Sudden drop in conection speed and connection stability

[dam_01]

Hiya,

We're pretty rural and have grown to accept our connection for what it is.

Broadly, we manage approx 10Mb down and a little under 1mb up but that all went to hell yesterday.

From about 7pm last night we were getting disconnects every 3-10 minutes and would reconnect anywhere between as low as 3.4 and as high as 11.1.

It settled through the night and this morning was sitting at 5.7mb/0.8mb  with the SNR at 13/12 respectively.

Our previous connection of 10/1 usually sat  around 6/5 and has been like this for a couple of years. It dipped slightly 6 months into lockdown but recovered a few months later.

I suppose the other thing worth noting is that the router I'm using allows you to 'change' the SNR (I know it's a bit more complicated than that) but it allowed us to renegotiate the connection speed up or down and was quite successful in the past to try and get the most from the meager connection speed.

This no longer is having any effect either. I've tried making small adjustments but the reported values are coming back exactly the same which makes me wonder if theres some sort of restriction or capping in effect for some reason.

Please see attached the BT line check report and a couple of pages of router stats from later night and this morning.

I've raised a complaint last night so we'll see where that goes but can anyone shed any light on whats going on and what might be done? Theres two of us working from home and it was already touch and go sometimes but this might just break it. 😕

Since it also falls below the handback threshold (impacted, 6.8) does this trigger anything else from their end or how/what does that signify?

[imjolly]

have you checked for line noise  dial 17070 option 2  should be silent and best with corded phone

have you tried using test socket with a filter to see if that helps connection and stability by eliminating faceplate and any extension wiring form causing problems

[dam_01]

The master socket was fitted when the line was setup and we've never a phone installed. I don't even have one.

I will install the filter to the test socket however and get back to you, cheers.

[dam_01]

So, removing the faceplate and plugging the filter into the socket behind gets no connection at all.

The plug insert on the faceplate is quite long so I suppose the plug in the filter isn't long enough to reach the connections.

On reassembly, connection goes back to exactly what it was previous.

I also tried the SNR adjustment to the maximum value but again, the connection re-established at exactly the same rate.

[imjolly]

which master do you have

the one place you should get a connection is the test socket so something not right

the most basic test for connection problems is to check for line noise.  although you maybe not use the landline you still have a copper landline with a phone number

[dam_01]

It's the second one.

I'll give it another go, see if I've another filter somewhere.

Ok, no other filter but I removed the faceplate again and checked again  to the same result, no connection.

Put it back together and resynced at exactly the same previous values.

Weirdness with the faceplate aside, I'm certain it's something supply side rather than at home.  It's been exactly the reported values now and hasn't dropped connection today at all. So ok, it's stable compared to last night but it's nearly halved my already not brilliant connection speed and no attempts from this end to alter it by tweaking the SNR has changed anything.

Although I did notice that the reported information on the Availability checker showed that the max observed downstream had risen to 12.55 reported today, just after I tried to make a max adjustment to SNR which by previous experience would have maxxed out the connection speed but would have been pretty unusable due to the extremely low SNR values.

So I'm back to wondering that it's an exchange side change to my line where either the connection speed or noise values have been 'Set' for some reason.

[pippincp]

Are you sure your scocket doesn't have an I-plate which also needs to be removed to reveal the test socket?

Just pull the I-plate off. The front plate screws hold it in place.

[dam_01]

It's this one..

[imjolly]

that is a new style master which clips in place not screwed.  But from your description you do not have 2 sockets on front - 1 for broadband and 1 for phone ( I assume front of master does not look like number 6)

your broadband should work with the filter inserted in test socket.  do you have any extension sockets with wiring

[pippincp]

The test socket should still work when you connect a filter to it as it connects directly to your incoming cable.