Line problem and BT response failure?

My ADSL connection was working perfectly until the bad weather on Thursday -
now, when my line does synch, it synchs at half the speed it did before the
weather problems. There's also intermittent crackling noise on the voice
line.

BT has told me that the line test shows no problem in terms of the voice
line (despite the intermittent crackling).

My ISP has also told me that although my connection speed is less than it
was a couple of days ago and although there is occasional lack of synch
there's little that can be done regarding the speed issue because the
problem does not fall within BT's threshold for acting on an ADSL fault.

I think that the best chance of getting the problem solved is to (honestly)
emphasise the intermittent problem with the voice line - the crackling that
makes some calls impossible.

Is it usual though that a line test would not pick up obvious problems like
this?

Gareth.

Gareth wrote:
> Is it usual though that a line test would not pick up obvious problems like
> this?


Quite Possibly. I had crackling on the line and it was because of one of
the junction boxes being full of water, although their tests didn't show
up any problem.

Eventually my ISP arranged for a DSL Trained BT Engineer to come out and
he found the problem.

No experience of problems with MAX speeds though as I dont have that

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:54:57 +0000, Gareth issued this messge:

> My ADSL connection was working perfectly until the bad weather on Thursday -
> now, when my line does synch, it synchs at half the speed it did before the
> weather problems. There's also intermittent crackling noise on the voice
> line.
>
> BT has told me that the line test shows no problem in terms of the voice
> line (despite the intermittent crackling).
>
> My ISP has also told me that although my connection speed is less than it
> was a couple of days ago and although there is occasional lack of synch
> there's little that can be done regarding the speed issue because the
> problem does not fall within BT's threshold for acting on an ADSL fault.
>
> I think that the best chance of getting the problem solved is to (honestly)
> emphasise the intermittent problem with the voice line - the crackling that
> makes some calls impossible.
>
> Is it usual though that a line test would not pick up obvious problems like
> this?
>
> Gareth.

I had a very similar problem about a week ago, I was losing sync regularly
whereas before my router had been up for two months without any problems.

I found this website very informative:
http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledg....aspx?id=10552

I checked all my equipment, including changing filters & the router - BT
socket lead, all to no avail. So I removed the *bottom* part of the BT
socket faceplate, & plugged my phone in (with a filter) & it was STILL
noisy!
Now if your SNR (signal to noise ratio) figures aren't too high to start
with, say 5 to 10, (mine is usually 21 - 22, but dropped to zero!) I
suppose any sort of noise will make your broadband loose sync.

I reported a fault to BT. They reported (like they did to you) there
was no problem on my line! So I then contacted my ISP to see what could be
done. They ran some checks, & found that according to their logs I'd
regularly been losing sync. They raised it with BT, who ran a check
(again) & again said my line was fine. My ISP support could hear the
crackle, & suggested I contact BT & *talk with a human* & complain about
it. I did so, & they sent an engineer. He plugged his test equipment into
the test socket, & found their line was at fault from the end of the house
to the phone pole! They replaced it, from the phone pole to their wall
socket free of charge. I'm now back to my normal ADSL, & phone.
In spite of BT having "run a test", it seems that it doesn't actually
test the line all the way to their wall socket!!

HTH :-)

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:23:22 +0000, William Poaster
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> In spite of BT having "run a test", it seems that it doesn't actually
>test the line all the way to their wall socket!!

it does, as no end test can test part of a line, but its a fairly
simple electrical test that will pick up major problems but not minor
ones that could affect the ADSL.

Phil

Gareth wrote:

> My ADSL connection was working perfectly until the bad weather on Thursday -
> now, when my line does synch, it synchs at half the speed it did before the
> weather problems. There's also intermittent crackling noise on the voice
> line.
>
> BT has told me that the line test shows no problem in terms of the voice
> line (despite the intermittent crackling).
>
> My ISP has also told me that although my connection speed is less than it
> was a couple of days ago and although there is occasional lack of synch
> there's little that can be done regarding the speed issue because the
> problem does not fall within BT's threshold for acting on an ADSL fault.
>
> I think that the best chance of getting the problem solved is to (honestly)
> emphasise the intermittent problem with the voice line - the crackling that
> makes some calls impossible.
>
> Is it usual though that a line test would not pick up obvious problems like
> this?
>
> Gareth.


It might not do. I'm lucky in the respect that my sister works for BT
Wholesale, and she managed to get an engineer mate of hers out to look
at my
setup. I'd been though everything possible, and no-one could find a
problem.
I had a similar problem to yours, possibly worse. Couldn't hold a
connection
for more than ten minutes, and my profile was capped at 135kbits
downstream.
Extremely crackly phone. The engineer found that the cable running down
the
outside wall of my house was slightly damaged, replaced it, and now I'm

synching at a constant 6.5-7.8Mb. Still interleaved, so hopefully in a
couple of weeks I should have a decent DSL connection finally.
IIWY, I would forget your ISP, and keep on at BT to get someone to
actually
look at your line as I did. If you go through your ISP, they will
firstly get BT to turn the noise up to 9, then 12, 15, etc, and
basically the problem just
bounces between themselves and BT, which obviously takes time.
>
>

Gareth wrote:

> My ADSL connection was working perfectly until the bad weather on Thursday -
> now, when my line does synch, it synchs at half the speed it did before the
> weather problems. There's also intermittent crackling noise on the voice
> line.

