Phone calls crashing out....

[Gliwmaeden2]

Today both my phone connection and Internet are dreadful. 

Trying to make important calls to sort out muddles made by utility companies.

The line appears to be fine for a few minutes and then crashes - I literally asked the E.on Next lady if she had dropped her phone. 

We tried on the smartphone and the call suddenly lost wifi calling and crashed too. It simply stopped.

I called back on the landline and got a bit further, but the call collapsed into the equivalent of "snowflakes" on an old telly, i.e. crackle, crackle, crackle. 

It recovered enough to finish what we were trying to do. 

I've been out and about dealing with other jobs and have come back to my router repeatedly losing the Internet connection. 

I can't fall back on Three....

The internet keeps disconnecting. Is something happening with the firmware? Check for repeated loss of connection this morning, please. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

My radio (on wifi) managed to continue uninterrupted overnight again. 

Still haven't had a moment to put the faceplate back on, so I'll report back if anything does change. 

It probably is a good idea to have that microfilter on standby anyway.

Many thanks! 😊

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Morning @Gliwmaeden2 

Thanks for your reply.

Please let me know if you do experience any further issues.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Friday night there was another 3.30am drop out and I thought I might check Homesafe settings, but haven't had a chance.

The microfilter arrived Saturday, but the dropouts mysteriously have NOT happened Saturday night or Sunday night (having been around the same time every night since I got back after half term).

Very odd!

So I have not yet tried the microfilter. 

The first thing I need to do is put the faceplate back on soon, @Debbie-TalkTalk, so I'll see if the better performance is then maintained without further intervention. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

Did you have a chance to connect up the new microfilter?

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

No problem. At least we can rule everything out then.

Debbie 🙂

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks  - it might make a difference. 😊

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

Thanks for your reply.

I've ordered a replacement microfilter, please allow 48hrs for this to arrive.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Sorry for the delayed reply. I had to go out.

It's not worth the risk of an engineer charge, @Debbie-TalkTalk.

BUT:

It's only Talktalk's equipment that is plugged in, and still at the test socket, so something is going wrong somewhere there especially if you sometimes get low SNR readings.

The landline phone is relatively new, as I bought one to see if it would sort occasional problems with phone calls in the past.

The newer smartphone is 8 months old, and both it and the 5 year old one are affected by the wifi disconnections. 

That leaves us with the router (replaced after a power surge) and your microfilters.

Talktalk doesn't send new microfilters in the boxes with new routers any more, so I don't have any unused ones left to try.

Is it worth sending me a couple to see if it makes any difference?

There's an awful lot to be done here that means I can't afford time to wait in for engineers etc or major upheavals such as upgrading to full fibre instead (that would be a last resort) for the foreseeable....

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

The line test is not detecting any line faults.

Would you like me to arrange an engineer visit to the property? (Openreach)

[Gliwmaeden2]

It dropped again since my last post (so that's 3 times before 9am today). If the fault is on your side of the faceplate, surely an engineer should be out there checking connection points?

The engineers need to do a better job.

In these days of no bank branches, I have no option but to bank online and I can't just sit using public wifi somewhere instead as it is not secure enough. It really does need sorting!

Can you get them onto this today, @Debbie-TalkTalk?

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

I can see that the SNR is still dropping low and this can affect the connection.

I have now reset the data port and optimised the connection again and the SNR has increased.

I will check on this again later this afternoon.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Were you checking the line just now?

[Gliwmaeden2]

It seems to have dropped out again 3.30am, @Debbie-TalkTalk.

A bit of a pattern developing there.

Did you spot any others?

It seemed OK during the day, but I don't use Sounds then.

Is Talktalk doing something that would cause it to drop always at that time? Ongoing overnight "works"?

Still all plugged in directly at the test socket. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

Yes that's great, thank you.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Hoping I have put it in the right bit, @Debbie-TalkTalk ?

 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

Yes please can you connect the phone, router and filter at the test socket for 24hrs? I can then check the connection logs again tomorrow morning.

[Gliwmaeden2]

No, it's just in the master socket.

Should I put the phone and microfilter etc in too or just the router?

Will need to go and fiddle to get the faceplate off.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Gliwmaeden2 

The SNR is dropping low. There are re connections showing for the following dates and times:

05/11 3:33

04/11 4:33

04/11 4:30

04/11 03:31

03/11 10:18

03/11 03:32

02/11 22:29

02/11 21:23

02/11 20:04

Is the router at the test socket at the moment?

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Debbie-TalkTalk, the speeds held up well and functioned fine for 2 lessons yesterday evening. 

Could you possibly check statistics for disconnections the past three nights however?

BBC Sounds dropped several times last night and doesn't get itself going without a deliberate start up again from me.

I tend to fall asleep to it, and when it stops, the silence wakes me up!

So you are looking out for whether there are significant drop outs overnight, 2nd - 3rd,  3rd to 4th and 4th.- 5th November. 

Because the upload speed was so slow at the weekend I had already responded to their feedback email to say it was NOT resolved. 

So I now have this message from Talktalk as a text:

 

Should I get in touch with them directly myself, or ignore it and keep this strictly through you....?

While typing this my Internet dropped on this phone and I got the message "connected without Internet" for a few minutes.

So that would have been c 8.45am, if that helps with your checks?

[Lifting the phone receiver, my landline appears clear, but I have not had a chance to check it yet with a call.]

[Gliwmaeden2]

Yes - now back up > 0.9.

😊