I am writing this post to help others that may experience the same issues like I have been having for the last couple of years.
I have a TP-LINK router with an 8 Mb ADSL line at my home, +- 2.5km from the exchange. The router would show me the available line speed, and what my current speed (downstream) is, with all the SNR and attenuation data as well.
I would reboot the router in the morning, speed would be fine and by the time I get home after work, the speed would have dropped to below 1mb. Reboot router again. After many frustrating months and years, I finally managed to get Mweb to log a fault on the Telkom network, and after a month a technician was sent out to my house. I explained to him the symtoms and he got to work on his laptop.
To cut a long story short, my landline telephone instrument was causing capacitive imbalances on my line. Electrical interference. He tested it with my phone unplugged, all good. Plug landline phone back in, and the report spews out errors. The landline phone is a Bell unit (bought from a reputable store) and one would not normally suspect this. I also have a samsung multifunction printer/fax which was not causing hassles with the line.
I have kept my landline phone unplugged and it has been 96 hours since my landline has been left unplugged, and my line speed is still synced at 8Mb. I have not had to reboot the router once this weekend (normally I would have to do this first whenever I wanted to get on youtube, netflix etc) and wait for my signal repeaters etc to resync before I could get to binge watching.
So as a tip, if you experience the same constantly degrading line speeds with frequent (once or twice a week) of complete outages, try unplugging all telecom equipment except the router, and see if this sorts out the line speed issue.
Very happy all is (finally) sorted out.
[UPDATE] I have a ADSL filter installed as well. that is splitting to the fax machine and to the router. Those are the only equipment installed on the line at the moment.
[UPDATE] I thought I should add, at the end of the call out, the Telkom technician had me use the mybroadband speed test utility, keep it up guys
I have a TP-LINK router with an 8 Mb ADSL line at my home, +- 2.5km from the exchange. The router would show me the available line speed, and what my current speed (downstream) is, with all the SNR and attenuation data as well.
I would reboot the router in the morning, speed would be fine and by the time I get home after work, the speed would have dropped to below 1mb. Reboot router again. After many frustrating months and years, I finally managed to get Mweb to log a fault on the Telkom network, and after a month a technician was sent out to my house. I explained to him the symtoms and he got to work on his laptop.
To cut a long story short, my landline telephone instrument was causing capacitive imbalances on my line. Electrical interference. He tested it with my phone unplugged, all good. Plug landline phone back in, and the report spews out errors. The landline phone is a Bell unit (bought from a reputable store) and one would not normally suspect this. I also have a samsung multifunction printer/fax which was not causing hassles with the line.
I have kept my landline phone unplugged and it has been 96 hours since my landline has been left unplugged, and my line speed is still synced at 8Mb. I have not had to reboot the router once this weekend (normally I would have to do this first whenever I wanted to get on youtube, netflix etc) and wait for my signal repeaters etc to resync before I could get to binge watching.
So as a tip, if you experience the same constantly degrading line speeds with frequent (once or twice a week) of complete outages, try unplugging all telecom equipment except the router, and see if this sorts out the line speed issue.
Very happy all is (finally) sorted out.
[UPDATE] I have a ADSL filter installed as well. that is splitting to the fax machine and to the router. Those are the only equipment installed on the line at the moment.
[UPDATE] I thought I should add, at the end of the call out, the Telkom technician had me use the mybroadband speed test utility, keep it up guys
Last edited: