Anyone got advice about faulty broadband service? (TalkTalk and BT Openreach)

#1

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do about my home broadband fault (I’m with TalkTalk).

On the 19th June I lost all phone and broadband service. Phone service (which I never use) was fixed on the first Openreach Engineer visit. I then had several more visits by different engineers and now I almost have a stable internet connection.

The problem I have currently, is the internet will slow and drop for no reason every now and then. (A few times a week).

As this is now an intermittent problem, the last engineer to visit (7th engineer to visit) could not find any fault. There is still a fault. When the internet slows down I will plug my laptop in via ethernet to do a speed test and getting very low speeds. Only when the speeds are low, sometimes picking up the phone and dialing a number will cause the broadband to drop.

After 5 minutes or so after the broadband dropping, it will resync and go back to 40 megs which is the expected speed. Then I won’t have any issues for usually a few days when it will slow or drop again.

To date BT Openreach have done the following, Changed the master socket in my flat, reconnected my line at the distribution point where my flat is, changed a jumper in the cabinet, completed a ‘Lift and Shift’, added new crimps where the indoor wire and outdoor wire meets. One engineer was going to replace the cable out of the house but ran out of time and the next engineer refused to replace it saying there was no fault with that cable.

TalkTalk have also sent a new router to rule out any router issues.

TT are blaming BT, saying it’s their network so all they can do is book engineers to visit and BT saying I have to speak to my service provider if I have a problem.

I could change ISP however, until the fault is fixed with my line, I don’t think that will help much.

#2

Switch to Virgin Media

2 Likes
#3

Hi Stuart

My best advice is to post on the appropriate forum at http://forums.thinkbroadband.com

There are very knowledgeable people there, as well as professionals who can sometimes look things up. In my particular case an ISP-vs-BT problem got resolved very well because I learnt a lot of the mechanism from that website and could help narrow the problems down; plus the most helpful ISP workers tend to monitor the ISP-specific forums and get involved.

Concretely on your problem: the simpler you can make your set up the better, and if you have any way to reproduce the problem or get good logging of it that might really help. On your specifics I’m wondering about your phone, filter, unreplaced cables, and model of router.

Hope that’s of some help.

Kind regards,
Jonathan.

#4

Not possible. Virgin is not connected to my block of flats. :sob:

#5

Thanks for the tip. I will post on the forum.

In terms of trying to reproduce the problem I really have no idea. I’ve been looking out for the weather, if I’m the only person using the internet, or my housemates streaming netflix etc. I can’t find any common patterns when it drops.

The router logs are useless. We are plugged directly into the master socket (which is new), no filters with a brand new router.

#6

Sounds like water in the line.

You have to megger it when it is down

Or a noise level would tell you what is going on

#7

I solved an intermittent connection fault that I had by removing a signal attenuator device attached between the router and the line coming in, added by the guy from the ISP who installed my internet. It is perhaps unlikely that you have exactly the same problem, but if you have tried everything else, you might want to check.

#8

Can’t speak for Talk Talk, but I’m currently in the middle of a very protracted and griefy feud with BT. Had 3 smart hubs die on me and nothing but issues with their service since switching from Sky in February. Trying to get released from my contract under Sale of Goods act at present. Will be going back to Sky, with whom I had zero issues with in the 3yrs I was with them. Only changed to get a cheaper deal and £150 gift card.

Moral of the story - steer clear of anything BT - they are absolute dog shit and have the WORST customer service imaginable. How they can peddle their rubbish equipment and keep a straight face is beyond me. Should’ve googled the Smart Hub before switching - so many people having similar issues it’s unreal.

#9

Tell bt you’re moving to Kingston upon hull - they don’t service this area and will have to release you.

1 Like
#10

I like your style!

#11

One thing to try is to go onto the admin area of your router and change the channel it is transmitting on.

You say you are in a block of flats .

If they are all sending on channel 1 for example they could be interfering with each other.

#12

But it’s not the wireless that’s the issue. When it goes slow I plug it via ethernet and do a speedtest.

#13

So after the 8th engineer visit they have finally found the fault part of cable and swapped it.

My router’s sync speed is now over 50megs (I used to get around 40meg) however when I run a speed test, the actual throughput is only 30megs (via ethernet, and no other devices using the internet).

Would anyone know what is limiting my service?

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#14

Fixed it! I found out on a forum that I had to leave my router off for 30 minutes for BT’s system to reset the speed profile or something like that.

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