Slow Speeds since I got the 8meg Max service

[Rik]

Actually, Rik, David wrote on 22 September:

They fixed my troubles as well, so.............

I'm obviously confused.  

[Rik]

I am fairly in favour in Armchair jockeying these days but still find the call of the wild draws me out quite often. A great way to recharge your soul while wearing out your soles.

I have problems with anything more than a gentle incline these days, unfortunately.

Could I get a job at BT I do hundreds of cables crimps a day some days at work??   

It has to be a start...

[hairyman]

Hi Rik
We get plenty of uphill walking right here from home as the are numerous 600 to 800 foot hills within a few yards.
Our older neighbours seem to get round this by cheating and using electric buggies to get to the shops.

I got an email from Brian at Idnet to say BT had been asked to look at my voice line. Lets hope they dont say no fault found , I am not expecting any more though.

My  ADSL is working OK most of the time now as I turn off the router when the PC goes off , this reduces its "exposure" to the CR*p copper we have.

Hairyman

[Rik]

Probably a good idea, Hairy, particularly overnight.

[hairyman]

Hi All
Left a message at Idnet house on Friday about the crackling being so loud I had had to drop a call and use the mobile.

At 12.15hrs on Sunday ( 4 Oct ) I got a call from BT/Openreach asking if an engineer could start tests and come around ASAP. I said we would be OK for about 1400 for a visit.

Glad to see life at BT , the very helpful and friendly engineer called and applied his Hawk to my outside box. He had found a very green ( verdi gris) joint in a  road box and and a set of non approved blue crimps at the green box. Plus snails and bare copper in my local box outside. All was made good. The Hawk had showed no HR joints though. He said the whole area main cables were in ally/ally copper cable as it went in in the early 80s . ( Aluminium cannot carry lower RF frequencies due to the currents travelling on the surface in the oxidized layer) . We had a chat about collapsing pensions and layoffs etc in his and my industry and his retirement was now five years later than when he had started with BT/PO  . He hoped things would be better now on the line and went back to check on the cards at the exchange before clocking off. He called from the exchange to say all was well there. ( He said he could only get 1meg at his home on the next exchange south of here ) .

Thanks to ID and a taste of the good old GPO service.

I will see how the voice and net go from here, the SNRs and line attenuation's seem normal , the downstream SNR varies from 12dB to 17dB and Attn stable at 37dB . As the fault was quite irregular but persistant so it may take a while to show if the green copper oxide joints were the problem.

PS I had a few PPP authentication problem tonight where I got a sync with the exchange but no net, The router showed no PPP until I power cycled the router a few times.

Hairyman

[Lance]

Let's hope they were, Hairy, and that will be the end of the problem. Certainly let us know how you get on!

[hairyman]

Hi Lance

Thanks for being there, I will stay in touch.

Question if the line stays quiet voice wise and the ADSL doesn't disconnect to often, will my 15db SNR work its way down again. I believe BT/IDnet had locked it at 15dB to try to stop the profile dropping as even during recent "good spells" with no drop outs the downstream SNR stays at 15Db or higher.

Or does someone have to reset some software somewhere ??

Hairy

[Lance]

It normally takes 14 days of solid connectin for the DLM to reduce the noise margin, but if yours has been locked there than that is unlikely to happen.

It may be worth asking support to have a word with BT asking them to reduce the noise margin back down now that 'the' fault has been cleared. If the higher noise margin is required, then the DLM will quick in again and raise it as it sees fit.

[Rik]

The blue crimps used to be in use in the early 80s, Hairy, but have been found to allow/cause corrosion, so were replaced. I know because I recently had a crackly line and that was the cause. It took IDNet two hours to get an engineer to me.

[bobleslie]

Special dispensation, then. 

[Rik]

Almost papal, Bob.

[bobleslie]

Purple fetish with a smooth outcome. 

[Sebby]

I hope this puts an end to your problem, Hairy!

[Simon]

Hear hear! 

[hairyman]

Hi All

Thanks for your best wishes, the patient remains in the recovery suite with prospects looking good. The voice line noise seems hasn't shown up again.

The SNR still waggles about a bit but so far I haven't had a disconnect since the visit. Had a few PPP problems yesterday showing no connection but I forced a PPP connect via the router interface probably a BT reboot?

I will leave the connection as it is for a while but if some nice guy at IDnet can press some software button I wouldn't want to stop them!!

Rik --- the blue crimps should have been replaced in the 90s said the engineer but I guess a lot of work was contracted out then so little was done. I remember seventeen years ago that it took over a week  even to get a BT man out to fix a dead line and that was fast!! Futher up the road some fully green corroded crimps were found as well, actually loads were seen but mine were sorted the others reported.

