topic Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre in Broadband

Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Fri, 06 May 2022 12:43:12 GMT

Yesterday my internet dropped c 1pm, but came back up after a few minutes.

Today it went down earlier, during the morning, and was long enough for me to bother to run a test to check it. Though the connection was back, it was below the minimum guaranteed speed:

Also, since last weekend you have indicated a phone fault, but I hadn't noticed problems with the phone:

You'll notice that the report above says that you are unable to load necessary network status information.

I ran a test and it appeared to be coming up with no problem, but the next moment they say they are "working on it", and to check back in a few days' time.

Currently speeds are normal.

Could you check what's going on?

Are they working at the exchange or something?

I need a reliable functioning line to give an online lesson later today as I am not yet fully back on my feet from Covid.

It's been reliable since last summer when the engineer came, so this is quite a sudden change to faults over the past week.

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2022 12:49:42 GMT

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear this. I'll need to run a line test, would it be ok to do this now?

Thanks

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Fri, 06 May 2022 12:59:54 GMT

Yes please.

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2022 13:10:03 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for confirming, I didn't want to cause any disruptions if you were in the middle of something. The line test is clear, looking at the connection stats I can see that there was an increase in errored seconds yesterday, however they have dropped again today. Would it be ok if we re-check this again on Monday morning so we can see how the stability has been over the weekend and also if the errored seconds have increased again?

Thanks

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Fri, 06 May 2022 13:12:33 GMT

Could you make that early TUESDAY morning instead?

I know I will need to be doing some essential admin Monday morning, so best to steer clear then.

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Anonymous — Fri, 06 May 2022 13:14:26 GMT

Hi,

Yes of course, no problem 🙂

Thanks

Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Fri, 06 May 2022 14:46:34 GMT

@Anonymous, another drop just now, c 3.30pm.

And again at 3.35 for about another 5 minutes.

My fallback Three speeds are so close to zero in the house that I can't use data instead, even for just viewing this page, let alone Skype or Zoom.

Safe to run tests this afternoon before 5pm.

Will be offline for a bit. ....looks like I have no other option!

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Fri, 06 May 2022 19:18:51 GMT

I switched off the router for the full 30 minutes after 5.30pm, Friday, to try to start a new session and got the wifi up in time for a 6.15 lesson start.

Subsequently two intrusive interruptions caused by the drop in connection at my end, as recorded here on Skype:

Not a reliable enough service, having been good since the last bad phase, last June / early July - always appears to be the summer months....!

Contract coming up for renewal, and last time I looked you still have only Fast Broadband available to my house.

It needs to be reliable, at the upper end of the speeds I have had for most of the past year, or I may have to look elsewhere at the FTTC and FTTP options that other companies are offering.

Losing 5 -10 minutes in an hour due to lack of service might not look like much, but if you are teaching online for 5 - 6 hours in a day, which it can be at its busiest, if I try to make up the missing minutes, the schedule runs increasingly behind and I will end up teaching for up to a further hour overall ....... if I can get back online at all, that is!

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Sat, 07 May 2022 05:10:22 GMT

Happening frequently.

Sleepless in the wee small hours, and I found it flashing orange at just before 4.45am and again a little over an hour later. Saturday morning.

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 06:19:43 GMT

Morning,

I'm really sorry to hear this. I can see that the connection was very unstable but I can also see that DLM has changed the profile a few times and I can now only see 2 re-connections for yesterday and today which appear to also have been DLM. How has the stability been since yesterday?

Thanks

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Mon, 09 May 2022 08:19:27 GMT

I was out a lot over the weekend, so I couldn't monitor it other than what I posted previously.

This morning sometime around 8am there was another drop that I noticed showing on the smartphone while I was on the landline phone to Three.

Too busy trying to set up my new tariff with them to be able to check precisely.

I suspected that DLM had been fiddled with, as the best readings for Talktalk when it's currently working are around 10 - 13Mbps rather than the 14 - 17 Mbps that I have enjoyed this past year.

Unpredictable little drops make banking online very difficult, let alone all the other chores we are compelled to do digitally these days.

Are you wanting to run checks tomorrow morning as planned, @Anonymous?

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 08:26:59 GMT

Morning,

Thanks for confirming. Yes I can re-run the line test again first thing tomorrow morning just to see if the line test picks anything up. I can also check again to see if DLM has been making any changes. DLM should only be changing the profile if their is any noise/errors or re-connections on the line.

Thanks

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Mon, 09 May 2022 09:28:19 GMT

Just recording another disconnection just now, @Anonymous.

These are probably going to be a tiny proportion of what is going on.

Can't keep an eye on it all day today so will have to go by what shows up from your end.

Could it be anything to do with the router?

It is the Sagemcom that is supposed to get a firmware update at some stage, isn't it?

I've no idea how to check that sort of stuff, but you should be able to see at your end what version I am on.

Many customers seem to have been reporting a flurry of disconnections since the end of April. Is this a bad batch of updates?

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 09:36:05 GMT

Hi,

The firmware has updated, however I couldn't say for sure whether this is linked to the current instability as I can't see when this was updated. Have we ever sent you a Huawei Wifi Hub before?

Thanks

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Mon, 09 May 2022 10:21:14 GMT

We tried a Huawei before you sent me the Sagemcom - from memory, I couldn't get a good connection on it, if any.

Might be in your notes from summer 2020?

Another disconnection just now, while trying to sign back in to the forum.

Several times per hour is going to be unusable for pupils needing an online lesson for whatever reason, let alone when I am unwell myself, @Anonymous.

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 11:35:06 GMT

Hi,

Sorry for the delay. Ok, would you like us to send another Sagemcom router first as the next steps will be to arrange an engineer visit to the property if the line test is still clear?

Thanks

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Mon, 09 May 2022 11:50:06 GMT

Yes - although the current router worked perfectly well till probably messed up by firmware....

Will the new router not be similarly vulnerable?

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Karl-TalkTalk — Mon, 09 May 2022 12:05:01 GMT

the new router is on the way. This could be a one off with the last update, but we can always put it to v2829t firmware and see if that is better.

Thanks

Karl.

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Mon, 09 May 2022 12:10:09 GMT

Thank you, @Karl-TalkTalk.

Crossing fingers and toes.

😊

Re: Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

Gliwmaeden2 — Tue, 10 May 2022 11:13:36 GMT

Just updating to record current low speeds:

Not noticing total disconnections, but obviously the service as is is not up to standard.

Looking forward to trying the new router as and when it arrives.....!