Dropouts worse than ever

[Clive]

As mentioned in another thread, I've been experiencing frequent drop outs that last for around 5 minutes after which the Billion router reboots.  Today it has been a nightmare as my wife has not been able to watch her Youtube channels without interruption.  IDNet tested the line with and without the router switched on and are sending an engineer to visit on Wednesday morning.  I shall keep you posted.

[Simon]

Just wondering if the router might be overheating?

[dudwell]

YouTube videos buffering badly. Router is in room at only 24 degC. Must be due to heat somewhere else. Or Brexit or Covid or the Russians or net zero....?

[Clive]

Strangely, since I spoke to Chloe at ID Net I have had no further problems.  BT have confirmed their appointment on Wednesday but it must be a scam because they didn't ask for my bank account details. 

The problem started some months ago when the weather was much cooler Simon but it was certainly much worse today so it could well be heat related.  Our lounge temperature was 32 most of the day. 

[Simon]

Wow, that's even hotter than mine.  Are you sure you don't live in a care home?   

[zappaDPJ]

Are you sure you don't live in a care home?   

Even my 95 year old mother-in-law had her heating off today!

[talos]

Ive been having a lot of dropouts lately, more in the pm than am. I think it may be heat related, even some freeserve channels have gone haywire   

[Clive]

It's back to continual dropouts this morning. But true to form I've had a scam email from BT about the visit tomorrow.  It's clearly a spam because it comes from a gmail account.  And they want me to click on a nice big link.   

[dobber]

Spikes and dropouts since the end of March.

[Clive]

BT had given a timeframe of 8am until 1 pm for the Openreach engineer to call and annoyingly he didn't turned up until 1255.  But he was a very pleasant chap who got down to work straight away.  He dismantled the wall socket and said the problem was not external but a near short circuit in the phone system.  He then narrowed the problem down to the callblocker attached to the second socket.  The meter showed that once it was removed my internet connection was happy.  I've decided not to bother getting a new callblocker as almost all my spam calls are sent to the mobiles.  So all's well that ends well.  Hopefully. 

[Clive]

ID Net have just called to check that the problem has been solved.  Top marks for that! 

[Simon]

Funnily enough I had a problem with a Call Blocker as well.  It wasn't so much interfering with my internet, but I could hardly talk to anybody on the phone because there was so much crackle and interference on the line. As soon as I disconnected the call blocker the line was clear as a bell.

[Clive]

Definitely worth disconnecting as it would have saved a lt of trouble and a great deal of grief from SWAMBO who took each and every dropout very personally.

[robinc]

BT had given a timeframe of 8am until 1 pm for the Openreach engineer to call and annoyingly he didn't turned up until 1255.  But he was a very pleasant chap who got down to work straight away.  He dismantled the wall socket and said the problem was not external but a near short circuit in the phone system.  He then narrowed the problem down to the callblocker attached to the second socket.  The meter showed that once it was removed my internet connection was happy.  I've decided not to bother getting a new callblocker as almost all my spam calls are sent to the mobiles.  So all's well that ends well.  Hopefully.

As it was your kit did you qualify for the £180 charge???

[Clive]

There was no mention of that but it had crossed my mind.  Wait and see I suppose. 

[Clive]

Just one dropout today which is a monumental improvement. 

[Clive]

This afternoon I've had a further three dropouts so I'm going to rescue the callblocker from the bin.   

[Clive]

Call blocker rescued but not connected.  Two further disconnections.   

[Clive]

I'm beginning to see a pattern emerging.  More when I can establish this. 

[Clive]

It seems to happen mainly during the afternoons - why should that be? 

[Simon]

Hottest part of the day?  Or was it established this isn't heat related?  Maybe keep a log of the times, and see if there's any sort of pattern?

[zappaDPJ]

Setting up a BQM could help diagnose the issue: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/faq/broadband-quality-monitor

[nowster]

If the problem goes away after dusk and then returns in the afternoon, it's probably damp in a junction box somewhere.

When the problem is happening, on a hard wired phone (not a cordless), dial a single digit (eg. 1) and listen to the silence.

For a longer "silence" dial 17070 then select "quiet line test" which is, I think, option 2.

Crackling will be a dud joint. Rhythmic ticking could be an electric fence.

The only problem with this is that using the phone (taking the phone off-hook) will pass current through the joints in the cable, which might temporarily fix the fault.

Do incoming calls (ie. ringing) cause your DSL to resync too?

Pre-broadband, engineers used to use a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psophometer

[Clive]

That's the meter the BT engineer used when he came a week ago.   He showed me it was red with the blocker in place and green when it's removed.  Not sure if it resyncs with an incoming call but I will monitor that.  I've carried out a quiet line test and can't detect any static or crackling. 

[Clive]

I can be more specific about the timing of the dropouts as they are almost always between 3pm and 5pm.  We have received several calls on our landline this afternoon, none of which has caused the internet to go down.