Is ADSL Max Worthwhile?

[Dave]

Well it's nearly a month, since ISP was allowed to place orders for ADSL MAX. So what are the conclusions is an upgrade worthwhile or are users better staying with existing 1Mbps and 2Mbps services?


Before attempting to answer these points, lets look at what ADSL Max is.

ADSL Max services is rate adaptive (i.e. this means that it will operate at the fastest stable speed that your phone line can support) in both the downstream and upstream directions, which should see in theory the vast majority of lines running a lot faster. Potential range of line speeds are 160kbps (kilo bits per second) to 8192kbps downstream upstream ranging from 160kbps to 448kbps on Max, and 832kbps on Max Premium.

IDNet made it clear before our regrade was accepted what we could expect:

"The service is a "best efforts" product. No guarantee is given that data
throughput will be increased in comparison to the 2Mbit/sec fixed-rate
service (our Home 2000 service).

Data throughput at busy (high network usage) times will be similar to that
of the current speed fixed-rate service irrespective of the line rate
achieved.

Data throughput for Home Max enabled lines that operate below the 2Mbit/sec
speed will be similar to the equivalent fixed-rate service. e.g. a Home Max
service that has rate adapted to 576Kbit/sec should provide a service no
worse than the fixed-rate 512Kbit/sec service at busy times.

Outside of busy network usage times the service may take advantage of any
increase in line rate.

The upstream speed is also Rate Adaptive and independently so of the
downstream rate. The Home Max service upstream range is 64Kbit/s -
448Kbit/s.

During the first 10 days of service the BT equipment at the exchange will
monitor your router/modem and if it sees constant drop-outs ("retrains")
then it will step-down your connection speed until an acceptable level of
stability has been reached: the Maximum Stable Rate. The are many factors
that determine the MSR and therefore your speed. The MSR can fluctuate over
time."

Source email received from Miriam.


To answer the questions I first raised, these was a lot of customer expectation certainly with other ISP's that people will get speeds close to their line speed capability. I have found that download speeds have been very variable some worse than my old 2Mbps but upload speeds have been stable. It took time for my speeds to start increasing from 2Mbps; some people who were on a trial have said it takes a month until you know your maximum speed.

I am pleased I upgraded, but it is not the panacea some hopped for, my speeds in general are faster and this is noticeable with file transfers, especially the improved upload speed, but for web browsing no noticeable difference. My current spend now is. I would not pay extra for the ADSL Max as for the benefits are small; there are indications that there are a few issues with the product as discussed of various forums for different ISP's the product is still new and will take time to settle down and become stable.   

[Gilba]

I'm still not to sure about ADSL Max. I regraded on the 4th and have had constant resyncs, especially at night. But that could be due to a lamppost (which is 5 metres from my line) being turned on . Nearly made me downgrade back to a fixed rate line.

I had to ask for interleaving to be turned on Thursday to see if it stablises my connection.

I think I'm lucky as it has only increased my ping my about 10ms without any drop in throughput.

I will have to see if my line holds out or constantly resyncs.

[Bill]

Answered on ADSLGuide forum

[TimJ]

Very pleased.

I migrated in from a 1Mbit line from Eclipse on which I was seeing download speeds of 30KBps(Bytes)

I m now syncing at between 4800 and 6300Kbps and seeing downloads in the range 200-400KBps(Bytes)

I am seeing 6-8 reconnections per day as my line speed varies that is a mild annoyance.

Tim

[mrapoc]

i've only had two disconnections in the last 8 days 

[Najarak]

I have synchronised at 8192 down and 448 up since day one, and have had no disconnections.

Downloads average out at about 3 times that of the IDNet 2Mbps service, so I am happy to get the higher speeds at the same price.

Monitoring the speed of downloads on Activity Monitor ( Mac OSX ) shows constant fluctuation which call into question the value of speed tests.

For me ADSL Max has proved well worthwhile.

