How do I get a special investigation done on my line ?

Hi.

Five minute version of the problem; have had a 4MB DSL line since May last year. Mid April, the modem starts re-syncing every 10 minutes or so. I report a fault, and after some "investigation", the line stops working completely. Phone continuously for three weeks thereafter, and last week Wednesday the line comes back up.

It now however re-syncs between every 3 to 5 minutes. Every time I phone 0800-375-375, I'm informed that the fault will be escalated, and nothing happens.

I believe you can ask Telkom to perform a special investigation where they do an end-to-end line test, over a period of time. But no amount of complaining or whinging seems to get that done. Anyone have any pointers ?

khetan said:

Every time I phone 0800-375-375, I'm informed that the fault will be escalated, and nothing happens.

Click to expand...

Hahahaha
Welcome....

I really believe that's purely a cosmetic strategy they take to shut-up and happy-up the caller for a few more hours... they've escalated my fault now about 5 times in the last 2 months and still nothing. So yeah, nothing I can help with unfortunately, but I'm in the same boat, so feeling your pain...

Try sync at a slower speed?

w1z4rd said:

Try sync at a slower speed?

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Dude that's Telkom mentality. The guy had a working line for months, and suddenly it's been giving sync problems (was even completely down for a while, if I read his story correctly). That means a loose connection or other similar type of fault. It's a fault, and they must fix it, not work around it with the side-effect of heavily degraded service.

fragtion_ said:

Dude that's Telkom mentality. The guy had a working line for months, and suddenly it's been giving sync problems (was even completely down for a while, if I read his story correctly). That means a loose connection or other similar type of fault. It's a fault, and they must fix it, not work around it with the side-effect of heavily degraded service.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the responses. Have tried multiple other modems (models and brands), splitters, filters, etc. No difference.

Did try changing sync rate to 3MB, 2MB and 1MB. Same symptom(s).

Currently seeing 90 CRC errors, in 18 minutes.

SNR downstream: 19db
Attenuation downstream: 32.5db

fragtion_ said:

Dude that's Telkom mentality. The guy had a working line for months, and suddenly it's been giving sync problems (was even completely down for a while, if I read his story correctly). That means a loose connection or other similar type of fault. It's a fault, and they must fix it, not work around it with the side-effect of heavily degraded service.

Click to expand...

Its a serious consideration to consider. To me it would depend on his distance from the exchange... if its close... call telkom, if its far, consider dropping speeds.

khetan said:

Thanks for the responses. Have tried multiple other modems (models and brands), splitters, filters, etc. No difference.

Did try changing sync rate to 3MB, 2MB and 1MB. Same symptom(s).

Currently seeing 90 CRC errors, in 18 minutes.

SNR downstream: 19db
Attenuation downstream: 32.5db

Click to expand...

have you tried an application like routerstats (take test over 3 hours)?

90 CRC errors in 18mins aint that bad..but a dropping line is!

there must be an improvement when dropping sync to 1024...if not - remove EVERYTHING (faxes/phones/analogue devices) except the adsl.

if you can - do a manual re-wire of the phone box against the wall..

also listen for a noisy line.

khetan said:

Hi.

Five minute version of the problem; have had a 4MB DSL line since May last year. Mid April, the modem starts re-syncing every 10 minutes or so. I report a fault, and after some "investigation", the line stops working completely. Phone continuously for three weeks thereafter, and last week Wednesday the line comes back up.

It now however re-syncs between every 3 to 5 minutes. Every time I phone 0800-375-375, I'm informed that the fault will be escalated, and nothing happens.

I believe you can ask Telkom to perform a special investigation where they do an end-to-end line test, over a period of time. But no amount of complaining or whinging seems to get that done. Anyone have any pointers ?

Click to expand...

phone your ISP, they can log the faults on your behalf.. much quicker process...

if you want i can do a quickly check on your dsl line for you. PM me.!!
sound to me that your line is fault and a telkom will have to dispatch a techie, to u, to have lookie @ you exchange, that whole process takes about 2days.

khetan, you can get the problem "escalated" by calling Telkom Customer Care on 0800 600126. Failing that, you can pursue the matter further by calling the Telkom CEO's office on 0123112473.

Hope this helps!

[OUPA]MrNutz;1745288 said:

90 CRC errors in 18mins aint that bad..but a dropping line is!

there must be an improvement when dropping sync to 1024...if not - remove EVERYTHING (faxes/phones/analogue devices) except the adsl.

if you can - do a manual re-wire of the phone box against the wall..

also listen for a noisy line.

Click to expand...

Haven't run routerstats, but have the event log for the router, which shows the below. Similar pattern when dropping the sync to 3MB and 2MB. Didn't get to 1MB, but might just consider it. Not touching the wiring, because then I'll be accused of messing it up myself - and frankly, why should I ? Not like I'm getting the service for free.

All devices have been removed from path. There is definitely a buzz on the line, which I've included in my reports. Its apparently my instrument - which is a Telkom phone! Several instruments reveal the same buzz.

