bt broadband woes

Roccie

Hi all. I would appreciate some advice regarding my internet connection, which is currently atrocious.

about 18 months ago, i went on the 3mb bt broadband package. however, i had nothing but trouble with the connection for the following year - low speeds, constant disconnections. after getting in contact with bt and sending them line statistics, they recommended that i downgrade to a 1mb package (they also said that they should never have put me on the 3mb package in the first place and kindly refunded a years worth of the price difference between the 1mb and 2mb packages).

however, if anything, the downgrade has made things much worse. my speeds are not great and i am getting more disconnections than ever. (i checked my router log the other day and has nearly 200 disconnects in a 24 hour period!) . For about three or four months now, the internet is pretty much unusable for 4 or so hours a day. during the rest of the time, the internet is ok, but still disconnects frequently.

my line stats arent great- my line attenuation is 54db and the noise margin is generally 12-13db.


unfortunately, my options regarding wireless are quite limited. i live a little south of drogheda, with no digiweb coverage.
i can only get net 1 in my area. Does anyone know if the net 1 service is decent in east meath?

Any advice about what should do then?

Spear

Roccie wrote: »

however, if anything, the downgrade has made things much worse. my speeds are not great and i am getting more disconnections than ever. (i checked my router log the other day and has nearly 200 disconnects in a 24 hour period!) . For about three or four months now, the internet is pretty much unusable for 4 or so hours a day. during the rest of the time, the internet is ok, but still disconnects frequently.

my line stats arent great- my line attenuation is 54db and the noise margin is generally 12-13db.

How far are you from the exchange? Have you tried replacing the microfilters?

Roccie

about 2 km. I havent tried replacing the microfilters. would that make any difference?

Barlow07

Roccie wrote: »

Hi all. I would appreciate some advice regarding my internet connection, which is currently atrocious.

about 18 months ago, i went on the 3mb bt broadband package. however, i had nothing but trouble with the connection for the following year - low speeds, constant disconnections. after getting in contact with bt and sending them line statistics, they recommended that i downgrade to a 1mb package (they also said that they should never have put me on the 3mb package in the first place and kindly refunded a years worth of the price difference between the 1mb and 2mb packages).

however, if anything, the downgrade has made things much worse. my speeds are not great and i am getting more disconnections than ever. (i checked my router log the other day and has nearly 200 disconnects in a 24 hour period!) . For about three or four months now, the internet is pretty much unusable for 4 or so hours a day. during the rest of the time, the internet is ok, but still disconnects frequently.

my line stats arent great- my line attenuation is 54db and the noise margin is generally 12-13db.


unfortunately, my options regarding wireless are quite limited. i live a little south of drogheda, with no digiweb coverage.
i can only get net 1 in my area. Does anyone know if the net 1 service is decent in east meath?

Any advice about what should do then?

I think your line stats above are ok for 1MB as long as it doesnt go below 6db, thats when you will not get a broadband service or it will always be intermittent.

What is the make of the modem/router? Can you post up your setup, phone sockets, if you have sky or a alarm on your phoneline.

Can you post your setup regards your broaband, phone sockets, if you have sky or alarm attached to your line. If your only 2KM thats not far all and yous houldnt be having all the problems you seem to be getting.

Roccie

the router is a netgear DG834G. no sky or alarm connected and currently there are two phones connected to the line.

Barlow07

Roccie wrote: »

the router is a netgear DG834G. no sky or alarm connected and currently there are two phones connected to the line.

Ok, can you disconnect the two phones and connect the Netgear to your main socket and post back up with your line stats. We want to see if your Noise Ratio decreases or increases ?

Roccie

the noise margin is still at 12 db

Barlow07

Roccie wrote: »

the noise margin is still at 12 db

I think the problem maybe the phoneline itself provided by Eircom coming into your house or it could internal, a issue with one of your phone points. i would have expected your Noise Ratio to increase. The only other advice i would recommend would be to try a different router then the Netgear you are currently using. Did you get any from Bt when you signed up with them?

Roccie

i already tried the router that bt sent out and it was no better at all.

regarding the wiring, a few years back, an eircom engineer messed up my main phone socket when installing a new phone on the wall. he removed the connector on the wall, leaving a big hole hehind and the phone connector is now a small wire coming out of the wall. when i am on the phone and this wire is moved at all, it makes a lot of noise. a few minutes ago i was messing with the wire and checking how it affected my connection. whenever i started moving the wire, the internet connection dropped. Could this dodgy connection have any effect on the noise margin ? should i get an engineer out to examine it?

Barlow07

Roccie wrote: »

a few minutes ago i was messing with the wire and checking how it affected my connection. whenever i started moving the wire, the internet connection dropped. Could this dodgy connection have any effect on the noise margin ? should i get an engineer out to examine it?

I would be almost 100% sure that this will be affecting your broadband connection and you have just found the cause. What did BT say when your reported you broadband connection problem? I would contact them and see if they can send an engineer out or even and electrian if you know one yourself will probably be able to fix this.

Roccie

all they did was recommend a downgrade after i sent them some line stats.

anyway, i'll get in touch with them about getting an engineer to look at the wiring. thanks very much for your help!

Barlow07

Roccie wrote: »

all they did was recommend a downgrade after i sent them some line stats.

anyway, i'll get in touch with them about getting an engineer to look at the wiring. thanks very much for your help!

No problem, best of luck with it