topic Re: New Connection Very Slow. in Archive

New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:45:42 GMT

Hello,

After waiting 6 long weeks following a move, a new G.DMT connection was at last formally enlivened today and, although I am getting a decent ATM Sync (although quite a few DSL and ATM errors) I am IP Profiled to 500kbps, which is rather slow.

As I had an engineer out to check the line, and I am only about 400 meters from the exchange, I would expect a little better performance from BT's flagship xDSL product.

I have also called the 0800 number in the welcome email, and was given an 0845 number to call, and after battling through a somewhat futile voice recognition system, and waiting on hold for a while, sadly, I only managed to upset the lady who tried to help me, as on admitting she couldn’t find my account(My name, provisioned telephone number, address and company name apparently wasn’t enough) she hung up on me.

Please could somebody advise me what to do, or should I just hang tight and hope that a monitoring system picks up my dilemma and an unseen uber-engineer rectifies it for us? If this does happen, and you are the unseen uber-engineer, I thank you, sincerely. I doubt you would ever get that from your employers. If you are a script, then I would ask that your creator incorporates some form of update notification as to what is going on, perhaps via email, or SMS.

Thanks,

Zach

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:15:16 GMT

Notice to uber-engineer, or uber-engineer script. Please don't secretly fix the issue just yet, since after a day of internet hell and around 2 hours on chat and phone to BT an engineer is to come out and check the external line.

Could somebody please clarify for me, apart from the obvious, what the chat people can actually do ?

So far I have been told they can't place orders, raise faults, test lines or talk about billing queries; and I have them quoted as saying "We just have access to the website"

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

buirnsideandy — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:51:30 GMT

I have tried the polite patient approach with the support desk but they're not engineers. You will probably get an Open Reach engineer sent several times to test your perfect copper line to the exchange! The support desk do not seem to appreciate that if the modem syncs to the BRAS router at the exchange and the noise margins are good the fault is eslewhere!

My modem syncs at 6.5Mbps downstream and 448kbps upstream but I'm lucky if I can get 10kbps throughput on upload!

I know my fault is the backhaul BT circuit since I was with Talk Talk residential just before changing to BT Business Broadband and had no problems with upload with either attachments to emails or ftp files to web site. The support department do not have an engineering background and therefore do not understand the difference between modem sync speed and data throughput. The problem was passed to BT Wholesale who tried fobbing off with the claim that upload speeds are not guaranteed. Well I'd certainly expect a throughput better than a fifth of dial up!

I suppose it's worth pointing out that this problem could have occurred no matter what ISP you're with since most of the trunk circuits are supplied by BT. It is very difficult to get any satisfaction. BT sent the local Open Reach engineer to test the line three times. Idiotic to test a perfect line three times. One look at the exchange router would have told them the sync speeds and noise margins were fine. I've never had a problem with sync speeds being only 0.5 km from the exchange. The problem is in the BT network or possibly in another supplier of trunk links if BT have leased capacity from the likes of Cable and Wireless. Since the problem is bursty in nature it is likely a misconfigurqation/traffic shaping problem on a trunk circuit but that obviously is a difficult fault to track down and BT Business do not seem to have the clout or confidence to challenge the BT Wholesale team about the problem.

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

Fiona — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:22:53 GMT

Zacherynuk, After the engineer visit has your profile improved?

In regards to the question about chat agents, it sounds like you were in contact with the chat team for 'Using our Website'. There is a Broadband technical chat, who will assist with technical issues. There is a Billing chat that assist with Billing issues. You would need to ensure you select the correct path through the Contact Us section to reach the chat and division you require.

Buirnsideandy, I have checked and can see you are in contact with the technical team about this issue. I'm Sorry, I am not sure what further help the moderators on the forum can supply with this issue.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:46:44 GMT

Hello, sorry for the delay in replying.

Following a visit from a voice engineer, I got a little less line interference, but I am still dropping at least half a dozen times a day, although it's only for a few minutes each timje, it feels like a life time when you are reliant on Citrix sessions for your work.

