Microfilters

Is their any way to determine accurately whether a microfilter is faulty?

I'm having nightmares with disconnections and intermittent line noise. I'm
with Bulldog broadband which I assume is now part of the pipex
infrastructure.
BT engineers have been out and done a line check already which did seem to
sort things until about 1 hour after they'd left then the disconnections
started again. I'm on my 3rd microfilter and not at all convinced that is
the cause of the problem although bulldog "engineers" seem to think it is.

JohnR wrote:

> Is their any way to determine accurately whether a microfilter is faulty?
>
> I'm having nightmares with disconnections and intermittent line noise. I'm
> with Bulldog broadband which I assume is now part of the pipex
> infrastructure.
> BT engineers have been out and done a line check already which did seem to
> sort things until about 1 hour after they'd left then the disconnections
> started again. I'm on my 3rd microfilter and not at all convinced that is
> the cause of the problem although bulldog "engineers" seem to think it is.

There seems to be a load of shit talked about them. I'm sure some more will be
coming along soon. So-called 'engineers' are no better than Uncle Tom Cobley
either in this respect too.

Do you know how to monitor your line stats ? Any discussion is largely pointless
with that info. How long is the line too ?

If you have the ability to plug your adsl modem / router straight into the
master socket than this will help eliminate stuff. A classic dial-up modem cable
will let you do this. Can you do this ?

Also do you have any extensions, BT hard-wired or otherwise ?

Graham

"Eeyore" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> JohnR wrote:
>
>> Is their any way to determine accurately whether a microfilter is faulty?
>>
>> I'm having nightmares with disconnections and intermittent line noise.
>> I'm
>> with Bulldog broadband which I assume is now part of the pipex
>> infrastructure.
>> BT engineers have been out and done a line check already which did seem
>> to
>> sort things until about 1 hour after they'd left then the disconnections
>> started again. I'm on my 3rd microfilter and not at all convinced that is
>> the cause of the problem although bulldog "engineers" seem to think it
>> is.
>
> There seems to be a load of shit talked about them. I'm sure some more
> will be
> coming along soon. So-called 'engineers' are no better than Uncle Tom
> Cobley
> either in this respect too.
>
> Do you know how to monitor your line stats ? Any discussion is largely
> pointless
> with that info. How long is the line too ?
>
I have a basic understanding of the various perameters yes. They decided to
dial in a 5024 kbps profile.
The line length is indicated as between 7 and 8 thousand feet by the 2
routers I have.
I'm using a D-Link DSL-504 at the moment.

Line stats the DSL-504 reports are

ADSL Link Speed 5024 kbps (downstream)
ADSL Link Speed 576 kbps (upstream)
SNR 7.0 dB (downstream)
SNR 0.0 dB (upstream)
ATEN 35 dB (downstream)
ATEN 19 dB (upstream)

The stats above I have a laymans understanding of, the ones below mean
nothing to me.

Line Error
ADSL layer
FEC 0 0 (down,up)
CRC 383 4 (down,up)
ATM layer
HEC 93 0 (down,up)
Frame Counter 13417 11152 (down,up)
>
> If you have the ability to plug your adsl modem / router straight into the
> master socket than this will help eliminate stuff. A classic dial-up modem
> cable
> will let you do this. Can you do this ?
>
> Also do you have any extensions, BT hard-wired or otherwise ?
>
The microfilter is plugged into the BT master socket faceplate (not the test
socket) and there is an extension to another room tapped into that socket
which isn't in use at the moment until I get this problem sorted. The
problems i've had were the same from the test socket so the extension isn't
the cause, the BT engineers checked the extension when they did the line
test a couple of days ago.
I bought a new microfilter again this afternoon and it seems for the time
being to have fixed the issue which is both embarrassing and extremely
frustrating if that is what it was. One of the reasons I asked about testing
microfilters is to try and establish if the old ones are actually faulty.

JohnR wrote:

> I have a basic understanding of the various perameters yes. They decided to
> dial in a 5024 kbps profile.
> The line length is indicated as between 7 and 8 thousand feet by the 2
> routers I have.

I've never seen a router tell you that What does this say btw ?

