What is going on....does anyone have a clue at BT

[acj0712]

I am really at a loss to find out a solution, our business is completely suffering and no one cares. If I treated our clients the way BT treat us we would soon be in liquidation. Below i a summary from our IT expert, if anyone has any ideas please let me know

Innovation Centre Broadband Summary

Kevin Anderson, 02/03/2015

Because of the lack of decent (high bandwidth) broadband available in the area (OX12), we have four individual lines, dedicated to ADSL (no phones) coming into the IC. The numbers (and providers) are listed below:

01235 xxx(BT Residential)

01235 xxx(XL Telecom)

01235 xxx(XL Telecom)

01235 xxx(XL Telecom)

These lines each connect to a broadband hub, and the ADSL services from each are bonded together using a Sharedband service. The inbound physical connections for all four lines are as follows:

ADSL Svc -> broadband router -> Sharedband router -> unmanaged switch (LAN)

The switchover from the previous service provider (Eclipse broadband) to BT Business broadband was made 22/01/2015. The reason was because of poor customer service, low speeds, and regular disconnects under the previous provider. However, within days of the switchover to BT Business, it became apparent that the frequency of disconnects had increased dramatically (from roughly once or twice a week to four times a day and today every 30 minutes).

The nature of these disconnects are such that all four BT routers (Business Hub 3.0) lose ADSL connection simultaneously. The broadband connection light (steady blue) goes out for a short while, eventually coming back on again as a purple light (router retraining, re-establishing ADSL connection), and then back to steady blue (connected). The blue light can be out for anything between a few seconds and a minute (though lately it seems to be longer). Some routers take slightly longer to re-establish connection than others. Once the routers have re-established ADSL connections, the IC has connection to the Internet. This process can easily be mimicked by simply pulling out the ADSL cable from the master socket, and putting it back in after a few seconds. To reiterate, this happens to all four routers at the same time.

The times at which these disconnects occur don’t appear to be influenced by anything that we are aware of, and they occur at seemingly random times of the day.

After reporting the issue several times to BT, and a number of line tests having been done (resulting in no fault found), we have since had two separate visits by Openreach engineers:

12/02/2015

2 BTO engineers came to inspect the routers. They had only been allocated 2 out of the four faults, but looked at all four lines, and the circuit in the cabinet as well. They found some noise on the lines (within acceptable levels), but raised the noise threshold on the two lines they had been allocated in any case. They replaced all 4 master socket faceplates.

17/02/2015

2 BTO engineers came to inspect the lines/routers (still having major dropouts). They had all four faults allocated, this time. They witnessed two simultaneous dropouts of all four routers whilst on site.

During these visits, they were unable to establish a cause of the fault, and suggested that the source could be electrical interference. Such electrical interference is referred to as REIN (Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise). We continued to experience regular disconnects (4 times a day, on most days), and further reporting of these disconnects resulted in a REIN engineer being booked to visit site. Ahead of the REIN engineer visit (25/02/205), I undertook some basic noise tests of my own (AM radio noise tests). The two noise sources I located were dismissed as possible causes of any interference by the REIN engineer during his inspection, but we isolated them, nevertheless. They still remain isolated (i.e. turned off), but have had no effect, so will be reconnected imminently. Within an hour of his departure, the routers disconnected a total of three times that afternoon. Disconnects continue to occur with the same general frequency (three to four times a day). An open case exists with the REIN team (VOL012- 102415259053), and I have been promised progress updates.

Other, more anecdotal, issues being experienced take the form of general performance - slow/sluggish speeds, etc. – but can be explained by individual routers having lost their ADSL connection. I have taken to visiting the server room as and when these are reported (or experienced by me), and I can see that one or two of the routers are disconnected or are still retraining. By looking at the logs of the routers, I can see which ones disconnected and which ones didn’t. Although not a definitive test, I also run ping tests at various times of the day, and can gauge from the results when we have lost one or more of the routers.

Although the latest Openreach thinking seems to be that the issue is related to REIN, the term seems to be somewhat generic, as the source is more likely to be something more random (i.e. less repetitive, such as a single brief burst of noise), which would be SHINE (Single High level Impulse Noise Event).

Assistance from BT has, on the whole (especially considering the frequency of the disconnects, the number of times they have been reported, and the length of time it has been going on for), been less than satisfactory, generally hovering somewhere between the banal and facile. Operators of the web chat clearly have processes they must follow, but have for the most part been unable to escalate without first following them. Existing cases get closed off (no fault found), so the same hoops have to be jumped through each time. The only case that remains open is the one assigned to the REIN team (VOL012- 102415259053). In actual fact, there has been no clear indication that any case has been escalated, beyond the assignment of BTO engineers. I wait for updates on the outstanding REIN case.

[markp]

Hi acj0712,

I am sorry to see you are having to muc trouble with your lines, I have passed your details on to the specialist team that deal with these cases and they will be in contact with you.

Regards

markp