Home Broadband problems - does this look ok to you?

[BatchFile]

I'm having ongoing issues with my home broadband (from TalkTalk). Before I ring them up (again) and end up talking to a script monkey (again), possibly ending up with a chargeable home visit, I'll ask here first to check all's well our end

 

This is the current setup - this has been rock solid stable for 3 weeks at 2Mb (which is fine as it's what I was told to expect - before that we had a flaky 512k which suddenly went to a stable 2Mb after a "fault" (read: upgrade that they forgot to tell us about:rolleyes:)) until Saturday when the DSL started dropping out sporadically, and now it won't connect at all. Odd thing is that if you make a call on the landline, it does connect, and work for a few minutes, which is maddening if you're ringing their helpdesk as it's, well, working at the time.

 

Couple of things to note:

 

The old router (access point) is there because a couple of our computermabobs won't support WPA2 and the TalkTalk router won't support anything else - it's on a different channel and ssid and the wireless bits are working fine.

 

I've plugged a filter straight in the test socket as the numpty who lived in the house before (partner's ex) had wired an extension into the back of the faceplate, which obviously needs filtering.

 

 

Long story short - their end or mine?

Edited June 20, 2011 by BatchFile

[jamesreedersmith]

Too many filters - why are you filtering the telephone side of the filter again - where your caller id is you dont need any filters after that for example.

[BatchFile]

I read somewhere that as the filters work on impedence you need one on everything - even an extension... is that not the case?

[cromertech]

It looks like you've may have too many filters on there. You have two filters inline to your sky box. I think I'm right in thinking that you only need one filter for each mains extension which would make the ones after the splitters redundant. I think you only need 2 filters one on the front of the faceplate to the sky box and one on the rear to the rest of the phone sockets in the house.

[jamesreedersmith]

Yes you filter the signal from the main box once - eg you need two splitters

[newpersn]

make sure your telephone point for you sky box is at the end of the line. You will get bad interface otherwise.

[sted]

by the looks of that you need 1 splitter in the main socket. Adsl plugs into its sockets and everything else plugs into the other side (a filtered faceplate may help that way if the old junk is wired direct into the socket you can krone it into the back of the faceplate )

[soveryapt]

As everyone else has said, you don't need all those filters. If the phone (on the master socket) comes out and goes into extensions prefiltered, you don't need to filter it on the extensions as well, however, all those filters won't effect your Broadband as you're ADSL is into the master socket filter anyway.

 

The best thing to do to ensure it's not you is (as I think you've already muted at doing but...) to remove all your extensions and telephony equipment so that you're left with just your master socket. As you have a test socket behind, plug a filter into this and then plug in your ADSL router directly to it. Just the router on it's own and nothing else into the router (not that taking a LAN feed actually would compromise it, but back to basics here). Then, using one of the machines that will connect using WPA2, connect up and see what your modem is doing ..

 

If it doesn't connect up this way, then basically the fault can't be at your end unless it's TalkTalk's router that's not working, in which case the charge would be down to them anyway.

[BatchFile]

Ok, so possibly too many filters... that may explain the slightly wooly sound on the handset (so might the fact that my partner's daughter once dropped it in the loo - don't ask!), but could that cause the DSL problem? surely too many filters are better than too few - and it's worked fine from the Wednesday in half term till yesterdayish?

[SmellyLlama]

As everyone else has said, you don't need all those filters. If the phone (on the master socket) comes out and goes into extensions prefiltered, you don't need to filter it on the extensions as well, however, all those filters won't effect your Broadband as you're ADSL is into the master socket filter anyway.

 

The best thing to do to ensure it's not you is (as I think you've already muted at doing but...) to remove all your extensions and telephony equipment so that you're left with just your master socket. As you have a test socket behind, plug a filter into this and then plug in your ADSL router directly to it. Just the router on it's own and nothing else into the router (not that taking a LAN feed actually would compromise it, but back to basics here). Then, using one of the machines that will connect using WPA2, connect up and see what your modem is doing ..

 

If it doesn't connect up this way, then basically the fault can't be at your end unless it's TalkTalk's router that's not working, in which case the charge would be down to them anyway.

 

This is sound advice.

 

Start with only the router and a filter in the master socket. No phones. For at least 24 hours. Monitor your speed and if possible, check the sync and noise/atten on the router page making a note of these.

 

It is also worth noting that as your connection has been intermittent it will not be stable or at it's maximum speed for 5-10 days as the exchange sorts it's self out.

 

Also worth trying both a couple of new filters and a new/different router.

