What the hell has happened to me line?

[Cross-posted here from plusnet.service.customer-feedback in the hope of
getting a wider audience]

I have a PlusNet 512k PAYG ADSL service which - until yesterday was rock
solid. The connection is shared across my network using a 3Com 54g wireless
router - with 2 wired and one wireless PCs connected.

Late yesterday afternoon, the connection failed - and the router was
constantly trying to re-train, The synch light would flash for a bit, go
solid for a few seconds, the on-line light would flash for a bit - sometimes
going solid for a couple of seconds - and then they'd both go out and start
again. This went on for about an hour and a half - and eventually came on
solid again.

My first thoughts were that maybe my line was getting a free upgrade - even
though I haven't received an email about it - because my exchange is
(allegedly) due to be done in July. However, a quick look at the router
status revealed that it was still synching at 576k.

The problem is that although the connection is back, browsing is DIABOLICAL
with very slow, jerky response, and frequent timeouts. Running the PN speed
test on the portal, I get speeds all over the place - some almost normal but
some going right down to dial-up speeds. On the odd couple of occasions when
I have managed to run the ADSL Guide speed test (it usually fails part-way
through) it has reported a Downstream speed of 30 kbps (yes 30!) or less,
but a reasonably normal upstream speed of about 250 kbps.

I'm not sure how to interpret the router's error statistics, by since
re-booting it yesterday I seem to be getting very large numbers of Fast Path
CRC Errors and Fast Path HEC errors (whatever they are!). The router is
currently showing a downstream noise margin of 14dB (I'm sure it had used to
be higher than that!) and an Attenuation of 53dB.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to what might be going on?

In case PN Support are looking, I raised a ticket (No 16977791) at 18:39
yesterday - and am still waiting for a response!
--
Cheers,
Tim (AKA Roger M)
______
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In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Tiscali Tim <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> [Cross-posted here from plusnet.service.customer-feedback in the hope
> of getting a wider audience]
>
> I have a PlusNet 512k PAYG ADSL service which - until yesterday was
> rock solid. The connection is shared across my network using a 3Com
> 54g wireless router - with 2 wired and one wireless PCs connected.
>
> Late yesterday afternoon, the connection failed - and the router was
> constantly trying to re-train, The synch light would flash for a bit,
> go solid for a few seconds, the on-line light would flash for a bit -
> sometimes going solid for a couple of seconds - and then they'd both
> go out and start again. This went on for about an hour and a half -
> and eventually came on solid again.
>
> My first thoughts were that maybe my line was getting a free upgrade
> - even though I haven't received an email about it - because my
> exchange is (allegedly) due to be done in July. However, a quick look
> at the router status revealed that it was still synching at 576k.
>
> The problem is that although the connection is back, browsing is
> DIABOLICAL with very slow, jerky response, and frequent timeouts.
> Running the PN speed test on the portal, I get speeds all over the
> place - some almost normal but some going right down to dial-up
> speeds. On the odd couple of occasions when I have managed to run the
> ADSL Guide speed test (it usually fails part-way through) it has
> reported a Downstream speed of 30 kbps (yes 30!) or less, but a
> reasonably normal upstream speed of about 250 kbps.
>
> I'm not sure how to interpret the router's error statistics, by since
> re-booting it yesterday I seem to be getting very large numbers of
> Fast Path CRC Errors and Fast Path HEC errors (whatever they are!).
> The router is currently showing a downstream noise margin of 14dB
> (I'm sure it had used to be higher than that!) and an Attenuation of
> 53dB.
>
> Has anyone got any suggestions as to what might be going on?
>
> In case PN Support are looking, I raised a ticket (No 16977791) at
> 18:39 yesterday - and am still waiting for a response!

Sorry - original title said ME line unstead of MY line!
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
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Tiscali Tim wrote:
> [Cross-posted here from plusnet.service.customer-feedback in the hope of
> getting a wider audience]
>
> I have a PlusNet 512k PAYG ADSL service which - until yesterday was rock
> solid. The connection is shared across my network using a 3Com 54g wireless
> router - with 2 wired and one wireless PCs connected.
>
> Late yesterday afternoon, the connection failed - and the router was
> constantly trying to re-train, The synch light would flash for a bit, go
> solid for a few seconds, the on-line light would flash for a bit - sometimes
> going solid for a couple of seconds - and then they'd both go out and start
> again. This went on for about an hour and a half - and eventually came on
> solid again.
>
> My first thoughts were that maybe my line was getting a free upgrade - even
> though I haven't received an email about it - because my exchange is
> (allegedly) due to be done in July. However, a quick look at the router
> status revealed that it was still synching at 576k.
>
> The problem is that although the connection is back, browsing is DIABOLICAL
> with very slow, jerky response, and frequent timeouts. Running the PN speed
> test on the portal, I get speeds all over the place - some almost normal but
> some going right down to dial-up speeds. On the odd couple of occasions when
> I have managed to run the ADSL Guide speed test (it usually fails part-way
> through) it has reported a Downstream speed of 30 kbps (yes 30!) or less,
> but a reasonably normal upstream speed of about 250 kbps.
>
> I'm not sure how to interpret the router's error statistics, by since
> re-booting it yesterday I seem to be getting very large numbers of Fast Path
> CRC Errors and Fast Path HEC errors (whatever they are!). The router is
> currently showing a downstream noise margin of 14dB (I'm sure it had used to
> be higher than that!) and an Attenuation of 53dB.
>
> Has anyone got any suggestions as to what might be going on?
>
> In case PN Support are looking, I raised a ticket (No 16977791) at 18:39
> yesterday - and am still waiting for a response!

