Two years of frustration with disconnecting and slow ADSL

[mach_one_man]

Hello,

Firstly I don't know if I have posted this in the right place or if it should be posted in "HELP"

And the follow thing you will read I have only ever found one person with a similar problem who posted on a forum a similar thing but he had no replies. Anyway here is my broadband "story"

I have quite a strange situation here. Basically I live in southern England and am about 3miles or 5km from the phone exchange in my nearest town. I live down a mile long drive in quite a secluded area. Two years ago when adsl was enable at the local exchange I signed up. It has never been as fast as anyone elses, but what does frustrate me is that it disconnects frequently. The process is very random as sometimes it can disconnect frequently and then it may never disconnect for a few weeks. (That indicates to me that im sure I should be able to get broadband albeit at a slightly slower rate.) Recently every evening and multiple times throughout the day the connection bar on my modem monitor becomes disconected. It then says "not connected to network" then "retrains" the modem and finally sometimes - if I am lucky re connect. I have had all sorts of theories over the past to years but never have come to a fixable solution. I have tried many of the things listed in the sticky threads but both have resulted in no noticable difference. Hence finally I decided to post here.

At the time I bought an unlimited 512kb/256kb offer from Telco Global. About a year ago they became Ontel Global, but I am still running on my original contract. This is what they say about the merger or whatever it was:

http://www.onetel.co.uk/index.php?node=telcoglobal

Over the past 2 years I have phoned customer support a few times and numerous times a BT engineer has been sent to my house to test the line - always producing the same results. I always tell them it has already been done but they still come anyway 

The results generally show it is a slightly weak signal - but I think it should still be able to handle ADSL as often for a few weeks it can work fine without disconnecting and reasonably fast.

Hmm, even when writing this now it has just disconnected. However I have worked out that if I dial a free number like 1471 (in the Uk just tells the last callers number) or use my phone to call anyone the internet is boosted dramatically. It is more unlikely to disconnect and works at a faster rate. Is this becuase more of the signal is directed to my line during that time?

Another thing is that my PC is connected through the modem into an extension phone socket on the other side of the house instead of the master one.

Here are my results for morning use without using the phone to boost the signal - pretty poor really imo.

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 65 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 97 kB)

Download Speed is:: 8 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server2)

Test Time:: Tue Nov 1 07:11:49 UTC 2005

Bottom Line:: 1X faster than 56K 1MB download in 128 sec

Diagnosis: May need help : running at only 23.21 % of your hosts average (228.33)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-RG18OTX2C

Sometimes they get up to about 350Kbps as the connection and download speed of 50kbps but at the moment that is often using the phone to boost the signal. This test was conducted without using the phone to signal boost.

It is not really viable for me to use the phone to boost the signal as it blocks the incoming calls and I like to use the internet a lot. Also it is a real bother and you keep having to play around with the phone to stop it just making random noises to tell you that the handset is connected.

Now to answer a few questions from one of the sticky threads:

- Windows XP

- Numerous tweakers played with but none succesful

- My modem is connected by USB (Actiontec Home DSL modem)

- I have done the rest or tried them

Ok, thanks for reading all of that - I know its quite a lot but I hope you can understand some of my frustration. Now where should I go from here. I was thinking of buying a new modem to try it - but I dont want to spend money just to find no improvement or would it be better switching my ISP to something you recommend. I don't want a lot of hassle but am prepared for it if it may solve my main enemy - the disconnection problem.

Thanks for any replies - they will be much appreciated.

Often when connecting once the indicator light is green (signal ok) I try to "dial" through to connect and when it states "verifying user name and password" it takes ages rather than a split second before. Then gives an error message:

Disconnected

Error 721: The remote computer did not respong. For further

assistance, click More Infor or search Help and Support Centre for this errior number.

and the tabs and "Redial" "Cancel" "More Info"

[cholla]

Hi mach_one_man; Welcome to the forum.I have dial-up & I hope some with DSL will respond.I still think its a line problem & the signal quality drops at times so you disconnect.Your distance is a problem & it suprises me you get the speed you do at times.When you disconect is it raining? Could there be tree branches touching & moving the line anywhere along the route to the telco?I don't know are there load coils on the line I will bet there are on the phone side of the line these are data killers that are necessary for voice quality.I have 3 on my telephone line & I'm 26800 ft from the telco.

Next how old or new is the NID( network interface device) otherwise known as the box on the outside of your house? Is it protected from the weather ? I know its supposed to handle weather but protect it better if you can.Do you have a good ground rod & heavy guage wire to the ground rod from the NID.

Here are a few things you can try run your PC from the master socket for a while to see if you still get disconnected.Wire the extension & all inside phone cable with at least cat 5 cable

[resopalrabotnick]

i'm going to guess that you have an underground phone line, being in britain and not in the sometimes shockingly telecommunicationally challenged USA. (folks, i'm not knocking the usa here, it's just that you would expect the only remaining superpower to have figured it out by now and put /all/ the phone lines six feet under along with all the lower voltage power lines. that /might/ even cut back on the massive outages caused by storms. just my $0.02) anyhow. you say you're hooked up to a secondary plug. how does your telco cable for dsl? do you simply put a filter on each phone or do you get one splitter for the whole house, off which the dsl and the phone lines run? if so, is that secondary plug you're mentioning behind the splitter or does that line fork off before it. if you have a central splitter and that line forks off before it that might explain the problem. if you're not exactly sure what i mean, see if you can get a tech on the line again and explain exactly what you have, the problems etc. i know you've probably done it a millino times before, but be sure to mention where and how what is connected. did the tech measure signal strength at the appropriate points in the house or just where the line enters the building?

[mach_one_man]

Thanks for the information both of you. I think it could be something to do with my phone. Last night it was disconnecting like crazy and then I turned the power off on my phone and unplugged it. Immediately it appeared to work much better 

Anyway this morning I ran a test and it seems pretty fast: Here are the specs:

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 466 Kbps about 0.5 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)

Download Speed is:: 57 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server2)

Test Time:: Wed Nov 2 07:33:08 UTC 2005

Bottom Line:: 8X faster than 56K 1MB download in 17.96 sec

Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 67.63 % faster than the average for host (228.33)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-I4UG2PENQ

So nothing to complain about at the moment - and my phone is running. Perhaps power cycling the phone could do something 

Can't imagine that it would but if I get further problems that I can't resolve I will try some of those or post more here.

Thanks

[resopalrabotnick]

if you have the phone on the line without proper filtration via either a standalone filter on the phone or a splitter in the house it can very well be the phone's fault. check your manuals how bt does it, or wnts it done, and see if you have it set up right.