Download speeds

Lance · Mar 21, 2007, 08:26:45

Hi macshac,

The reason your noise margin has dropped to zero is because there is more noise on the line. It is simply a margin over the allowed noise level for your line. That way, for every 1db noise increases by, your margin decreases by the same amount.

You mustn't let MAX broadband put you off broadband altogether. If you find you can't get on with MAX, simply switch to a fixed speed package (normally free of charge to switch). This should hopefully solve any problems.

Rik · Mar 21, 2007, 09:02:55

Hi Macshac

Don't give up on Max or ADSL, after the initial pain, it really does open up new horizons.

QuoteCan you explain why my noise margin has dropped to Zero is this because I have
no noise on my line?

As Lance says, 0db noise margin is actually bad. The higher the figure the better, but with Max, it will normally loiter around 6db. When the margin falls, it becomes harder for the router/modem to separate out the ADSL signal from the background noise. Eventually, it reaches a point where it can't and the router/modem will re-sync, usually with a lower sync speed.

During the 10 day 'training' period, BT will try and drive your line as hard as it will go, so you will see the line re-sync a number of times to try and obtain the fastest stable speed it can achieve.

Have a read of the sticky here, particularly the first and third sections. You may want to take a look at your wiring, it has a big influence on Max.

As Lance says, if things don't improve, you can always switch to a fixed rate connection. If you post your line stats here, we can tell you what sort of speeds you can expect, details of how to do it are here.

macshac · Mar 21, 2007, 10:43:15

Hi all
I have attached my last two logs from the monitor what do you think?

[attachment deleted by admin]

Rik · Mar 21, 2007, 10:57:30

I get the impression that DLM may have pushed your line speed down to stabilise it, which it seems to be achieving. That should then get you a profile of 2500, throughput of just under 2400bps.

macshac · Mar 21, 2007, 16:49:04

Hi Guys
I have attached my latest Log and what is noticeable is the blips down to the bottom of the noise were when our hands free phone was being used.
It is a BT Diverse 6250.
This is the base station I moved off the master socket to a bedroom why would this affect my line when we have a phone call?

[attachment deleted by admin]

Rik · Mar 21, 2007, 17:03:27

Can you try with another phone? My guess is that either the phone or the filter is faulty. If you swap both, one at a time, you can establish which it is.

macshac · Mar 21, 2007, 17:11:00

What is interesting is this is the free phone which BT supplied with the home hub in Lieu of the Voip phone which they supplied eventually and I left the 6250 on line as my ordinary phone.
I have taken it offline and put back the freelance xd500 that I had origionally.
I will try that out for a while.
Rikbean my question still stands can a phone not in the master socket affect the adsl line?

Rik · Mar 21, 2007, 17:26:11

Anything connected to your line, including all phones, Sky boxes, analogue modems and fax machines, can and do affect your signal, as does the quality of the filters you use (which serve to mitigate the effects of bad equipment). The master socket is a bit of a red herring, the only socket which isolates everything and gives you a clean connection to the exchange pair is the test socket behind the faceplate of an NTE5 master socket. Once the NTE5 faceplate is in place, all sockets are pretty much equal.

macshac · Mar 22, 2007, 20:22:29

Hi Guys I as you know have been monitoring my line and the 10 day period is on Monday but what causes the monitor to drop so badly in some instances, see attached graph.
Is this normal activity or just a bad line?

[attachment deleted by admin]

Rik · Mar 23, 2007, 09:25:58

That noise variation is similar to mine, as are your line stats. Longer, and poorer quality, lines are more susceptible to noise variation. Have your read the sticky and disconnected the ring wire at all sockets? That single action can do a lot to stabilise a line.

macshac · Mar 23, 2007, 10:29:22

Hi Rik
Yes as this is my post from the beginning we are at the end of a long haul.
I still cannot understand why from Jan to feb 21 this year I was getting 2.7 download speeds on this line with ring wire and with the phone i have taken off line.
BT did something on the 21 feb and since then I have had instability.
It is improving with you guys help but when I moved to BT Broadband last july my download speed was 3.7 so I still believe my line can if managed correctly provide faster speeds.
I am only 3Km from the exchange!!!!

Rik · Mar 23, 2007, 10:55:03

Is that straight line distance, Mac? Your attenuation suggests a cable distance of some 5.4km.

Have you talked to support about the difference in speeds since moving over?

macshac · Mar 23, 2007, 11:08:35

Hi Rik
I spoke to Simon but he wants to leave it the full 10 days since moving over from BT Broadband on the 14th.
It is a straight line distance I would imagine but as I said the line has supported faster speed but I think BT did something that made it drop and I could never get them to acknowledge which is why I had enough and left them.
I am hoping when Simon is ready that he will have the line checked out.

Rik · Mar 23, 2007, 11:39:56

Depending upon how you moved, IDNet may have to wait the 10 days before they can do much.

However, I do know, from personal experience, that they get their teeth into BT and don't let go until they've got the best result for their customers that is possible.

I 'gained' about 3db attenuation following work at the exchange, I'm still not sure why or how, but it's reduced to 1db now, which could be just a margin or error in reporting.

macshac · Mar 23, 2007, 13:34:54

Hi Rikbean
It turns out this morning that Simon chased up BT to find out that they had not fully migrated me yet (dont know what that means).
Simon said that when I am fully migrated the system should correct itself!!!!

Rik · Mar 23, 2007, 13:45:24

Sounds like BT is being its usual efficient self.

macshac · Mar 23, 2007, 13:57:25

Hi Rik
My speed has just returned to 2.5 download ,so Simon chaseing them up seems to have done the trick.
I do not think our efforts are wasted, as my monitor so far has shown a constant straight line on the noise margin of six.
Proves that moving to Idnet was the right thing.

Rik · Mar 23, 2007, 14:01:17

Moving to IDNet is always the right thing!

I doubt they would claim credit for the stable noise margin, though, that's strictly down to the physical state of your line, though with IDNet, you can bet that Miriam nagged BT to make sure the connection was done well!

Lance · Mar 23, 2007, 20:50:44

Why, oh why, are BT so useless!

Rik · Mar 24, 2007, 08:38:00

Because they can be?