you've tried the test socket, and are still getting the disconnections.  I just wonder, could there be a problem with the actual test socket itself?  Is there any other wiring in the vicinity?  What's your external phone wiring like?  Has the ring wire we hear about so much been disconnected?  Sorry for clutching at straws, but it's the best I can do. 

[Rik]

Ninny, tell BT that you keep hearing other people's conversations when you use the phone. Allegedly, the first thing they'll do is change your exchange pair.

[Lance]

That's certainly what they did for me rik when I logged a intermittent cross talk problem.

[Sebby]

Yep, that sounds like a good idea to me.