See mine and Dave's responses in p.s.customer-feedback

Regards,

--
|Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
|Support Home & Business @
|PlusNet plc. www.plus.net
+------ PlusNet - The smarter way to Internet! -----

On Fri, 08 Jul 2005 14:14:58 +0100, [PlusNet Support Team] said :-

>Tiscali Tim wrote:
>> [Cross-posted here from plusnet.service.customer-feedback in the hope of
>> getting a wider audience]
>>
>> Has anyone got any suggestions as to what might be going on?

A guess of the London problem causing outages because of serious
network congestion ?

>>
>> In case PN Support are looking, I raised a ticket (No 16977791) at 18:39
>> yesterday - and am still waiting for a response!
>
>See mine and Dave's responses in p.s.customer-feedback
>
>Regards,

How useful.

Spin Dryer wrote:
> On Fri, 08 Jul 2005 14:14:58 +0100, [PlusNet Support Team] said :-
>
>> Tiscali Tim wrote:
>>> [Cross-posted here from plusnet.service.customer-feedback in the
>>> hope of getting a wider audience]
>>>
>>> Has anyone got any suggestions as to what might be going on?
>
> A guess of the London problem causing outages because of serious
> network congestion ?
>
>>>
>>> In case PN Support are looking, I raised a ticket (No 16977791) at
>>> 18:39 yesterday - and am still waiting for a response!
>>
>> See mine and Dave's responses in p.s.customer-feedback
>>
>> Regards,
>
> How useful.

Well the twit can't make up his mind which group he is going to follow thru
on.

They have just raised the specter that their 3Com router may be faulty & has
caused the problems, on PN support & then said that they're going to keep
things updated on this group....

Nothing like making it complicated, if not impossible, to follow to give
people incorrect information..

On 8 Jul 2005 21:28, "kraftee" <kraftee@spamoff&die> wrote:

>Well the twit can't make up his mind which group he is going to follow thru
>on.

Which twit is that, then ? It was started (and presumably will get answered)
outside u.t.b. anyway. I think it might have just been a courtesy marker for
this group (because someone would otherwise suggest 'these Plus.Net staff do
not bother to answe' if it wasn't followed-up). Peter M.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
kraftee <kraftee@spamoff&die> wrote:

>
> They have just raised the specter that their 3Com router may be
> faulty & has caused the problems, on PN support & then said that
> they're going to keep things updated on this group....
>
> Nothing like making it complicated, if not impossible, to follow to
> give people incorrect information..

Sorry if I have caused a bit of confusion! I originally posted on
plusnet.service.customer-feedback - and then realised that people who were
not PN customers may be able to assist - so came here as well.

Immediately after giving a brief update in
plusnet.service.customer-feedback, the connection died again - preventing me
from following through here.

Anyway, after lots of experiments tonight - all of which pointed at the
router - I decided to check the router's power supply. After unplugging the
supply from the back of the router to check the voltage (12 and a bit open
circuit - which seems ok) I plugged it back in - and the thing burst into
life - and gave half-way decent speed test results. So it currently looks as
if the whole problem was down to a poor power connection into the router -
whose contacts were cleaned by unplugging and re-plugging.

And to think that I've wasted a hell of a lot of my time, and some of yours,
and some of PlusNet Support's - all on something so simple!
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
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Yeah, I had exactly the same experience two weeks ago, raised a ticket with
PlusNet,
but couple of days later after rebooting the router again, things have
settled down,
but my SNR dropped from stead 18 down to average 11 and sometimes just 7.
Beforehand the router would stay connected all the time, but now it loses
synch quite frequently (and usually reconnects fairly quickly).
I put it down to BT doing some work on the lines / exchange, ours is due for
update in July,
but I am still at 1Mb/s.
Regards,
Martin

On 9 Jul 2005 01:09, "Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I originally posted on plusnet.service.customer-feedback

Ah, I thought that Roger M was someone other than you... Peter.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
poster <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> On 9 Jul 2005 01:09, "Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I originally posted on plusnet.service.customer-feedback
>
> Ah, I thought that Roger M was someone other than you... Peter.


Ah, a lot of us have several identities to keep the world guessing, don't
we?! <g>
--
Cheers,
Tim
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