Connection dropping

[MSaxp]

Hi,

Thank you for the great help you are providing here.

I have been with O2 for 2 years now. In my old flat, everything was perfect. When I moved to my new flat (200 yards from the old one), it seems that everything changed.

My connection drops all the time and i get this O2 assistant that prompts me to check my line. Tonight I decided to post as the situation is awful and my live radio stops every minute. My router stats are the following:

Uptime: 1 day, 14:23:48
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,226 / 5,490
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 23.5 / 44.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.5 / 4.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 10 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 6 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 41 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 97 / 1,964,927
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 97 / 2,621
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 1,452 / 1,817


1) Do these show any problems?
2) Are these problems correctable, either by doing something or changing providers? or is it just that the house cabling is bad (its brand new though)

Many thanks,

Mike

[Saturday]

Are you wireless or ethernet? Need to know to help you diagnose the connection dropping.

Irrespective of connection type though, your sync is very low for your attenuation which points to line noise. How is your router connected to the socket. Into the master or via an extension?

[MSaxp]

i am connected via ethernet. dont think thats the problem though
i reset my connection and now changed to:

Uptime: 0 days, 0:16:28
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,226 / 4,561
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 15.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 23.5 / 44.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.5 / 6.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 932
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 2
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 1,457 / 2


as for the socket, i am not sure what u mean. The router is next to the socket, connected only via the o2 provided filter and cable

[Saturday]

So it's not a wireless problem.

By socket I mean what type of phone socket is the router plugged into? When BT install a line the first socket where the wire enters the house is the master socket, unless it is a very new build in which case the master may be external. Any other sockets in the house are extensions.

Master socket = good, extensions = bad. Find your master and plug your router into that and see what happens to the sync. Even better, take the faceplate off the master and connect to the test socket and see what sync that gives.

[MSaxp]

I only have 2 sockets in the flat and they're both in the living room. Not really sure which one is the master, so I assumed it was the one next to the radio and tv aerial sockets. Its the only one with screws as well the other one doesnt seem to have any. And it doesnt have a test socket i'm afraid. tried connecting the router to the other socket and the results look the same:

Uptime: 0 days, 0:02:36
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,235 / 5,245
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 23.5 / 43.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.5 / 6.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 782
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 2
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 1,472 / 2

the flat is brand new indeed but i doubt there are any sockets in the communal hallway

[Saturday]

BT are now installing exterior masters in new builds so your master may well be outside somewhere. Great for BT as their responsibility ends outside the home but bad news for broadband users I suspect.

If you don't have access to a master because it's outside or you can't find it, plus the builders probably did the phone wiring, means there may be little you can do to improve things yourself - sorry.

I'd give O2 a call and explain you're having disconnections but can't do anything about the wiring. They may well be able to see the cause in their data and may be willing to get BT to check the BT line (O2 and BT won't touch your internal wiring unless you pay BT to).

If nothing else then they could increase your noise margin to reduce disconnections. The downside is you'd lose more speed.

HTH

[MSaxp]

hmm that might also explain why BT managed to activate my line (first time this flat had a line), without requiring access to the flat.

And I guess changing providers will not really change anything and overall I am pretty pleased with the serviceI've always had from O2.

Well...thank you for your time.

Mike

[MSaxp]

I'm probably getting paranoid but every time my connection gets completely clogged up, after i restart the router, its massively faster and doesnt drop. and i have just noticed that under devices there is a one device more than the devices i think i have connected to my router. I have a desktop and a laptop while it shows 2 wireless devices and my phone's wireless is off. apart from that its ip doesnt seem to look like the others in my network:

O2WirelessBox 192.168.1.xxx
Unknown-00-00-5e-00-01-0a 78.86.208.x unknown
mikelaptop 192.168.1.xx WLAN
Mike-desktop 192.168.1.xx ethport1

is there a chance something dodgy is happening?

Thanks,

Mike

[Saturday]

Don't worry, that's a quirk of the O2 network. The O2 Box shows the O2 gateway as an unknown device.

With regard to the big improvement after restarting the router, that could be because your noise margin drops (because line noise has increased) to the extent that the router is struggling to differentiate between noise and signal. This will cause a massive number of transmission errors and data retransmission. You'll see that as a sluggish, slow connection.

When you reboot the router it will renegotiate a healthy noise margin so the problem goes away - until the noise rises/noise margin drops again.

Do you turn your router off when not using the connection? If so, don't. If you reboot when the connection seems poor and then leave the router alone, then it should hold the connection OK as O2 don't use SRA, as far as I'm aware. So, reboot the router at the time of highest noise then leave it on.

[MSaxp]

no, I never turn the router off. however, it was still awful again today around 8-9pm.

and today my router has restarted on its own 2-3 times! fun and games!

I have a netgear router from my Sky times. I reckon it will work with O2 but is there any chance that it will make any difference?