[BatchFile]

As everyone else has said, you don't need all those filters. If the phone (on the master socket) comes out and goes into extensions prefiltered, you don't need to filter it on the extensions as well, however, all those filters won't effect your Broadband as you're ADSL is into the master socket filter anyway.

 

The best thing to do to ensure it's not you is (as I think you've already muted at doing but...) to remove all your extensions and telephony equipment so that you're left with just your master socket. As you have a test socket behind, plug a filter into this and then plug in your ADSL router directly to it. Just the router on it's own and nothing else into the router (not that taking a LAN feed actually would compromise it, but back to basics here). Then, using one of the machines that will connect using WPA2, connect up and see what your modem is doing ..

 

If it doesn't connect up this way, then basically the fault can't be at your end unless it's TalkTalk's router that's not working, in which case the charge would be down to them anyway.

 

Yeah, the first filter is in the test socket anyway and i've tried disconnecting each of the branches in turn - I'll give it one more go tonight with everything out but the router then demand a visit - thanks all for helping me get my thoughts straight!

[sparkeh]

Ok, so possibly too many filters... that may explain the slightly wooly sound on the handset (so might the fact that my partner's daughter once dropped it in the loo - don't ask!), but could that cause the DSL problem? surely too many filters are better than too few - and it's worked fine from the Wednesday in half term till yesterdayish?

 

No, defiantly too many filters

Plugging a microfilter into a microfilter doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Everything is being filtered at the main socket so why have more filters down the line?

It will probably effect your phone line quality but there could be an effect on your ADSL, not sure on that one. As suggested above, strip it back to just your ADSL device and see if that works ok, then build up a device at a time.

Edited June 20, 2011 by sparkeh

[SmellyLlama]

Ok, so possibly too many filters... that may explain the slightly wooly sound on the handset (so might the fact that my partner's daughter once dropped it in the loo - don't ask!), but could that cause the DSL problem? surely too many filters are better than too few - and it's worked fine from the Wednesday in half term till yesterdayish?

 

Problem is you end up double filtering and getting very little broadband signal to the router. I had an engineer out and he found a 5 year old RF filter on my line hidden in a door frame. Removing this made my broadband go from 3mb to 9mb and now I sync at 14mb.

 

Broadband is both funny and sensitive to all sorts of things. With these intermittent problems its just a game of elimination until you work out where the problem is.

 

Add the router to the test socket and bake for 24-48 hours and then add a phone into the mix, so on and so forth!

[fafster]

If your broadband works fine when you're on the phone, perhaps the initial filter is on the blink. Swap it with one of the others.

[BatchFile]

If your broadband works fine when you're on the phone, perhaps the initial filter is on the blink. Swap it with one of the others.

 

This, I must admit, is the part of this that's REALLY got me baffled - more interference from more traffic = connection possible - eh?!

[jamesreedersmith]

It could be that the excess filters are dropping the signal strength too much and the call produces a signal change that makes it work.

[fafster]

 

It's playing tricks on you.

[SmellyLlama]

You need to concentrate on getting the broadband stable without worrying aobut the phone. Add the phone into the loop later. You won't have gotten a proper connection yet if it's always going on and off as the exchange won't have sync'd you properly.

 

Do you have any of the details from the router when it's plugged into the master socket. The noise up/down, attenuation up/down and then the reported sync speed from the router and an actual bb speed from speedtest.net or something similar?

[soveryapt]

Yeah, the first filter is in the test socket anyway and i've tried disconnecting each of the branches in turn - I'll give it one more go tonight with everything out but the router then demand a visit - thanks all for helping me get my thoughts straight!

 

No worries, I'm just very conversant on the whole subject at the moment as I'm having my 5th I think (counts up, 1 engineer, ha ha, 2 engineers, ha ha, 3 engineers, ha ha, 4 engineers ,, ha ha .. 5 engineers .. yes 5 engineers) since reporting an issue on 23rd May with Sky .. so I've been through the whole thing of unplug everything .. it's got to the stage now where I get put straight through to the higher "technical support" (I'll explain the quotes in a mo) to deal with it and skip all of the script monkeys in 1st Line ..

 

Quotes: t'other day I was on the phone to one of the higher technical team .. "Just to double check and make sure my line tests report the most factual results, could you plug your router directly into your test socket. Take your time, there's no rush" so I went through and removed the faceplate, put a filter in (so I could plug the router into the test socket) and went back and reported back. Now, the guy was like "ok, so before I run the test, just to confirm, the router is plugged directly into the test socket with no other devices or filters" so I said "well there is a filter plugged in so I can plug the router in" to which I got the response "No, I said nothing else, the router needs to be direct into the test socket with nothing else there" so I pointed out "that's not possible as the RJ11 won't fit into the BT socket so I need to have the filter there" "no sir, it needs to be dir... oh right yeah, sorry, my bad" MEH! I should of known then the guy was going to mess up with the engineer booking .. anywho .. lol ..