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/distance.php


> I'm using a D-Link DSL-504 at the moment.
>
> Line stats the DSL-504 reports are
>
> ADSL Link Speed 5024 kbps (downstream)
> ADSL Link Speed 576 kbps (upstream)
> SNR 7.0 dB (downstream)
> SNR 0.0 dB (upstream)
> ATEN 35 dB (downstream)
> ATEN 19 dB (upstream)

Those downstream figures look OK. I'm puzzled by the upstream SNR but never mind
- I expect it's a quirk of their software.


> The microfilter is plugged into the BT master socket faceplate (not the test
> socket)

Have you tried the test socket ? They should have already suggested this ! If
you do that it also disconnects any hardwired extension IIRC which can be
useful.


> and there is an extension to another room tapped into that socket

What do you mean by 'tapped in'. Is it an extension lead or a permanent
extension wired by BT ?


> which isn't in use at the moment until I get this problem sorted.

In use meaning there's no phone plugged in on the end of it but it's in working
condition if you do ?

> The problems i've had were the same from the test socket so the extension
> isn't
> the cause, the BT engineers checked the extension when they did the line
> test a couple of days ago.
> I bought a new microfilter again this afternoon and it seems for the time
> being to have fixed the issue

I wouldn't hold my breath !


> which is both embarrassing and extremely frustrating if that is what it was.
> One of the reasons I asked about testing microfilters is to try and establish
> if the old ones are actually faulty.

Where did you buy them from ? What types.

If you can live without the phone connected for a bit (say overnight at least)
I'd have *just* the router connected (sing an old dialup modem lead) and see if
the error log shows it lost sync during that time.


Graham

"JohnR" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4656f32e$0$5330$(E-Mail Removed) g.com...
>
> "Eeyore" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>
> The microfilter is plugged into the BT master socket faceplate (not the
> test socket) and there is an extension to another room tapped into that
> socket which isn't in use at the moment until I get this problem sorted.
> The problems i've had were the same from the test socket so the extension
> isn't the cause, the BT engineers checked the extension when they did the
> line test a couple of days ago.
> I bought a new microfilter again this afternoon and it seems for the time
> being to have fixed the issue which is both embarrassing and extremely
> frustrating if that is what it was. One of the reasons I asked about
> testing microfilters is to try and establish if the old ones are actually
> faulty.
>

daft question I know, but you're not plugging the modem/router into the
filter perchance?
(rule out the obvious,and only the bizarre remain)

P.

Graham, JohnR

> If you can live without the phone connected for a bit (say overnight at
> least)
> I'd have *just* the router connected (sing an old dialup modem lead) and
> see if
> the error log shows it lost sync during that time.

Graham's exactly right. I went through all of this headache about 6 months
ago and finally narrowed the fault down to the router's power supply.
However, a methodical approach was needed which is what you've been doing
and what Graham is advocating.

In my case, the PSU was a swicthed-mode PSU which developed a fault such
that the DC voltage supplied was correct and there was sufficient current to
power the router, but the HF noise on the PSU input (due to the nature of
the PSU) was causing horrendous line SNR problems and disconnects.

I replaced the PSU with a linear one and it was fine, then I got another PSU
from 3Com and it is also fine. Next time it fails (this is the second SMPSU)
I will revert to a proper linear one. Hot but quiet!

DDS

"JohnR" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4656e5c3$0$12772$(E-Mail Removed) ng.com...
> Is their any way to determine accurately whether a microfilter is faulty?
>
> I'm having nightmares with disconnections and intermittent line noise. I'm
> with Bulldog broadband which I assume is now part of the pipex
> infrastructure.
> BT engineers have been out and done a line check already which did seem to
> sort things until about 1 hour after they'd left then the disconnections
> started again. I'm on my 3rd microfilter and not at all convinced that is
> the cause of the problem although bulldog "engineers" seem to think it is.
>
If you can do without your phones for a spell and you have a master phone
socket with a removable front section, remove the lower section of the
master and plug the router directly in to the test socket then see how your
line performs. If ok after a few hours -given your current hourly
disconnections then plug in the bottom section of the master socket, remove
any phones and filters from the extensions and again plug the router back
into the master socket. If still ok then add a filter to your phone and
plug it into your extension. Again see how it goes.

We run a Max service and plug our router directly into the master with no
filter but have only one filter on an extension socket in another room into
which is plugged a simple phone splitter for the dect phone and pc modem.
we sync at 8124 / 448

Hope it helps.

Gio