Internet keeps dropping connection, please help!

[mjstokes85]

Ok, then I will forget about doing that test. No, not rebooted as it is either a stable 160kbs or a 2400kbps that goes off every 5 minutes and right now a stable 160 is better than anything faster that is unstable! It is like being back on dial up, watching pixelated pictures slowly load in front of your eyes!

[Isitme]

I would if I were you, reducing the speed may be a part of fixing your line. A reboot may take you to a more useful speed without the problems you had before.

[mjstokes85]

Shall I physically turn the router off or just reboot through the router IP page? This is what happened to my noise margin last night when it resynced at 160kbps, does it look like something was done to you?

[Isitme]

To be sure it resyncs, I would switch the power off for a minute then back on again.

[mjstokes85]

Well rebooted the router and back to the same old story. Internet was solid at 160kbps but now at 2944kbps is dropping every chance it gets. Why is it as soon as my speed goes up it just drops out all the time. I assume the fact it was so stable at 160kbps proves my line and the exchange are fine, so why is it doing this at higher speeds?

[Scubbie]

You have a visit booked in 2 days. I trust that this will finally address the issue and fix it properly for you.

In the mean time, update your diary of events relating to your broadband connection and enjoy something completely different.

[Isitme]

I assume the fact it was so stable at 160kbps proves my line and the exchange are fine, so why is it doing this at higher speeds?

No it actually proves there is excessive noise on your line caused by a fault. With the very high noise margin the noise is overcome, but the downside is that your speed is reduced to an almost unusable rate.

What you could try (until they get you fixed properly) is to try force a higher margin by disconnecting the router for a few seconds every time it reconnects with a green light. Do this half a dozen times then check your speed/noise. There is a good chance it will connect with a higher margin and lower speed. Your thread is so long now I can't remember if you have a filtered faceplate or not. If you don't another way is to plug a phone or Sky box in without a filter, this should also cause the line to resync lower. Disconnect the phone/box when you have lowered the speed.

You should not have to go to such extremes to get a decent broadband connection, I think it is shocking that Sky have not pursued this through BTO with more vigour. They much realise that it is their reputation that is being destroyed and not BTO who are the real culprits.

[mjstokes85]

So the noise margin being at 22db when I synced at 160kbps was what held it stable then? Just had 2 hours stable at 2944kbps and then all of a sudden 8 drops in 10 minutes, sorry 9 drops as I type this.

I do have a filtered faceplate and so I will give what you say a go. I managed to do this once before and got it to sync at 1800kpbs and that was stable.

What might be causing this excessive noise on the line? One thing I have never mentioned that I thought of earlier is that my house used to have 2 phone lines running to it (not sure why, it's rented so someone before must have used 2 lines). The old line is still running from the junction box on the outside of the house but is running to nothing as it has been cut halfway down the wall. Is it possible that piece of cable is interfering with the actual cable in use now?

[mjstokes85]

Why does my internet always behave itself when an engineer is due!

System Up Time: 24:27:16
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 1056146 1786881 0 32418983 1481483376 23:12:40
LAN Up 1983965 1205548 0 2147483647 94675797 24:27:16
WLAN Up 27304 17933 0 13936663 3348733 24:26:57
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2752 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 49.0 dB 31.5 dB
Noise Margin 15.9 dB 24.0 dB

[mjstokes85]

UPDATE TIME!

Engineer number 7 has just gone, he was the same guy that came 1st back in October who found the original HR fault. Anyway he got here at 7:45am, good job I got up at 7:30am. He ran the tests, I told him it had been stable for 40 hours from Monday night till this morning.

The JDSU and pair quality were all fine as they pretty much always have been. He asked has anyone been up the pole, I said no, and I also told him about there having been 2 phone lines in the house at some point. He got his ladders out and went up my house to the box at the top and it was all fine, he then got a massive pole out to check all the cables from the telegraph pole were the correct height from the ground. He then went up the pole and opened up the box, he came back down and said it was all fine, but there was a free line in there going all the way back to the exchange that he could swap mine for. I asked if this was the lift and shift and he said no, this is an external lift and shift so to speak.

So he went to the exchange and swapped it over, called me to say he had and to check the sync was up, which it was. He then came back and ran the JDSU and pair quality again. He said the pair quality was showing much better than on the other line. He also said my speed on his JDSU was now showing 2.9, my router stats now show 3392! So it has been 35 minutes since he unplugged his JDSU and plugged my router back in and it has been stable since. I just hope this is now fixed and the saga is over.

Stats.

System Up Time: 36:09:00
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 12731 18552 0 1883674 23293336 0:37:08
LAN Up 4488709 2768806 0 1953662172 223313152 36:09:00
WLAN Up 124074 78343 0 111019978 9990569 36:08:41
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3392 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 49.5 dB 31.5 dB
Noise Margin 15.7 dB 24.0 dB