To think broad band dropping out every day isn't 'normal'

[nolassie]

We've had trouble with broad band for years. 3 BT visits have resulted in perfect test scores. Plusnet can see the numerous outages. They were on the point of getting a REIN engineer out but have changed something at the exchange and now say the service is only dropping out a couple of times a day which is normal and to be expected. Really?

Sorry boring post but I'd really appreciate any advice or thoughts.

it could be your router.

our internet drops out a dozen times a day, but it's not the internet, it's the router- or a DNS problem dh says, whatever the hell that is.

Is your router connected directly to the master socket or to an extension? It could be the internal cabling getting flaky. What sort of speed do you normally get? If you're a long way from the exchange and getting slow speeds anyway, the likelihood that it's an issue with the phone line itself is much higher, but BT probably can't do much about it. You could be getting the best service your line will allow. Assuming you haven't already, switching to fibre would probably improve this as long as you're fairly close to your cabinet.

I work as Tech Support for a Broadband provider (not plusnet) and this is something we see regularly.

It is most likely your line, I would expect plusnet to have already covered this with you but if not;

Connect your micro filter and then router to your telephone socket test port, most people have one hiding behind the bottom section of the master socket face plate. Taking off the bottom section will disconnect any internal wiring from your line and give you the best connection possible.

Track when you disconnect, is it always at the same time of day? If yes what's going on then? Think of anything and everything you can from heavy traffic on the road outside during school runs to when the microwave is in use inside? Does it get better/ worse depending on weather conditions? Is your phone line ever noisy or quiet - even just occasionally? Answers to these will help determine REIN or other causes of intermittent faults

Once you have this info speak to plusnet again and see what they can do next.

Don't upgrade to fibre expecting a miracle fix, most fibre installations are from the exchange to your cabinet and then it's the same copper wires from the cabinet to your home. If there is a fault in the cable it is most likely to be in the bit between you and the cabinet and if it is REIN then you are unlikely to fix it by changing to fibre.

An occasional drop can be expected, every day is a fault BUT is unlikely to get fixed until it gets worse as is very difficult for the Openreach engineer to track down as they really need to be on site with their diagnostic tools plugged in when it happens.

If it is REIN there is no guarantee of fix if the cause is something out with your control. The REIN engineer may find it is something in a neighbours house but if the neighbour declines to do anything the engineers can't make them

Thanks for the replies.

We've had 3 new routers over the years and now have the router connected straight to the master socket.

We get 4-5M at best. I've got used to not being able to stream things with out buffering it's just the complete outages that annoy so much especially as we run 2 businesses from home. We are a couple of miles from the exchange and a mile away from the nearest BT cabinet which contains fibre. The last BT engineer who visited said we could swap to fibre but BT Infinity Sales say no.

Does you telephone line have any noise interference with voice calls as it is quite a length of copper cable you have?

(The engineer will know if the cabinet is fibre enabled but not necessarily if space has been made available to the internet service provider to sell on)

We used to have the same problem when we were with BT - also the interference during phone calls Grin mentions. BT insisted it was due to something going wrong at our end, but when we switched providers the new company sent an engineer out and it turned out to be a fault with the wiring coming into the house.

Yes BT will always blame want to eliminate your equipment first

Best way is new micro filter into the telephone socket test port and then attach a known working (try it somewhere else that doesn't have the same problem) router and old style corded phone. If you do that then it would be extremely unlikely to be anything in your house