Anything specific to ask the Telkom technician

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GrootBaas

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Hi guys

I've had issues with my ADSL over the last 3 weeks (have mentioned some of this in the MWEB uncapped thread).

There are intermittent disconnections the whole time. At first thought it could be a MWEB issue, but MWEB guy did a reset on my account and nothing changed. Then tested with Telkom account and same problem. Telkom did a port reset but didn't help either. When doing a speedtest I get very erratic results, sometimes the test can't even complete.

NOTE: there is noise on my telephone but that has always been there.

So the Telkom technician was at my place on Friday. Turns out I have 3 lines running into my house, of which the one which is most inaccessible is the one actually being used. He changed a few plugs inside but then unfortunately thanks to Eskom load shedding we couldn't test the internet.

But it turns out the same issues still persist and he is coming back this afternoon.

My question to you, is there anything specifically I have to ask him to do or check? I will be there and help him replace as much cables as possible to try and permanently fix my internet. I talked to him about the SNR and attenuation ratios but he didn't seem to know anything about that, says they do a different test to check all the stats...
 
GrootBaas said:
NOTE: there is noise on my telephone but that has always been there.
Click to expand...

Get rid of the noise and the problem will go away.

The noise might have gotton slightly worse pushing you beyond acceptable tolerences hence the disconnects.

Your fault should be logged as a voice line fault specifying 'noise', don't even think of mentioning adsl as this will just send them off on the wrong tangent.

What are your router stats for snr & attenuation?
 
Last edited:
ponder said:
Get rid of the noise and the problem will go away.

The noise might have gotton slightly worse pushing you beyond acceptable tolerences hence the disconnects.

Your fault should be logged as a voice line fault specifying 'noise', don't even think of mentioning adsl as this will just send them off on the wrong tangent.

What are your router stats for snr & attenuation?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I plugged in a new router over the weekend which indicates that the levels are fine (compared it with the guidelines in the sticky - can't recall exactly what it was though).

Yes, I've logged it as a voice fault. The noise on the line does decrease when I unplug my router, but still unacceptable.
 
Interesting observation. I borrowed a different handset which I plugged in. No noise on that handset which tells me my line is fine. I did 3 speedtests just now, first 2 were fine but third one hovered on 1mbps on a 4mpbs line.

Router stats :

Connection Speed 4096 kbps 640 kbps
Line Attenuation 32.0 db 14.0 db
Noise Margin 18.7 db 14.0 db

Above seem to be on par.

Tracert :

tracert www.google.co.uk

Tracing route to www.google.co.uk [216.58.223.35]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.1
2 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 197-87-25-1.cpt.mweb.co.za [197.87.25.1]
3 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms 197-84-96-186.cpt.mweb.co.za [197.84.96.186]
4 13 ms 14 ms 12 ms vl-92-cpt-hscore-2.mweb.co.za [197.84.3.2]
5 35 ms 34 ms 35 ms tengig-0-7-0-2-12-cpt-p-1.mweb.co.za [197.84.5.2
41]
6 39 ms 38 ms 51 ms tengig-0-0-0-0-vic-p-2.mweb.co.za [197.84.4.35]

7 37 ms 35 ms * 197-80-7-37.jhb.mweb.co.za [197.80.7.37]
8 37 ms 36 ms 36 ms 197-80-96-6.jhb.mweb.co.za [197.80.96.6]
9 50 ms 32 ms 33 ms 72.14.239.129
10 70 ms 109 ms 37 ms jnb01s08-in-f3.1e100.net [216.58.223.35]

Trace complete.


Telkom tech yet to arrive, but not sure what to tell him now...internet still up and down it seems.

Question, when I do a speedtest is the speed supposed to be on 4mbps constantly or is it normal to range between 1 - 3.5 on a 4meg line?
 
GrootBaas said:
Interesting observation. I borrowed a different handset which I plugged in. No noise on that handset which tells me my line is fine. I did 3 speedtests just now, first 2 were fine but third one hovered on 1mbps on a 4mpbs line.

Router stats :

Connection Speed 4096 kbps 640 kbps
Line Attenuation 32.0 db 14.0 db
Noise Margin 18.7 db 14.0 db

Above seem to be on par.

Tracert :

tracert www.google.co.uk

Tracing route to www.google.co.uk [216.58.223.35]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.1
2 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 197-87-25-1.cpt.mweb.co.za [197.87.25.1]
3 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms 197-84-96-186.cpt.mweb.co.za [197.84.96.186]
4 13 ms 14 ms 12 ms vl-92-cpt-hscore-2.mweb.co.za [197.84.3.2]
5 35 ms 34 ms 35 ms tengig-0-7-0-2-12-cpt-p-1.mweb.co.za [197.84.5.2
41]
6 39 ms 38 ms 51 ms tengig-0-0-0-0-vic-p-2.mweb.co.za [197.84.4.35]

7 37 ms 35 ms * 197-80-7-37.jhb.mweb.co.za [197.80.7.37]
8 37 ms 36 ms 36 ms 197-80-96-6.jhb.mweb.co.za [197.80.96.6]
9 50 ms 32 ms 33 ms 72.14.239.129
10 70 ms 109 ms 37 ms jnb01s08-in-f3.1e100.net [216.58.223.35]

Trace complete.


