Slow speeds and dropped connection

[#1]

Hi Iomega,
The fault's been sent back to us because you've had a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s, which is over the fault threshold rate so there doesn't appear to be any dropping connections or any fault with the profile (basically if we pass the fault back again it will be sent back to us with no fault found). If you reboot the connection do you get the same sync rate? If so I'd recommend doing this once a day in the mornings for the next 2 days or so. If the profile hasn't uplifted by tomorrow then let me know and I'll see if there's anything further we can do for you.
Sorry for the hassle,

[#2]

Quote from: orbrey

Hi Iomega, The fault's been sent back to us because you've had a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s, which is over the fault threshold rate so there doesn't appear to be any dropping connections or any fault with the profile (basically if

Hi Orbrey
Sorry that's not makeing a lot of sense to me. Where have you got the 2144kb/s figure from ?.  The  last
comment on my ticket was
"The fault is now back with BT for further investigation as the line test reported a BT fault in the exchange."
So  (i) Did BT attend the exchange to diagnose the fault ?. (ii) What fault did they actually find ?. (iii) What have
they actually done to repair it (if anything) ?
My router has sat at its sync of 1120 kb/s all through the weekend  This has been borne out by BT Speed tests
run on Sat & Sun (I've posted Sat - Sun wasn't much different)
When I checked my 'Current line speed' on your site it said - 750  - which was also borne out by the BT
Speed tests. (it's not changed it's still the same today - now)
No updates to my ticket  were made over Sat /Sun so I wasn't aware that BT MAY have done something &
that it might have been worth rebooting the router.
Basically you need answers from BT to the 3 questions I've asked above & I'd like to know the answers
as well 'cos nothing seems to have changed very much at my end.
You know - I'm convinced that the piece of wire between my master socket going out thru my front door
and connecting to the junction box just before the cable goes into the ground, the bit of cable that belongs
to BT, the bit of cable that is so old that part of the outer sheathing has decayed & dropped off  to reveal
the inner coloured conductors - has some bearing on the problem.
It might not be the only bit of cable between my house & the exchange that is in such a bad way.
But I'm probably just grasping at straws here. 
That would probably have been picked up on the engineers visit - the one that never happened - that was
booked for the 31st July - that I arranged for a day off for - yea that one.
Is it usual for BT to be booked for an appointment & then not attend ?.
Who do I contact at BT to find out why they never attended ?.  (number / dept)

[#3]

Quote from: Iomega

Sorry that's not makeing a lot of sense to me. Where have you got the 2144kb/s figure from ?

Your connection logs are showing a connection for over 2 days, and the line tests I ran on your line this morning from the BT Wholesale site showed a downstream speed of 2144kb/s.

Quote from: Iomega

The  last comment on my ticket was "The fault is now back with BT for further investigation as the line test reported a BT fault in the exchange." So  (i) Did BT attend the exchange to diagnose the fault ?. (ii) What fault did they actually find ?. (iii) What have they actually done to repair it (if anything) ?

I can't address your queries specifically and unfortunately nor can BT. I'm not sure specifically what it was they did, but it did resolve the fault that was reported on the initial line tests.

Quote from: Iomega

When I checked my 'Current line speed' on your site it said - 750  - which was also borne out by the BT Speed tests. (it's not changed it's still the same today - now)

That's the line profile, and that's what should update based on your reported sync speed.

Quote from: Iomega

You know - I'm convinced that the piece of wire between my master socket going out thru my front door and connecting to the junction box just before the cable goes into the ground, the bit of cable that belongs to BT, the bit of cable that is so old that part of the outer sheathing has decayed & dropped off  to reveal the inner coloured conductors - has some bearing on the problem. It might not be the only bit of cable between my house & the exchange that is in such a bad way. But I'm probably just grasping at straws here.

Maybe not, but if the line was decayed that badly I'd be expecting to see drops in sync - which may be happening, but in such short durations that the connection doesn't report as dropping. This is why it's awkward - there are no fault symptoms shown. I realise how annoying that is, but if there aren't connection drops and if the sync is not below the fault threshold rate, then anything raised to BT will be rejected as no fault found.

Quote from: Iomega

Who do I contact at BT to find out why they never attended ?.  (number / dept)

Unfortunately there isn't a way to chase this though most likely the engineer visited the exchange directly.
Sorry for the continued hassle,

[#4]

Quote from: orbrey

Your connection logs are showing a connection for over 2 days, and the line tests I ran on your line this morning from the BT Wholesale site showed a downstream speed of 2144kb/s.

You're quoting 'a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s' so how come
my BT Speedtests over Sat & Sun are showing
DSL Connection Rate: 1120kb/s <- my router sync
IP Profile: 750
Actual IP Throughput: 224 kb/s
Who the hell is seeing 2144 !!! I'm certainly not & I certainly didn't over
Sat & Sun.

Quote from: orbrey

I can't address your queries specifically and unfortunately nor can BT.

That's worrying. I'm assuming BT did the work - but they don't know  what it
was they did ?.

I was told to leave my router on for any test that you may wish to make
which I have done. I tend to leave it on permanently anyway so your logs
should show a connection all the time - apart from when the line fault
causes a loss of sync.
When I get home tonight I'll reboot the router. It'll then show a
sync higher that the 1120kb/s I've had since Fri.
This is part of the problem. Everytime I resync I get a sync speed higher
than the fault threshold but not as high as I used to get and then at 10pm
or just after -bang- the line fault knocks me back to 11xx kb/s

Quote from: orbrey

Maybe not, but if the line was decayed that badly I'd be expecting to see drops in sync - which may be happening, but in such short durations that the connection doesn't report as dropping. This is why it's awkward - there are no fault symptoms shown.

