Discons (AGAIN!), They Never Really Went Away!

RandomGeeza · Mar 01, 2014, 21:07:39

Agreed.

Although that gives BT/OR resellers even more reason to challenge. BT is already reputably bad, it's a shame that the smaller yet more customer friendly ISP's are risking their own reputations by not doing so, whether they are met with a brick wall or not.

I personally think it is laughable, the state of communications network in this country, a free market...? My ar*e! Just like water and other services... but that's a whole different story and very off topic.

Actually looking forward to Monday... Hopefully the eng will turn up and that will be the end of it.

FYI: Another three discons today... no bad weather, so that pattern seems irrelevant. My sync is up and down like a pair of ***** pants.

RandomGeeza · Mar 03, 2014, 16:58:37

Mr BT turned up. Young, friendly, informative guy. Seemed to know what he was doing and what needed to be done. Took approx. four hours.

Following enhancement of the line, he also sorted out the pairing... which means nothing to me. Went around the street with his radio tuned into MW... fitted an iPlate, did some more tests which actually demonstrated the dropouts and concluded that a REIN investigation be opened. He based this assumption on the fact that several houses in the area are all suffering the same situation as me. But, he could not understand why others in this block or building (30 apartments in all) were not experiencing drop outs? He was hoping that it was more hardware than REIN, because trying to find the source of REIN is an almost impossible feat. BT/OR agreed to open the REIN case, so another appointment has to be arranged.

So, as it happens there were some issues, and still are... Case ongoing.

RandomGeeza · Mar 05, 2014, 07:58:56

Checked my stats this morning, as I now do every morning over my cuppa T. Sure enough another discon, 1am on the head. Long after I was asleep and all appliances in this flat turned off. Can't think of anything outside that may have turned off/on. It's a quiet street full of families, so most are tucked up long before 11pm on a school night.

GRRR! $:-\$

Lance · Mar 05, 2014, 08:21:39

1am is right in the window for BT work which could have been the cause. Unfortunately they don't always advise in advance they are doing it, nor do they admit afterwards

Gary · Mar 05, 2014, 08:34:33

Stick your area code in here, it will hopefully show any work going on. http://status.zen.co.uk/broadband/

RandomGeeza · Mar 05, 2014, 08:42:09

No such luck... BOO!

Edit: Although a helpful link, will keep an eye on that one.... Cheers Gary.

And a pre-warn for a drop out on the 7th...

Gary · Mar 05, 2014, 08:55:27

Quote from: RandomGeeza on Mar 05, 2014, 08:42:09
No such luck... BOO!

Edit: Although a helpful link, will keep an eye on that one.... Cheers Gary. And a pre-warn for a drop out on the 7th...

No worries, it is useful for keeping an eye on things. Good luck with the REIN

Bill · Mar 05, 2014, 09:29:56

Quote from: Gary on Mar 05, 2014, 08:34:33
Stick your area code in here, it will hopefully show any work going on. http://status.zen.co.uk/broadband/

Useful link that... if I put my area code in I get (for 7th March):

QuoteAs part of BT?s ongoing capacity activities, which maintains best possible customer service, the following exchanges will be impacted by change (Abingdon). The capacity work in question is (SVLAN moves for capacity - programme number 6) within the exchange to move service from a heavily loaded device to one with spare capacity. There will be one service outage to End-Users of approximately 60 minutes within the period 01:00 - 07:00.

Strictly speaking I'm not on the Abingdon exchange, but I've no idea where the fibre goes. It will be interesting to see if I get any effect on my BQMs when they've finished

RandomGeeza · Mar 05, 2014, 14:04:35

Quote from: Gary on Mar 05, 2014, 08:55:27
No worries, it is useful for keeping an eye on things. Good luck with the REIN

Mr BT REIN turned up unannounced, just as well I'm always in.

Anywho... he did his tests, also randomly checked other properties in the block and is convinced that it is not REIN. He is seeing huge error rates across most of the connections but not all. As a result, he suspects cabling... it was also error-ing at the CAB. He has REIN checked the block and my apartment and it ain't us or our kit.

So, that's a load off, as it will be much easier to isolate, identify and fix. He's coming back on Friday afternoon to give it the works.

