Slow broadband

I've been with Zen a number of years. Since about December, I've
noticed my internet slowing. It's getting quite bad bad now, and a
recent test on speedtester.bt.com showed a download speed of 187Kbps.
The support guy said that my telephone line sounded a bit noisy, but I
think that was possibly due to the fact that I was using a cordless
phone that transmitted signals to a base unit. I was told to report a
noisy line to BT.

BT did a quiet test, and reported that there appears to be no problem
with the outside. I tried a phone in the test socket, and everything
seemed about usual. On a previous occasion, My ISP suggested trying
new filters, but that didn't help speed up the internet; but it did
make the phone line noisy. ISP support suggested that they new filters
might be faulty. The problem is that we're now going around in
circles.

Could it be my modem that is faulty? I've had it for about 6 years,
and as far as I know, nothing is wrong with it. I live out in the
sticks, and we have the occasional line problem (corroded contacts,
soldering shorts, tractors digging up the line); but the faults have
mostly been with the telephone rather than the broadband.

I did notice that there's a PEW (Planned Engineering Work) expected to
take place tomorrow that will affect my line. I spotted it from Zen's
support page; although they didn't mention this at all when I phoned
them. Could it be that BT is aware of the problem and are planning on
fixing it?

I'm a bit cheesed off at the moment.

"Mark Carter" wrote in message
news:aee579a5-3dd9-41fa-9fdf-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Could it be my modem that is faulty? I've had it for about 6 years,
> and as far as I know, nothing is wrong with it. I live out in the
> sticks, and we have the occasional line problem (corroded contacts,
> soldering shorts, tractors digging up the line); but the faults have
> mostly been with the telephone rather than the broadband.

The Thomson TG585v7 is supposed to be quite good on long lines, you may be
able to get your ISP to send you one FOC. Using a filtered faceplate with
your router connected to you master socket can also help.


Michael Chare

Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.broadband Job Justification Hearings, Mark
Carter chose the tried and tested strategy of:

> I've been with Zen a number of years. Since about December, I've
> noticed my internet slowing. It's getting quite bad bad now, and a
> recent test on speedtester.bt.com showed a download speed of 187Kbps.

Was that when you were logged in as the speedtest user, or in your Zen
account?

> I did notice that there's a PEW (Planned Engineering Work) expected to
> take place tomorrow that will affect my line. I spotted it from Zen's
> support page; although they didn't mention this at all when I phoned
> them.

There are always PEWs going on. Did the PEW specify the nature of the work?
It may not have been relevant to your problem.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
18:19:00 up 20:59, 7 users, load average: 0.09, 0.05, 0.05
"I am utterly appalled at how I have been treated like a criminal"
-- Andrew Crossley, ACS:Law, 13 August 2010

"Michael Chare" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) o.uk...
> "Mark Carter" wrote in message
> news:aee579a5-3dd9-41fa-9fdf-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Could it be my modem that is faulty? I've had it for about 6
>> years,
>> and as far as I know, nothing is wrong with it. I live out in
>> the
>> sticks, and we have the occasional line problem (corroded
>> contacts,
>> soldering shorts, tractors digging up the line); but the
>> faults have
>> mostly been with the telephone rather than the broadband.
>
> The Thomson TG585v7 is supposed to be quite good on long lines,
> you may be able to get your ISP to send you one FOC. Using a
> filtered faceplate with your router connected to you master
> socket can also help.
>
>

Two comments: the filter only works on the audio side, so if the
phone is not in conversation the filter will make no difference
whatsoever. Take it/them out of circuit.

ADSL is actually radio frequencies being sent down the line, so
ANYTHING that detracts from operation of the normal speech line
will reek havoc with the RF signal. If you have any of the fault
problems that you cite it could easily destroy the ADSL, and once
they have put it on the line at the exchange BT have no idea what
happens to it. (On so-called 'Professional' ADSL BT now insist on
a modem being connected to the copper pair so they can ring it
and find out if it is just the ADSL that has failed or if someone
has dug the line up.)

