This topic

SNR Margin

Mapantz — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 23:24:50 GMT

Hello

Up until the last 3 months, I have had a good 15 years of faultless broadband with a consistent 18 - 19Mbps downstream.

Problems started with dropped connections up to 4 or 5 times an hour and reduced speeds each time it reconnected. I've had 2 engineers out, #1 changed the faceplate, #2 said there were no problems in the house, but he had found a fault at my cabinet. After getting a call to say it'd been fixed, all was good for a week.

It started happening again - after making in excess if 10 complaints and registering faults, still nothing was done. I've been tearing my hair out because the last person I spoke to said, the faults were failing to be registered with Openreach.. I would get emails or text messages saying the fault had been fixed, when it clearly hasn't.

My router was showing 500+ error packets on the downstream in the space of a few hours. It then changed to the upload speed, with 3000 packet errors registering in less than a day.

I couldn't rack that many up in 5 months of uptime, previously.

Another complaint on Monday with more line tests blah blah blah .. like all the other persons I spoke to "The fault is outside of your premises"

Well, the past 24 hours have seen a return to normal proceedings - 2 packet errors in that 24 hours and no line drops. However, the major problem with that is, my downstream SNR Margin is at 15.1. I only get 11Mbps downstream now, which is pathetic!

15 years of consistent 18 - 19 and then suddenly down to 11?! That's not good enough! That's only 3Mbps more than I was getting back in around 2003.0

My SNR Margin down was always around 4dB with no problems - can BT reduce it back down?

11Mbps is ruining my website (which is part of my business) I can't watch streams like before. If a family member is downloading on Sky+, it ruins everything else around the house. Ping times are now at 40ms, whereas before, they were 14ms. So gaming has turned poor...

Openreach have explicitly said that they will not upgrade my cabinet to FTTC due to it being so old that it would be too costly.

19Mbps was satisfactory before all of this started happening, so can I get it back again?

Re: SNR Margin

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 06:44:33 GMT

@Mapantz wrote:

11Mbps is ruining my website (which is part of my business)

@Mapantz

Welcome to this user forum.

Are you a business user?

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:16:34 GMT

No.

Re: SNR Margin

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:23:14 GMT

You probably would get better service if you were actually paying for a BT Business account.

Is there any noise on your phone calls? Dial 17070 and select option 2, there should be no noise between the announcements.

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:25:03 GMT

There is noise there, not as bad as it was last week, but it is there.

Re: SNR Margin

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 14:40:13 GMT

@Mapantz wrote:

There is noise there, not as bad as it was last week, but it is there.

It should be totally quiet, as noise on the line will be causing errors, which will result in DLM reducing the connection speed.

If you report a noisy phone line, then once that noise has been cleared, your speed should return to normal within a week.

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 15:31:15 GMT

I don't get any errors anymore - after waiting 3 months.

The problem now is, the speed. As I said previously, the SNR downstream used to be circa 4dB, which resulted in 18 - 19Mbps.

The SNR is now 15.3dB, as a result, I'm now getting 11Mbps.

Re: SNR Margin

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 15:37:51 GMT

@Mapantz wrote:

I don't get any errors anymore - after waiting 3 months.

The problem now is, the speed. As I said previously, the SNR downstream used to be circa 4dB, which resulted in 18 - 19Mbps.

The SNR is now 15.3dB, as a result, I'm now getting 11Mbps.

You will not see the errors now, as the speed has dropped, and the increase in SNR, allows for plenty of bitswaps as frequencies become unusable. You may also find that you now have an interleaved connection, that will enable forward error correction.

Have you tries a single disconnect of the broadband input, to see if it reconnects at a faster speed?

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 15:40:00 GMT

Have you tries a single disconnect of the broadband input, to see if it reconnects at a faster speed?

Literally, hundreds of times. No difference, apart from a slight decrease occasionally.

Re: SNR Margin

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 16:01:18 GMT

@Mapantz wrote:

Have you tries a single disconnect of the broadband input, to see if it reconnects at a faster speed?

Literally, hundreds of times. No difference, apart from a slight decrease occasionally.

Then I would say that there is still an issue on your line.

If you keep disconnecting it, it will be seen as a fault.

Re: SNR Margin

NeilO — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 16:10:57 GMT

@Mapantz welcome back to the community, I'm really sorry to see you're experiencing issues with your broadband, if you've noise on the line then it will be causing the errors and instability. In response to this dynamic line management has likely increased the noise margin to stabilise the connection which unfortunately results in your speed decreasing.

I'll send you a private message so you can get in touch and we'll be happy to get this looked into and in the meantime, I'd recommend you don't try any further disconnects as that can make things worse.

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 15:37:19 GMT

Things calmed down on Friday and Saturday. A few drop outs returned yesterday, but not too bad. Today however, drop outs are in abundance. Around 20 in the last few hours.
Heading towards thousands of error packets on both upstream and downstream.

Re: SNR Margin

imjolly — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 15:45:00 GMT

if dropping that often is noise on line even worse than before

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 01:39:13 GMT

This is getting absolutely absurd now.

I have sat here and counted 30 drop outs in around 15 minutes. It just gets worse and worse...

How can this be going on since September and nothing being done to sort it?

BT promised me it would be fixed by Friday just gone. No one has phoned me, or emailed me - no contact whatsoever to keep me updated.

I'm at the end of my rag with all of this now and refuse to put up with it any longer. Paying £40 a month for this rubbish? and 1 star customer service?

I'm pretty sure this is Watchdog material?

I'm going to have to find other avenues to get this sorted - force the issue, as BT are doing nothing and have DONE nothing since September.

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 14:10:07 GMT

That's just absurd!

I've tallied about 100 disconnects since early Monday morning. Getting on for 4 months with no end in sight. Thank you BT.

Re: SNR Margin

imjolly — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 14:14:16 GMT

do you have a dial tone? stats suggested lots of noise/interference on your line

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 14:16:02 GMT

Yes. I have a dialtone.

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 14:50:03 GMT

I was just on the phone to BT, via mobile and I get cut off. I have no signal to make a call or a text now. Guess which network I am with?

Also, that picture above is the speed I get from the 4G hub that BT sent me to "Stay connected"

The whole thing is farcical.

Re: SNR Margin

imjolly — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 15:11:27 GMT

if you have a dial tone did you check for line noise by dialing 17070 option 2 should be silent

Re: SNR Margin

Mapantz — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 15:12:42 GMT

Why do you keep asking me the same questions over and over? YES, there's noise on the line.. there's has been noise on the line for months....