Intermittent sync problem

bjbyorkshire

I have a talk talk Internet contract. It has never been great but I manage with the slow connection. I changed from essentials package at £17 per mont to a supposedly faster and batter package with their latest router at £23:45 per month on 6 November 2016. Everything worked ok for about 3 weeks then it all went pear shaped. Connection keeps dropping out and the message is mostly intermittent sync, can't connect to the Internet. Sometimes it comes up with 192.168.1.1. Sometimes I get a message saying can't establish a secure connection to the Internet.

After waiting 6 days for a talk talk engineer he came on 19 December. Messed about on an I pad in front of the router. He could tell I had been switching the router on and off again and said that was a very bad practice. I used to have to do this with the old router and it always kicked it back into action again. Connection was stable for 4 days then went intermittent sync again. I now have had a wait of almost 2 weeks for another engineer visit next Monday so am not a happy bunny at all.

If I move away from talk talk to another company who could you suggest might be any better. It will cost me to move as i am now signed up for an 18 month contract from November.

Really fed up with it now.

We can't have fibre connection as too far from the exchange,

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

esuhl

Are you leaving the router on now?

When you change ISPs, they run tests to determine the optimum synchronisation speed. Usually the process lasts for ten days. Turning the router off makes it look like the line is unstable.

I'd leave the router turned on all the time and ask the ISP to resync your connection.

bjbyorkshire

I was previously with Talk talk and still am. Not changed ISP, just new router and new price structure. I do not turn off the router.

The Talk talk engineer on the 19th December said he had reset the router and indeed it worked for about 4 days before the intermittent problem occurred again.

esuhl

What devices do you have and how are they connected? Are you able to test with an Ethernet (wired) connection?

And are you able to assign the devices a static IP address? You should be able to do this by logging in to the router's web interface and looking for something like "LAN IP" or "DHCP" settings.

bjbyorkshire

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I could check with an ethernet cable, I couldn't do the checks that talk talk asked me to do as the front of the BT box seems to have a screw jammed in it so I don't want to risk breaking the box and saying I have damaged it resulting in a cost to me. They wanted me to check it with a little box device that some people need but which we don't. I need the front off the BT box to do this.

The last paragraph is way to techie for me.

I will await the 2nd Talk Talk engineers visit on Monday morning but am sorely tempted to tell Talk Talk to take a hike, pay the leaving charge if necessary and join BT but I'm not sure they will be a lot better with customer service.

I have a laptop, i pad and smart tv connected, all wirelessly. The connection is so unstable that looking for websites or videos is a pain.

Ive been doing monthly on line banking this morning and it has been off and on so many times.

Thanks for the input so far.

JJ_Egan

Problem is where is the problem .
Your side or the BT OR/ISPs side .
If its outside of the BT Master Socket then moving ISP may bring the same fault .

As its a wifi connection i would point this out to the service guy on Monday .

The leaving charge is the remaining months on your contract .

bjbyorkshire

Thanks JJ Egan, yes, that is the xxvery heart of the problem. We don't know. The Indian guy who checked the line could har crackling when I was on the phone to him. Sometimes the crackling is there, sometimes it is not. He wanted me to connect one of these little box thingies who's proper name escapes me, into the BT master socket with the front removed. I can't get the screw out a the socket so no can do.

I will wait until Monday now but I do hope talk talk engineer no 2 is more thorough than Talk Talk engineer 1 was. No 1 could certainly talk a lot but basically he didn't remove his gloves and did nothing but re set the router.

Arghhhhhh!

bsod

pull at the faceplate while turning the screws anticlockwise, you need to put it into the master test socket to rule out internal wiring - if you don't do this and it turns out to be internal wiring you may get a hefty charge. The faceplate can still operate with no screws in.

if the engineer you are expecting isn't from openreach or bt, it will probably be a waste of time

the little box thingies are adsl filters

if the router isn't syncing, switching it off for 5-15 minutes is the first thing to do, the initial training period is long gone

the error messages posted don't give a clear indication of where the problem lies, you need to login to the router to see whether it is connected to the outside world or not.

bjbyorkshire

I pretty much think it will be a waste of time but whether the wiring is faulty at which side of the master socket means that somebody will need to renew the wiring somewhere and I sure as heck can't do it so I am between a rock and a hard place with this one.

bsod

If you aren't proactive and forceful with talk talk, it can take a long time to resolve.

Do whats suggested and get on their case.

Jumping ship (and paying a leaving charge) won't necessarily resolve it either, you mention crackling, that could be a line fault.

Johnmcl7

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

Thanks JJ Egan, yes, that is the xxvery heart of the problem. We don't know. The Indian guy who checked the line could har crackling when I was on the phone to him. Sometimes the crackling is there, sometimes it is not. He wanted me to connect one of these little box thingies who's proper name escapes me, into the BT master socket with the front removed. I can't get the screw out a the socket so no can do.

I will wait until Monday now but I do hope talk talk engineer no 2 is more thorough than Talk Talk engineer 1 was. No 1 could certainly talk a lot but basically he didn't remove his gloves and did nothing but re set the router.

Arghhhhhh!

The little box you're referring to is a microfilter, is this the same device you're referring to here:

They wanted me to check it with a little box device that some people need but which we don't.

I'm a bit confused, if you have a standard master socket (and not a filtered one) you need a microfilter on each internal socket that has a phone or the router. What do you mean you don't need it?