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Please - What do I do next? Can I hire some test equipment?

Rotaxengine

Casual Member
Hi I am new to this forum but sure someone can help me with my drop out problem!

About 4 years ago we had a problem with broadband outages. Bottom line was the wire was rubbing on the trees on the way to us and Openreach dropped a loop wire between two poles to overcome the problem - fine.

On 27th February this year I reported a problem with dropout again and told them what was said 4 years ago - The engineer said ( 4 years ago) the fault was on their side. They found exposed wires rubbing against a tree on the road up to us. They connected a new wire around the trees to sort the problem by bypassing the damaged cable. That is still there today as far as I can see when we drive up and down and being stretched by over hanging trees.

Since then I have been getting noticeable broadband outages and now seem to be coming to a dead end if solving it with both Openreach and my IPS.

Both have been very helpful but I still have the problem.

Let's get some facts on the table.

I do not have a landline phone connected to the Openreach main socket. I have no extensions to that socket. I have FTTC and I am 1.8Km from the green box.

I have a Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi VDSL/ADSL Modem Router connected to the Openreach socket. My outage last typically 4-5 mins and reconnects. My down load speed is very constant, when connected about 38M and 1.8 upload.

I have down load a bit of software - pinglogger from www.pinglogger.co.uk. I have been monitoring daily the outage by pinning an IP address (Google.co.uk) at 30 sec intervals with 32Bytes. The software show any outages and the time of that outage - naturally when working I can see the dropping via the LEDs on the router.

I have had the standard comments - your router connecting and disconnecting intermittently, can you hear noise on the phone (which I do not have connected).

I have found but cannot prove, that the outages as related to the wind speed and the rain.

I have had an Openreach engineer out to inspect the connection at my end and agreed to pay
As discussed during our call the engineer has been booked for tomorrow (23-03-2021) AM (8am - 1pm).

The type of engineer that has been booked is FTTx SFI (£165 +VAT).

The engineer will attend the site and carry out a PQT (Pair Quality Test), if this test passes the visit will be chargeable. The engineer may still choose to carry out work on the BT network if this test passes, but this would be considered an enhancement to the network, meaning the visit would still be chargeable.


The engineer found not problems and even tested the connect at the same time as "pulling the trees" He kindly called me back to tell me that. The day he can was a fine still day!

I have electronic record of outages in graphical form as well as in Excel since 10th March.

On the 5th May I contact my ISP again
Sorry to be a pain in the backside but could you have a look at the outages over the last 24hours and even just this morning. I was sitting working and out we go. And what - we just had a hailstone downpour.

Their reply was:

I have spoken to the supplier, and we've run even more diagnostics on the line over the course of today.

There are still no identified faults within the network that the diagnostics can detect. Infact it seems like a very clean line based on the results, with very low errors and whilst we can see that the line does frequently drop out (router disconnecting from exchange) it does not appear to be caused externally (again, based on the diagnostics).


What could I say -

I am more than happy for my Nighthawk to be the problem - so what I have done is at 5pm ( you will see the disconnect and reconnect) discounted this and connected the Openreach box with a N300 Netgear router DGN2200. The system is work fine and lets see what happens.

6th May the next day - The 14th Email

Sorry to say that as you will see there have been a lot of outages since I connected up the Openreach modem and router. Most of these have been overnight, one about 11:30 this morning and a drop at 12:10. I am still running with this configuration.

I accept you have arranged testing your end which I appreciate and accept their results.

I feel the setup at this end is straightforward - no phone connected, no extensions, just one cable from the Openreach master socket to the modem/router and the output into an N-way switch box running to some 9 devices.

When the Openreach engineer was here he naturally had his own test equipment to monitor the line and he found no problems as we know. So is it possible for you to find out what test equipment I need to temporarily install into my Openreach master socket, to ping you directly to monitor any outages? This would or should prove where the problem is - inside the house or outside.

Knowing what I need I am sure I can hire that equipment for a few days.

I guess I need a sealed Dedicated Pinging Logging Modem - DPLM. Yes I have been watching Line of Duty
 

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I had a line that went bad during wet and windy weather, I requested an engineers visit on a wet day but it was not until the 5th visit that it was raining and the engineer found the fault. I did not pay for any of the visits as right from the beginning, and I repeated the same to engineers when they turned up in the dry, if its not raining you will find no fault so don't turn up if its dry. This sounds like a job for Andrews and Arnold who monitor the line 24/7 themselves and know how to push Openreach to fix difficult lines, they are expensive but if they do not get a result within a month you are free to cancel.


