Very slow broadband and connection keeps dropping

Question

Hello, we have been BT customers since August 2013, after previously being Freeola customers for many years.  We live in a very rural area, at the end of the exchange so we are never going to get amazingly fast broadband, we are estimated 1MB. 
Previously using Speedtest.net at the beginning of the year we were getting 0.9Mbps, then in May our internet dropped and we couldn't get a proper connection or speed.  We contacted Freeola who after doing some tests, said that we had a copper line failure and to contact BT.  We did this and the copper line failure issue was fixed, an openreach engineer tested the line and we assumed all was fine.  But we were still getting very slow speeds and the connection kept dropping.  So we decided to switch to BT in August, we have put up with the slow speeds and dropping connection for 3 months hoping in vain that once we got a stable line the speed would increase and we would be back to were we expected to be.
When we are using the internet, we very often get "Your connection has been reset" errors within our browsers.
This has not happened, so I have decided to come on to this forum in the hope that we can solve this issue before my hair gets any greyer.  We have a BT Home Hub 4 so we have not got all the stats that previous HH had available. 
Also as we are in a rural area our telephone connection is through overhead cables and as said previously we are at the end of the exchange.
Please see below for the information that I have been able to get:
Home hub stats:
17:28:52, 28 Oct. ( 68.040000) DSL noise margin: 12.00 dB upstream, 9.50 dB downstream
17:28:51, 28 Oct. ( 67.970000) DSL line rate: 448 Kbps upstream, 192 Kbps downstream
Internet Connection Configuration
Connection Information
Connection time:
4 days, 22:01:39
Data Transmitted/Received:
221.4 MB / 2.3 GB
Bt Wholesale Broadband test:
Download Speed: 0.02
Upload speed: 0.34
Ping latency: 0.00
Further diagnostics:
Master socket is
I performed the quiet line test which wasn't too bad there was a very slight crackle, but it was with a wireless phone.
Speedtest.net results:
Ping: 463ms
Download:0.13mbps
Upload: 0.28mbps
As said previously before the copper line failure we were regularly getting download speeds of 0.9mbps.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Answer 1

Hi jacoma,
Sorry to hear that your  having issues with your BT Retail services.
You will either be on the ADSLMax (upto 8mbps) service or if your exchange has been BTw 21cn upgraded you maybe on the ADSL2/2+ (upto 12/20mbps) service depending on your line quality and length.
However these upto speeds may not be the speeds you will get as ADSL broadband connections are very dependent on the distance from your property to the exchange and the quality of your line. The further away you are from your local exchange the slower your broadband speed will be.
To enable the community to help you please see the advice below:
Please see Keith's help guide here: Helping forum members to help you, it will go through some checks that are needed for us to help you.
1) Are you in the TEST socket? if not can you please connect to the test socket and repeat steps 2, 3 and 4.
All the below performed in TEST Socket:
2) is there any noise on your line. dial 17070 option2 ,called quite line test, from landline phone. should be silent but slight hum normal on cordless phone.
If there is any noise on your line such as crackling, distictive noise when the phone is connected to the TEST socket and doing the quiet line test then you need to report a line fault to BT Retail by dailling 151. Once the crackling or disticive noise has gone then your broadband should slowly recover.
3) please post adsl line statistics 
4) Can you please run a BT speed test (including IP Profile) http://speedtest.btwholesale.com (not beta version)[Best done with a wired, Ethernet, connection] After Quick Test is done you need to click "Further Diagnostics" to get IP Profile.
ADSL Line Statistic Help:
 If you have a BT Home Hub like the one below...
 Then:
 1) Go to http://192.168.1.254 or http://bthomehub.home
 2) click Settings
 3) Click Advanced Settings
 4) Click Broadband
 5) Click Connection or sometimes called ADSL (see picture Below)
The direct Address is http://bthomehub.home/index.cgi?active_page=9116 (for bthomehub3.A firmware ending in 1.3)
or http://bthomehub.home/index.cgi?active_page=9118 (for bthomehub3.A firmware ending in 94.1.11)
You will need to copy and past all the adsl line statistics ( Including HEC, CRC and FEC errors). You may need to click " More Details"
 If you have a HomeHub 4 then the majority of the ADSL Stats shown in the previous Hubs will not be there.
for HH4 users you can go to hub manager then select troubleshooting then logs and are look for 2 entries together which will show theconnection speed and noise margin for when your HH4 last sycned with the exchange.
There are more useful links on Keith's website here: If you have an ADSL connection, please select this link
 cheers
I'm no expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong