Modem Link Crashes - Tot Service Dreadful

[goatfarmer]

For the past year, my DSL link fails, repeatedly, every five or ten minutes, during wet weather. I susbcribe to TOT gold cyber in Pattaya.

About a year ago, the local technician told me that the problem was the wires inside my house. I therefore changed all the wires and had them put in pvc tubing. I had the connection at the front of the house put in a plastic box.

No fix. Every time it rains, the link fails and reconnects.

I have called TOT 1100 about a million times. They report the matter to TOT in Pattaya. A technician comes around to my house. He tests the connection and pronounces that there is no problem and wanders off. This just happened this morning. It is about the tenth such visit this year.

I would have thought it's a no brainer. The frequent conjunction between rain and link failure would suggest a causal connection. The lines are the only part of the system exposed to the rain. All those within my house have been replaced and placed in pvc tubing. Therefore, it would seem, the problem must be with the wires outside my house.

The professionals at TOT don't seem to apprehend this obvious deduction. They persist in sending technicians to my house to take readings on some hand-held device. They wander off, often without a word. Nothing happens.

I would be grateful if someone with a bit more technical knowledge than I have would kindly confirm my conclusion about the wires outside. Could it be something else?

[goatfarmer]

surely one of you telecom savvy types must have a suggestion

[monty]

It might indeed be a bad connection somewhere on TOT's line, but it can also be a faulty device somewhere close to the line.

High tension transformers, street lighting etc are notorious for creating huge amounts of electrical noise on phone lines nearby.

[LivinLOS]

I had 18 months of the same.. Replaced house lines.. Replaced underground lines to the TOT junction point (TOT dont deliver to my house and the nearest pole is a distance).. All through it I knew it to be thier bad lines..

In the end one engineer told me unofficially that it would never be fixed its the sad state of old badly wired up lines, he said a new junction box was being put in close to me and I could make a request for a new line in that new box, clean connections back to HQ.. Ever since its been OK (not perfect but only down when TOT are down)..

The thing is for the engineer who comes round, they cannot rewire the entire telephone system so in Thai fashion of saving face they can only say its fine and leave. Your options are not good.. Try for a new line, ask if theres any new exchanges / junction boxes.. Examine your modem signal strength to back up your argument (record its reports during the wet).. Or change to a different provider.

[goatfarmer]

Thanks,

Would that there were a different provider. "hopeless" is too kind for TOT.

[goatfarmer]

It might indeed be a bad connection somewhere on TOT's line, but it can also be a faulty device somewhere close to the line.

High tension transformers, street lighting etc are notorious for creating huge amounts of electrical noise on phone lines nearby.

High tensions wires pass by 300 meters from my house. But would they cause interference only during rain storms?

[Prasert]

Read this:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=144353

and check if your modem/router can display the upstream and downstream signal strength.

If they differ a lot during rain, it's the phone line outside for sure.

[goatfarmer]

Read this:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=144353

and check if your modem/router can display the upstream and downstream signal strength.

If they differ a lot during rain, it's the phone line outside for sure.

I read the article. I presume you are referring to signal strength in db, as stated in your article:

"The quality of this signal is measured in decibel (dB) and several routers can display the signal strength - look for Noise margin or SNR / Signal to Noise Ratio.

If the value displayed is more than 10dB, the quality is fine.

If the value displayed is less than 4dB, you'll experience a lot of outages."

I cannot find anything on my modem admin page (http://192.168.1.1/hag/pages/home.htm) that displays signal strenght. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

Here is a copy of my modem home page:

If there's an option to find signal strength, I'd be grateful to know.

[jmac]

On that router go to the WAN tab, then DSL tab, then DSL params. I believe that is closest you will find with that model.

[Prasert]

Click on the WAN tab and see if you can find more information on that page.

In the thread I mentioned earlier, you'll find two images showing a good line and a bad line.

If it's not displayed on tour router, then you won't be able to pinpoint the cause. However, the twisted copper connections insulated with pvc tape are 9 out of 10 times the cause of frequent disconnects.

And even if you can proof this to an engineer, he will never accept that you tell him what the problem is. He has been twisting copper connections all his life and Thai customers never complained......

The only option - keep calling them and be calm but persistent.

I called TOT 5 times today (sunday!) for a non-working satellite link. First you get all the excuses, then they promise to call you back. Ask 'm when they call back (in the next 30 minutes?) and call again when they don't call you. Write down the name of the one you have on the phone, it will make things personal and you can refer to earlier employees when you call again.

Also keep asking in between why they make so many problems - otherwise they will think you are the one making problems by complaining!

When they sound totally desperate and persist they cannot fix the problem, ask 'm to take the non-working days off your bill and fax you a confirmation of this (don't worry if you don't have a fax). Because now it finally comes down to money and that seems to make a difference - a supervisor called me back 20 minutes after my final phonecall, telling me the problem was solved.

And it was!

It might be a strange way to get support, but since Thai will never play the game your way, you have to play it their way if you want to achieve anything.

[goatfarmer]

On that router go to the WAN tab, then DSL tab, then DSL params. I believe that is closest you will find with that model.

Thanks. I found six values in db (decibels). Which ones will tell me whether the line is the problem?

[goatfarmer]

The only option - keep calling them and be calm but persistent.

I called TOT 5 times today (sunday!) for a non-working satellite link. First you get all the excuses, then they promise to call you back. Ask 'm when they call back (in the next 30 minutes?) and call again when they don't call you. Write down the name of the one you have on the phone, it will make things personal and you can refer to earlier employees when you call again.

Also keep asking in between why they make so many problems - otherwise they will think you are the one making problems by complaining!

When they sound totally desperate and persist they cannot fix the problem, ask 'm to take the non-working days off your bill and fax you a confirmation of this (don't worry if you don't have a fax). Because now it finally comes down to money and that seems to make a difference - a supervisor called me back 20 minutes after my final phonecall, telling me the problem was solved.

And it was!

It might be a strange way to get support, but since Thai will never play the game your way, you have to play it their way if you want to achieve anything.

I have called TOT at 1100 hundreds of times over the last year. Every now and then I get a Pattaya TOT technician visiting me with the same hopeless, feckless, routine of testing the line when there is no rain and the line works perfectly. I told the last such visitor that the problem only occurs when it rains. He shrugged, said the problem was too difficult, and went away. I've had enough calling 1100. They don't have a clue.

[Prasert]

On that router go to the WAN tab, then DSL tab, then DSL params. I believe that is closest you will find with that model.

Thanks. I found six values in db (decibels). Which ones will tell me whether the line is the problem?

The Local SNR margin is now 11.5dB which is enough to establish a connection. SNR = Signal to Noise Ratio and it's the total signal strength minus the interference (which always exists). Now keep an eye on that value and check it whenever your line is dropping again. If that value drops below 5dB during rain and in the 30 minutes after the rain, then you can be 99% sure that the problem is in the cable between the DSLAM and your house.