I did not go that route but went 4G instead, only when FTTP comes will I go back to using a line.
 
I had a line that went bad during wet and windy weather, I requested an engineers visit on a wet day but it was not until the 5th visit that it was raining and the engineer found the fault. I did not pay for any of the visits as right from the beginning, and I repeated the same to engineers when they turned up in the dry, if its not raining you will find no fault so don't turn up if its dry. This sounds like a job for Andrews and Arnold who monitor the line 24/7 themselves and know how to push Openreach to fix difficult lines, they are expensive but if they do not get a result within a month you are free to cancel.


I did not go that route but went 4G instead, only when FTTP comes will I go back to using a line.
Thank you for reading and replying to my posting. I will give me ISP another week or so and then look at AA. Thank you
 
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I agree with @kommando828 , if your not still in contract I would consider cancelling any call out and switching to AA...

I'm fed up of providers bowing down to Openreach and threatening 'paying' customers with charges when issues are affecting the service.... its totally unacceptable, running a PQT may well pass and then the weather may change and it will fail... its an absolute joke.
Thank you also for reading and replying to my post. I will give me ISP another week or so and then look at AA. Thank you
 
I had a line that went bad during wet and windy weather, I requested an engineers visit on a wet day but it was not until the 5th visit that it was raining and the engineer found the fault. I did not pay for any of the visits as right from the beginning, and I repeated the same to engineers when they turned up in the dry, if its not raining you will find no fault so don't turn up if its dry. This sounds like a job for Andrews and Arnold who monitor the line 24/7 themselves and know how to push Openreach to fix difficult lines, they are expensive but if they do not get a result within a month you are free to cancel.


I did not go that route but went 4G instead, only when FTTP comes will I go back to using a line.

I will have a look at them - thank you. We are in Wales LD8 so 4G is not an option. We are lucky to even get FTTC. Thank you
 
I will have a look at them - thank you. We are in Wales LD8 so 4G is not an option. We are lucky to even get FTTC. Thank you
I have had a look on Three's coverage checker and if I have the right area, it seems you have good 4G coverage.
Screenshot_2021-05-08-07-57-43-610_com.microsoft.emmx.jpg
 
Vodafone seems even better for coverage and says you can get 49Mbps via their 4G in your area.
Screenshot_2021-05-08-08-02-09-137_com.microsoft.emmx.jpg
 
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Hi, thank you for taking the time to help. I am with Vodafone for mobile etc and we only get signal in some rooms. The map does show that we should only get a 4G signal outdoors. See attached thanks Ken
 

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Hi, thank you for taking the time to help. I am with Vodafone for mobile etc and we only get signal in some rooms. The map does show that we should only get a 4G signal outdoors. See attached thanks Ken
Outdoor router maybe then? @Lucian has a 5G CPE Win, I'm guessing there is a 4G only model too. I'll have a look now.
 
What sort of speeds do you get outside with your 4G? www.speedtest.net if you've never done a speedtest before.
 
Go outside with your voda phone near the wall facing the mast and do a speedtest close to where you could mount an antenna. I get 25mb down about 4km away from a voda mast using a directional antenna with direct line of sight.
 
After years of dealing with open reach, I found the only way to get them to do things is by taking drastic action.

Get a pair of snips, go outside to your line and cut it. This bypasses the hours of phone calls and will result in an engineer visit and a brand new line.

ISP call centers are always going to be a waste of time for speed issues. They can't do anything as they don't control the line, openreach do.
 
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After years of dealing with open reach, I found the only way to get them to do things is by taking drastic action.

Get a pair of snips, go outside to your line and cut it. This bypasses the hours of phone calls and will result in an engineer visit and a brand new line.

ISP call centers are always going to be a waste of time for speed issues. They can't do anything as they don't control the line, openreach do.
I wouldn't recommend anybody else do the same as this. The line outside your home is within Openreach's realm and so you may be committing criminal damage (even if the line itself is technically on your property). On top of that, it may also complicate the fix, which could leave you disconnected for a longer period of time.
 
Your problem is not very different from an issue I had a year or so ago.
See cleve.co.uk/wp/plusnet-fibre-problems/ for my description.
Suggest you might look at REIN and SHINE as the possible cause. If you ISP cant help then you may need to use 4G, in addition to or, as a replacement for the poor broadband service.
 
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