The connection seems better with so far no voice line noise and no interaction between voice and ADSL.

Speeds between 1800 and 2200 hrs tonight were lowish at around 1500kbps but before and after it went up to 5000kbps which is quite nice.

BT speedtest shows the profile at 5000kbps at 6500 sync. Tput was lowish at 1600k odd mid evening. Very high pings were noticed at Idnet and at lonap in London .



I will see if the situation remains the same, Brian at Idnet called early evening to see how things were  I thanked him and said he asked if I report in if any further problems, I said I would email after a few days / a week and report   or   .

Thanks to all and Idnet and here and to very helpfull BT man who live near my Mum for finding these faults. Shame that the BT engineer said he only got 1meg sync on his line at home. He lives in a very nice spot but if shows that the ancient infrastructure we have in the UK is groaning.

Lets see how the internet survives the streaming video this Saturday the 10th as England play some strange game that we last did well at in 1966 , I remember it well , it was good to beat them Germans three times in less than fifty years .

Thanks

Hairyman

[Rik]

 

I remember watching the team coach go past on the way back from Wembley.

[hairyman]

Yes I lived in only a few miles from Wembley in 1966 and remember the excitement that weekend.

Also I recall my Father  who spent all his childhood in Wembley saying he passed his driving test in Wembley on FA Cup Final day, 1938  I think. Shortly after he signed up for the RAF  that way as a volunteer he got the service and trade of his choice.

Shame we haven't hosted the World Cup since them as other countries have had more than their fair share since.

My ADSL remains OK and voice line is nice and quiet , great!!

My only doubt is that we have had a load of rain in the last 72hours after five dry weeks and rain always seemed to quieten the line.

Hairy

[Rik]

Give it time.

[hairyman]

Hi Rik
Yes the voice line is now very quiet, and no ADSL disconnects for 8days, plotting the downstream SNR with Router Stats shows It sitting mostly at 15.5dB with occasional drops to 12.0dB.

Do other Id-netters get a regular 3db minute by minute variation of Downstream SNR ??  I was wondering what was "normal".

The engineer said there was Aluminium cabling as the estate was mostly built in the late 70 early 80s when "that was all they used". So much for BT denying its use.

I know copper was in short supply and expensive then , was it due to the Rhodesian N and S problems back then (now Zambia/Zimbabwe) ??

Before the Openreach man did his stuff here I got a regular 4 to 5db variation down from 15dB max but with the occasional full 15dB drop when sync was lost.

Its nice to pick up the phone or get a incoming call and not get (a) noise and (b) it mess up the ADSL .

I will see what happens after 14days and see if the SNR is reduced it looks like 9dB should be possible.


Either way it seems more stable with just the usual drop in throughputs now due to congestion rather than a low Ipprofile.

I would give a Karma to all it that was possible.

Hairyman

[Simon]

Glad things are improving, Hairy. 

[Lance]

Hi hairy.

A three db variation within minutes isn't completely normal but it's not going to have an adverse effect either.

I would give the noise margin a good 15 clear days to drop but alternatively ask support to speak to BT. Sometimes BT are more willing to drop the noise margin if they can see a fault has been cleared on the line.

[hairyman]

FAQ


Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.

Download  Speed
4678 Kbps
   
0 Kbps 7150 Kbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 4678 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :6400 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 5500 Kbps


BT speedtest above done at 2320hrs tonight.

Not bad and the voice line noise is zero.

Yes Lance the SNR still waggles about 3dB probably normalish for around here?

I will give it until next week to see if the SNR alters from 15-16db where it is now. Monday will be 15days from the engineer turning out.

Thanks for the help Simon, this might be an end to a three year plus saga!

I will call support next week if the SNR stays locked at 16dB at 6400K sync. But I am pretty happy at current tputs , during the evening I see down to 1.5/2meg but after 2200hrs it improves to up to 5meg.

Hairyman

[Lance]

Glad to hear it us still all good!

The noise margin won't come down without a reboot btw.

As for the throughput, it sounds likely to be exchange congestion unfortunately

[Sebby]

Yep, you'll need to force a re-sync. Fingers crossed for you!

[davej99]

........ this might be an end to a three year plus saga!

How nice to see this problem resolved at last. It seems to be a simple voice fault, rather beyond the control of IDNET. Nice to see credit given to the BT guys in the field. I would like to think if they had attended at the beginning, the result would have been the same. Sometimes you have to trust the guys on the ground.