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Peripherals ADSL Router cant maintain a steady connection

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by Picky88, 18 Feb 2013.

  1. Picky88

    Picky88 What's a Dremel?

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    OK so we have ADSL over the phone line, no fibre or cable as we are in a rural area. A few weeks ago the line went completely dead, landline phone had no dial tone and router could not sync. The next morning the landline was back, as was the broadband, but it was unreliable.

    I went into the adsl stats page on the router. The attenuation had reduced, which I didnt think was possible, from the normal 63.5 dB to 59dB, and the noise margin had increased from 5.9dB to 14dB. The broadband sync speed had reduced from approx 3200kbps (and real world download speeds of 2.3Mbps) to about 2400, but it sometimes goes much lower than that, and the real world download speed is about 1.5 - 2Mbps. Occasionally the router loses sync completely, for about 10 seconds, and then reconnects. I have tried 3 different routers, different adsl filters, disconnecting the landline phone, restoring factory defaults on the routers, and only having one PC connected via ethernet.

    I also as a last resort tried unplugging everything in the house except the router, and laptop connected while running on battery, and the noise margin was reduced to 11dB but the random disconnecting was still happening. Is there anything else I can check before contacting my ISP? I am with EE (used to be orange) and they are usually not very keen to help so I want to be fully sure I have ruled out everything that I can.
     
  2. Krazeh

    Krazeh Minimodder

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    Probably an issue with your phone line, especially if you had a period where the landline died completely. Have you tried the quiet line test? Ring 17070 from a wired phone.
     
  3. Picky88

    Picky88 What's a Dremel?

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    Ok just dialled 17070 and selected option 2 for quiet line test, it was almost silent, only a very slight background hiss.
     
  4. Picky88

    Picky88 What's a Dremel?

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    Ive found a program called pingplotter, it does a traceroute to a website of your choosing and graphs it, several of the hops along the way have 100% packet loss on the way to www.google.co.uk. Anyone here had experience of ping plotter before?
     
  5. Krazeh

    Krazeh Minimodder

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    It shouldn't have any noise on it at all. I'm guessing from your speeds that you have quite a long line, the last thing you need is additional noise. Did you report the failure of your landline to BT?

    Unless there's packet loss to your final destination you can ignore any packet loss figures for hops along the route.
     
  6. Picky88

    Picky88 What's a Dremel?

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    Yes we are 4 miles from the exchange. I dont know if a very quiet hiss on that length of line would be considered unusual to be honest. When the line went totally dead it was about 11pm, and was fixed my the morning so I did not report it.

    I have phoned my ISP several times, and they talk to you about resetting your router and trying a different computer etc until you give up and end the call. I want to be absolutely sure there is no issue my end first.

    So 3 hops along the way showing 100% packet loss is not a problem? it varies between 1 and 3 hops showing packet loss.
     
  7. Krazeh

    Krazeh Minimodder

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    Might be worth reporting a voice fault to BT. Tell them the line died overnight and that since then you can hear hissing on the line. Just don't mention broadband.

    Nope.
     
  8. Picky88

    Picky88 What's a Dremel?

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    Right ok, not thought of contacting BT, I was under the impression you can only go through your ISP (as we have phone deal with them aswell)
     
  9. BloodlessDawn

    BloodlessDawn I know nothing.

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    I think essentially you'll want to contact whoever actually owns the phone-line.

    If you pay for your broadband through a company like Virgin or Talk Talk, but actually pay your Line Rental to BT (this is exactly how my parents handle their internet) then you'll want to contact BT regarding the line problem.
     
  10. BloodlessDawn

    BloodlessDawn I know nothing.

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    This router: Billion BiPAC 7800N is the router that I used at my parents house 4 miles from the exchange as the bird flies (much more after you've considered cables following roads etc.) and it is the most stable router they've ever owned. Take a look at the reviews and see if it's something that'd suit your needs.

    Parent's speed went from 1.2Mbps (on a good day) and dropping out twice a day, to a solid 2.1Mbps (occasionally more) and dropping out less than once a month...
     
  11. Picky88

    Picky88 What's a Dremel?

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    Ive heard that the billion is good on long lines, also the netgear DG834v3 and the 2 wire 2700HGV (sometimes branded the bt business hub). The billion is alot more expensive than the other two though!

    We rang EE again this morning as the line cutout altogether, and they now admit there is a serious problem. It has now connected at just 320kbps and noise on the landline when you use it, glad the problem has got worse so they actually have to do something about it!
     
  12. narwen

    narwen narwen

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    It might be a faulty filter
     

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