Obtaining a reliable connection at a rural second home

[danieldodsonuk]

About 1 year ago I switched to Vodafone and at the same time upgraded from ADSL to FTTC. The property is in a rural location and line length can be significant in this sort of situation so I believed that by shortening the copper line it would improve reliability. The additional speed, whilst a nice to have, was not the main driver of this decision. However it has definitely caused the reliability to decrease. I've experienced at least 6 different connection issues. The last 2 being quite recent.  Each time the problem seems to occur 2 or 3 days before I leave the property. Like a trick, Vodafone technical support then contact me and ask me to plug the router into the test socket after I've left. Property is a 5 hour drive away. What can I do in this situation? I seems really unfair that I'm paying for the service and not getting it. There are a couple of devices left in the property to monitor the environment and control the heating, they only need a minimal connection and it largely works for them but the fact that when I am there I'm not able to work and have to go to the local library (mobile signal in that area is sketchy) is a problem. The most recent times being 20th-23rd Oct (no Internet connection at all) and then 10th-15th Nov (frequent dropouts and average mean speed around 3Mbps). Vodafone have offered £40 which I haven't accepted because what I really want is what I paid for. Is it reasonable to have this type of connection in a second home? Any other suggestions? I have a Raspberry Pi at the property which allows me to monitor the routers webpage and also do an automatic speed test everyday so I know when it goes wrong. I just want it to be more reliable.

[Jayach]

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@danieldodsonuk wrote:

Each time the problem seems to occur 2 or 3 days before I leave the property. Like a trick, Vodafone technical support then contact me and ask me to plug the router into the test socket after I've left. Property is a 5 hour drive away. What can I do in this situation?

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Next time you go there, connect the router to the test socket and leave it there until the fault is resolved. If it doesn't occur whilst in there it suggests the problem is in the properties wiring.

[danieldodsonuk]

The issue is that every time I've paid someone to go in and do this, the fault gets resolved, it then gets plugged into normal socket (50% of the times the master socket is replaced), another fault crops up whilst I'm there, I then leave with internet connection not working and they ask for the router to be plugged into the test socket after I've left. This cycle repeats roughly every 6 weeks. There is no phone at the property, no extension just a master socket with broadband router connected.

[Jayach]

Unfortunately, the support with Vodafone is dire. The first line works from a script and one of the "tick boxes" it to have it in the test socket. (Even though you and I know it will make no difference)

Just leave it there, and they can tick their box. Once all the boxes have been ticked, they will pass you on to second line. (Who as far as I can tell just have a longer script, no real technical ability)

[CrimsonLiar]

I thought about the possibility of running a script on a third-party router that would detect no connection or a poor connection.  But if all it performed was a reboot, you'd have to code in the ability not to go into an endless reboot cycle.

I guess there are smart sockets that use mobile data, but if it's rural that could be a less-than-perfect solution...

At the moment I can't think of a sensibly priced solution!

[danieldodsonuk]

I'm able to detect the poor connection easily enough but unfortunately rebooting the router has never helped. What I really want is to have it not occur in the first place. It seems that support package around  domestic broadband doesn't really work for properties where you go infrequently for short periods of time (< 1 week) since the problem cannot be fixed in that time. Most of the issues are probably down to OpenReach issues but since my contract is with Vodafone it is them who I wish were able to sort this out more expediently.