We might finally have some light at the end of the tunnel.

Glenn · Mar 05, 2014, 14:21:37

Hope it's not the train coming

RandomGeeza · Mar 05, 2014, 16:11:34

Quote from: Glenn on Mar 05, 2014, 14:21:37
Hope it's not the train coming

Likewise....

Lance · Mar 06, 2014, 11:37:49

Glad you're getting somewhere with this!

Gary · Mar 06, 2014, 12:12:53

REIN does not need to be from your block though it could be from anywhere, thats the thing. We turned the power off to our home and just ran the PC from the smart UPS so no REIN from our bungalow, but it could have been be from anyone that's attached to the cab in theory or something that's picking up RFI, say like a pump. Southern water put new pumps in to stop the floods and one of them was emitting a ton of RFI that my engineer mate found, and was close to our cab not sure if that got sorted as by then FTTC was soon to be on. Hope its not any of that, and its an easy fix for you.

Baz · Mar 08, 2014, 08:40:34

Quote from: Gary on Mar 05, 2014, 08:34:33
Stick your area code in here, it will hopefully show any work going on. http://status.zen.co.uk/broadband/

so is it possible to check even closer and see whats happening in your local exchange

RandomGeeza · Mar 09, 2014, 10:12:30

Mr BT called on Friday as promised, which was encouraging. To know someone has taken ownership is a relief.

Anywho, because we haven't had a drop since his tweaking and re-pairing on Wednesday, he has diarised to call, end of this week coming.

Having checked the stats this morning, up to 4 days uptime with no loss, and the SNR appears to be lowering as the DLM steadies the settings.

Could he have fixed it? I hope so... Although, experience has showed that this could be a lull before the storm, so to speak. Fingers crossed though.

He also mentioned that it was not REIN and that he was 99.9% sure it was a wiring fault.

Shame I can't bill BT for £140+VAT as a result of bettering their network.

mervl · Mar 09, 2014, 12:38:25

Quote from: RandomGeeza on Mar 09, 2014, 10:12:30
Shame I can't bill BT for £140+VAT as a result of bettering their network.

You probably could if we all paid much more than the tenner or so they get of the share of line rental and half or whatever of that for broadband! But sorry, I'll pass on that one.

Name me one area of life where you don't have difficulty in getting the "right" person you need? Why should BT be different? I suspect that it's worse now than ever (in every walk of life); and that customers and the ISPs know more about the network performance than BT does (after all they're the ones that suffer it). Your doctor is an expert too, but does he/she know what you're experiencing better than you do? Even if they think they do. And neither broadband nor the body are perfect, they're both a mish-mash and very prone to disorders; and too often don't obey the rule book, however hard you try.

RandomGeeza · Mar 16, 2014, 13:12:45

11 days uptime...

Need I say any more, I don't want to tempt fate.

RandomGeeza · Mar 27, 2014, 17:38:47

A profile reset went through this morning. SNR is now stable at 6. Both on the up and down.

*Touches some wood*

Thus far we haven't had a single random drop out. And I think it is safe to say that the problem is now fixed.

It has certainly taken a long time, too long IMHO. And, accordingly to BT it was a wiring, pairing issue where the poles were too far apart, hence the connection was dropping... However, all's well that ends well.

RandomGeeza · May 01, 2014, 15:38:23

OMG

And it starts again...

Two months of solid service and today, 5 random discons this morning. I noticed one late last night, but put that down to an erroneous event. However, to learn of this morning's issues, puts me right back to square one.

And before anyone mentions interference, it isn't. It never was. BT confirmed that it was a pairing fault at the Cab.

I suspect, given the quick succession of the disconnections this morning, that an engineer has been in the Cab and has been faffing about. And has potentially undone the fix applied a few months ago for me. Such was the case a few weeks ago when an engineer was in the junction box in my apartment block, and didn't realise he was disconnecting my line and not the other apartments line. Apologies were quick to follow, however my confidence in BT waived further.

I can't help but feel like a Gerbil on a wheel.

Back to monitoring and logging. *Tuts*

RandomGeeza · May 04, 2014, 15:11:34

A weekend of disconnections.

SNR is way up, upload sync speed is way down. What the ........