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Plusnet Usergroup » All Users - The Open Forum » Plusnet Network and Technical Issues » Connection Problems when it rains
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Author Topic: Connection Problems when it rains  (Read 2172 times)
Cerberos

Posts: 5

« on: November 14, 2006, 10:57:36 pm »

I have recently been upgraded to adslMAX.
I have noticed a problem.
I can get a stable connection of 2500kbs which is great considering how far I am from my exchange.

Then it rains. All appears OK but monitoring the downstream signal to noise ratio on my modem I start getting burst of noise. Perhaps lasting only a second or two, but eventually one of them will cause the modem to resync at a lower speed. Within a few seconds I will have a signal to noise of around 15db but with a lower sync speed. Normally it is around 12db.

Then it will happen again, a short burst of noise, lower sync, then back to noraml with a signal to noise of 18db.

I cam home from work today my BT stable speed is 500, it was 2500 when I left for work this morning. It has rained all afternoon. It is going to take 3 days of rebooting my modem to get the stable speed back.

My phone line arrives at the house underground, I am at a loos as to why the rain so affects my connection. The signal to noise does not drop away permenantly ther are just a few seconds bursts of noise which eventually cause the modem to resync.

When the weather is dry these bursts of noise disappear. Any suggestions as to what to do would be appreciated.
jelv1

Posts: 1978


« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2006, 11:08:17 pm »

Is there any noise on the line when you use the telephone? Use the quiet line test - dial 17070 - option 2; It's what a BT engineer would use. If it is audibly noisier in wet weather report it as a normal phone fault to BT (don't mention ADSL problems).

jelv
Tam

Posts: 1188


100Mb via Enta.net :D

« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2006, 01:32:46 am »

Log it as a BT fault on 15x (0 2 or 4 cannot remember)dont say ANYTHING about adsl as it will just confused them, explain only when it rains you sometimes gets lots of noise/static on the line.

See if they find anything (don't agree to any costs for them to come and have a look - tell em dont worry about it -you'll live with it!)

Then if still not resolved, log it via http://faults.plus.net and say you get issues with disconnections only when it rains ...


See what happens... Smiley

Cerberos

Posts: 5

« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2006, 11:12:55 am »

The router had lost sync completely this morning, yellow light flashing in the front.

Guess what - it rained last night.

I had to power down the router to get it to re-sync. It re-synced at 2700 kbs.
Logged onto the BT Speedtester - stable rate now set at 283.

Last week I was over the moon with a stable rate of 2500. Now I have a quarter the rate I had before I was upgraded to MAX.

I know this is a BTline fault not PlusNet. I have put in a ticket with plusnet to try and get this resolved. (ticket # 20720239 )

Why do BT downgrade the sync speed so quickly, yet it takes three to four days to get it back up? With winter coming I'll never get four days without rain in a row.

Should I be thinking of going away from the MAX product until BT can fix the line?

Has anybody else seen thi sort of weather dependant broadband performance?
jelv1

Posts: 1978


« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2006, 11:15:47 am »

Is there any noise when you listen on the phone?

jelv
Cerberos

Posts: 5

« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2006, 11:19:00 am »

I can't hear any significant noise on the phone line. I have done the quite test on the phone. It was quite huh
Cerberos

Posts: 5

« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2006, 12:27:19 pm »

The purple line on the chart below is my downstream signal to noise ratio.

Usually sat in the low 20dB range with slight fluctuations.
This was done during the late summer during a spell of dry weather while I was still on the PlusNet 1meg product.






This is a similar plot while the weather was wet. Siganl to noise is very unstable.
On the 1 meg I did not cause much of a problem. On MAX any one of those narrow bursts of noise could cause the router to re-sync at a lower speed.

It takes about 4 days of dry weather for the signal to noise to stablise after it has been wet.

By wet I don't just mean raining, damp foggy weather has the same effect.




Looking at the plot above, the spike of noise that goes down to zero did not cause the router to re-sync.
If it did all 4 coloured lines would have dropped to zero. If this is the case why does the router re-sync on the MAX product?

« Last Edit: November 18, 2006, 10:24:08 am by Cerberos »
Pendragon

Posts: 22

« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2006, 12:26:37 pm »

I have a similar problem to you in so far as my line SNR is weather dependant. I am on the end of a long line both over-ground to the green cabinet, then underground to the house. I originally had only a 512K connection but was Maxed about 6 months ago.

The normal SNR is around 10 to 12db but in wet weather this drops to 1db or less (the router shows something like 437289103475db, so I take that is -1db  wink).

I have a Linksys WAG354G modem/router/WA and this seems to cope fine with the SNR drops. It has never lost sync with the exchange but the speed will drop from around 6000 to just above 4000, then as soon as the weather improves creep back up again. The status screen refreshes about every 10 seconds (never timed it) and the SNR will fluctuate from 10db to 1db with each refresh when it rains.

So far I am pleased with Max (unlike many users) as my normal download speed has risen from 48Kb/s to around 600Kb/s on a good day. I have downloaded a full Kubuntu DVD iso in under 3 hours.

Regards, P

Weymouth & Portland, hosts to the 2012 Olympic Sailing events.

Force 9 ADSL Max 5.5 (upgraded from 512K).
Cerberos

Posts: 5

« Reply #8 on: November 18, 2006, 05:56:36 pm »



I took this plot this morning.

Fairly self explainitory.

Stable signal to noise around 11 O'clock.
By Lunch time becoming unstable.

After the second re-sync caused by the noise my connection was un-usable.

I could only hold sync at a very low speed. The weather was very windy and showery.

Weather has improved now. Synced at 2624.
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