[Jeff]

My router has been up for 316 hours now so I reckon I`m stable Incidentally, I was never synced for anywhere near that on 512 1024 or 2048 so at least one thing MaxDSL has improved for me personaly is up time

So what are the conclusions is an upgrade worthwhile

Absolutely! I can`t think of one single reason why someone would stay on a potentially inferior line. In the beginning, gamers were worried about the interleaving scenario should it need to be switched on in order to enable a higher sync (thus a potentially better throughput), but in practice, gamers don`t notice anything different but are delighted at the better throughput generally, so gamers are happy. Downloaders are happy ... if they were getting 240KB/sec on 2 Meg then they should see at least the same on Max and off peak (or maybe during peak depending on exchange contention) near perfect according to what they are synced at (minus overheads of course).

A hit I reckon, many will concur methinks

[Scott]

A hit I reckon, many will concur methinks

Yup....what he said 

Pings have dropped for me from 25ms avg to 21ms (approx 16% improvement) - BF2 is now a really joy to play - no getting mugged by some sod on a faster line than me !?

Downloads (as has already been well covered in AG & in here) vary from 4Mbps to 6.5Mbps through the day. And at faster times browsing really does feel quicker.
All round a big thumbsup from me

[mrapoc]

i now join cs servers before anyone else so i get time to run around shooting barrels and walls looking really skillful but then when somebody joins - they dont seem to be as easy to shoot as the walls

[Dave]

I'm still not to sure about ADSL Max. I regraded on the 4th and have had constant resyncs, especially at night. But that could be due to a lamppost (which is 5 metres from my line) being turned on . Nearly made me downgrade back to a fixed rate line.

I had to ask for interleaving to be turned on Thursday to see if it stablises my connection.

I think I'm lucky as it has only increased my ping my about 10ms without any drop in throughput.

I will have to see if my line holds out or constantly resyncs.

I am seeing 6-8 reconnections per day as my line speed varies that is a mild annoyance.

I am pleased to say that I have had no reconnections or resyncs at all since I upgraded, but that could be because my stats are good data rates down & up are 8128kbps & 448kbps with SNR Margin of 7.3 & 26 Line Attenuation 17.9 & 10, loss of signal and frames are zero, but I do have CRC errors 3286 & 15 (is that a problem should I have no errors this is over a 13 day period?)
Am under a mile from the exchange.

I guess you have your router in the BT master socket, as it can improve line stability.

[Gilba]

I am pleased to say that I have had no reconnections or resyncs at all since I upgraded, but that could be because my stats are good data rates down & up are 8128kbps & 448kbps with SNR Margin of 7.3 & 26 Line Attenuation 17.9 & 10, loss of signal and frames are zero, but I do have CRC errors 3286 & 15 (is that a problem should I have no errors this is over a 13 day period?)
Am under a mile from the exchange.

I guess you have your router in the BT master socket, as it can improve line stability.

I had my first 24hrs of no resyncs till this morning when it synced to a higher rate  . I think it is ok to still get CRC errors, as I still get about 1/2 every minute. Maybe someone with more knowledge will elaborate on this subject more. Don't think this sync will last soon, getting negative noise margin and it is starting to get dark .

[Jeff]

I get loads of CRC errors, this apparently is normal as SNR is running a hell of a lot lower than it had to on 512, 1024 and 2048 connections.

Gilba, as it gets dark, lights come on etc, it`s called crosstalk and unfortunately it has the effect of making our lines noisier!

From my perspective, fitting an ADSL faceplate instead of using a filter and using Cat 5 modem cable increased my SNR slightly (went up about 8 iirc when I was on 2 meg).

[Gilba]

Gilba, as it gets dark, lights come on etc, it`s called crosstalk and unfortunately it has the effect of making our lines noisier!

From my perspective, fitting an ADSL faceplate instead of using a filter and using Cat 5 modem cable increased my SNR slightly (went up about 8 iirc when I was on 2 meg).

I have one of those old BT master sockets and really don't want to mess around with it that much. I have taken out the ringwire, which I think has helped along with interleaving. Have a SNR of 8/10 during the day and 6/8 during the night. Haven't had a resync for days and rock solid connection to suit.

[Jeff]

6/8 peak time is v.good