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Right, time to sort this out.
Have been disappointingly ill.
Hmmm, where have my photos gone?
Photos sorted.
I got confused before.
I realise I was getting the terminology wrong a bit.
Also, I am just looking to see if I can improve on what I have and remove any bottle necks.
So, I spoke online chat to my ISP.
- They provide 'fibre' broadband.
But that is only as far as the junction box (which I now know what that means).
- After that it is copper cable to my house, then 20 metres (or something) of mess.
- The system estimates that the junction box is 1,322 metres from my junction box to my pc. But that is based on signal strength. I am wondering a) how to find my junction box and b) if it is based on an estimate using signal strength, if I have a bottleneck, would that show me a longer distance?
- The sales guys tell me I should get 19-28Mbps. I tested it and I get 17.
The tech lady then said I get 16-25. (funny that) Guaranteed 14.5Mbps. She was saying that mine is pretty low and that was due to distance from the cabinet. But she said that nothing else in the house would affect the speed at all.
Have I got this right?
- Plusnet provide cable to the junction box.
- Openreach are then responsible for the copper cable from the junction box to about a foot into my house and the 35 year old GPO box.
- The rest is down to me? including the 20 metres of mess the engineers put in over the decades from the gpo box to the Master Socket. (What are we calling the copper cable from the GPO box to the Master socket again? The round stuff)
- After the master socket is a flat cable to the router. What are we calling that again please?).
– Plusnet provide cable to the junction box.
Probably. This doesn't really matter to you anyway.
– Openreach are then responsible for the copper cable from the junction box to about a foot into my house and the 35 year old GPO box.
Yes.
– The rest is down to me? including the 20 metres of mess the engineers put in over the decades from the gpo box to the Master Socket. (What are we calling the copper cable from the GPO box to the Master socket again? The round stuff)
Shit.
Responsibility here is difficult to say with certainty as both the GPO box and the NTE5 are demarcation points between you and BT. I'll come back to this.
– After the master socket is a flat cable to the router. What are we calling that again please?).
DSL cable, for want of anything better.
So, the 20m of shit is a problem. Either a BT engineer bodged it at some point, or the previous owner got themselves an NTE5 off the Internet. I'm only guessing but I'm tending towards the latter, for all that BT are a shower of a company their old-school cabling guys are some of the best in the business, it's hard to see them doing that sort of Friday Night Special (but not unheard of).
What I'd do is this. Get on to BT, tell them you have intermittent problems with voice calls, crackling on the line and suchlike. Don't mention DSL. They should send an Openreach engineer round for free to resolve this (whereas they'll likely charge you if it's a DSL callout).
Openreach are instructed to put the master socket wherever is easiest for them. When the engineer turns up, be nice, ply them with tea and biscuits, and have a chat about where you'd ideally like the NTE5 to be located and with a bit of luck they'll do you a favour and shift it. You may be limited by practicality of course, they can't put it somewhere impossible, but they should take one look at that car crash and rip the lot out.
Thanks loads for this.
I really appreciate it.
The NTE5 was put in by the BT engineer when I moved in here 4 years ago.
I didn't know any better, thinking he knew best.
So, yes, the mess at my end is likely to be the worst bit.
Even though the 'tech' person said no at plusnet.
In an ideal world, from what you said before, have I got it right thinking I would be best off putting the NTE5 as close to where it hits the house as possible then running ethernet cable from there?
Hmm, it is in a porch though, so, also run a round (not flat) dsl cable in from the porch (not far) to the router then ethernet from there on.
Oh, bugger, and I am so rubbish at lying.
Am I allowed to move the NTE5? Or would I get told off?
Or is it there something that means I shouldn't?
(Obviously as long as I remember what cable goes where)
Right, so it sounds as though Openreach has taken responsibility for that cable run and the NTE5 is the demarcation point. In which case, technically no, you can't move it yourself, it's classed as tampering with the phone system and illegal. In practice, given the shambles it's currently in, who would know? (Personally I wouldn't, as above I'd be kicking it back to BT to sort their mess out.)
I suppose ideally you want the NTE presented as close as possible to where you want your router, though running CAT5e from NTE to router would be an improvement over the regular DSL cable. You'd need something custom-made though, as a patch cable will have the wrong plug on the end.
Is the voice side of things genuinely perfect?
What issue do you have, with the service ,Slow speed or intermitant droping out? Is it noisy?
The main cable to the old gpo box in the meter box is an amoured cable, which is direct in the ground, ie not ducted, so cant be moved.The twisted cable from the gpo box to nte is not ideal(better run around outside of house if possible to nte).It has been connected using idc crimps in the various small connection boxes,which are what is used by O.R It would be better to be one length all the way.
Has your provider said there is an issue with the line? You can push them for an sfi fault to be raised, but if your speed is within parameters and no issue with connection dropping out, they probally will refuse(it costs them)
Various sfi type faults can be raised, from just checking speed and line quality,to engineer going from exchange to nte checking all connections and upgrading if required(can take days in bad cases)
Right, turns out the internet has been cutting out most days as well for the last couple of weeks. (I don't use it as much as others in the house.)
I contacted them to say this and my phone line didn't sound right.
