Leaving Nildram

[GarryF]

Firstly quite miffed with the forum, spent a fair bit of time writing this post first time round just to have it time out on me and loose the whole lot  (note to self, always copy text in long posts before hitting button)

I requested my MAC yesterday and am 85%(was 90% on first post ) certain I'm going with idnet on the 60GB package (this year I think I'm averaging 10-15gb/month but have been over 30gb in the past), over the last few weeks things have gotten pretty dire which I mostly assoicate with speed test now reporting me as Tiscali

Have been with them for 6 years, and on max for the last two years, initially I had a lot of trouble with Max which turned out to be the Draytek 2800 refusing to play nice no matter what firware etc was tried, plugged in my old 3com officeconnect and things settled down, a year ago I had 6 months or so of stable 800kb/s + downloads from giganews.

the 3com has issues with vista vpn, so I got a netgear DG834n which worked fine, speeds dropped to 600kb/s but I could live with that as it was stable, then after 6 months the router started acting up, I went back to the 3com and things settled down again, this year I reckon I've been getting stable 500kb/s.

then the last few weeks it all goes to pot, lucky if I get 200kb/s in the evening and in general all over the place, speed test from this morning at 8:30am
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/120703485289537513456.html
It's a lot worse in the evenings, I'll check it tonight

I've also attached router stats from this morning, Nildram control panel says my ADSL line speed is 8000Kbps

So is there anything I should look at in the house, the wiring hasn't changed in 6 years, no new handsets etc in the last few years either, can I expect speeds to go back up to what I had a year ago, or at least something respectable?

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[Malc]

Have a 

Speeds here are great, I came from pipex (Tiscali) and have never looked back.

I'm not one of the techies, but someone will be here soon to answer any probs!

[Rik]

Hi Garry, welcome to the forum.

My immediate reaction to your line stats is that your target margin has been increased to 15db. That suggests you've had a lot of instability, and is costing you something like 1500-2000k of sync speed.

Do you have an NTE5 master socket, the type where the bottom part of the faceplate can be removed, revealing a test socket behind? If so, is it possible to connect the router to that and see what happens to your figures? I'd expect there to be an increase in sync speed, and if there is, then your internal wiring is picking up noise.

Do you have many extension sockets? What's connected to them? Have you tried disconnecting the ring wire from terminal 3 on all sockets?

You ask a question, I reply with several - just call me Eliza.

[GarryF]

Thanks for the reply, I'll have a look at the sockets tonight.

Orginally I moved into the house early 2002 and had ISDN installed, then 4 months later ADSL became available and the engineer visted to convert things back.

I can think of 6 sockets in the house off the top of my head,

[Rik]

Six sockets suggests plenty of cable to be picking up noise, Gary. ADSL works in the MW spectrum, and your wiring acts as a giant antenna, particularly after dark. The ring wire is the worst culprit as it's unbalanced. The signal pair, being twisted, have a degree of noise cancellation built into them.

[Inactive]

Hi Garry, and welcome.

[GarryF]

you think I should avoid messing with things until after I move to idnet or dive in

All the wiring hasn't been touched since before I moved in, the previous owners clearly hadn't heard of wireless handsets

at the moment the router is in my office in the attic along with a handset, there is a handset in one of the bedrooms and a wireless hub in another bedroom for a few other handsets in the rest of the house, I'd have no problems disconnecting most of the wiring if I could figure out where it all was, house is 1930s and looks like it had a big refurb mid 1990's

What I wonder about is does the main cable come into the room in the attic or did the bt engineer wire me up to an extension socket in 2002? I'll have a look behind the face plate in the office tonight, I'm pretty sure it's not the type with bottom half removing

[Rik]

By 2002, I would have hoped you'd have got an NTE5, but there's no guarantee, Garry. I'd start trying to improve the wiring now, as with a migration you'll bring your profile with you. Your master socket, of whatever design, will have additional components in it, a large capacitor and a surge protector, so it should be easy to spot.

BTW, I migrated here from Nildram 17 months ago, I've never regretted it.

[Inactive]

By 2002, I would have hoped you'd have got an NTE5, but there's no guarantee,

I have had BT out to reduce my line from 2 lines to one line since 2002 Rik, no NTE5 though, still the standard dual socket with one line disconnected.

