ADSL2+

[Sebby]

The IDnet site gives my ADSL2+ availability as  "                 ".

Yup, that's right - nothing!   

Regards - wiltshirejohn

That just means your exchange is never getting it.

[Rik]

 

Or at least, not till they've given me fibre to the cabinet. 

[wiltshirejohn]

Looks like Sebby is right (Oh bu**er!)

I just had an email reply from IDnet:-

Currently, BT are reporting it is not planned to upgrade the exchange to
ADSL2+ at this stage. It is likely this may change over the coming weeks
and months.

Regards - wiltshirejohn  (not holding his breath!)

     just muttering - the only repeatable bits are BT¬!£$$%%^BT&%^"BT

[Sebby]

[Rik]

We agree.

[B52]

Well I regret ever changing to ADSL 2+. 
A month ago I requested the upgrade and was told as I was some distance from the exchange I may not get an increase in speed but speeds wouldnt be worse and I should take advantage of the extra bandwidth.  Its been a real disaster. Pre change the speed was 2.5-3.5Mbs.   Post change, withing a couple of days I was getting upto 4.5 Mbs and since then its been downhill all the way.  Im now, today on 660kbps and on some occasions its as low as 400kbs i.e. below BTs acceptable speed. I let it go for a couple of weeks to settle down before contacting support.

Support havent been much help at all.  Just the usual platitudes.
Move the connection to the faceplate socket.  (dont have one) Old type BT socket. 
All extensions disconnected.
Reboot router.
Router keeps disconnectingfrom the exchange.  Why?  It didnt do it before.
Try updating the firmware. There isnt any.
Router is a Buffalo WBMG54 (Wireless) ADSL2+.  Has worked fine for 2 years and on the upgrade worked ok initially at upto 4.5 so I cant see it being the problem.

Im sure its a BT problem,  what do I do now?.

Ive got Virgin cable upto the front of my house but I dont want to move my BB and phone to them but I may just have to if things dont improve.

Do I waste £50 on trying a netgear router.  BTW Ive another router(Edimax adsl 2+)  that wont even sync with the exchange now.  Again, it was ok before the upgrade.

Anyone any thoughts.

Thanks
Ian

[Rik]

Hi Ian

The first thing to say is that some routers don't work well with some MSANs (Huawei), so there's a possibility that's part of the problem. Netgears are 'known safe' there's been no problems with them yet.

Second thing is that BT hopelessly miscalculated the amount of bandwidth they needed, and have been scrambling to catch up ever since, there's major engineering works taking place over the next two weeks which should help. 

The router disconnections will be because of an incompatible MSAN or because the higher frequencies used for ADSL2+ are producing instability.

My story is rather the opposite, having started high, dropped while BT's bandwidth issues were at their worst, but having gone back to a steady 4M, 1.5M more than I got on Max, so it does work, but it's still being tweaked.

[B52]

Sorry.  Router is Buffalo  WBMR-G54

[Glenn]

Have another word with support, see if they will let you borrow a router to see if it improves the line.

[Rik]

Don't know it personally. Does it give a code or name for the MSAN it's connected to?

[B52]

Eh!  Whats a MSAN (Huawei).

It might as well be in Chinese for me.

[Rik]

It is. BT, in their wisdom, bought a lot of MSANs from the Chinese company Huawei (pronounced who are we). The MSAN replaces the DSLAM in ADSL2+ and I cannot remember for the life of me the meaning of the acronym.

[B52]

Router showing these. 


Downstream Upstream Unit
SNR Margin 14 18 dB
Line Attenuation 47 28 dB
Data Rate 3069 445 kbps

[Glenn]

It is. BT, in their wisdom, bought a lot of MSANs from the Chinese company Huawei (pronounced who are we). The MSAN replaces the DSLAM in ADSL2+ and I cannot remember for the life of me the meaning of the acronym.

multiservice access node

[B52]

I might have one of those under my arm, or is it in my groin?

[Rik]

Thanks, Glenn. One day I'll remember, honest.

[Glenn]

No need to remember, Wiki is your friend

[Rik]

If only I could remember that.

[Sebby]

[Simon]

multiservice access node

Yes, that's it.  I knew that.   

[B52]

Ive decided to order the Netgear equipment. DGB111G with free USB adapter for £50 from Aria. Should be here tomorrow.

This mornings BT Test at 0905hrs

Configured d/l is 2500kbps
D/L speed for test  1960kbps
Acceptable speed for this connection 600-7500kbps  (If only)
DSL connection rate 3069 d/s.  445 u/s
IP Profile 2500kbps.

On some occasions my upload is quicker than download. That cant be right, surely.

[Rik]

It does happen with congested VPs. Your speed, even now, looks low for the profile. Can you run a tracert to www.idnet.net?

[B52]

Now it might as well be Chinese.

How do I do that?


Ta.

[Rik]

Assuming Windows, Start > Run > CMD and hit Enter. In the DOS-like window which opens, type tracert www.idnet.net, then right click the title bar, select Edit > Select all > Copy. Paste the results in a message.

[B52]

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ian>
C:\Users\Ian>tracert www.idnet.net

Tracing route to www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     3 ms     1 ms     3 ms  mygateway1.ar7 [192.168.11.1]
  2    32 ms    31 ms    32 ms  telehouse-gw4-lo2.idnet.net [212.69.63.99]
  3    32 ms    32 ms    48 ms  telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net [212.69.63.243]

  4    32 ms    33 ms    34 ms  redbus-gw2-g0-1-331.idnet.net [212.69.63.5]
  5    33 ms    35 ms    33 ms  redbus-gw1-fa2-0-300.idnet.net [212.69.63.225]
  6    32 ms    33 ms    32 ms  www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ian>