New FTTC Install: Fast Download, Upload Not So Great

[Dougc]

Firstly! I completely realise this is very much a "first world problem", so my apologies in advance for sounding like I'm whining. I'm sure there are lots of people on here who suffer with much worse connections

I had FTTC with IDNet installed this morning by Openreach. The install went fine and the engineer agreed to move my master socket which was great. He also said I was synced at the full 80/20 I could get (I'm pretty close to the cabinet). However, upon doing a few speed tests (on different sites) I seem to be getting a less amazing upload result:



Obviously the download is great, but one of the main reasons I wanted FTTC was because of the additional upload. Obviously I'm not expecting to be getting a full 20Mbps, but I would have thought it should be more than 6Mbps? I was hoping for 10Mbps+

[Gary]

What does the BT speed test say, that's the one that people take notice of. I'm further from the cabinet than you are I'm guessing by that speed test but I get 17Mbps up. Also the system takes a couple of days to tune itself, (not ten) that's a myth on FTTC but if there is noise on the upstream then that could be an issue. The First day the gates are wide open, the second day I believe the DLM if it needs to will interact to stabilise your line, pretty much after 3 days thats what you will get all the time, baring loss of speed to crosstalk. I would wait and see what happens for a few days, and see then. Also who did the install, Kellys or BT and what router are you using. Also what modem you have and if its pared with the cab makes a difference. An ECI cab likes an ECI modem,Huawei HG612's tend to create more errors. Using a ECI on a Huawei cab seems to not be an issue on the other hand. It is best though if can to match modem to cab generally, although peoples mileage may vary.

[Dougc]

What does the BT speed test say, that's the one that people take notice of. I'm further from the cabinet than you are I'm guessing by that speed test but I get 17Mbps up. Also the system takes a couple of days to tune itself, (not ten) that's a myth on FTTC but if there is noise on the upstream then that could be an issue. The First day the gates are wide open, the second day I believe the DLM if it needs to will interact to stabilise your line, pretty much after 3 days thats what you will get all the time, baring loss of speed to crosstalk. I would wait and see what happens for a few days, and see then. Also who did the install, Kellys or BT and what router are you using

Thanks Gary.

The BT speed test results look similar:



I'm currently using an Asus RT-AC68U router. I think I might try connecting up directly to the new modem and doing a PPPoE connection directly to just check it's not anything past the modem that's causing the problem. This seems unlikely though as I'm getting 70Mbps down?

It was BT Openreach who did the install.

I'll keep and eye on it over the next couple of days I guess.

[Gary]

I would leave alone for a few days, you dont want to freak the DLM out. If you do want to unplug after the training period turn your router off first, them pull the power to the modem, and leave it off for at least 15Mins. Be aware time of day will effect your sync rate. What is your sync rate reported by the BT speed tester, that's the important bit. Thoughput is not really BT's worry its your sync rate that's measured. DLM sees errors also by time up, and anything over 15 minutes it hopefully sees as a disconnection or power  cut not instability. For now just leave it as it is. If you get a chance replace the flat cord from faceplate to modem with a twisted pair rJ11 they can help. Did the BT guy replace your faceplate? If nothing changes mention it to support, but really the BT guy should have noticed this. Have you got extensions in your home? The wholesale checket (BT) gives two values for your line if you put your phone number in, clean and impacted. If you have bad wiring, or a bad cable to the cab then you will get the impacted speeds not the clean.

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

[Dougc]

Okay, I'll leave it a few days and see what happens

The engineer installed a completely new socket and deactivated the old socket downstairs.

I've just checked and the modem is an ECI B-FOCuS V-2FUb/r Rev. B

6Mbps is still considerably better than the 0.5 I was getting before

[Gary]

Okay, I'll leave it a few days and see what happens

The engineer installed a completely new socket and deactivated the old socket downstairs.

Is the upstairs socket an extension? If it is did you put it in by any chance? FTTC uses tones that are very sensitive to interference, and if the cabling used is poor then that also could impact the quality of connection, although your downstream is very good.  Wait and see what happens and let IDnet know, they will help out if there is an issue.

[Dougc]

Is the upstairs socket an extension? If it is did you put it in by any chance?

It's an extension that the engineer switched over to be the new master. This is a new build, so it's a socket that was there when the house was built, although it's not being used now as the engineer installed a completely new one, so I guess just the wiring behind is being used. Of course, given the quality(?) of some of the other things in the house, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bad cabling job by the house builder!

[Steve]

I'm a bit suspicious as the engineer will have quoted the sync has he saw it on install. So the throughput should follow, there's no harm in ruling out the router as source of the issue as a drop in PPPOE is not going to upset the modem.

[Gary]

I'm a bit suspicious as the engineer will have quoted the sync has he saw it on install.

The sync on 80/20 is 20Mbps up though no matter what your download is at, so unless he bothered to do a speed test on the computer that's all he sees is the sync rate, he has no idea of what the thoughput speed is. Ideally they should do a BT speed test though. BT dont care about what throughput you get, its just what the sync that matters so in an 80/20 yes all are 20Mbps up but if for some off reason you get 10Mps thoughput all he/she will see is the sync rate of 20Mbps on that line.

Edit I noticed that there were some complaints on that routers upload speeds, so a firmware update may well help if the OP has not done that already.

[Dougc]

Router is on latest firmware, I've been making sure it's up to date since I got it. I'd be interested to see the reports of people having issues with it as all I'd seen is pretty much unanimously positive reviews

Struggling to get the PPPoE connection going at the moment for some reason. I'll keep trying.

[Steve]

If your  interested  Asuswrt merlin provides a useful set of alternative firmwares you can switch between the two with relative impunity. The only issues I've seen with the Asus routers have been WiFi throughout which seems to be firmware and chipset related and the use of QoS.

[Dougc]

Okay, so, I have a confession to make; basically, I'm an idiot

I finally managed to connect directly over PPPoE and funnily enough, really good speeds down and up. I then remembered I'd been "tinkering" with a QoS setup with my ADSL connection (when I had it). Upon closer inspection, it looks like I got mixed up and had set my QoS upload bandwidth to 5.5Mbps (I had 6Mbps download on my ADSL connection). So basically; my router was preventing me from uploading more than 5.5Mbps because of QoS. As soon as I disabled this:



Thanks for your help everyone. Apologies for wasting your time!

[Steve]

At least you got it sorted, now have a look at the Asuswrt merlin firmwares they may offer you something you like. Asus and Merlin do work together on firmwares, I liken them to the debugged Asus firmwares.