Recent Idnet 24mbps ADSL2+ Upgrade e-mail....

[netn00b]

ok so i got the above titled e-mail a couple days ago from idnet saying...

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Dear ABC

Your local telephone exchange has been upgraded to handle up-to-24Mbps ADSL2+ broadband. Would you like to upgrade?

The new services offer more bandwidth and faster potential connection speeds (dependent upon the quality and length of your telephone line) at the same monthly price as you are currently paying. Upgrades incur a small one-off fee of £12.65 including VAT, however we will waive this fee and give you a month free if you choose to pay annually (this does not lock you into a 12 month contract - if you leave us within the year, any unused months will be refunded). All you require is an ADSL2+ compatible router (the Netgear routers we supply are fully compatible).
------------------

options to upgrade via the portal or to call them.

no my connection is pretty poor, sub 2mb and i feel i get a fair few disconnections and lag etc when gaming. the wife even complains how slow it is doing some of the facebook type java games she does.

so the thought of getting a faster connection is one i would gladly pay more money for tbh !

so my questions are :

1) Am i likely to get a faster connection with adsl2+ ?
2) is adsl2+ likely to mean better stability...less disconnections for example ?


For the same money, albeit with a small upgrade charge it seems worthwhile ? 

3) Are there any downsides to being on adsl2+ as opposed to what i am on now ? ie could i end up with a worse connection ?
4) Can i revert back to normal adsl if i find the 2+ is worse for me ?
5) I use a normal Netgear DG834G V2 - is this 2+ compatible or will i need purchase a new one ?

Thanks in advance !

[Rik]

1) Can you post your router stats?

2) Yes, eventually. There are more stability tweaks with WBC, but you will go through a new training period.

3) You could end up with a worse service, but it's rare. Performance is slightly variable right now due to BT having insufficient capacity. They are working on this.

4) No. Once connected to an MSAN (the DSLAM replacement) it's virtually impossible to go back again. You can have your line profiled to behave like a Max line, but this isn't a complete solution.

5) It should be.

[Baz]

ive been thinking about this too, have had 2 emails from support about this  

have the same questions as Netn00b its the bit about you cant go back to what you had if its wrong that bothers me cos my connection is ok now and stable, always has been really since been with IDNet but the call of that bit faster speed is always tempting.

how long before any troubles are ironed out do you think Rik and any problems there is are they all BT side


meant to ask are there any sites that can give you a rough idea of the speed you 'may' get with ADSL2+

[Rik]

All the problems are on BT's side, Baz, they 'under dimensioned' their network, ie they didn't provide enough capacity for the service they sold. They are going flat out to fix it, and it's much better than it was in the summer. I suspect it may be another 2-3 months before all the niggles are ironed out.

[Baz]

   sounds about right for BT.  may be best to hang on a while then.

do you know of any sites where you can get an idea of predicted speeds on this service Rik

[Rik]

Is the Pope a Catholic?

http://212.23.23.177/ADSL/default.aspx

It's a bit sluggish for me atm.

[Glenn]

http://www2.farina1.com/adsl/

[Rik]

Or that.

[Baz]

Is the Pope a Catholic?

havent heard that used in ages.My kids never understood it when I used to say it now they do but I also used to use 'does a bear go to the toilet in the woods'...........thats the cleaned up version  

[Rik]

 

I avoided that one, Baz.

[Baz]

 

wise

[netn00b]

thanks for replies.

will try to get my router stats and post them.....when i work out how ! 

[Rik]

What's the router?

[netn00b]

hi rik

its the Netgear DG834G V2 i mentioned above when asking if it would be compatible with adsl2+

[Rik]

Sorry, must pay attention.  

From the web interface http://192.168.0.1
> Router Status
> "Show Statistics" Button

Default username = admin, password = password

[netn00b]

hehe np Rik.

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1952 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 51 db 15 db
Noise Margin 2147483642 db 24 db


umm that looks a rather high number in noise margin

[Colin Burns]

that looks really really high

[Lance]

It actually means the true number is negative

[netn00b]

and a negative number means

[Lance]

It usually means that your line is about to resync at any time, as the router will be struggling to pick out the signal from the noise. After the resunc, your noise margin wil be nearer 6 but your sync speed wioll be lower.

That actually looks quite a poor line. I've got an attenuation of 52 and have a sync of 3552. You may well marginally benefit from adsl2+ but equally you may not notice any difference at all.

[netn00b]

hmm ok thanks Lance.

[Rik]

You could double your speed with WBC, but you'd need to check that there were no local wiring issues causing noise first.

[netn00b]

double speed would be awesome.

previous house i was getting about 5mb several yrs ago and since then (it was cable) i understand its been upgraded to over 10 !

so getting more like 3-4 here would be a huge step forward.

how do i check there are no local wiring issues causing noise ?

[Rik]

Do you have a NTE5 test socket, the type where the bottom half of the faceplate detaches?

[Sebby]

The other potential issue is that it's a v2, which means AR7 chipset, which means instability. A Netgear DG834Gv4 would be a good bet.