[Rik]

It seems to depend on the engineer, In, which is unfortunate.

[Inactive]

Agreed Rik.

[David]

  welcome Gary you have made the right move here.I  too was with tiscali and just finishing treatment but the people here soon remedy bad flashbacks...........I don't know much tech stuff but I do know how to say 

[Simon]

Hi Garry, and 

[Sebby]

I have had BT out to reduce my line from 2 lines to one line since 2002 Rik, no NTE5 though, still the standard dual socket with one line disconnected.

That's because you had 2 lines initially, and the engineer probably didn't see it necessary to fit a NTE5 when the second line was disconnected.

[Sebby]

You'll love being on IDNet. I can't really add to what's already been said; definitely try the router in the test socket and see if your wiring is causing you to sync lower than possible, and we'll take it from there.

[GarryF]

Ok, I didn't have much time tonight, apologies to BT there is a socket with bottom face plate, I unscrewed it and plugged the filter and router into the socket, attached are the new stats, quite an improvement. I could see 3 wires clipped into the back of the front socket so I'll have to try unplugging the bell wire tomorrow night in all the sockets,

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[Sebby]

Wow, that's a huge improvement! I don't think I've ever seen such an increase!

The wiring attached the faceplate is the extension wiring. Try removing the ring wire (connected to terminal 3) from there and on every extension socket, then see what you sync at on an extension. If it doesn't help so much, one option is a filtered faceplate, which filters the ADSL signal at the master socket, and sends filtered telephone signal to the extensions. It would mean the router would have to be sited at the master socket, which may or may not be possible in your setup.

[GarryF]

and here's a speed test 10:40PM
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/120708607569374829360.html

giganews is running about 300kb/s but very spicky, I use newsleecher and it has a nice graph, used to just go up to cap speed and give a straight line

[GarryF]

I'll try that sebby, I'll also unplug everything in the house etc, I do like your idea on the filtered face plate, that's where the router is anyways so would work fine !!

now if only I could get my MAC code....

[GarryF]

a speed test 24 hours on from yesterday using master socket
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/12071191971065711452.html

attached updated stats with house wiring in play but everything unplugged, looks like over half the drop is due to devices being plugged in, will see if I can eliminate the problem later.

speed test with nothing plugged in
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/12071199619329241589.html

So I'm thinking a filtered faceplate would be the best option, with 6 extensions there's always going to be some interference from the house wiring?

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[Rik]

A filtered faceplate should take the extension wiring out of the equation, Garry. Like Sebby, I've never seen such a marked improvement, which suggests some serious noise pickup, either from the wiring itself or a connected device. Do you have any Sky boxes? They are one of the worst culprits in my experience.

[Sebby]

I'll try that sebby, I'll also unplug everything in the house etc, I do like your idea on the filtered face plate, that's where the router is anyways so would work fine !!

now if only I could get my MAC code....

In that case, definitely get yourself a filtered faceplate and don't worry about removing the ring wires. The ADSL Nation XTE-2005 is highly regarded. You should then get the same sync that you saw when connected to the test socket.

Another benefit is that the extension sockets will already be filtered for telephone, so no microfilters will be needed.

Why can't you get your MAC?

[GarryF]

Well based on above, I started with

4768 - connected devices
6048 - No connected devices
7168 - Master socket

for connected devices, I have a 8 year old BT phone with CLI, I have a 8 year old hands free hub for 2 handsets and there was an extension cable still plugged in for sky but it's been unused for 2 years, I didn't have time to check which devices were causing the drop from 6048 to 4768 this morning.

I'll order up that faceplate, seems like the smartest solution

Sebby, I requested my MAC on monday so I guess they've got until Friday to provide it

[Sebby]

You should get the same sync as you achieved in the test socket with a filtered faceplate, regardless of connected devices.

Good luck with getting your MAC. Remember that your current ISP are obliged to provide it within 5 working days. If they don't, it's probably worth reminding them of Ofcom's rules.

[Rik]

Hi Garry

It does seem to be the devices causing the worst of the problem, but as the test socket shows the best result, I'm suspicious that the cordless phone may be radiating noise which is then picked up by the wiring. A filtered faceplate should certainly overcome that.

Nildram have five working days to process the MAC, but your notice period starts from the day you requested it, not when you receive it.