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]

I was out till 2pm, so can't really tell yet, @Debbie-TalkTalk.

I need to give an online lesson this Thursday at 2.30, so hopefully it will hold up then.

It was Tuesday, 9 days ago, that it was so utterly bad! The lessons on the Wednesday and Thursday had good connections.  We probably need to monitor it for more than the official 2 or 3 days as it can be fine for many days, and then atrociously unreliable!

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I've checked the connection stats again this afternoon and the line is still in sync at 14.3mb.

How has the connection been today?

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Yes but this may have been DLM as the sync speed has dropped slightly from yesterday.

Let's monitor this today to see if there any re connections or further drop in sync speed.

[Gliwmaeden2]

So there must have been a disconnection c 3am?

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I've checked the connection stats and your line is in sync at 14.3mb.

Line has been in sync for just under 5 hours.

[Gliwmaeden2]

It's not quite at yesterday's maximum - now c 12Mbps to my device. 

There shouldn't be any particular reason for that if things are perfect to the exchange. 

One very slow moment opening a page on the forum, but I haven't noticed an actual disconnection. 

I won't be on here so much today, so will check back tomorrow. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Debbie-TalkTalk and @Michelle-TalkTalk, thanks - Michelle's post wasn't showing when I posted my panicky statistics!

This website really does have an annoying delay!

I wish I had been warned previously that the line test would cause the disruption! Without my upstairs phone plugged in, I don't hear little rings when they are testing. 

The phone downstairs doesn't do that to let me know, and I can't swap them round as only the downstairs one has Caller Identity Display. 

So, panic over for the moment!

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I think the last drop was Openreach and the automated line test.

If you experience any further issues before tomorrow then please let me know on this thread.

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

Yes, it's not dropped since that bad one less than an hour ago. This one has much less jitter but a rather high ping. 

 

Thanks for keeping an eye on it. Needs monitoring!

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I've had a look at the line stats and the line is in sync at 16.3mb and has been connected for just under 40 minutes.

I will check the connection stats again tomorrow to see if the connection has remained stable.

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

Ping and jitter were relatively OK yesterday, with this speed:

 

Began to increase here, when he finished the first time.

 

A bit worse here, after he came back and we moved the router downstairs. Notice only a fractional difference in speed however:

 

Dreadful jitter here after the disconnection:

 

I don't know if I am reading these results correctly. Unnerved by that disconnection .....

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

I've just checked and can see that this was when an automatic line test was completed. When a fault is passed back then a line test is automatically completed to ensure that this is clear.

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

Whatever he says about it in his report, his work has lasted about one hour.

I now have this on my router 😪:

 

This disconnection was c 10 minutes and would have messed up 1/4 of somebody's lesson. It's back now.

Please can this be sorted? After such an extensive period of problems, they had to send somebody so inexperienced?

 

[Gliwmaeden2]

He didn't comment further about that - I think his hunch is that leaving the router there will show up if an underground investigation is needed.

If it's perfect, with no drops, I'll probably have to leave the router there permanently, which is a nuisance, as all the computer equipment and printer would need to be moved downstairs  - I don't like wifi for these! It will cause terrible clutter in my living room. 

However, that would be less of a nuisance than doing a complete rewire of the extension lead, due to the fact that it appears to have been built into the house, i.e it is INSIDE walls, so not just an extra cable.

Part of the original installation. 

If I have to be switched to Full Fibre, there's no point doing any work on the house that would involve extensive damage to access those wires and require expensive redecorating.

So all we can do is monitor it for disconnections for a week or two. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Ok, did he say the funny result was gone once he moved the router?

[Gliwmaeden2]

He couldn't get hold of anybody to do an underground investigation. 

We've put the router downstairs now - just in case it's a rectified loop fault. He says that these are very hard to find. But he's still not sure.

Will have to run it like this for the foreseeable to see if both overall speed and the connection stay up reliably. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Did he mention the underground investigation?

[Gliwmaeden2]

He's come back because since he put the socket back together he got a funny result from testing from his van.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Thanks for the update.

We will check the notes again this afternoon once the engineer has updated this with additional information.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Debbie-TalkTalk, the engineer is now sitting in his van trying to reach someone to investigate underground. 

If he can't get anyone along, he'll let me know by c 10.30.

He arrived a bit before 8.30 and did get a funny result with a voltage reading at the master socket  - thought there might be contact with another customer's line, for a moment, and then he dismissed that as something to do with his own equipment. 

Has only been going solo with jobs for a year so not hugely experienced,  which is why he knows his limits and is now sitting in the van!

Very nice at all times - made a futile call before 9am to request a reset of the line, but Talktalk doesn't even lift the phone to Openreach engineers till 9am!

He got through at last, and the Talktalk agent had difficulty understanding the request and then took about half an hour to do SNR etc.

The Openreach engineer checked my speeds up in the bedroom where the router is, and the reset line speed there was 16Mbps.

He said that the internal wiring appears to be clean as a whistle. It's almost all hidden behind carpets and within walls, so he couldn't visually check it - there is just no detectable drop off between upstairs and downstairs. We knew that from before. 

He has suggested running the router from the master socket for a while, just in case the disconnections were only happening from it being upstairs, but I think I will leave that for a few days at least, to see if they are still happening at all. 

I really wasn't impressed by Talktalk not answering phone and then labouring over the reset - to start with not even understanding the request.

The Openreach man was infinitely patient. 

Incidentally, I do remember seeing Openreach fiddling with the cabinet at the end of Mill Rd  / Coleridge Rd at the end of April / early May, and my heart sank because things almost always go wrong when they have been that visible... ! I just wonder if something was set up wronglback then when they were working on something else? My problems stem as far back as that now.

So c 10 minutes to go before he gives up on getting any help from a colleague.