Lost BB Connection

Hi

I lost my BB connection on Wednesday last. I spoke with my ISP on
Thursday and after running through various tests they passed it over
to BT Wholesale who called me back later that day.

The guy I spoke with said that the SNR was only 4dB so he felt that it
needed an Engineer out to check the line into the house, which is very
old (25 years plus) and is the old twin flex type. However I've had a
perfect 1Mb connection for over a year and its worked fine up to now.

I wondered if there may be something in the house that could upset the
SNR that BT could pick up with their remote test?

I have a BT NTE socket with two self intalled extensions each of which
are fitted with the ADSL Nation filtered faceplates. I'm just
wondering if one of them could have gone up the pole and be affecting
the SNR?

Or should I just leave it now to BT who are coming out Thursday
afternoon?

Incidenatlly, my Router is also reporting a SNR between 3 and 4 dB.

--
Best regards
Barry

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 18:26:04 +0000, BJH wrote:

>I wondered if there may be something in the house that could upset the
>SNR that BT could pick up with their remote test?

Just about anything! Disconnect the extension sockets (or plug into BT
test socket) and measure SNR again.

--
Nigel M

BJH wrote:
> Hi
>
> I lost my BB connection on Wednesday last. I spoke with my ISP on
> Thursday and after running through various tests they passed it over
> to BT Wholesale who called me back later that day.
>
> The guy I spoke with said that the SNR was only 4dB so he felt that
> it
> needed an Engineer out to check the line into the house, which is
> very
> old (25 years plus) and is the old twin flex type. However I've had
> a
> perfect 1Mb connection for over a year and its worked fine up to
> now.

So the cable is 25 years old, yes it could have gone faulty in
length...
>
> I wondered if there may be something in the house that could upset
> the
> SNR that BT could pick up with their remote test?
>
> I have a BT NTE socket with two self intalled extensions each of
> which
> are fitted with the ADSL Nation filtered faceplates. I'm just
> wondering if one of them could have gone up the pole and be
> affecting
> the SNR?
>
> Or should I just leave it now to BT who are coming out Thursday
> afternoon?

Well, have you tried plugging into the test socket on the NTE5a? That
way you would find out whether it's any of your kit or whether you
have got a problem on the BT network. Unless you test you won't know,
remember it's a self install product so you are expected to do testing
for yourself up to the NTE. If you want Openreach to do it it will
cost you.

So it's up to you. Do you expect Openreach to check your filtering &
extensions? They won't object but you will be charged.

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:17:30 -0000, Kraftee wrote:

> So it's up to you. Do you expect Openreach to check your filtering
> & extensions? They won't object but you will be charged.

Yes, I've been doing some testing this evening and I've found that my
2110 DECT phone pulls down the SNR by 2dB to 3.5, with it unplugged it
goes back up to 5.5dB and at that point I can get a connection.

My main phone which is downstairs on my other filtered extension makes
no difference to the SNR whether its plugged in our not.

As I've got face plate filters I can't check at the NTE so I'm going
to try and borrow one tomorrow to I can connect my router to the NTE5.

What would you normally class as 'acceptable SNR' at the NTE5? IIRC
the guy from BT said he expected 8dB.

Looks like my DECT phone has reached the end of its life?

--
Best regards
Barry

BJH wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:17:30 -0000, Kraftee wrote:
>
>> So it's up to you. Do you expect Openreach to check your filtering
>> & extensions? They won't object but you will be charged.
>
> Yes, I've been doing some testing this evening and I've found that
> my
> 2110 DECT phone pulls down the SNR by 2dB to 3.5, with it unplugged
> it
> goes back up to 5.5dB and at that point I can get a connection.
>
> My main phone which is downstairs on my other filtered extension
> makes
> no difference to the SNR whether its plugged in our not.
>
> As I've got face plate filters I can't check at the NTE so I'm going
> to try and borrow one tomorrow to I can connect my router to the
> NTE5.
>
> What would you normally class as 'acceptable SNR' at the NTE5? IIRC
> the guy from BT said he expected 8dB.
>
> Looks like my DECT phone has reached the end of its life?

Make the lowest acceptable SNR as 10dB, yes I know it's alittle bit
higher than some would say but it gives you a little leeway as in your
configuration you may get fluctuations depending on the time of day.
Check the filter before you throw the dect phone as they're cheaper to
replace, mind you the prices of dect phones appear to be coming down
in leaps and bounds ahyway.

The other thing you have to check is whether your extension wiring is
causing you problems, that will mean plugging your router into the
test socket on the back plate...

