Need line stats checking & previous cap reapplied (at end of tether with customer services)

[mrchimpy]

Hi all, am hoping for some help here as I’ve been round the BT callcentre/complaints merry go round four times now and found it impossible to speak to anyone with a clue.

Issue is this - my street cab is a good distance from my home. Only ever got about 32M max, but connection would be unreliable - symptom would be TCP connections dropping etc. I was an early adopter and back in the day someone helpful actually looked at my line stats etc and set up a cap slightly below the speed it was attempting to negotiate to to stop the flapping.

About 6 months ago I was offered speed upgrade to 76M, rather optimistically I accepted and started paying slightly extra (of the order about £2/month). I had hoped DSLAM software had improved or perhaps even new hardware such that it would cope better with my slightly ropey line (vectoring?), and maybe give me a bit more poke. It didn’t, connections started to drop again.

I cannot get past customer services to anyone who understands the issue. I have been told to talk to Openreach (fat chance). I have been told “we don’t do caps”. I have been told such a thing doesn’t exist because this is “fibre optic” - this is from a guy who has insisted on several occasions “he is technical”. Am banging my head against a brick wall.

I need someone to look at line stats and preferably set cap slightly below max negotiated rate to try to fix the issue as I had before. I can’t give line stats from my end as I’m not about to tinker with Openreach box to get access - already had enough trouble getting through the “wall of nope” when I said I wasn’t using Homehub. Tried to explain to CS their hardware which they (or openreach) negociates the line and they have access to both ends, but no, "we don't have access you need homehub 5".

I would also like the difference in price for the upgrade addressing, but first thing's first eh?

Cheers, Tony.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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Could you please post the results from the BT Wholesale speed checker, including the further diagnostics.
 
 
 

[mrchimpy]

Here's my stats. BTW speed test gives me 31.28Mbps, upload 5.83Mbps, Latency of 20ms.

[john46]

upgrading to the 76Mb package was pointless as due to your distance from the cabinet you would only achieve a max possible sync speed of 45Mbps

[mrchimpy]

Yep all it did was take my cap off and cause issues, I wasn't aware of the DSLChecker page.

Benefit of hindsight. Would have been nice of sales to actually note this before flogging me it, but there we go.

[pippincp · Accepted solution]

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@mrchimpy wrote:

Hi all, am hoping for some help here as I’ve been round the BT callcentre/complaints merry go round four times now and found it impossible to speak to anyone with a clue.

Issue is this - my street cab is a good distance from my home. Only ever got about 32M max, but connection would be unreliable - symptom would be TCP connections dropping etc. I was an early adopter and back in the day someone helpful actually looked at my line stats etc and set up a cap slightly below the speed it was attempting to negotiate to to stop the flapping.

This cannot be done with VDSL unlike ADSL so the CS were correct.

About 6 months ago I was offered speed upgrade to 76M, rather optimistically I accepted and started paying slightly extra (of the order about £2/month). I had hoped DSLAM software had improved or perhaps even new hardware such that it would cope better with my slightly ropey line (vectoring?), and maybe give me a bit more poke. It didn’t, connections started to drop again.

It should never have been offered to you as it's unattainable on your line.

I cannot get past customer services to anyone who understands the issue. I have been told to talk to Openreach (fat chance). I have been told “we don’t do caps”. I have been told such a thing doesn’t exist because this is “fibre optic” - this is from a guy who has insisted on several occasions “he is technical”. Am banging my head against a brick wall.

He was correct the facility does not exist on VDSL nor can they "reset" your line if they try that one on you.

I need someone to look at line stats and preferably set cap slightly below max negotiated rate to try to fix the issue as I had before. I can’t give line stats from my end as I’m not about to tinker with Openreach box to get access - already had enough trouble getting through the “wall of nope” when I said I wasn’t using Homehub. Tried to explain to CS their hardware which they (or openreach) negociates the line and they have access to both ends, but no, "we don't have access you need homehub 5".

Again they are correct. Access to line stats only became availabe for both customers and CS on release of the HH5.

I would also like the difference in price for the upgrade addressing, but first thing's first eh?

That you'll have to take up with BT. This is a customer to customer support forum, although the mods are BT employees they don't necessarily see every post.

Cheers, Tony.

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[Webby]

Your best hope is that DLM bands your line automatically.

You can try to force this by disconnecting your router a number of times but it's not a guarantee

[mrchimpy]

Thanks for reply, sounds off to me. Perhaps I was put through to openreach back in 2012. Certainly did have settings fixed or limited for me at DSLAM end.

[pippincp]

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@mrchimpy wrote:

Thanks for reply, sounds off to me. Perhaps I was put through to openreach back in 2012. Certainly did have settings fixed or limited for me at DSLAM end.

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Not with VDSL you didn't, it's never been possible. DLM handles that automatically.