Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

[Gliwmaeden2]

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. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

Yes, please CANCEL  the engineer, @Debbie-TalkTalk.

Their texts give the impression that this has already been done and didn't say I would still need to.

So, please check that Talktalk and Openreach both agree that it has been cancelled. 

Makes no sense having an engineer if I have nothing much going wrong at the time. 

If the text communication was not sufficient,  many customers would be caught out....!

So, please confirm cancellation of the engineer! Thanks!

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I've checked the connection stats again and the SNR has increased.

The last re connection I can see was at 17.05 @ 10.55.

Would you like me to cancel the engineer?

[Gliwmaeden2]

OK, because Openreach embarks on quite a lot of chitchat by text, I monitored my connection and didn't see any more disconnections.

Not like this morning. 

So our latest is:

 And from Talktalk:

 

So, if an engineer has truly recently done some work on my line, there should be no need to send the engineer on Thursday. 

Please could you confirm that the Thursday appointment really has been automatically cancelled and so I do not need to phone the 0870 number....!

This needs to be confirmed as cancelled before noon Wednesday. 

If my connection starts to wobble again, there's still most of next week to sort it.

Thanks for all your help!

P.S. If they genuinely found a fault at your end (why was this not diagnosed by Service Centre...?) presumably I could swap back to the Sagemcom whenever....?

Presumably the problem was not the router firmware after all?

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Karl-TalkTalk  / @Anonymous  or @Debbie-TalkTalk,

Could the HG635 just have been settling down this morning (as I mentioned, not updated for 2 years)?

I think the speed is holding up pretty well now and haven't noticed the frequent drops that I got a lot this morning. 

I will need to decide whether to keep the appointment by noon tomorrow,  I believe,  or does that not count as a full working day - rather ambiguous TS&CS?

Could you check to see if it has been bad since we last spoke?

Before this all went wrong, I was getting 14 - 16Mbps most of the time.

Ookla is showing speed test results of between 10 and 12 Mbps - so there's quite a variation going on. 

Your own Service Centre showed me just 9 Mbps just now as a general score for today, so that may be taking into consideration some downtime. 

 

Service Centre is still showing an error message for loading individual test results. 

When we revamped the firmware on the Sagemcom, it was good for up to 24 hours but got consistently bad again afterwards and this may do the same....or not....

Very hard to know what to do!

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Thank you. Please let us know once the engineer has attended and we will check the engineers notes.

Debbie

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks, @Debbie-TalkTalk  - I will be in!

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Thanks for the Private Message. I have arranged the engineer visit for 19/05 AM (8am - 1pm)

Please let us know how you get on following this visit.

Thanks

Debbie

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Karl-TalkTalk, have sent you a PM to clear up something before booking an engineer. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

Have replied, but will probably need to reply again!

I'll check back during the day, @Debbie-TalkTalk. 

I have been up since 6.30, what with putting out the bins and dealing with this and really must eat something, then get other things done....

Will check back on PMs as soon as I can, but really must get on now.....

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I'm just sending you a Private Message to confirm some details so we can arrange the engineer visit.

Thanks

Debbie

[Gliwmaeden2]

Another disconnection just now, so it seems to be happening a few times per hour...

😪

 

And another 😪😪:

 Not useable in this state, and it does waste so much time! Off to actually get my breakfast....!

 

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Debbie-TalkTalk, I noticed the line test, and then it came back on. 

Then it dropped again almost immediately. Not sure if this was you doing further checks?

Do you think we should try to get an engineer along this week?

Half term starts 28th and I won't be able to monitor performance here all that week. 

So, I reckon that we need to sort this out soon.

It would always have to be MORNING ONLY and NOT Wednesday 18th May nor Tuesday 24, nor Wednesday 25th.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I've checked again and the SNR is dropping low. I have also completed another line test and this is still clear.

If the connection is dropping with 2 different routers, cables and filters at the test socket then the next step will be an Openreach engineer visit.

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

A short disconnection this morning,  just now, @Debbie-TalkTalk :

 

My pupil isn't feeling well enough even for the online lesson today, so at least I don't have to worry about Broadband performance except for getting my own online tasks done, for now. 

As I have so much else to catch up on also in the "real world" I may miss spotting many disconnections. 

So, very grateful if you could keep quite a close eye on it for me over these next few days. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Morning Gliwmaeden2

Thanks for your reply.

Lets give the HG635 router a couple of days so DLM can monitor the connection.

I will take another look at the connection logs tomorrow morning.

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Anonymous, I switched off the router overnight and have now swapped it for my old HG635.

Despite all the disconnections I've had over nearly a fortnight using the Sagemcom, the download speed has gone straight up to c 12Mbps, which is not bad going, considering that speeds were so bad with the Sagemcom. Odd that I had the improvements for a day or so when @Debbie-TalkTalk intervened. 

So, I reckon we now need to see if this holds good for a sustained several days before we can relax.

The software on this HG will be a couple of years out of date. Here's hoping that any updates overnight don't mess this one up!

Also disconcerting has been the vague or inaccurate information that the Service Centre delivered me. The problem never had anything to do with my own devices.

In another person's house, on BT, I was able to get c 55Mbps to my smartphone and in John Lewis's, over 14. These are shown here:

 

All the low 5s are the Sagemcom. The two 12s are my HG.

Now Service Centre is totally all over the place:

I have tried running the speed test 3 times now through Service Centre and just got that result. However its initial general report is saying 13Mbps to the router.

I've had a request for an online lesson this afternoon, so best just to keep fingers crossed today and see how this goes!

[Anonymous]

Morning,

I'm really sorry to hear this 😞 I'd recommend trying the HG635 router and if there is no improvement then I think we should progress with an engineer visit.

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

C. 24 hours still below the minimum guaranteed speed,  @Debbie-TalkTalk.

 

I need to be out this morning  - it's therefore safe for you to try to make other changes. 

If need be, I can swap it for the HG635 late tonight. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

It held up well on Saturday, as far as I could tell, @Debbie-TalkTalk, but I was out late morning Sunday and came back to the Connected without Internet message. Steady white light, not flashing orange, on the router.

So, is this an aspect of this version of the firmware, as I don't think I have ever had that before?

I was home again c 1.30pm:

 

So it put me in another panic!

Could you possibly check to see how long it had been down for?

Also, checking speeds, downloading is again below the minimum guaranteed:

 

Let me know if you think it is time for me to try with the HG635, if there's nothing more you can do with the firmware.

It is looking rather all over the place:

 

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks, @Debbie-TalkTalk.

I'll stick with this for now unless it plays up again.