We have had a second, non business line installed and this not only syncs faster than the business line, it is far more reliable and faster. During install of this line the engineer had issues with the cards in the exchange and had to swap two out before we could get a service.

In short, our £5 no frills line outperforms the top of the range BT adsl business product in every facet, even though it is terminated only 5 feet away, shares the same overhead cable and is plugged into the same cabinet in the same exchange only 500 yards away.

Since I have this consumer line, and my 3G modem I have been able to get on and do some work, but this business line needs to be fixed, or replaced. It's Sunday night, nearly 21:00 and I currently I can't get more than 120k download - this makes downloading and enlivening a 4GB virtual appliance by 7AM tomorrow morning on my premium business line improbable.

What should I do ?

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

thebigman — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:21:39 GMT

Hi zacherynuk,

Sorry to hear about your problems,

What you need to do is;

1. Find out what speed your router is synching up with our exchange at. Too find this out on the BT business hub you need to open up your web browser and type 192.168.1.254 into the address bar. When searching for this you will be directed to the routers configuration page. On the main page you will see a broadband icon with arrows for upstream and downstream. Take note of these rates.

2. Next you will need to locate your BT test port. This is located behind the face of your master telephone socket. To gain access to this you will need to remove both screws from the front of the main socket and carefully take off the front plate and the test port should be on the right. Plug your broadband filter in here

3. Now you need to recheck the downstream sync rate on the router. If your speed has increased on here leave your router in the test socket for at least 4 hours and run a speedtest on www.speedtester.bt.com

Let me know how you get on

thebigman

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:25:29 GMT

Hi,

ATM usually syncs at about 7100/448

This is the current sync:

Modem Type: Built in modem - ADSL
DSL Line (Wire Pair): Line 1 (inner pair)
Current DSL Connection:
Down Up
Rate: 5056 kbs 448 kbs
Max Rate: 6672 kbs 1028 kbs
Noise Margin: 24.0 dB 24.0 dB
Attenuation: 11.3 dB 7.0 dB
Output Power: 17.7 dBm 11.9 dBm

Protocol: G.DMT Annex A
Channel: Interleaved
DSLAM Vendor Information Country: {3840} Vendor: {ALCB} Specific: {0 }
ATM PVC: 0/38

Rate Cap: 6672 kbs
Attenuation @ 300kHz: 11.3 dB
Uncanceled Echo: 5.7 dB Suspicious - check phone filters and alarm
VCXO Frequency Offset: -52.9 ppm Ok
Final Receive Gain: 1.9 dB Ok
Excessive Impulse Noise: 0 Ok

No change occurs when plugged into test socket, I have had it in there for days on end with everything else unplugged. Indeed, when the line went live I had the engineer unpluged all the old star cabling and install a new master sockjet with a test port- and he even put in a new cable from the master socket to the office (about 10 foot)

I have tried running the bt speedtester at least a half a dozen times a day for the past week and everytime it fails. Initially it would report IP caps of between 500 and 2000, which was the initial thing I rasied with BT.

I do belive the only thing that can be done at this point is having the line re-enlivended using a different overhead pair and, preferably, plugged into a different location within the cab and exchange rack.

Thanks

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:48:23 GMT

Here are my errors since last post:

Should I be trying to talk to yet another phone support person?

Collected for 16:21:48

Since Current Current Time Since
Reset 24-hr int. 15-min int. Last Event
ATM
Last Event
Cell Header Errors 14633 14633 70 0:00:43
Loss of cell Delineation 14319 14319 69 0:00:43

DSL
Link Retrains: 66 66 1 0:00:42
DSL Training Errors: 13 13 0 2:50:17
Training Timeouts: 0 0 0 0:00:00
Loss of Framing Failures: 163 163 0 0:09:46
Loss of Signal Failures: 115 115 2 0:00:43
Loss of Power Failures: 0 0 0 0:00:00
Loss of Margin Failures: 154 154 2 0:00:43
**bleep**. Seconds w/Errors: 414 414 2 0:00:43
**bleep**. Sec. w/Severe Errors: 276 276 2 0:00:43
Corrected Blocks: 17079 17079 71 0:00:43
Uncorrectable Blocks: 14561 14561 67 0:00:43
DSL Unavailable Seconds: 2342 2342 35 0:00:09