Telkom tech yet to arrive, but not sure what to tell him now...internet still up and down it seems.

Question, when I do a speedtest is the speed supposed to be on 4mbps constantly or is it normal to range between 1 - 3.5 on a 4meg line?
Click to expand...

Your line stats seem fine, SNR downstream rate is a little low but shouldn't cause any problems.

The normal speedtest result you should get on a 4Mbps Line is around 3 - 3,5Mbps.

Oh yes, How often does your line disconnect and does it also disconnect when it rains?
 
Lynx_ZA said:
Your line stats seem fine, SNR downstream rate is a little low but shouldn't cause any problems.

The normal speedtest result you should get on a 4Mbps Line is around 3 - 3,5Mbps.

Oh yes, How often does your line disconnect and does it also disconnect when it rains?
Click to expand...

Last week it was terrible. Every 5 minutes it would go down for like 2 minutes (during which facebook android app can't refresh, can't connect to forum with MBB app), pretty much completely dead. Currently a lot better but was watching a youtube video that's not even good quality and had a few stop and buffers.

Edit: Can't say it is weather dependant. Haven't really had much rain lately and didn't notice any difference during that time.
 
GrootBaas said:
Last week it was terrible. Every 5 minutes it would go down for like 2 minutes (during which facebook android app can't refresh, can't connect to forum with MBB app), pretty much completely dead. Currently a lot better but was watching a youtube video that's not even good quality and had a few stop and buffers.

Edit: Can't say it is weather dependant. Haven't really had much rain lately and didn't notice any difference during that time.
Click to expand...

Okay, The other thing that comes to mind then with your description, Your port which your line connects to at the exchange may be faulty.

Ask the technician to move your line to a different port at the exchange and test once he has done that.
 
Lynx_ZA said:
Okay, The other thing that comes to mind then with your description, Your port which your line connects to at the exchange may be faulty.

Ask the technician to move your line to a different port at the exchange and test once he has done that.
Click to expand...

So this is different to a port reset? Thus a completely new port?
 
GrootBaas said:
So this is different to a port reset? Thus a completely new port?
Click to expand...

A port reset basically disconnects the line digitally from the port and resets the port to standard settings.

A port transfer will effectively be physically moving the line to a completely new port.
 
Thanks Lynx, appreciate this.

The guy was here, very decent guy. Did all his tests but he is also confused. Says the line doesn't seem to be the problem, but he can see I am not getting the speed I should be getting.

So he also suggested as a last resort a port transfer as we have exhausted all other options. Will have them do it tomorrow and hopefully that will be the answer to my frustrations.
 
GrootBaas said:
Thanks Lynx, appreciate this.

The guy was here, very decent guy. Did all his tests but he is also confused. Says the line doesn't seem to be the problem, but he can see I am not getting the speed I should be getting.

So he also suggested as a last resort a port transfer as we have exhausted all other options. Will have them do it tomorrow and hopefully that will be the answer to my frustrations.
Click to expand...

No Problem - Hopefully that will be the solution you were looking for.

Let us know if it sorts your problems out :)
 
AirWolf said:
Stupid question: have you tried a new filter?
Click to expand...

Yes, I've tried 3 ;)

Just noticed on my telkom invoice a service interruption credit. I assume they credit me for the period that there is an open fault reported on my line.
 
GrootBaas said:
Yes, I've tried 3 ;)

Just noticed on my telkom invoice a service interruption credit. I assume they credit me for the period that there is an open fault reported on my line.
Click to expand...

Indeed they do.
 
You must remember, 2 wires running some kilometers far and carrying high speeds. it's amazing, it they put in proper data cable, I am amaze of the speed we get .
 
Had a similar problem once - every day at least 4 or 5 times, sometimes every 3 or so minutes. Eventually it got to a Telkom technician who went to the exchange, he said there was evident corrosion or something, and he switched ports or whatever you call it. That was early December, and I haven't had a single disconnection since.
 
Ho3n3r said:
Had a similar problem once - every day at least 4 or 5 times, sometimes every 3 or so minutes. Eventually it got to a Telkom technician who went to the exchange, he said there was evident corrosion or something, and he switched ports or whatever you call it. That was early December, and I haven't had a single disconnection since.
Click to expand...

The magical port transfer does wonders! (Ofcourse you have to have available ports at your exchange however, Which can cause a bit of a problem)
 
Ho3n3r said:
Had a similar problem once - every day at least 4 or 5 times, sometimes every 3 or so minutes. Eventually it got to a Telkom technician who went to the exchange, he said there was evident corrosion or something, and he switched ports or whatever you call it. That was early December, and I haven't had a single disconnection since.
Click to expand...

Sounds promising. Just don't understand as this techie doesn't seem to do the switch himself but is going to pass on the instruction.
 
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