Whose responsibility is this?

jbyork

Hi all,

I live in a rented house and for the last 6 months or so my broadband has been poor. I'm with Be internet who I think are great, but my connection speeds are only at about 10mb/s (instead of the 17mb/s I think I should be getting) and on top of that the connection is unreliable... it rarely stays connected for more than a few hours at a time.

I think the problem is with my line somewhere, but I got in touch with BT who did a line test and they said the line is fine.

I pointed out that I have a noisy line when I make phone calls (however, I have no yet eliminated the cordless phone from the equation) and my router is reporting various SNR fluctuations. For example, right now my stats since I rebooted less than 5 mins ago are:

(first number is downstream, second is upstream)

SNR Margin
6.0 5.5 db

Line Attenuation
17.8 13.4 db

Data Rate
9449 884 kbps

Max Rate
11980 900 kbps

CRC
0 1391


however since copying and pasting that the upstream SNR is now 3.4 and the number of upstream CRC errors is now 1769.

Sometimes the SNR goes into negative numbers and sometimes it goes above 10.

I replaced my router a few months ago but the ISP-supplied router was behaving in exactly the same way.

My BT socket is quite an old one and does not have a test port behind it. I have borrowed a tool from a friend and rewired the socket but it's made no difference.

I rang BT and they said if an engineer comes out and the fault is not with them then they will charge me. They added that according to their tests the line itself is fine. They also said that if I had my broadband with them then it would be much easier because it would be all their responsibility but they implied I should contact my ISP to get this fixed.

Exactly whose responsibility is this?

penrhyn

The responsibility for your broadband is with your ISP, if necessary they should request BT Openreach to check out the line.

Did you remove any extension wiring before retesting your connection.
If you have extension wiring have you removed the bell wire pin 3?

plumface

penrhyn wrote: »

The responsibility for your broadband is with your ISP, if necessary they should request BT Openreach to check out the line.

Did you remove any extension wiring before retesting your connection.
If you have extension wiring have you removed the bell wire pin 3?

Very good point.
Borrow your mates tool again. Disconnect every wire in your Mmaster socket (except for the 2 main incoming wires) if you have any and then plug your phone back in.I would also try and borrow a normal plug in phone and try that aswell.
If the noise goes then it is a fault in the external network and you will not have to pay.
If you do not have any other wires connected,ie no extensions then 100% the problem lies with BT.

jbyork

Thanks guys, I'll take action and report back

aerostar

Cordless phones can/do affect modem/routers, due to electromagnetic radiation, make sure that you get the base station and any cordless phone away from the modem router, also the modem/routers could be giving you the noise on the phone if it is close, for the same reasons.

There have also been reports of flat screenmonitors affecting modem/routers when the it is placed close to the screen.

Are you connected by wireless or cable to the router ?

Do you have anything on any extension sockets, if so, have filters fitted , also have you tried a new filter(s) for the modem ?

macman

I agree, the first thing to do is swap the filters out. A quick and easy test.
But I suspect it is a line issue if you've got noise/crackling on it (have you tried dialling 17070, option 2, quiet line test?)
Many people would be delighted to get 10MBps!