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

thebigman — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:54:59 GMT

Hi zacherynuk,

After looking through the results of the logs that you posted i can see that your connection has a lot of errorswhich in turn is causing the connection to drop. If you get the router connected into the test port and post the same results i'll have a look at it tomorrow if i have the time.

thebigman

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:32:12 GMT

It is plugged into the test socket again, so now I have a ropey internet connection and no phone, again.

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:08:18 GMT

half an hour in test socket:

Edit, Right after posting that the ATM dropped altogether again, due I think to a link retrain.

The line is awful, I am only a few hundred meters from the exchange for heavens sake; checkout the new rate!

DSL Details

Modem Type: Built in modem - ADSL
DSL Line (Wire Pair): Line 1 (inner pair)
Current DSL Connection:
Down Up
Rate: 4544 kbs 448 kbs
Max Rate: 3572 kbs 1028 kbs
Noise Margin: 15.0 dB 24.0 dB
Attenuation: 10.8 dB 7.0 dB
Output Power: 17.7 dBm 11.9 dBm

Protocol: G.DMT Annex A
Channel: Interleaved
DSLAM Vendor Information Country: {3840} Vendor: {ALCB} Specific: {0 }
ATM PVC: 0/38

Rate Cap: 3572 kbs
Attenuation @ 300kHz: 10.8 dB
Uncanceled Echo: 5.5 dB Suspicious - check phone filters and alarm
VCXO Frequency Offset: -52.4 ppm Ok
Final Receive Gain: 1.6 dB Ok
Excessive Impulse Noise: 0 Ok
Traffic Statistics

IP Traffic Bytes Packets Errors %
Transmit: 12 0 0 0
Receive: 0 0 0 0

ATM Traffic Cells Errors %
Transmit: 114839 0 0
Receive: 368069 0 0
DSL Link Errors

Collected for 0:36:35

Since Current Current Time Since
Reset 24-hr int. 15-min int. Last Event
ATM
Last Event
Cell Header Errors 371 371 122 0:01:23
Loss of cell Delineation 292 292 97 0:01:23

DSL
Link Retrains: 1 1 1 0:01:22
DSL Training Errors: 1 1 1 0:00:26
Training Timeouts: 0 0 0 0:00:00
Loss of Framing Failures: 1 1 1 0:01:23
Loss of Signal Failures: 1 1 1 0:01:23
Loss of Power Failures: 0 0 0 0:00:00
Loss of Margin Failures: 1 1 1 0:01:23
**bleep**. Seconds w/Errors: 16 16 7 0:01:23
**bleep**. Sec. w/Severe Errors: 8 8 3 0:01:23
Corrected Blocks: 956 956 268 0:01:23
Uncorrectable Blocks: 371 371 119 0:01:23
DSL Unavailable Seconds: 105 105 80 0:00:05

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:49:34 GMT

OK, I have had to start using another connection again now, as I was being kicked every few minutes, last time I saw the ATM sync downstream is was just under 1500.

I have to say though, as far as support forums go, this has to be, by far the worst I have ever used.

So far I have been ignored, requested to repeat steps already taken and had the obvious stated. Though I realise that there was a gap in my responses, but perhaps there wouldn't have been if the subscribe thread worked.

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:37:19 GMT

I have now raised another call with BT phone support and, since the line tester didn't work for them either it has been passed straight to engineering.

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:55:49 GMT

Over 7 hours later and not a peep. nothing, nada, ziltch.

Is there an SLA ? Anyone ?

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:07:23 GMT

So, this morning I checked the reference number online and the call had cleared next to it. We used 'cleared' as a term to indicate that a call has been rectified; however, upon call BT, I discovered that they use it as a term indicating that BT Wholesale has passed the call back to BT (Business?) and they might call you at some stage in the next day or so.

