line gone faulty ?

[exxos]

Hi all, I'm with idnet for phone and adsl, though the phoneline has been going on and of the past few days, we can't hear much from the caller its gone very quiet and theres crackles on the line even when you just pick up the phone. We tried 2 phones, and direct into the master socket (a iffy adapter was found but had not solve the problem any).

Anyway, I tried the BT line checker and it said it can't do it "on this type of line" which I assume as its not with BT but idnet.

I know ive had problems with net for a long time, though I was going to change the phone extension cable, but never got around too it. However the noise figures seems to be getting worse on my router, which must be down to a line fault somewhere.

ADSL Link             Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed   4576 kbps   448 kbps
Line Attenuation   43.0 db   24.5 db
Noise Margin   15.0 db   27 db

I'm not sure how bad those figures are, but going by my girlfriends readings (shes on a sky package) they seem bad ?

ADSL Link             Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed   17829 kbps   1112 kbps
Line Attenuation                28.0 d              11.5 db
Noise Margin               3.00 db                9.0 db

[Steve]

It sounds as if you've got a voice fault if you've got crackles on the line and this will of course affect your broadband.

The BT speedtest will work with IDNet normally, looking at your router stats as you say your margin is elevated and your downstream has suffered you should get 6-7K with a 43db attenuation on adslmax.

I suggest report a voice fault and see how you go.

[Glenn]

IS your BB on  BE LLU connection, if so then the BT speedtester will not work.

Does the Quiet line test work on the phone, dial 17070, press option 2 (quiet line test)?

[exxos]

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 4.5Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 3Mbps and 7.5Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 6Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 3.5Mbps and 8.5Mbps. Our test also indicates that your line could support an estimated ADSL 2+ Annex-M broadband upstream line speed of 1Mbps and downstream line speed of 6Mbps; typically the downstream speed would range between 3.5Mbps and 8.5Mbps.


Does it cost much more to switch to ADSL2 ?

[Steve]

There is a transfer charge of around £12 I believe but the bonus is increased bandwidth allowances compared to adslmax. I would try to get the fault fixed first as it's likely to be even more unstable on adsl2+

[exxos]

IS your BB on  BE LLU connection, if so then the BT speedtester will not work.

Does the Quiet line test work on the phone, dial 17070, press option 2 (quiet line test)?

I tried the test, it seems to not crackle now, but even the number tones were crackling before. All I can hear is a odd buzzing which gets lounder and louder then goes quieter n quieter  its not that loud overall though.

[Steve]

IS your BB on  BE LLU connection, if so then the BT speedtester will not work.

True, but looking at the upstream of 448 it looks like BT to me.   It's probably worth connecting the router to the test socket and getting the stats on connection that will determine whether there's any interference on your side of the socket.

[exxos]

There is a transfer charge of around £12 I believe but the bonus is increased bandwidth allowances compared to adslmax. I would try to get the fault fixed first as it's likely to be even more unstable on adsl2+

Home pro vs home max both are the same price, though im not sure if our line does adsl+ or not ?

[exxos]

True, but looking at the upstream of 448 it looks like BT to me.   It's probably worth connecting the router to the test socket and getting the stats on connection that will determine whether there's any interference on your side of the socket.

I think it is BT, not yourselves, its always had a limit of about 4mb, In uttoxeter we are lucky to even have adsl at all really. Was just wondering if the line does support adsl+ maybe worth a upgrade ?

[Steve]

Re Be* : IDNet have a tie in with Be* to transfer some of their customers on Be* enabled exchanges to route via that network to IDNet rather than BTw's backbone.

[exxos]

Re Be* : IDNet have a tie in with Be* to transfer some of their customers on Be* enabled exchanges to route via that network to IDNet rather than BTw's backbone.

I did look at joining Be before idnet, but they didn't support it in our area. I can't remember exactly what went on, but all the other ISP's were on some kind of wholesale package from BT or something, Can't remember what it was exactly, but idnet seemed to differ and actually gave promised speeds, I probably ranted about all this in another thread some time ago, but my friend knows Simon I think really well, so he recommended idnet, been on idnet every since. Considering all the problems I had before at least I have a stable internet. Idnet charge a lot more, but at least when something does goes wrong I can get help easy enough, and my net actually works and has been stable, so worth the cost. I should really move in with my girlfriend, super fast adsl around notts and always seems to be getting faster 

[exxos]

ADSL before

ADSL Link             Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed   4576 kbps     448 kbps
Line Attenuation     43.0 db         24.5 db
Noise Margin          15.0 db         27 db


ADSL2

ADSL Link               Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed  6310 kbps          1231 kbps
Line Attenuation     45.5 db          23.5 db
Noise Margin     15.00 db          6.0 db


Strange that up noise has gone down somewhat. Though I found the problem of our bad phoneline. Turns out, our master box actually has one hell of a draft comming though the wall and the box and contacts had gone totally black with dirt and dust. I took the box off the wall, cleaned it all up, re-fitted the wires, bunged foam behind the socket to stop the drafts, and our phoneline has been fine since. BT would have charged I think £75 to come and do that!

Upgrade to ADSL2 seems to have given a fair increase in speed. The upload tends to be more important than download speedsm in anycase, its gone up a lot in speed. 

[Rik]

It would go down as your speed has gone up.

[exxos]

ADSL Link                  Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed   5667 kbps   1208 kbps
Line Attenuation           45.5 db   23.5 db
Noise Margin           13.15 db   5.5 db

Strange really, I never seen a ping that fast before! Was checking my email today (have many accounts) and normally takes a few seconds to check each one, I didn't hardly even see the box it checked mail so fast 

[Rik]

Something is increasing your target noise margin.

[exxos]

  The internet seems great, not good when those sites seems to give conflicting information though.

According to my router the figures overall seem better.

[exxos]

I thought my net was running really slow, I dont know why the upload has just hit rock bottom like that ? I have noticed the router going off 3 or 4 times each day, but just presume that will settle down in time(just swapped to ADSL2 from ADSL), should I reboot my router or is that going to make things worse ?

[pctech]

If you've just had your line regraded its best to leave it alone.

Excessive reboots of the router will be interpreted as instability and the sync rate will be reduced,

If the DLM sees that the router has been stable for x number of days (this seems to be random) it'll increase the sync rate.

[exxos]

ok thanks, ill leave it alone for now.  I have not rebooted the router for probably months, so will see how it goes.