Observing my recently ordered ADSL Max

Aaron · May 27, 2009, 18:16:36

I got connected to ADSL Max early this morning and have been keeping a close eye on it today at the data rates and the forced sync drops to adjust data rates.

So far my statistics, starting with the 2mbit fixed package speed:

Connection Speed     2272 kbps     288 kbps
Line Attenuation    54.0 db    31.5 db
Noise Margin    17.4 db    25.0 db

ADSL Max:

Connection Speed     3712 kbps     448 kbps
Line Attenuation    54.0 db    31.5 db
Noise Margin    6.1 db    19.0 db

Connection Speed     4448 kbps     448 kbps
Line Attenuation    54.0 db    31.5 db
Noise Margin    6.4 db    18.0 db

Connection Speed     4640 kbps     448 kbps
Line Attenuation    54.0 db    31.5 db
Noise Margin    6.1 db    19.0 db

Connection Speed     4544 kbps     448 kbps
Line Attenuation    54.0 db    31.5 db
Noise Margin    6.2 db    18.0 db

Early speed tests showed it to be running at 2.93Mb/s on speedtest.net, or 370kbytes/sec on a very well seeded torrent and monitoring it in dumeter (straight red line of maxed out speed). As expected, this was the speed to be getting from a data rate of 3712 kbps from the exchange, but since then the data rate has increased to 4544 kbps but speeds remain the same. According to http://www.dslzoneuk.net/adslmax_explained.php at the bottom, having 4544 or above should give me 4mbps (or 500kbytes/sec), but I'm not getting this speed at all, not even 3.5mbps. Is it still early days or is this something to mention to IDNet? I'm still on day 1 of the training period but obsessed with monitoring it none-the-less :p

Rik · May 27, 2009, 18:31:40

Almost certainly it's a case of waiting for your profile to catch up, Aaron, you'd have started out with 2M, and gone to 3M, but you're currently just (and only just) in the 4M range. That will probably take 3-5 days to adjust, and it will depend on you maintaining a minimum of 4544 sync. Don't be tempted to re-sync too often, BT's software can take that as a sign of an unstable line. IDNet will be able to do very little during the 10 day training, once you're off the 2M profile, BT's attitude is that you have to wait the 10 days.

Given how marginal your 4M profile is, you may want to, if you haven't already, remove the ring wire if you have extensions.

I'm training a new line at the moment, and it started off with a 2M profile, quickly lifted to 4.5M and has gradually fallen back to 3.5M as the DLM software has stabilise my line. First, it turned on interleaving and, when that was not enough to reduce the error count, it lifted the target NM to 9db, which reduced the error count from 1,000,000/day to 15,000/day. It seems to have stabilised at that level, not a great speed but still 1M more than my old line, despite having identical attenuation.

Aaron · May 27, 2009, 18:35:20

Ok thanks, I haven't done any forced re-syncs of my own, I'm leaving it well alone. The exchange must have been doing those forced re-syncs today to adjust the data rate. Seems to be holding well at 4544 with 6db despite the rain and winds outside right now (hoping for some sun in the next days and hope that will increase the noise margin a tad?) and hasn't dropped below that afaik, hope it stays and eventually get 4mbps speeds

Rik · May 27, 2009, 18:36:10

Mine certainly had a couple of remotely triggered re-syncs as DLM did its stuff.

Sebby · May 27, 2009, 18:59:19

Quote from: Aaron on May 27, 2009, 18:35:20
Ok thanks, I haven't done any forced re-syncs of my own, I'm leaving it well alone. The exchange must have been doing those forced re-syncs today to adjust the data rate. Seems to be holding well at 4544 with 6db despite the rain and winds outside right now (hoping for some sun in the next days and hope that will increase the noise margin a tad?) and hasn't dropped below that afaik, hope it stays and eventually get 4mbps speeds

I'd say it's more likely that your line suffering from bursts of noise, which is triggering re-syncs, and when the router comes to re-sync it's actually able to negotiate a higher rate of sync as the current level of noise has subsided. I'd definitely remove the ring wires as Rik suggests.

Aaron · May 27, 2009, 19:09:32

I don't have a ring wire in the faceplate when I checked 2 months ago, BT must have removed it when I complained about sync drops last year and turned out it was damp there.

Sebby · May 27, 2009, 19:23:14

Did they remove it from all sockets?

Aaron · May 27, 2009, 19:33:12

I only have 1 faceplate to the house, looks like they removed the test socket inside as there wasn't one when I opened it up

Sebby · May 27, 2009, 19:35:03

Did you ever have a test socket? If so, they've replaced your NTE5 for a standard socket (which seems bizarre to me - something I didn't think they'd do). If you didn't have a/don't know about the test socket, the likelihood is that you just don't have the new-style master socket.

Aaron · May 27, 2009, 20:18:10

Yes I used to have a test socket, but when I asked the engineer to fit an ADSL faceplate while he was repairing the damp wires he didn't know what I meant and fitted a 2 phone socket faceplate instead, have to blame my own stupidity for thinking BT did supply faceplates with an ADSL socket on it :p

Sebby · May 27, 2009, 20:24:13

Ah. Shouldn't make a difference anyway, though, given you don't have any other extensions.

Aaron · Jun 06, 2009, 01:40:08

It's 11 days since I had Max activated, so the 10 day training appears to be over and 3.5Mbit is my final speed, connection at that data rate has held solid for 196 hours so far. Shame I'm only 192kbps away from a 4544kbps data rate as I would have 4Mbit otherwise, did sync at that rate for a day maximum until it decided to drop down to 4352.

Profile did certainly catch up as you mentioned Rik, was nice to see 370kb/sec go to 430kb/sec on day 6 or so

Overall I'm happy with it now, I suspect my 100 disconnects a day experience 2 years ago when I tried Max for the first time was due to having a ring wire in my original BT faceplate after reading http://www.btwholesale.com/pages/downloads/Products/Internet/I-Plate_overview_issue_2.pdf just recently. Good thing it somehow disappeared when the engineer replaced the faceplate to fix the damp last year (if you remember my previous topic).

Interleaving is enabled but the increase from 16ms to 26-30ms pings isn't all that bad really

SNR margin holds at 5-6 during the day, and ~2 at night, have not seen it drop below 1 according to routerstats yet.

Gary · Jun 06, 2009, 07:37:34

Quote from: Aaron on May 27, 2009, 20:18:10
Yes I used to have a test socket, but when I asked the engineer to fit an ADSL faceplate while he was repairing the damp wires he didn't know what I meant and fitted a 2 phone socket faceplate instead, have to blame my own stupidity for thinking BT did supply faceplates with an ADSL socket on it :p

You could complain, BT do a faceplate with an ADSL socket on it, so if you asked for one, you should have got one, its a BT v1 and has phone and ADSL on it.

Rik · Jun 06, 2009, 09:47:40

Good to know it's working for you Aaron.

Aaron · Jun 07, 2009, 17:30:54

The data rate got changed late last night to the 3424 - 3999 3.0 Mbps area, then came back up to 4000 - 4543 3.5 Mbps in the morning, however my speed is stuck on 370kb/sec again. Will I have to wait 5 days for the profile to catch up again to 430kb/sec, and is something I'm going to have to live with as long as I have ADSL Max, as well as the unnecessary disconnections for line retrain?

Rik · Jun 07, 2009, 17:33:58

You'll have to wait, but it shouldn't be too long for a large percentage change.