What would be the symptoms of a dodgy filter?

DatabaseError

the bt advice is good! plug your router into the test socket (behind the faceplate), do NOT use a long telephone extension cable, but you can use a long cat5e cable from the router to your PC.
What are you basing the 'I usually average around 6.5mb/7mb for download speed roughly but it has exceeded 8mb very often too.' statement on?
You obviously are able to retrieve your router stats, post back with the sync (connection) speeds (as above) plus downstream attenuation and signal to noise ratio (ATT +SNR)
Check the same data when you connect to the test socket. Just because your phone is quite new, doesn't mean it is not the problem, and to diagnose it MUST BE UNPLUGGED!, though it is more likely that the extension may be the issue.
Once you have confirmed or discounted your hardware as the issue, if the line is still occasionally crackly, take my advice in post 3, report a VOICE fault, do NOT mention broadband!!!

aliasojo

Right.....as of now, faceplate has been unscrewed and everything has been disconnected except the main BT telephone wire obviously. Don't have a 'test socket' as this is a shop bought master socket years ago...it's not a BT original.

From the faceplate > filter > router ( and telephone in same filter) > laptop. Router has ethernet cable from it to laptop (forgot I had that when I was ranting above, lol). Nothing else is on the phone line at all. Problem is still the same.

Phone in use = bb down. Crackles (when using phone) are back, they seem to be erratic, sometimes there, sometimes not. Once call is ended, it takes around 5 minutes for the bb to come back and I've also just tried lifting the handset up again after ending a call and there is just an echoey silence if that makes sense. No dial tone.

Stats:

Downstream Upstream
Data Rate 4608 448
Noise margin 5.5 13
Att 32 20

That's with phone plugged in.

With the phone unplugged, the stats are

the same except noise margin is 5.9 & 13.

As for the download speed I usually get.... that's the speed the downloads come down at. The speed shows up in a little box when I'm downloading Sorry, I'm not sure if that's what you mean?

I've just plugged the old phone back in, and the problem is the same.

Could the socket itself have developed a problem? I was thinking of aquiring one of the newer BT master sockets to replace this one with before I phoned them again. Thoughts?

DatabaseError

maybe a good quality socket would help? adslnation make'em
your attenuation of 32db suggests you should (just) be able to achieve full sync, your phone is introducing noise, but not much, can you try connecting the router directly to the socket (no phones or filters), reboot it, and check sync.
do you have extensions running from this 3rd party socket?

aliasojo

No, all extensions have been unwired. I've also tried taking out the bell wires but it's made no difference.

Swapped routers to check stats but still very similar.


Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 4000 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 33 db 10.5 db
Noise Margin 7 db 12 db


I've been googling and found this site which suggests the low noise margin number is a problem, especially if it is under 10.

DatabaseError

kitz is a great site, and a good resourse for anyone wanting some asdl info.
"but generally below 6dB is when problems may start to occur" suggests...er....6db, not 10, my snr hovers around 6 until early evening, when it slowly plunges to 2 or even below (I have a good router).
your4 2nd router is reporting slightly higher attn, lower sync, and higher snr, I'd leave that one plugged in, but it still doesn't explain the 4k sync for the attn

aliasojo

Lol...I saw '10' on one of those pages, honest.

Anyway, looks like I've got more problems now. The second router shows as connected (and all the lights are lit) but I cant get any sites up. It looks like it's working but in reality it doesn't seem to be.

I only got back on here after I swapped them over again. Even then the connection dropped twice before I logged on again.

I'm warming to the idea of paying a BT engineer a small fortune btw. :rolleyes:

I'd just be royally annoyed if it did turn out to be a Pipex problem after all.

DatabaseError

your biggest issue could be the lack of bt master socket, it is even possible your 3rd party socket isn't even a master, with the corresponding circuitry

aliasojo

It's definitely a master socket, I bought and wired it in myself and it's all been working fine for longer than I care to remember. Why all of a sudden should it all kick off at midday on Wednesday, I do not know.

I'm going to buy one of those two part sockets and try that first. If it doesn't help then I'll just need to expect a big bill I think.

I saw on another site someone had been charged £293 by BT to put in a new master socket.

espresso

aliasojo wrote: »

It's definitely a master socket, I bought and wired it in myself and it's all been working fine for longer than I care to remember. Why all of a sudden should it all kick off at midday on Wednesday, I do not know.

I'm going to buy one of those two part sockets and try that first. If it doesn't help then I'll just need to expect a big bill I think.

I can't see a new master socket (NTE5) making any difference to your sync speed, which has obviously dropped to approx 4000 kbps from what you have said in this thread. This is either due to a line problem (cracking line) or your ISP has capped your speed. If you are syncing at this speed you can't get a higher download speed than that.

DatabaseError

the sync is not ISP depenant, just wondering what openreach engineer would say when he sees the snide master? are they up for being 'bought a drink' to look the other way?