You need to get the line fixed. If your line is BT and <you> pay
rental for it then you will have to attack BT (best of luck!) but
if you pay your line rental to Zen as well then it is up to them
to get it fixed. Your contract is then with Zen and they are
responsible for their sub-contractor, BT.



--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

On 19/02/11 18:02, Mark Carter wrote:
> I've been with Zen a number of years. Since about December, I've
> noticed my internet slowing. It's getting quite bad bad now, and a
> recent test on speedtester.bt.com showed a download speed of 187Kbps.
> The support guy said that my telephone line sounded a bit noisy, but I
> think that was possibly due to the fact that I was using a cordless
> phone that transmitted signals to a base unit. I was told to report a
> noisy line to BT.
>
> BT did a quiet test, and reported that there appears to be no problem
> with the outside. I tried a phone in the test socket, and everything
> seemed about usual. On a previous occasion, My ISP suggested trying
> new filters, but that didn't help speed up the internet; but it did
> make the phone line noisy. ISP support suggested that they new filters
> might be faulty. The problem is that we're now going around in
> circles.

Zen have just sorted out my line after similar problems. It turned out
to be the line between the cabinet and the exchange. It took four visits
by BT engineers to find and fix the problem.

>
> Could it be my modem that is faulty? I've had it for about 6 years,
> and as far as I know, nothing is wrong with it. I live out in the
> sticks, and we have the occasional line problem (corroded contacts,
> soldering shorts, tractors digging up the line); but the faults have
> mostly been with the telephone rather than the broadband.

Somewhere on the BT web site there is a set of guidelines for what to do
before you report a fault. One of their suggestions is that you try to
swap out the various parts that might cause a problem. Can you borrow
another modem to try it?



--
Bernard Peek
(E-Mail Removed)

"Woody" wrote in message news:RMW7p.18778$(E-Mail Removed)2...

"Michael Chare" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) o.uk...
> "Mark Carter" wrote in message
> news:aee579a5-3dd9-41fa-9fdf-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Could it be my modem that is faulty? I've had it for about 6 years,
>> and as far as I know, nothing is wrong with it. I live out in the
>> sticks, and we have the occasional line problem (corroded contacts,
>> soldering shorts, tractors digging up the line); but the faults have
>> mostly been with the telephone rather than the broadband.
>
> The Thomson TG585v7 is supposed to be quite good on long lines, you may be
> able to get your ISP to send you one FOC. Using a filtered faceplate with
> your router connected to you master socket can also help.
>
>

>Two comments: the filter only works on the audio side, so if the phone is
>not in conversation the filter will make no difference whatsoever. Take
>it/them out of circuit.

A filtered faceplate at the master socket will eliminate interference from
extension wiring.


Michael Chare

On Feb 19, 6:22*pm, alexd <troffa...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> There are always PEWs going on. Did the PEW specify the nature of the work?

No. I was only able to see a number. There was no description. It
seemed to affect many numbers, including Aberdeen.

On Feb 19, 6:22*pm, alexd <troffa...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Was that when you were logged in as the speedtest user, or in your Zen
> account?

Well, that's the odd thing. I was logged in via my Zen account, and
was able to do the speed test.

I was not able to do the speed test as a speedtest user. I saw some
documentation that I should log in as
bt_test_user@zen
but I couldn't get a connection to test anything. I also tried
(E-Mail Removed)
but that din't work, either. I used a blank password on both
occasions, as per the instructions. I couldn't connect to the website.
(speedtester.bt.com).

On Feb 20, 9:23 am, Bob L <b...@thisaddressisnowhere.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:02:38 -0800 (PST), Mark Carter

> Try your connection with the wireless phones and base station all
> switched off.

Well, I could try, but they've never been a problem before. I'm going
to see if I can borrow another router to do a test. To be honest, I
doubt that there's anything wrong in the house. Nothing has changed. I
think BT and Zen are sending me all round the houses, when it's likely
to be some kind of external problem.

On Feb 19, 6:22*pm, alexd <troffa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.broadband Job Justification Hearings, Mark
> Carter chose the tried and tested strategy of:

BTW, how do you generate those headers? I've seen those kinds of
things before.