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 21:36:41 -0000, Kraftee wrote:

> The other thing you have to check is whether your extension wiring
> is causing you problems, that will mean plugging your router into
> the test socket on the back plate...

Hopefully tomorrow evening...

--
Best regards
Barry

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 21:36:41 -0000, Kraftee wrote:

> Make the lowest acceptable SNR as 10dB, yes I know it's a little bit
> higher than some would say but it gives you a little leeway as in your
> configuration you may get fluctuations depending on the time of day.

Just out of interest I've checked the SNR on my Office connection, next
village, different exchange 2 mile from the Office, and I get an SNR of
35.5dB!

Can this be right?

Its the same make and model of Router.

Makes me more determined to accept nothing less than at least 15-20dB.

--
Regards
Barry

BJH wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 21:36:41 -0000, Kraftee wrote:
>
>> Make the lowest acceptable SNR as 10dB, yes I know it's a little
>> bit
>> higher than some would say but it gives you a little leeway as in
>> your configuration you may get fluctuations depending on the time
>> of
>> day.
>
> Just out of interest I've checked the SNR on my Office connection,
> next village, different exchange 2 mile from the Office, and I get
> an
> SNR of
> 35.5dB!
>
> Can this be right?

& why not?
>
> Its the same make and model of Router.

Don't mean a thing, if it was the same router then it would be more
relavent to the whole discusion. As no routers have been calibrated
the results can & often do vary from one to another
>
> Makes me more determined to accept nothing less than at least
> 15-20dB.

& if that's not possible what are you going to do next? Think
carefully before you answer.....

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:43:37 -0000, Kraftee wrote:

> & if that's not possible what are you going to do next? Think
> carefully before you answer.....

OK, I've had a very interesting learning experience and I've eaten my
share of 'humble pie' and I've cancelled Mr BT!

Being better organised today I started at the NTE and got a SNR of
30dB. Going back to my first extension in the hall which has a
filtered face plate I got a SNR of 29.5dB. So far so good.

Upstairs in my office the SNR dropped to 5dB and if I plugged the DECT
in it was down as low as 3.5dB. No wonder I was having connection and
speed problems.

I had a roll of 1308 cable in the car so I ran a new cable from the
second extension up to the filtered face plate in my office.

The SNR at this point is now up to 7dB, still low I realise, but my
router now connects cleanly and holds my connection and internetfrog
reckons I'm getting 99% QOS.

And plugging in the DECT phone and my modem makes no difference
whatsoever.

So I'm a little happier..

The question is:

Should I replace the extension wirng up to my office with some CAT5
(or whatever) cable?

Will I see any noticeable improvement?

Thanks for your input which steered me in the (hopefully) right
direction.

--
Best regards
Barry

BJH wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:43:37 -0000, Kraftee wrote:
>
>> & if that's not possible what are you going to do next? Think
>> carefully before you answer.....
>
> OK, I've had a very interesting learning experience and I've eaten
> my
> share of 'humble pie' and I've cancelled Mr BT!
>
> Being better organised today I started at the NTE and got a SNR of
> 30dB. Going back to my first extension in the hall which has a
> filtered face plate I got a SNR of 29.5dB. So far so good.
>
> Upstairs in my office the SNR dropped to 5dB and if I plugged the
> DECT
> in it was down as low as 3.5dB. No wonder I was having connection
> and
> speed problems.
>
> I had a roll of 1308 cable in the car so I ran a new cable from the
> second extension up to the filtered face plate in my office.
>
> The SNR at this point is now up to 7dB, still low I realise, but my
> router now connects cleanly and holds my connection and internetfrog
> reckons I'm getting 99% QOS.
>
> And plugging in the DECT phone and my modem makes no difference
> whatsoever.
>
> So I'm a little happier..
>
> The question is:
>
> Should I replace the extension wirng up to my office with some CAT5
> (or whatever) cable?
>
> Will I see any noticeable improvement?
>
> Thanks for your input which steered me in the (hopefully) right
> direction.

Won't say I told you so but you've still got a problem between those 2
sockets, either the connections aren't quite right, one socket is
faulty (or indeed both) or there is something very (electrucally/rfi
wise) noisy between the 2. Sorry but only you can track it down but
you should not have that much of a drop over such a small distance.

You could try using Cat5 cable to see if there is an improvement (any
good quality solid core twisted pair cable should do, don't use
stranded as it can cause problems), but at least we got you on the
right track & saved you the cost of an ADSL health check charge.