Yes, apparently, I am getting 17 Mbps and the range is 16-25Mbps. (although the sales guy said 19-28Mbps)
Apparently they guarantee 14.5 Mbps.
Would be nice to get better if possible eh?
Just frustrating to not be allowed to just use the existing 10-15m of cable and bypass shit. Rewire that into the gpo box and bypass the extra box and the power cable and the old cable that has been very tightly stapled to the skirting. Just to see if that makes any difference.
As you say, esp as they have messed it about, not me.
So, they are doing a 48 hour monitor test on my signal through the test socket.
Complicated load of old Codswallop isn't it?
It is, can be like faulting fog,sometimes obvious, other times its just utter witchcraft why it doesn’t work.
Hopefully they can spot drops in connection,& pass to OR for a good seeing too👍🏼
Well, they monitored it for three days.
Takes a chunk of your life chasing up these people doesn;t it?
Funnily enough we had no drop outs in that time.
So, the guy said there is no fault.
So we have to raise a fault with the faults team.
Apparently it looks like there's a 'fault located within the connection profile settings'
Just need to wait 3-5 (working) days to see what that means.
In the meantime, I had a cunning plan.
I spoke with my neighbour who has a business up the road and has half an idea of stuff like this.
Turns out he gets 17Mbps as well (He knew it off the top of his head) reckons it is about as good as we will get due to the distance from the cabinet.
For what it's worth;
When we moved in our speeds were much worse than expected (<10Mbps). Especially as we had newly laid fibre to the cabinet, which sits across the road from our house (so like 30ft away). BT swore blind no issue with the line, tested, run diagnostics etc. We switched ISP to Zen and they raised a ticket and we got a free Openreach visit to sort it out. Turns out where it entered the house was bodged by the previous owner when they extended the house - the housing/connector was full of water for one thing. New master socket installed and we went straight to 35-40Mbps.
I'd be pushing for an Openreach engineer if you can. The chap who came to us was really good - I suspect the copious plying with tea and biscuits helped.
Well, I thought I was heading down the route of getting a visit with my cutting out issue (and a hissing phone line as a side issue)
They have bounced me about and cost me hours and hours of my time and I appear to have got nowhere.
Although, saying that my broadband seems to have stopped cutting out.
So maybe someone has done something even though "there is nothing wrong". (Constantly)
Ah, apparently, it is not considered a fault unless signal drops three times a day.
My contract ends soon. But I doubt any other ISP would be any better.
Do you think?
I see Virgin run fibre to your master socket.
As opposed to my fibre which runs to the cabinet which is nearly a mile away.
Virgin are not in my area.
Is there any merit in contacting OpenReach?
I keep getting told that there is no fault and I am getting above minimum level of broadband speed. (Just)
Originally, I was wondering if that could be improved, but it maybe seems not.
Ring.
BT.
Not.
Your.
ISP.
I did say this is exactly what would happen otherwise. The hissing on the line is the fault you need to report.
If plusnet are your ip, you need to go through them, you are their customer, as plusnet are a customer of openreach.The hissing if constant and sounds like a blowlamp in the background could be poor filtering, if intermittant defo a cable fault,possibly a hr(highresistance) joint or a rectified loop, acts as diode between both legs of your cable pair.Both faults can be missed on remote line tests.
The armoured cable that feeds into the meter box , are notorious for rectified loops(age/possibly been disturbed as some point)You need an O/R engineer to do a pqt (pair quality test) from your nte, this will highlight any faults, that cant be seen remotely. Keep pushing them, plusnet usually are pretty good.
If plusnet are your ip, you need to go through them, you are their customer
Who would you ring if you didn't have an Internet service at all?
You're reporting a line fault, this is the responsibility of whoever you pay your monthly line rental to. This may well be your ISP (if you've novated your line across to them as part of the DSL deal say, I did with my Sky package) but is usually BT.
Indeed,if you have a problem with the voice, side of your sevice you contact whoever you pay for the voice service, but most people have both voice and adsl from the same supplier.( usually cheaper ain’t it?)
There are a hell of alot of people who dont have a phone or use a land line,even though its paid for,free calls on mobile contracts why would you?
On the other hand, theres a few older folk, who pay for adsl even a fibre service, who never use it, nor have router plugged in ,usually misold.
Yes an engineer could visit and if the line is noisy,and he sorts it out,that may not improve bb quality,because the adsl connection is not tested for errors, as would be on a SFI fault report. He could also turn up do a PQT test all passes and there is no noise on the line at the time of his visit, This is the cheap option for SP’s, hoping its an obvious fault and rectified easily.
Its the favourite trick of certain SP to report a noisy line, OR engineer visits, asks User and they say no its an Adsl problem I dont even own a home phone, I reported my bb connection.
Also if the Op’s main problem is his bb, Push for sp for this to be fixed, more products offered by OR to get it sorted with sfi fault reports.Been a product the sp has to pay OR to attend, and somtimes they go for the cheap options first, make it seem frustrating for the end user. And when somebody has had multiple engineer visits, and not got it sorted, thats because the engineer is instructed to do certain tests,and no more that is all the sp has paid for
You have to remember OR is a buisness.