Possible faulty DSL lines

simon360

Hi all, for about 2 weeks now my broadband has been giving troubles. We've been on the phone to our provider (Vodafone) and they have ran diagnostics on our lines but didn't really make it clear what was wrong, first they said it was our modem but we got a lend of a ADSL 2 modem like they said and it was the very same as the other modem; DSL light blinks for ages as if struggling to make a connection to the lines. We got back on to them and they said they'd call a guy out to see the next day, he came out and had a look at the lines outside and replaced a wire outside but said that wasn't the problem and that it was something internally with the lines that he can't do and we would have to do it ourselves. So now we're stuck here with really really slow broadband (not even able to load a 3 minute video on youtube on an iPhone it's that bad!) and we don't know what to do, any tips on how to fix it? We tested it on a socket upstairs and it was the same story DSL light blinking for about 10 minutes. Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: here's a line status from my modems settings

dxhound2005

simon360 wrote: »

Hi all, for about 2 weeks now my broadband has been giving troubles. We've been on the phone to our provider (Vodafone) and they have ran diagnostics on our lines but didn't really make it clear what was wrong, first they said it was our modem but we got a lend of a ADSL 2 modem like they said and it was the very same as the other modem; DSL light blinks for ages as if struggling to make a connection to the lines. We got back on to them and they said they'd call a guy out to see the next day, he came out and had a look at the lines outside and replaced a wire outside but said that wasn't the problem and that it was something internally with the lines that he can't do and we would have to do it ourselves. So now we're stuck here with really really slow broadband (not even able to load a 3 minute video on youtube on an iPhone it's that bad!) and we don't know what to do, any tips on how to fix it? We tested it on a socket upstairs and it was the same story DSL light blinking for about 10 minutes. Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: here's a line status from my modems settings

Are you in an area which is being upgraded to fibre? In the past few weeks I experienced similar problems, losing connection every few minutes, lots of flickering lights occasionally going to red, especially late in the evening. I am with Eircom, engineer came out and said my line was struggling to maintain connection at the speed it was set at. He reduced that in the exchange and it has mostly been fine since. My speed test result is about 1 Meg less than it was before.

He said that it could be the work on the lines for the fibre upgrade had disrupted some customers existing broadband. I have no idea if this is true. Anyway fibre will be here soon I hope and he said any existing problems on the line would not be and issue following the upgrade.

searay

Had a similar problem with Vodafone broadband last week after moving the router. We replaced the router with a tp link router but still didnt work.Tried it with all phone lines plugged out and it started working. I think the problem was one of the connected phone lines didn't have a filter on it.

bealtine

simon360 wrote: »

EDIT: here's a line status from my modems settings

Those noise margins are borderline disconnect...which is what you are seeing...
I'd suspect water in the cable somewhere perhaps at a junction box.

Keep at vodafone...

simon360

bealtine wrote: »

Those noise margins are borderline disconnect...which is what you are seeing...
I'd suspect water in the cable somewhere perhaps at a junction box.

Keep at vodafone...

We had a flood in our garage about 3 weeks ago, fuse box for house is in there but don't know if the DSL lines come through there, will inspect later. As for the call out guy that replaced a wire, he replaced it in the junction box outside the house but he said it didn't really need to be changed, just to be maintained.

Don't know if we're getting fibre lines in either, haven't heard anything and Vodafone didn't say anything over the phone (their customer service was pretty shoddy as well but that's another thing.)

simon360

So update on investigation we found that a socket wasn't working for the phone, we screwed it off and found that the DSL line to it was chewed straight in half :pac: think I found the source of the problem! Bloody mice!

bealtine

simon360 wrote: »

So update on investigation we found that a socket wasn't working for the phone, we screwed it off and found that the DSL line to it was chewed straight in half :pac: think I found the source of the problem! Bloody mice!

Yay! <g>

Once you've fixed it keep an eye on your noise margins in the router if they are less than 6db keep looking:(

simon360

Another update, made a new line today (separate from the old one) still fairly slow! so it is the connection coming into the house I think!

simon360

Anyone have any other suggestions? Should I call up vodafone again and ask them to have a look at the exchange? Really getting sick of having this crap Internet for over a month now

bealtine

simon360 wrote: »

Anyone have any other suggestions? Should I call up vodafone again and ask them to have a look at the exchange? Really getting sick of having this crap Internet for over a month now

Stats please?

simon360

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 747 Kbps 113 Kbps
Noise Margin 12.2 dB 11.6 dB
Line Attenuation 26.5 dB 12.8 dB
Output Power 12.8 dBm 0.0 dBm

It goes up around 1000 kpbs downstream at night but during the day it's 400/500

bealtine

simon360 wrote: »

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 747 Kbps 113 Kbps
Noise Margin 12.2 dB 11.6 dB
Line Attenuation 26.5 dB 12.8 dB
Output Power 12.8 dBm 0.0 dBm

It goes up around 1000 kpbs downstream at night but during the day it's 400/500

Your speed is awful...so depending on your exchange you should be getting much better than that. The line looks like it's very noisy, I'd suggest you ring your provider and complain about noise on the line and NOT mention broadband

Also fluctuating at night sounds more like congestion to me but that's a different issue

simon360

http://www.vodafone.ie/aboutus/code/custcare/line-faults/

Found this page in Vodafone.ie, worth a chance to call and report a line fault and mention phone not BB?

simon360

Hi lads, having got on to vodafone here on Boards, they got a help desk member to ring. He was much more helpful than the one who rang before and he tested the line with everything in and it was terrible, then with nothing in and it was back to normal. Then with the modem only it was shockingly bad, he sent out a new modem and having only received it my download speed on Steam has gone up to steady 700kb/s (better than >100kb/s) so hopefully the modem is only getting used to the new line