Awful BT ADSL problem

We are connected to our local exchange by 8km of mostly pole-mounted cable. Nevertheless, our ADSL is mostly good, syncing at 2mbps or above and delivering download speeds that are almost always better than 1.75 meg.

However we have had serious ongoing problems for a month now. We are due our 4th tech visit later this week. This morning, while testing the line, he declared "you could hear someone flush the toilet in the exchange, this line is so quiet". Yet, our BT Hub 4 is dropping and reconnecting regularly (it seldom goes more than 8 hours). It re-syncs at anything from 900kbps to 2700kbps but due to the ongoing instability the BRAS won't shift from 150k.

It is hard to get any useful stats from a Hub 4, but the tech read off some details from his handheld this morning. FEC and CRC events are almost non-existent. He believes the noise margin is too high at 16dB and asked me to call India to see if they would adjust it, and lock it down at 9dB. I duly called them only to be told they would not do it remotely because the connection is too unstable and it needed someone local and experienced in order to manage it.

So, what intelligent-sounding things can I say when the latest tech gets here on Friday? Are there questions I should be asking him to prompt deeper investigations of our line?

[Ignitionnet]

Sounds like SHINE.

If the engineer doesn't do a decent job remove his head and mail it back to BT with our compliments.

You should look into trying a different router that you can monitor properly - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

[qasdfdsaq]

Lol, rain and shine, only "Single Isolated Impulse Noise" doesn't have a single 'H' in it.

I concur with the above though, get a modem or router with proper monitoring, should be easy enough to find for a few quid on eBay. At the very least it'll give you more accurate info as to when and why the line is getting reset.

Thanks for the answers so far The most recent tech who visited, did begin to discuss the possibility of external interference, although he seemed to want to just get the line speed locked down, rather than trying to identify the source of the problem.

I like the idea of having a better router. I would like to be able to control things like what, and how much, our B&B guests can do with our Internet connection. I also prefer to be able to see the stats, which you could do with a BT Hub 3, but for some reason you can't with Hub 4.

However, I make fairly extensive use of their remote hotspot service (BT-with-FON and BT WiFi-X hotspots) and my understanding is that use of this is conditional on a hotspot being available on your home connection. I am assuming that they will be able to tell if I am no longer broadcasting a FON or BT WiFi-X hotspot and may then withdraw my use of the remote service.

Also, I have been led to believe that BT's Indian call centre can be reluctant to help if you phone in a problem and they see you're not using a BT device.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[rhyds]

IIRC as long as your account is shown as having FON active on it (rather than the router itself being active) then I think you'll be OK.

As for support, BT india are pretty awful anyway so not having the standard router can't make things much worse.

[Kushan]

I'd also argue that for your use case (monitoring and controlling your guests), you're going to want a separate router anyway, even if you have to daisy chain it to the BT hub.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Chris

Thanks for the answers so far The most recent tech who visited, did begin to discuss the possibility of external interference, although he seemed to want to just get the line speed locked down, rather than trying to identify the source of the problem.

I like the idea of having a better router. I would like to be able to control things like what, and how much, our B&B guests can do with our Internet connection. I also prefer to be able to see the stats, which you could do with a BT Hub 3, but for some reason you can't with Hub 4.

To be clear, advanced line monitoring only requires a separate modem, not router, but as always many people use combined devices.

However, I make fairly extensive use of their remote hotspot service (BT-with-FON and BT WiFi-X hotspots) and my understanding is that use of this is conditional on a hotspot being available on your home connection. I am assuming that they will be able to tell if I am no longer broadcasting a FON or BT WiFi-X hotspot and may then withdraw my use of the remote service.

It's conditional on you ticking the box on their website consenting to having the hub run FON but there is no check on you actually doing it. As rhyds said. as long as it's turned on at BT's end, it doesn't matter if you even have a hub at all, you'll still get FON access.

Mrs would go postal if I came home with a shiny new separate router and a modem.

That being the case, what is currently the mutt's nuts when it comes to combined modem/routers? I used to have the venerable Linksys wireless gateway back in my days with Virgin National. Don't own it any more though. In any case, I don't recall it having the ability to show different networks to different users, as would be handy in my case.