Broadband connection dropping every couple of days

[BarryRogers]

Hi,

I've had BT broadband activated for just over a month but I've not been receiving the speed I should be - never above 3.5Mbps downstream when the expected speed should be around 9Mbps downstream. 

I've raised a fault request and talked to the call centre phone advice a few times to determine there was no obvious problem with the line or my setup. They sent an Openreach engineer to visit earlier this week who advised that he could find no problem with the line but there was a 3Mbps cap in place which he said he would clear. 

However the speed hasn't improved as my connection is still dropping approximately every 2/3 days with no obvious reason as to why and is currently at 2.9Mbps downstream. The line noise is 5.9dB upstream and 6.1dB downstream which I understand from other posts isn't overly high. The quiet line test is near silent. I live in a brand new block of flats and don't have a master socket to test with. I have the 'PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]' log record but saw that this isn't a trigger but a symptom of a possible connection problem.

I live a couple of minutes away from a train station and all my connection drops have coincided with a train coming in. Is it possible that the train rumble is disrupting the phone line, and if so what could be done about this?

Thanks for any help.

[imjolly]

welcome to the BT community forum where customers help customers and only BT employees are the forum mods

in order for the forum members to help please can you post the adsl stats from your router you may need to 'show detail' to get all stats (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser and navigate to adsl or if HH4/5 then go to troubleshooting then logs and you are looking for 2 line together when hub last connected to internet and they will show your connection speed and noise margin or if netgear enter 192.168.0.1). Then run  btspeedtester  (MAC users may have problems). when first test completes then run diagnostic test and post the results ( do not reset the router).


Could you try the quiet line test again? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing no hiss/crackle - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal

if it is a problem with the trains then others in your block of flats must be getting same problem

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

[BarryRogers]

Thanks, details as below :

11:53:29, 09 Aug.	(148224.510000) DSL noise margin: 5.90 dB upstream, 6.10 dB downstream
11:53:28, 09 Aug.	(148223.600000) DSL line rate: 999 Kbps upstream, 3032 Kbps downstream

Download speedachieved during the test was - 2.65 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 1.2 Mbps-4 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 2.67 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.83Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

Quiet line test with corded phone : no hiss or crackle. Very quiet buzz if I listen really hard.

The acceptable range of speeds changes on the day. When first installed it said 6.5 Mbps - 14 Mbps which was the fastest, lowest when on the phone to the call centre I had a 0.5Mbps  - 2.7Mbps after they had restarted the home hub for testing.

[john46]

i suspect your problem is an internal wiring problem however without a test socket it is going to be hard to prove as you are unable to disconnect any extensions which may be causing the problem

[BarryRogers]

Is there anything I can do to test the internal wiring without a master socket?

[imjolly]

you will have a master socket - first socket in your home where wires enter - just you don't have an NTE5 master with a test socket.  without a test socket you cannot eliminate your internal wiring from causing a problem

is there anything here which may help  

interference causes

[BarryRogers]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. The master socket is in a different area of the building which I can't access and has all the incoming connections for the block in. I have six extension sockets (all the same as I've unscrewed them gently to check) and six telephone wires leading into my flat.

The only possible option from the interference list is power cables but as these don't really fluctuate and the noise level is constant but low I wouldn't have thought this would be the issue.

I was disconnected again just over an hour ago and again this coincided with a train entering the station so I'm heavily leaning towards that not being coincidence. As it doesn't happen every time (we have trains every 7-10 minutes) I've no idea how I'm going to prove the theory to BT. I guess I could run the quiet line test for an hour or so and listen for train/level crossing noise/interference? 

[imjolly]

Can you enter your phone number and post results. Remember to delete number. https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

If the problem is the trains and not every one I'm not sure what openreach can do

[john46]

Every property has its own master socket and if as you say you have six wires then your wiring is a mess as that would mean every socket would have had to have a separate phone number and broadband activated on it wich does not happen

[BarryRogers]

Featured ProductsDownstream Line Rate(Mbps)Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)Downstream Range(Mbps)Availability Date

WBC ADSL 2+	Up to 7	--	4 to 10	Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M	Up to 7	Up to 1	4 to 10	Available
ADSL Max	Up to 4	--	3.5 to 7.5	Available
WBC Fixed Rate	2	--	--	Available
Fixed Rate	2	--	--	Available
Other Offerings
Copper Multicast	--	--	--	Available

As for the wiring, this is the first time I've lived in a block of flats, so I'm not sure of the way it is done but this is a brand new building (I'm the first owner of my flat and the building was completed earlier this year) so I would hope they would have got some advice from Openreach on it!