Get BT to fix the crackling on the line. You stand a far better chance of that
being done quickly and it'll likely fix the ADSL problem too.

Graham

"Eeyore" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> Gareth wrote:
>
>> My ADSL connection was working perfectly until the bad weather on
>> Thursday -
>> now, when my line does synch, it synchs at half the speed it did
>> before the
>> weather problems. There's also intermittent crackling noise on the
>> voice
>> line.
>
> Get BT to fix the crackling on the line. You stand a far better
> chance of that
> being done quickly and it'll likely fix the ADSL problem too.
>

On rider on the above...do not mention ADSL to the Opewnreach Engineer
when they arrive, just get them to concentrate on the noisey line
issue...

"kraftee" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
news:eoucaq$bnr$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Eeyore" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>
>> Gareth wrote:
>>
>>> My ADSL connection was working perfectly until the bad weather on
>>> Thursday -
>>> now, when my line does synch, it synchs at half the speed it did before
>>> the
>>> weather problems. There's also intermittent crackling noise on the voice
>>> line.
>>
>> Get BT to fix the crackling on the line. You stand a far better chance of
>> that
>> being done quickly and it'll likely fix the ADSL problem too.
>>
>
> On rider on the above...do not mention ADSL to the Opewnreach Engineer
> when they arrive, just get them to concentrate on the noisey line issue...

Thanks for the responses - it's good (if that's the right word) to know that
other people have had similar problems.

The problem is though that the crackling line problem is very intermittent.

The other thing I've noticed since the bad weather is that there is a loud
hiss on the line aside from crackling - but the hiss is only present when
the ADSL signal is present. If just the phone is plugged in to the filter or
directly in to the socket the loud hiss is not present. Only when the modem
tries to synch/succeeds in synching is the loud hiss present. I've tried
different filters and even a different modem and the hiss is still present.
It's also audible to people who call me.

I've got a feeling that because the crackling line problem is intermittent
the engineer will find nothing and I'll be left chasing an ADSL loss of
synch problem for weeks. Having been through this once before (a couple of
years ago) I know how long it can drag on for - many months. I'm not looking
forward to it. I'm actually tempted to say sod it and go with NTL.

Gareth.

On 21-Jan-2007, "Gareth" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I've got a feeling that because the crackling line problem is intermittent
> the engineer will find nothing and I'll be left chasing an ADSL loss of
> synch problem for weeks.

Is the line off a pole. In most cases crackling is due to the dropwire
swinging in the wind, and comes and goes, depending on how windy it is.
Getting the dropwire replaced should be no problem, and should fix
the ADSL as well.
Bad joints in junction boxes and underground cabling can cause
crackling, and occur after bad weather, but it's usually due to
water where it shouldn't be, it tends to persist, not come and go,
as you describe.

> Having been through this once before (a couple of
> years ago) I know how long it can drag on for - many months. I'm not looking
> forward to it. I'm actually tempted to say sod it and go with NTL.

Changing ISP's won't fix a bad connection, it'll probably introduce further
delay.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> On 21-Jan-2007, "Gareth" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I've got a feeling that because the crackling line problem is
>> intermittent
>> the engineer will find nothing and I'll be left chasing an ADSL loss of
>> synch problem for weeks.
>
> Is the line off a pole. In most cases crackling is due to the dropwire
> swinging in the wind, and comes and goes, depending on how windy it is.
> Getting the dropwire replaced should be no problem, and should fix
> the ADSL as well.
> Bad joints in junction boxes and underground cabling can cause
> crackling, and occur after bad weather, but it's usually due to
> water where it shouldn't be, it tends to persist, not come and go,
> as you describe.

Thanks. The problem is that the line isn't off a pole - it's underground and
a replacement would require digging work which, following a problem 2 years
ago, BT were clear they didn't want to do. On that occasion one pair was
simply written off as beyond use and a spare pair used to provide the
current line which has worked well for 2 years or so. One engineer, who
recommended that the underground cable be replaced, explained that swapping
the pair would merely delay the need to replace the cable. In the end the
pair was swapped. The bad weather on Thursday seems to have buggered that
pair as well.

But the problem does come and go - it's very intermittent and I bet it won't
show itself when an engineer comes to look at it.

>> Having been through this once before (a couple of
>> years ago) I know how long it can drag on for - many months. I'm not
>> looking
>> forward to it. I'm actually tempted to say sod it and go with NTL.
>
> Changing ISP's won't fix a bad connection, it'll probably introduce
> further
> delay.

No, but ditching BT altogether and going with a cable connection may be the
best bet. My last experience of trying to persuade BT to fix a problem
resulted in 4 to 5 months or repeated fault reporting before the problem was
corrected.

It seems crazy that ADSL availability and connection quality is based on the
accident of line quality. By setting stupidly low speed thresholds for
addressing Max ADSL problems BT has been pretty clever.

Gareth/