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I reported faulty telephone to BT last week. After 3 days and at least four phone calls from them warning me that if they were not at fault I would have a bill an engineer came out and restored our line. I made him a cup of tea and quizzed him. We had the same type of fault about 4 years ago, Broadband speed had been steadily dropping, phone stopped working in the end. That time they renewed about 200mtres of the line, they said that squirrels had chewed it as it went though a wood !!!! Broadband flew.
I live in an isolated house and have a dedicated overhead phone line of about 350 mtrs from where it branches off. Engineer who came, tested the line (BT faults had continually told me that there was no fault on the line, hence the warnings). He showed me a spike that his instrument told him was about 70 mtres from the house. That could be your problem he said and “fixed it” by connecting a second pair of wires in the cable and disconnected the other two that we had been using up until then.
He then went on to say that the cable was longer than recommended between the last two poles, and that “squirrels” were a stock explanation. I think he said that the max distance was supposed to be 70 mtrs in our case it was nearly 90!
My questions. 1. Phone working perfectly now but broad band markedly slower, are BT obligations limited to providing a phone line and quality of BB doesn’t enter into it?
2. Is it possible that the larger than recommended span has resulted in a “stretching” of the cable bearing in mind that it failed in stormy weather and that I can look forward to further deterioration as the second pair of wires went through the same stresses as the first already?
Who be grateful for any advice, I have not approached BT since it was “fixed”.
Dick
______________________________________________________________ Powys, Paradwys Cymru
"Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools." Douglas Bader CBE
I think the maximum span for BT 'Drop Wire' is 68m. This equates to 75 yards approx in old money.
The drop cable consists of 2 pairs, as the BT engineer demonstrated to you in swopping the pairs, and 3 strength members.
I suspect that his meter was a 'distance to fault' which sends a signal up the line which is returned in the event of a short or open circuit. The time taken to return is converted to distance.
As for your line if it is being sold by BT to an ISP for BB purposes there are minimum line technical specifications.
You could get your ISP to run a loopback check from their equipment. The data signal they send will return to them and they can assess the speed and Bit Error Rate of the circuit i.e. how good it is.
You can run a line speed test yourself as a first step if you wish.
http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/
I got 3.96MB/s on the download and 0.63MB/s on the upload and my connection appears fast to me.
Just tested the speed of ours and
Firefox 9.85 mb/s download and 0.78mb/s upload
Google Chrome 9.84 mb/s download and 0.82mb/s upload.
Just done a few more speed tests on both Firefox and Chrome and they fluctuate a little but they are both roughly about the same and in my case, Chrome is not any quicker.
______________________________________________________________ Tramping the Dream
Grath
I'm 6.9Km from the exchange using adsl and my down speed is 2.32Mb/s and up is 240Kb/s not bad for that distance from the exchange.... which is the main factor the further away from the exchange the slower the speed.... and i'm refering to adsl and not dsl...
______________________________________________________________ Ben from Outdoor Bits
Satellite TV, Solar Panels, Reversing Cameras & Gaslow all installed professionally whatever-the-weather at our East Devon Workshop.
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"He can´t decide whether to leave his visor half open or half closed."
Murray Walker
Thanks for the informative answer Ray. I’ve periodically checked my speed for the last 3 years. On good days I would have up to 4meg. Tonight it was 1.9, it was lower yesterday. I’ll register deterioration with my ISP but guess from what you say I’m within acceptable limits as far as BT is concerned. Otherwise I suppose I will have to wait for it to get worse or god forbid a tree fall across it.
Aircool I like the idea of a learning process. It is improving, how long do you think it will take?
Dick
______________________________________________________________ Powys, Paradwys Cymru
"Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools." Douglas Bader CBE
Fascinating thread, thanks very much - I just tested ours (yes I know we are in French and it's a UK link) but we work via KaSat and are getting download = 4.82Mb/s and upload = 0.48Mb/s - which I reckon is OK considering the route it has to take.......
Thanks for the informative answer Ray. I’ve periodically checked my speed for the last 3 years. On good days I would have up to 4meg. Tonight it was 1.9, it was lower yesterday. I’ll register deterioration with my ISP but guess from what you say I’m within acceptable limits as far as BT is concerned. Otherwise I suppose I will have to wait for it to get worse or god forbid a tree fall across it.
Aircool I like the idea of a learning process. It is improving, how long do you think it will take?
Dick
BT quote up to 15 days usually to see an effect.
If you have the time try and get the line stats then we can see where its really at. Your router/modem might be on this list with instructions already - http://dslzoneuk.net/adsl_line_stats.php if not i'm sure we can find a quick guide (in which case we'd need to know what it is).
Ben
______________________________________________________________ Ben from Outdoor Bits
Satellite TV, Solar Panels, Reversing Cameras & Gaslow all installed professionally whatever-the-weather at our East Devon Workshop.
Get a Fitting Quote now!
"He can´t decide whether to leave his visor half open or half closed."
Murray Walker
If the engineer has put your line onto the second pair in the drop wire
The fault will slowly come back.
The 2pair drop wire is obviously covered by a outer waterproof shield.
If as the engineer said the line was damaged by squirrels then there will be a hole in the outer sheath and eventually water will get in and set up a high resistance disconnection [ hr diss] causing slow speed,eventually and full disconnection [ diss] will occurs and you will loose your line.
When I was a BT Engineer we were not allowed to put a line on the second pair if the first pair was faulty we had to renew the complete wire.
Hope this helps .
______________________________________________________________ Cheap no good
Good no cheap
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