My FTTC

Rik · Sep 18, 2010, 16:19:05

pctech · Sep 18, 2010, 16:21:08

Hope so, going to remain with themj because of the excellent tech support (just like IDNet) and the capping as I know when I get on that my bandwidth use will rocket as intend to use Xbox Live quite a bit.

DorsetBoy · Sep 18, 2010, 16:22:37

Quote from: pctech on Sep 18, 2010, 16:14:53
BT are supposed to be rolling out FTTP near me Dorset but trying to get any solid info about when I can subscribe is like getting blood from a stone.

We were supposed to have ADSL2+ in 2009 ............ yeah right. Now we have 4 separate teams of BT types (some in suits) ladders,tools and clipboards, inspecting poles,boxes, junctions etc. when asked they have all said it's for your upgrade to FTTP . Thing is if you ask BT they deny any knowledge of the supposed upgrade "ask your isp" is all you get.

.Griff. · Sep 18, 2010, 16:26:27

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Sep 18, 2010, 15:19:42
I thought I'd better give it time to bed in before making any judgements. Now I have my opinion of it is that in my case, it's abysmal. My ping was at first a little erratic but seems to have settled to sub 10ms levels, about the same as I was getting on ADSL. Upload speeds are fantastic, rock solid at just under 8 Mbp/s. Download speeds are somewhat erratic. They veer from blindingly fast to almost nothing. If a progress bar is anything to go by, downloads appear to often drop away to nothing and they do so on infrastructure that I have almost full control of e.g. my dedicated servers at a remote location.

Almost exactly the same summary as I posted a few weeks ago. It's slightly comforting to know I'm not the only one experiencing issues.

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=21762.0

Rik · Sep 18, 2010, 16:30:44

When BT rolled out WBC, they didn't have the backhaul to support it and we had months of robbing Peter to pay Paul, people would see their throughput drop for no apparent reason, while others found a sudden improvement. I can't help but feel that BT are doing the same with FTTC.

zappaDPJ · Sep 18, 2010, 17:31:21

I think in my case it could be two separate issues. BT's network capacity is almost impossible to judge because any speed test is going to be reliant on other factors. That said I own a number of servers which sit in a rack in docklands. Although most of them have applications running on them I currently have one that is effectively empty and it makes a great speed test tool. I can see some congestion in BT's network at peak times but it's not anything I'd worry about. At worst I lose just under half of my potential download speed. What I'm more concerned about is when those downloads simple stop and I have enough evidence now to suggest this is occurring because I'm continually disconnecting for the the net.

It fits the pattern of what happened when I tried to connect the same line to WBC. BT's BRAS knocked it down to 256K and I'm sure that was down to continual disconnections. I believe I have a fault between the back of my BT socket and the FTTC cab which is in spitting distance. The problem is that cable has been tested as fine by BT. In fact the engineer was insistent at the time that I needed a lift and shift at the exchange. I'm sure he was wrong, I still have the same issue on different infrastructure, the only common factor being this wretchedly short length of copper.

Unfortunately I have no idea what I can do about it.

Rik · Sep 18, 2010, 17:38:47

Put the facts to IDNet, Zap, and let them argue the case for you. I agree, all the evidence points to that last few yards of copper unless, of course, they've given you a bum modem.

zappaDPJ · Sep 18, 2010, 17:45:19

I will do Rik, I have plenty of evidence, I just need to put it all together somehow. The worry is, if I can't get it sorted, my Broadband will be costing me around £60 a month for the next year and I'll be forced to use an 8 Mbp/s service

Rik · Sep 18, 2010, 17:46:51

Which is downright silly. I take it you didn't opt for enhanced care or the SLA?

zappaDPJ · Sep 18, 2010, 17:50:22

I didn't Rik although I did think about it. My only resolution might be to wait for fibre to the door

Rik · Sep 18, 2010, 17:53:13

Or move to Docklands.

pctech · Sep 18, 2010, 18:03:35

Got a response from Zen via PM on tbb, they are putting me on the FTTP trial leads as I'm currently marked as 'to be enabled' but no RFS date yet but they'll contact me when there is one

Rik · Sep 18, 2010, 18:12:24

pctech · Sep 18, 2010, 18:14:14

I'll just have to run a fibre over to you Rik and down to Zap.

Rik · Sep 18, 2010, 18:14:49

Thanks, you should have plenty of speed to spare.

sof2er · Sep 18, 2010, 19:29:11

Quote from: .Griff. on Sep 18, 2010, 16:26:27
Almost exactly the same summary as I posted a few weeks ago. It's slightly comforting to know I'm not the only one experiencing issues.

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=21762.0

I've seen alot of FTTC users complain about the same thing from different ISP's, I think VDSL2 is more susceptible to congestion than ADSL.

Bill · Sep 18, 2010, 19:37:15

Quote from: Rik on Sep 18, 2010, 17:38:47unless, of course, they've given you a bum modem.

I think it's worth trying to get a replacement modem if you can... I've just checked mine (it's wall-mounted just beside me). The top is barely tepid, the back is mildly warm. If it was coffee you'd stick it in the microwave before you drank it!

Hot is something a modem shouldn't be, imho.

drummer · Sep 19, 2010, 02:24:21

Quote from: Bill on Sep 18, 2010, 19:37:15
I think it's worth trying to get a replacement modem if you can... I've just checked mine (it's wall-mounted just beside me). The top is barely tepid, the back is mildly warm. If it was coffee you'd stick it in the microwave before you drank it!

Hot is something a modem shouldn't be, imho.

I agree - warm is acceptable, hot isn't.

Insisting on a replacement modem is not an unreasonable request.

pctech · Sep 19, 2010, 08:47:54

Best to request a replacement through IDNet as I've not seen any VDSL modems on the consumer market in the UK yet.

So glad it looks like I'll just be able to leapfrog it and get just have an ethernet port.

gyruss · Sep 20, 2010, 11:49:56

Could it be your MTU is set too high ?

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=1904.msg31673#msg31673

zappaDPJ · Sep 20, 2010, 12:02:11

That was something suggest by support and I did drop it marginally. I'd also forgotten about it so I might take another look. Thanks for the reminder

.Griff. · Sep 20, 2010, 12:05:16

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Sep 20, 2010, 12:02:11
That was something suggest by support and I did drop it marginally. I'd also forgotten about it so I might take another look. Thanks for the reminder

Changing the MTU will make no difference to your problem(s).

Support (Simon) asked me to test a range of MTU settings from 1492 (Maximum you can set it at under PPPoE) all the way down to 1350 and it made absolutely no discernible difference to latency or speed.

My bet is firmly on you having a faulty modem and I'd state a large wager on a replacement solving your connection/PL issues. The download speed issue is another matter however.

pctech · Sep 20, 2010, 14:28:36

MTU is the maximum length of a packet before an ACK is required so its unlikely to affect downstream performance.

Lance · Sep 20, 2010, 14:29:48

It can though if a router or server on the route has a MTU setting lower than your own, as the packets get fragmented.

zappaDPJ · Sep 21, 2010, 12:20:14

While in the process of gathering up a lot of information I've had cause to phone support because all I'm getting on FTTC now is a BT wholesale message. Rebooting the router clears it but as I've just discovered it comes straight back again.

Anyway aside from that IDNet are able to see for the first time from their end that I'm continually disconnecting and they are sending me a test router to try.