Guaranteed download speed not high enough to stop service dropping out.

[jaketheplumber]

Switched from BT to EE on 05/08, checked that my download speed what at the level guaranteed (44.91Mbps) and all seemed ok for a day or two. Service started dropping out after a few days, went through the test procedure on the EE site and was informed of a fault, engineer was booked to investigate. Started monitoring my download speed and it was only half of the guaranteed speed, sometimes as low as 18.8. Engineer arrived on 13/08 and said the only way the problem could be solved was by asking EE to raise the cap on the download speed. He did this via a phone call after he left and after I reset the hub all was ok again, download speed was back to 50 or more.Within 2 days it all went pear shaped again.I kept a check on how often the service dropped out and it happened at least 4 times a day from 15/09 - 25/09. During this time the speed was generally around what it should be but the service was still dropping, yesterday and today it has dropped out several times and the speed is back down to 27Mbps. Tried phoning yesterday and ended up on hold for what seemed like an eternity while constantly being told by EE how important my call was to them. Really don't know what to do next.

[JimM11]

@jaketheplumber As said before, EE Should be monitoring the system from there end direct to your router, and should be able to see all that is going on, Do the help to 66033, when they call you back, ask are you seeing it from your monitoring side, ask for another router to be sent, elimination of the fault has to start with something.

Edit: And as this post is so long just now but will go to re-read, opened up my router box from EE, there is a ADSL filter in the box, remember something on you post about it but i am going to read again....

OK, found the page were you said that you sent everything back to EE in the return envelope, SO as @XRaySpeX has mentioned many times, either, beg borrow a filter to test, or pop out and get one, it is needed to eliminate the Master Socket Front Plate, as you have no internal wiring direct to the socket there is nothing but a pair of wires from the closet as you mentioned previous to that connection point... Can post a picture up if you need, and link shows what is needed if you click on it,

Set up your EE Home Broadband Hub | Broadband help | EE

[jaketheplumber]

I'm not avoiding anything, my home wiring has been tested right back to the plant room by both Openreach engineers, once on 07/10 and again yesterday. I asked the engineer yesterday about the filter and he said they are only needed to counteract any interference between broadband and phone lines. My phone line has been removed so I don't need one.

[JimM11]

@jaketheplumber We did not say you are avoiding anything, The master socket front plate is a special filter that allows connection of the router to the telephone line..... When that front plate is taken off then there is a test socket behind the plate, and if an old ADSL filter is plugged into the test connection, then the cable from the router is plugged into the ADSL filter it eliminates the master socket from the system completely. This is what we are trying to get you to understand.

There is three things in line, 1. the master socket, 2. the cable from the master socket to your router, 3 the router itself...

Any combination can be an issue, the ADSL filter allows to eliminate the master socket, by taking it out of the equation....

[jaketheplumber]

The engineer had the faceplate off and was using the test socket to check the line yesterday. He also said the socket has an integral filter which would only be needed if I decided to get a landline at sometime in the future. The faceplate is new, it was  replaced by the first engineer to visit. He also said that the download speed wouldn't be as high through an ADSL filter which someone else on here previously mentioned.

As you can probably tell I am not exactly technically minded, I can only go by the information I'm given by the engineer when he comes to do the job. Maybe I'm not interpreting correctly what he is telling me. I really don't see why you would think that a qualified engineer is not going to eliminate the master socket as a possible source of the problem when he is conducting so many tests. 

[JimM11]

@jaketheplumber We appear to be going round in circles, the process to eliminate the master socket is the same as your first visit, they change it out to see if it stay's bad or clears the fault, NOT saying that it is Bad/Good, the ADSL filter is slower, not as good as the master socket, but put on to the test connection plugged router into it, if you have NO faults then it proves something. The worst fault is an intermittent condition, if the engineer is not seeing it when he disconnects and plugs in his test connection unit, then he should turn round and say to you, we are fine, the problem is your router, get a new one from EE.

Sometimes faults are caused by the fridge running, the washing machine running, the central heating pump/boiler kicking in, your next door neighbour has a poor appliance, etc etc, personally never had it happen, same as never had a bad master socket, nor have i ever had a bad router, bad cable, have once had a ADSL filter fail but just changed it out, this was pre New style master sockets, 10-15 years ago....

Have seen router power supply, plugged into a cheap extension cord cause issue's, plugging direct into socket fixed.

[XRaySpeX]

All I was wanting to see was the sync speeds from the test socket. That's all I ask!  They could tell me something that the engs might not be looking for.

At DSL speeds dangly filters will not be any slower. Indeed I doubt that there will be any significant diff at FTTP speeds.

[Mustrum]

hEY @jaketheplumber   Sorry to hear you are still having issues.

Have you managed to report todays problems back to EE?

Or have the exec complaints people been in touch, or any one for that matter? Was there a number to call on the email you got?

Alas the engineer telling you the filter is needed if you were to have a landline again is not accurate, all new landlines are delivered via the router as they are digital. The filtered master socket is just to make things look a bit neater, and because it has a DSL socket so you can directly connect a router. Alas they do go faulty, and the latest ones are the least reliable, as the little clips holding them together can easily break. If you had a danly filter it could be used to see if there is a difference, but if you don;y have one - you don't have one.

Given the time the issue has gone on, it would be worth EE what they are doing next, and if you could be sent a different router.

Let us know if you have any updates.

[jaketheplumber]

Had no contact from EE. I'll be calling them tomorrow and asking for them to bring me a new hub as it's the only thing that hasn't been tested as far as I can tell.  To my mind the hub is the main suspect now because as I said before I had 7 years problem free on the same line using a BT hub before this.

I removed my subwoofer as the engineer suggested but as I suspected it's made no difference.  D/L is now 33, U/L 7.52 which if anything is slightly lower than this morning but the connection has been stable for 6 hours or more.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @jaketheplumber 

I've sent you a private message to try and get you some further help with this. Could you take a look and get back to me please?

Thanks

Chris

[jaketheplumber]

Finally had some contact from EE. Had a text this morning saying they had completed some extra checks and found that I am still below my minimum download speed and they want to send another engineer. When I tried to book my preferred slot they couldn't process my request and asked me to reply GUIDE for a call back.

First I was told that Openreach had closed the fault and said it was solved, then that my case had been mixed up with somebody else's and finally that the fault was found to be external and that I had another visit booked for tomorrow or Friday with a promise that I would get a call back on Monday with a progress report. This still sounds very shambolic but at least I didn't have to call them and spend half an hour in a queue and at last I know that they are monitoring the situation. I don't know if filling in the complaint form has led to this but am happy that progress seems to have been made. Will be back in touch as and when.