SNR Margin dropping and disconnects increasing

[Crus]

I upgraded to ADSL2+ last Sept and, since I'm a good tee shot away from the local exchange, things were pretty good: connected at ~17Mb with an SNR Margin of 3dB for weeks at a time without issue.

Then over the summer this year I started to get a few disconnects until finally things stabilised at about 12Mb with SNR Margin of ~11dB. Again, weeks of connection without a problem.

In the last week it's dropped again to ~8Mb with SNR Margin of ~4dB, with many more disconnects. Today I've switched to a backup ADSL filter to see if that helps, am currently at ~6Mb with 9dB margin.

I've not changed any of the hardware (Draytek 2800), nor have there been any works on our phoneline; does anyone have any idea what might be going on?

[cavillas]

Water in the works somewhere or extreme cold contracting connections.

[Steve]

Noise stroke interference somewhere along the line, do you have a BT master socket with the test socket behind? If so connect known working adsl filter to test socket, attach the router and read the margin and sync from the router stats immediately on connection.

[Crus]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

This is a pretty old bungalow and as far as I can see we do not have a master socket with test socket, unfortunately.

Anything else I can try?

[Steve]

Do you know if the bell wire is still connected.? Modern phones don't need it.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

See further down the link

[Crus]

I have just checked, and the bell wire was already disconnected, only blue/white wires to terminals 2 and 5 are still connected.

[Steve]

Which socket is the router connected to? Is it connected to the first one after the phone line enters the property and what additional equipment have you got connected to the phone line ie sky boxes etc.

If you've got a spare router that's definitely worth a try.

Lastly Quiet Line noise test 17070 option

For some reason you've never been welcomed, never too late I suppose.

[Crus]

Many thanks for the welcome!

The router is connected to the only phone socket in the house, as far as I can tell.

We have a BT phone and 2 sky boxes (1 HD 1 standard) connected, besides the router. It's been that way for about 18 months.

I don't have a spare router currently.

I had a listen to the Quiet Line test and there are definitely a few pops as well as a constant fuzzy hissing. It's always been a bit fuzzy but it does sound worse than usual.

[goldberg]

I've currently got a very similar problem, broadband going down many times a day, and lots of crackling on the phone line.
Sometimes I get no dial tone on the line, just a loud hum, which I think is caused by one of the pair of wires in the telephone cable going open-circuit.

It looks like it could be a fault in the telephone cable strung from the BT pole across the street to the house.
The fault appears to get worse whenever the wind blows, probably because the cable is getting moved around by the wind.

This happened on another occasion a few years ago, and after BT replaced the cable the fault cleared.

[Steve]

Many thanks for the welcome!

The router is connected to the only phone socket in the house, as far as I can tell.

We have a BT phone and 2 sky boxes (1 HD 1 standard) connected, besides the router. It's been that way for about 18 months.

I don't have a spare router currently.

I had a listen to the Quiet Line test and there are definitely a few pops as well as a constant fuzzy hissing. It's always been a bit fuzzy but it does sound worse than usual.

Sky boxes can be a source of interference sometimes double filtering is said to be beneficial or just simply disconnect them and see.. I think chat to support on Monday it maybe worth going down landline phone noise route as long as you don't mention broadband to BT.

[Steve]

I've currently got a very similar problem, broadband going down many times a day, and lots of crackling on the phone line.
Sometimes I get no dial tone on the line, just a loud hum, which I think is caused by one of the pair of wires in the telephone cable going open-circuit.

It looks like it could be a fault in the telephone cable strung from the BT pole across the street to the house.
The fault appears to get worse whenever the wind blows, probably because the cable is getting moved around by the wind.

This happened on another occasion a few years ago, and after BT replaced the cable the fault cleared.

Possibly worth going the the phone fault route as well