Advice...

[ippylad]

Hi guys...

Just needing some advice regarding an issue with my line...

A week ago my service kept dropping and my sync went from 7328 to 5114 and as a result my speeds have dropped. The even more worrying thing is now my router keeps dropping....

idnet, arranged for openreach to visit yesterday... and after alot of hmmm and ahhhhh the engineer explained that he was finding no real errors with the line..BUT he was seeing major issues with the speeds.. he got one speed from the exchange (7.5), one from the box on the end of my street( 6.2) and 4.8 at the front door... and he too had issues holding on to his sync... The funny thing was when he went to re do the speed test again at the same points he got different speeds again... and said he hadnt seen anything like it.

In the end they re-mapped my line (what ever that means) and the sync has gone up from the 5114 to around 6118 but has already dropped 3 times today. I find it strange that my sync had been holding at 7238 for 18 days and no issues... then bang both the speeds and holding sync issues start the day that BTO close a road 3 streets away to relay some lines... I did ask the engineer if this had anything to do with it... he said no...

Idnet have rejected the visit back to BTW, but my feer is that they gonna say that 6118 is still syncing so no issues... and I will have to live with it...

Speedtest.net show the following results,

Up  201 (was 707)
Dwn 2348 (was 5908)
Pings 118 (was 46)

My router is showing that noise on the downstream has gone from 8.1 to 15.3

Should I expect the worst??? I am on Home Super Max.. if they cant sort it... should I regrade down to Home max.. to be honest.. I didnt see any priority anyway... my thruput still dropped at peak times anyway..

Thanks in advance for any help,comments and suggestions...

PS.. I have a BTOpenreach filtersocket, double filtered my sky box and tried a different router....

[Rik]

It sounds like your target noise margin has been pushed up to 15db, which would cost you about 1500-2100k of sync speed. The trick is going to be finding the cause of the disconnections, because until they are fixed, your NM target will be stuck at that level. Let IDNet do their best with BT, then make your decision from there. I think for most people, SuperMax doesn't offer huge benefits unless they upload significant amounts.

[Dopamine]

It sounds like your target noise margin has been pushed up to 15db, which would cost you about 1500-2100k of sync speed. The trick is going to be finding the cause of the disconnections, because until they are fixed, your NM target will be stuck at that level. Let IDNet do their best with BT, then make your decision from there. I think for most people, SuperMax doesn't offer huge benefits unless they upload significant amounts.

Do noise margins automatically change after a period to reflect line conditions, in a similar way to IP profiles?

I have a friend who's stuck with a 15db NM following an extended period of line instability several months ago. The line has now been stable for weeks, but the noise margin remains at 15db. Her sync is 2688, so she would gain a useful speed increase if noise margin went back to 6db. Any advice?

[Sebby]

This is a difficult one, especially given that you've had an engineer out who admitted something wasn't right. I assume he tried the test socket, which can't have helped - but it might be worth you trying it to see if it stops the loss of sync at least.

[Lance]

Do noise margins automatically change after a period to reflect line conditions, in a similar way to IP profiles?

I have a friend who's stuck with a 15db NM following an extended period of line instability several months ago. The line has now been stable for weeks, but the noise margin remains at 15db. Her sync is 2688, so she would gain a useful speed increase if noise margin went back to 6db. Any advice?

If there is instability on the line, then the noise margin will increase to try and give more of a buffer and to prevent the line dropping. It will do this in 3db stages up to 15db. In theory, the noise margin will drop after 14 (or 15) full days connected without loss of sync, but sometimes often the BT system doesn't work. If she hasn't had a re-sync in the last couple of weeks it may be worth her asking her ISP to get BT to manually put it back to 6. Word of warning though, it might just increase again if the line isn't stable at a lower noise margin.

[Dopamine]

If there is instability on the line, then the noise margin will increase to try and give more of a buffer and to prevent the line dropping. It will do this in 3db stages up to 15db. In theory, the noise margin will drop after 14 (or 15) full days connected without loss of sync, but sometimes often the BT system doesn't work. If she hasn't had a re-sync in the last couple of weeks it may be worth her asking her ISP to get BT to manually put it back to 6. Word of warning though, it might just increase again if the line isn't stable at a lower noise margin.

Thanks. I discovered RouterStats a couple of weeks ago and have used it to monitor her line, which has shown no discernible noise at all, just a constant 14.9 - 15.4 NM. I'll get her to contact support.