May 19 10:11:59 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:13:08 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:13:17 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:13:40 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:13:49 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:14:49 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:14:59 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:15:21 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:15:31 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:15:52 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:16:27 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:16:49 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:21:15 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:21:55 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:22:18 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:23:12 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:23:22 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:23:44 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:24:04 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:24:26 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:26:55 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:27:16 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:45:49 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:46:11 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 10:56:58 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 10:57:39 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:01:45 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:02:06 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:02:30 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:02:52 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:10:57 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:11:19 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:12:26 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:12:48 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:13:18 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:13:41 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:28:55 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:29:18 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:39:13 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:39:35 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 11:39:58 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 11:40:21 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!
May 19 12:30:00 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is DOWN!
May 19 12:30:22 billion7404.gateway:turbo_extEvtHandlerProc:none: ADSL line is UP!

Strange thing is its been up since 12:30. Weird.

Alchemist said:

khetan, you can get the problem "escalated" by calling Telkom Customer Care on 0800 600126. Failing that, you can pursue the matter further by calling the Telkom CEO's office on 0123112473.

Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. Have already logged a call with 0800600126. Lets see if Palesa gets back to me, if she does, great, if she doesn't, CEO's office.

Ta

having the exact same problem as khetan... no crc errors though..

khetan check your PM inbox.

InsaniacZA said:

having the exact same problem as khetan... no crc errors though..

Click to expand...

check yor PM

ok then, just got off the line with telkom...

basically i sat there taking all the crap about how it could be my router, or something to do with my line, and all that **** they lay on...

eventually i got him to lower my profile from 4 to 2 meg.. he did this and monitored my line with me on the phone, every 5 minutes it desynced, and he saw it, and eventually he realised that its something at the exchange, it was a 40 minute call, but any call to telkom, where the person helping you says "ok sir it seems to be a problem at the exchange" is a good call to telkom IMO.

i asked him to put me back to a 4 meg profile, and in the fault log, to mention, DONT SEND TECHIE TO HOUSE, SEND TO EXCHANGE...

lets see what happens...

InsaniacZA said:

ok then, just got off the line with telkom...

basically i sat there taking all the crap about how it could be my router, or something to do with my line, and all that **** they lay on...

eventually i got him to lower my profile from 4 to 2 meg.. he did this and monitored my line with me on the phone, every 5 minutes it desynced, and he saw it, and eventually he realised that its something at the exchange, it was a 40 minute call, but any call to telkom, where the person helping you says "ok sir it seems to be a problem at the exchange" is a good call to telkom IMO.

i asked him to put me back to a 4 meg profile, and in the fault log, to mention, DONT SEND TECHIE TO HOUSE, SEND TO EXCHANGE...

lets see what happens...

Click to expand...

You seem to know how to deal with these people in such a way as to get things done. Please, teach me your ways!

fragtion_ said:

You seem to know how to deal with these people in such a way as to get things done. Please, teach me your ways!

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fragtion, thats easy u tell them what to do and they do it.

be firm when saying it, dont give them a choice. or let them try to change subject with doing some other stuipd checks..
if they dont listen repeat the steps.
and u shall have them doing what you want them to do over the phone.

this is true...

fragtion i phoned telkom with the intention of getting something done today, because my last 5 fault logs, came back "resolved", with nothing actually changing..
i think the main thing to do, is get the point across that your 4 meg had been working perfectly up until a certain point, also when they start with the "it could be your router" thing, tell them you've tried other friends routers with the same results (i had though) hehe.. everytime they say it could be something wrong on your side, interupt them, and say no, its not, and give a reason my reasoning was last week sunday my phone line was completely dead, the following monday the phone line was fine, but all of a sudden my internet is screwed after 9 months of perfect stable 4 meg... once uve gotten that across to them, then they might be willing to help... also depends on the person answering the phone.. obviously

he was very "sure" it was my router, or my line, or my this and that at the beginning, until i actually got him to monitor my line for half an hour...

at first he was giving me detailed logs from sunday, and telling me its me who is disconnecting the connection, which is true, because i was constantly checking things with my SNR and Attenuation, but when i got him to monitor the line with me on the phone, it was quite funny.. i was watching the router, and it desyncs, and he says "you just switched your router off", and i was like no i didnt, it desynced, and he didnt understand why.. he then changed my 4 meg to 2 meg, and watched, and it did the same thing.. his conclusion, and these were his own words "there must be something wrong at the exchange"

i asked him nicely to put the 2 meg back 4, and told him to please let the techie know not to come to my house.. and that was that...

obviously no results yet but im willing to give it a few days, or at least until the "automatic ""resolved"" sms comes through" rofl

Sounds like the person you spoke to last seemed to know what they were doing... at least he/she realized the possibility of you switching your modem off as a possible cause for the loss of sync. It seems most of them dont understand how any of this stuff even works, they just learn common scenarios parrot-fashion.

yeah it does seem like that, i mean at one stage i was talking about SNR and Attenuation rates, and he had them completely mixed up on which should be lower and higher, so i changed the subject as quickly as possible.. didnt feel like explaining SNR levels to a person who should already know things like this