But my ticket history shows connection drops as well as the one that
always occurs at just after 10pm at night. That's one of the things one
of your [PN] engineers commented on.
And fault symptoms - well the symptoms are
Not having had a broadband speed of between 1.7 & 1.8 Mb/s
like I used to have over the months prior to Jan 2009
(from Jan 2009 speeds started to drop slowly)
Very poor speeds from 7 May when I raised this fault
Did suffer random disconnections
Line fault causes loss of sync at some point  just after 10pm everyday
(see ticket 28724592 for full description)

Quote from: orbrey

Quote from: Iomega Who do I contact at BT to find out why they never attended ?.  (number / dept) Unfortunately there isn't a way to chase this though most likely the engineer visited the exchange directly.

Why not ?
If any work on my fault was done over the weekend the why wasn't my ticket
updated to reflect this ?.

[#5]

Quote from: Iomega

You're quoting 'a 2 day connection at a speed of 2144kb/s' so how come my BT Speedtests over Sat & Sun are showing DSL Connection Rate: 1120kb/s <- my router sync IP Profile: 750 Actual IP Throughput: 224 kb/s Who the hell is seeing 2144 !!! I'm certainly not & I certainly didn't over Sat & Sun.

I quoted this because this was the result shown by the line test. I realise this isn't what the line has been showing and that the connection hasn't been ongoing for 2 days as reported, but that's the figure that BT will go on.

Quote from: Iomega

This is part of the problem. Everytime I resync I get a sync speed higher than the fault threshold but not as high as I used to get and then at 10pm or just after -bang- the line fault knocks me back to 11xx kb/s

This was my bad - I'd not noticed the regular drops as the latest connection showed 2 days ongoing (though as I said earlier, the sync drop may not be long enough to be picked up as a drop in connection). This has been reported to BT and the fault passed back to them once more for further investigation.

Quote from: Iomega

If any work on my fault was done over the weekend the why wasn't my ticket updated to reflect this ?.

The ticket wasn't picked up over the weekend I'm afraid, though I have now asked a member of the team to look after this for you. You should be getting regular updates as of now (and I'll be chasing this for you as well).

[#6]

Just got back home & checked the router log. It's showing the carrier went down
at 10:07 am this morning after which it tried to resync & was successful (at 2144 kb/s
no doubt).
It shows nothing for the 8th (Sat) & 9th (Sun) but does show disconnections at various
times throughout the day on 6th (Thurs) & 7th (Fri).
Downloads are still WELL under 1 Mb/s as I predicted.
Bt Speedtest for Sun & today (Mon) now attached.
And at just after 10pm tonight I'll bet I can guess what happens.

I'm still convinced the decrepit piece of wire outside my front door from my master
socket is playing a part in this problem.
You quote "Maybe not, but if the line was decayed that badly I'd be expecting to see drops
in sync - which may be happening, but in such short durations that the connection doesn't
report as dropping. This is why it's awkward - there are no fault symptoms shown."
If you read my ticket in full (it's a monotonous thing to have to do I know but) you would note
the comments by one of your own CSC Analysts on Fri 29th May at 5:57pm
"we can see that the speed issue is infact likely to be caused by intermittency in the signal of
your connection."
and also
"This is showing in ours logs as a frequently dropping connection although if its comming
straight back up, there is a likelihood that you wont be noticing it yourself"
Any patterns emerging here ?.
Failing that maybe the fault lies between my house & a junction box somewhere.
As I said at the start of this thread Snailspace described my problem to an uncanny
degree apart from the speeds. All the clues are there.  All it needs is someone with
a bit of 'nounce' to fit the bits together. What did the problem turn out to be & what
sorted it for him - ummm... (strokes chin)

[#7]

Quote

Just got back home & checked the router log. It's showing the carrier went down at 10:07 am this morning after which it tried to resync & was successful (at 2144 kb/s no doubt).

I've attached a screen capture of the test result to this post.

Quote

If you read my ticket in full (it's a monotonous thing to have to do I know but) you would note the comments by one of your own CSC Analysts on Fri 29th May at 5:57pm

I'd suggest that in 3 months things may change, especially given work done by BT on your line. This could lead to longer connections or shorter drops that don't register, and I suspect that in your case this is what happened.
I stand by my comment that if we don't see any faults, neither will BT and the fault will get passed back to us with No Fault Found. I'm not saying that there is no fault there - if I was, I wouldn't have asked for one of our agents to take ownership - but it wasn't apparent when I tested yesterday. A two day ongoing connection at a downstream speed of 2144kb/s (this is shown as the 'speed' result on the downstream link info section of the picture) is neither intermittent nor below the fault threshold rate (shown on the image as being at 1612kbps).

[#8]

Orbrey
A couple of points aside for the moment
Can you tell me when you ran the test on Monday - at what time exactly ?
Also can you comfirm which 2 days in the statement  "the latest connection showed
2 days ongoing" you are referring to ?. (just want to clarify my assumption is correct).

[#9]

The test was run at:
10/08/09 10:32
As for the connection, that ran from 22:09 07/Aug/2009 to 10:07 10/Aug/2009 according to our logs.