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Internet intermittent at best

Chrisstapleton — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 14:20:19 GMT

Hi, every few minutes my internet randomly cuts out for about 5 minutes before slowly reconnecting. Even then the speed is abysmal at 1.4mbps at best with huge latency issues. I just want to know if there's an issue in the area or is this service just forever going to be mediocre?

edited by mod

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 14:22:33 GMT

@Chrisstapleton Welcome to this user forum.

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

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Chrisstapleton — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 14:22:04 GMT

Hi,

I'd love to do that but unfortunately I do not have a landline phone at all.

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 14:29:26 GMT

@Chrisstapleton wrote:

Hi,

I'd love to do that but unfortunately I do not have a landline phone at all.

Then I am afraid, that is the only way you can locate the problem, as a noisy phone line is the usual cause of disconnections, as I assume the lights on the BT Home Hub change colour when you get the disconnection?

The solution is to get hold of a cheap (less than £10) wired phone, and plug it into the phone socket to see if you get dial tone.

Then dial 17070 (free call) and select option 2, quiet line test, and see if there is any noise on the line.

If you do not get dial tone, or there is noise on the line, then you need to report it as either no dial tone, or a noisy line. Do not mention the broadband problem, otherwise it will end up in the wrong fault queue, and take much longer to be fixed. There are plenty of people who can fix phone faults, but not as many broadband people.

Once the phone fault is fixed, then the broadband will get better.

What does your master phone socket look like, as there are a couple of other checks you can make?

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Chrisstapleton — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 15:01:21 GMT

Hi,

So my internet's been stable for the last half hour finally however my latency is 400ms - 2,000ms fluctuating and my download speed seems capped to 249KB/s peak and average is about 131KB/s which is excessively lower than expected. Is this still something that could be resolved by checking the phone line with a landline phone?

The socket looks like number 2

Re: Internet intermittent at best

imjolly — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 15:03:25 GMT

even borrowing a landline phone just to try tests to see if problem is line noise

which master do you have?

can you post hub stats

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 15:04:41 GMT

Do the lights on the BT Home Hub keep changing colour?

Which BT Home Hub do you have?

Do you have any other phone sockets or extension wiring?

Are you checking your speed using a computer which is connected directly to the home hub using an Ethernet cable, as any tests done over wireless are meaningless?

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Chrisstapleton — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 15:23:05 GMT

We have a 4.0 type A home hub, no other phone line or extension wiring. I plugged a laptop into the ethernet cable direct to the hub after turning off all downloads and I am at 175 ms, 0.24mbps download and 0.48mbps upload. The lights have stopped changing colours , they were an hour or so ago but have since stopped

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 15:29:46 GMT

From what you describe, its most likely a noisy phone line? That would have caused your speed to be reduced.

What speed range are you expecting on your ADSL connection?

Enter your phone number into this form and display the results here, but edit out your phone number before you post the results.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Chrisstapleton — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 17:16:54 GMT

Hi,

I have done the test requested and the results are below. I have double checked download speed yet again and I am still reaching about 200kbps at most.

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 17:28:46 GMT

It should be better than that.

Unless you can check your phone line for noise, there is not a lot you can do, apart from report a broadband fault.

Can you post the connection information from your BT Home Hub please?

Hub Stats
The information contained within your router management pages can really help others diagnose technical issues. To post these stats, open up a web browser and type 192.168.1.254 or BThomehub.home. Navigate to the 'Troubleshooting' Tab and then click on 'Helpdesk', you will then need to enter the admin password which can be found on the sticker on the back of BT Home Hub 4 and 5. BT Home hub 3 will have the sticker on the underside of the router.

When using a Hub 3, you will see an option at the bottom right hand corner to select 'full details'. click on this, copy the info displayed and post the results. If using a BT Home Hub 4 or 5 navigate to 'Troubleshooting' then to 'Logs'. You will then find two lines which will state 'DSL noise margin' and 'DSL line rate', copy this info and include this in your post.

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 17:37:39 GMT

@Chrisstapleton

Have you tried testing from the test socket? Thus master sockets do suffer from bad connections between the front section and the test socket.

NTE 5C Test socket check

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Chrisstapleton — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 17:26:48 GMT

Hi,

I've done a line test with a phone now, using 17070 and then using the quiet line check. There is no noise on my landline coming in. The connection has since improved since yesterday but still quite poor, going up to 1mbps and the latency being very strange, sat at 30ms and then spiking to anywhere between 100ms up to 600ms randomly.

I tried to check DSL speed using the method you stated but when I check trouble shooting it only gives Event Logs as a home hub 4 and using ctrl F I cannot find and

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Chrisstapleton — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 13:19:36 GMT

Hi,

So the connection issues persisted and now once again today I've had intermittent connections and it keeps on disconnecting constantly. I have checked the phone line now and can confirm that it is noisy. How do I go about getting the phone line sorted?

Re: Internet intermittent at best

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 13:23:55 GMT

@Chrisstapleton wrote:

Hi,

So the connection issues persisted and now once again today I've had intermittent connections and it keeps on disconnecting constantly. I have checked the phone line now and can confirm that it is noisy. How do I go about getting the phone line sorted?

Raise a noisy phone line fault, not a broadband one.

It may be shown as a "poor quality phone calls" or similar on the fault options.