[SmellyLlama]

No worries, I'm just very conversant on the whole subject at the moment as I'm having my 5th I think (counts up, 1 engineer, ha ha, 2 engineers, ha ha, 3 engineers, ha ha, 4 engineers ,, ha ha .. 5 engineers .. yes 5 engineers) since reporting an issue on 23rd May with Sky .. so I've been through the whole thing of unplug everything .. it's got to the stage now where I get put straight through to the higher "technical support" (I'll explain the quotes in a mo) to deal with it and skip all of the script monkeys in 1st Line ..

 

Quotes: t'other day I was on the phone to one of the higher technical team .. "Just to double check and make sure my line tests report the most factual results, could you plug your router directly into your test socket. Take your time, there's no rush" so I went through and removed the faceplate, put a filter in (so I could plug the router into the test socket) and went back and reported back. Now, the guy was like "ok, so before I run the test, just to confirm, the router is plugged directly into the test socket with no other devices or filters" so I said "well there is a filter plugged in so I can plug the router in" to which I got the response "No, I said nothing else, the router needs to be direct into the test socket with nothing else there" so I pointed out "that's not possible as the RJ11 won't fit into the BT socket so I need to have the filter there" "no sir, it needs to be dir... oh right yeah, sorry, my bad" MEH! I should of known then the guy was going to mess up with the engineer booking .. anywho .. lol ..

 

/facepalm

 

It's any wonder they get anyone's broadband working!!

[soveryapt]

/facepalm

 

It's any wonder they get anyone's broadband working!!

 

Well, took them 3 months to get me working in the first place and now suddenly, the line that has supported 2mb since October has dropped to 0.2mb instead .. and apparently that's all the line is capable of because of my distance from the exchange .. hmmm .. yeah .. I went all super-geek on them and revealed my identity as a network technician and so understanding the basic principles behind line lengths and stuff and also pointed out that unless they lift the 1mb cap on the line card at the exchange that BT told me was in place by the supplier (ie Sky) I was never going to get anything above 0.5mb, but more likely a 0.3mb connection based on the line length .. of course, they deny that there is an issue and there is no cap in place etc etc .. so we'll see what tomorrow brings .. whoop .. lol ..

[Cools]

this is what you want..

 

 

 

OR

Get this http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=9881

replace Faceplate of master socket and KROHN you extenuation in on the back it will filter the main socket where the ADSL connects to,

then EXT 1 will not need filtering and you can daisy-chin your extensions off of it.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Cools

[Earthling]

I'm having ongoing issues with my home broadband (from TalkTalk).

 

 

Long story short - their end or mine?

 

Presumably, you're in a non-Virginmedia cabled are? If you are in a cabled are.....change......end of story.

 

I've had both, Virgin (when it was NTL) and ADSL supplied by BT, approx 650-750 metres from the exchange. I changed from NTL to BT, cos NTL p****d me off over something. Once the BT signal started dropping out, I was changing micro-filters almost like changing socks, after two years of fiddling about with BT engineers, test-sockets, microfilters, my internal wiring and their external wiring, I went gratefully back to Virginmedia.

 

Plug, play, sorted.

[Sirbendy]

First thing I did when we moved into this house was look at the incoming line...2 sockets on the wall, 1 a mess, one pristine.

 

Opened up the pristine one to find it contained screws, an earth wire, some rawplugs..and nothing else.

 

Bashed up socket was ancient and just hanging in there. This led back to an old "block" style internal/external breakout box. Wires in that were corroding, dull and manky.

 

Rubber gloves on, wire cutters out. 20 minutes later, the shiny new socket is solo, incoming line to breakout box is remade and shiny, outgoing wiring to shiny new socket.

 

Phone line 100% better, Broadband sat at a solid 7mb. BT/Plus reckoned 4-5.

 

Still want to get a new style NTE5 with test socket. Next month maybe.

 

And I know I shouldn't touch the BT incoming wiring, but frankly they won't know..it was a mess, it needed doing. Heh.

[Alexkelly]

You have way to many filters there. Plug in 1 filter to your main socket, pop 1 telephone and your router into that filter. if all this works fine then there is no problem.