So a full day later I called them and they asked me which router I was using (already told them this, obviously; BT Router plugged into test socket) and if the broadband light was off, solid or blinking. Incredible. Oh and also what my contact details were - although I have told BT what my contact number is, probably 300-500 times over the years, they still don't seem to know it... making me wonder how they would have called me back to ask me about the information I gave them the previous day.

The long and short of it is, during my soliloquy of displeasure an engineer was booked and is once again coming to visit me. yay. I'm excited.

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

Fiona — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:26:41 GMT

Hi zacherynuk,

I'm sorry you are continuing to have issues with your connection, the technical helpdesk are the best people to deal with this. Due to the nature of the forum these types of issues can be difficult to properly diagnose or rectify through this medium. However, please keep us updated on the progress and let us know how things are after the engineers visit.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:01:17 GMT

An engineer arrived at the property this morning at 8:05 and despite a note on the door stating that I would be gone for 5 minutes, with my name and mobile number, a card was put through my door stating that I had missed him.

Having seen his van leave my drive, I knew he was close and having read the card I drove up to the exchange where his van was parked to grab him. He said his job was done and he had put a card through my door, which is his job and had closed the call and since been assigned a new job - which is impressive for such a short time frame. He informed me helpfully that I would have to contact my service provider.

BT phone people were very friendly again and arranged another engineer to come out in the afternoon slot, at around 14:30 the same chap from the morning showed up, I explained the problem, in detail.

He plugged his equipment into the line and ran a five minute test, which passed. This, he informed me, was his job and all he was authorised to do. I would have to contact my service provider.

I asked if he was serious; sadly he was. I showed him the router stats, showing the uncorrectable blocks and DSL outages (currently 2229 DSL unavailable seconds, 18000 uncorrectable blocks, 22000 corrected blocks 50 loss of signal and 16 retrains, in the past 24 hours) and asked him to test again. he refused as he "couldn't be expected to hang about here all day waiting for an error on the line". I aksed him if the router data meant anything to him and he replied that it wasn'y his job to look at the router errors, he was there to run a 5 minute test; this was his job.

Sadly this man wasn't authorised to troubleshoot for more than 5 minutes, nor was he authorised to set up equipment to monitor the line for an extended period (I suggested 1 hour+).

He did, however, helpfully advise me that he would be returning his 5 minute test result back to my service provider as this is what he had been called here to do; this was his job.

A little bit disapointing.

Edit: I forgot the best bit, apparently, intermittent issues like this can be caused by electrical interference from... ... satellites! That's right, satellites cause interference on the broadband. I pointed out to him that the house broadband, sharing the same overhead line, going to the same poles and the same exchange doesn't appear to be affected by satellite interference and he looked a bit sad. Perhaps because his training had let him down.

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:05:05 GMT

BT Support rang and left a message today saying that there were no faults on my line and it had been stable all day.

Thats great news! However, I still can't run the BT speedtester to find out what my IP profile is and normal speedtest.net shows my connection running at 1.1mb by 200kb.

I no it'll be futile calling them until more errors show on the line, so I have rebooted the router and will monitor - I certainly can't use it whilst it's running at that speed.

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

Fiona — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:36:08 GMT

Hi zacherynuk,

Thank you for keeping us updated on the forum. I'm sorry there was not much improvement after the engineers visit, I have asked the technical team to review all the work that has been carried out on your issue and call you to discuss how we can move forward. I have a note of the Technical reference number so I will keep an eye on the case as well.

Kind regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

Re: New Connection Very Slow.

zacherynuk — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:46:23 GMT

Thanks Fiona.

As of now, 8 hours later, the ATM is syncing ok, but it's obviously still very throttled.

I have had only 24 Cell Header Errors and 3 losses of Delineation. Corrected and uncorrected blocks have been lower too, coming in at just over 100 per hour. Although that is the best it has been, it certainly isn't acceptable - even if I was getting a decent 6-7.5meg download.

It's a lemon and needs re-plumbing.