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How do I get my line improved for faster broadband

rruwalton

ISP Rep
Good evening,

Its been a few years since I obtained adsl and some members will recall me contacting BT's CEO for help in order to get my line up to scratch. At that time I was able to get 512kbs but within a year of that I managed to upgraded to 1mb with AOL.

Going forwards I want a faster connection but whenever I check my line, the fastest speed my line offers is 1mb. With so many isp's offering up to 8mb I was wondering how do I get BT to improve my line.

I thought about emailing Ben again but thought someone on here may have some advice before I do so.

Thank you in anticipation.

Richard
 
Richard I have the same problem my line is only capable of 1mb .The only way I have been told is to go for Adslmax and I may get up to 3mb. Being such a hit and miss system I have decided to leave well alone I have read too many moans about adslmax not delivering a consistant connection .

Lines in this area will be upgraded long after I have gone to that great website in the sky
 
err.. lm supposed to have a 2meg line or at least thats what l ordered, they even accepted that order but im getting little more than 1meg (modem syncs as 1152kbps down and 288kbps up) in any case what constrains me is my line length sadly altho l will query this in a month or so since l dont want to make too many 25p a min calls close together.
 
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Thanks miffie,

I hope you are well and that journey you mention is a long way off; long after you get upgraded :)

I have been checking my line speed and 952kbs is the fastest. :(
 
...I was wondering how do I get BT to improve my line ...

Unless you have a significant fault on your line causing your lowish speed, rather than it just being a function of your distance from the exchange etc., I don't see what BT could/would do. :hrmph:
 
Even if its not a distance problem (which they can ofc do nothing about=) it might be poor copper or aluminium cabling and if it isn't affecting your voice calls I doubt there is much you can do.
 
yeh and BT say there is not a need in the near future for a program for upgrading to fibre cable to replace the antiquated copper lines

yeh right !!!!!!!
 
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theres no need because they wont make enough money out of us... err to be honest all l see from this is the fact they are too bone idle to actually spend out on something that might leave them out of pocket for a few years for future gain...

no one said they would make back their losses straight away, but isnt that part of businesses and their growth.. they are not customer focused in any case the only thing that matters to them is keeping the shareholders happy which is why they dont have their own engineers any more (they are contracted from other companies) and they moved their tech support to india, why? all in the effort to keep their shareholders happy by adding extra millions to their pockets..

one day hopefully someone will bring in something which will force companies like this to either be "split" into smaller ones hence adding competition (which might help rollout of broadband and add faster services to those areas with long lines) or some legislation which actually makes BT expand its old crappy copper based network (l bet if one had access to BTs records you would find the opinion on us not wanting the faster more reliable network was not run as a survey and if it was then they purposely directed it towards ppl who have no idea past just receiving emails and browsing the odd page or two once a day.)
 
Post your loss down and s/n down, and this can then give some indication if faster spped is possible.

I live 5.7KM from exchange, and can get circa 4 megs in daytime with 6db margin on ADSL max.
 
Problem is we all want cheap phone and adsl service,upgrading all the lines that need doing would cost a fortune,the cost of which BT would pass on:-who do you think would end up paying for the work involved?we can't have it all ways!
 
give or take a couple of db on the downspeed noise these are my stats


statszu4.jpg

altho my attenuation is very much higher than before..

these are some stats from before l moved house when l had adsl max
Connection Speed down:4544 kbps up:448 kbps
Line Attenuation down:35db up:10.5db
Noise Margin down:4db up:20db
 
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Have to agree with SteveE here, although I am no great fan of BT. If I want the benefit of cable television and approach Virgin - I am told I am not in their area. If I approach most of the companies setting up LLU in the exchanges - I am told we have not got equipment in your exchange. If I am anywhere in the country and ask BT for a phone line, afaik they will provide one at a cost. The phrase 'level playing field' comes to mind. Why shouldn't the cable companies be 'forced' to provide cable (probably laying fibre) to ALL properties, why don't ALL exchanges offer ALL LLU (other than space requirements)? At the end of the day price has to come into it and IF all suppliers contributed to the costs of providing fibre to all properties then it might be possible. Why should BT be expected to provide this sometimes uneconomical service without a levy on the companies that benefit from their provisions? Obviously this would increase the cost to the ISP and would they be prepared to cover this? I think not - but the same arguments apply to them expecting profits for shareholders as apply to BT. I once again state I have no affiliation or particular high regard for BT but think people are being a little unfair in this case.
 
Post your loss down and s/n down, and this can then give some indication if faster spped is possible.

I live 5.7KM from exchange, and can get circa 4 megs in daytime with 6db margin on ADSL max.

How do I do this please. Only been on the net since 1996 so I'm a newbie ;)

Hello butler, hope you are well and the 'little ones' are doing well at Uni? :)
 
Thanks Mel (resident techy ;) )

ppp0 Link encap:Point-Point Protocol
inet addr:92.10.96.43 P-t-P:92.10.96.1 Mask:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1400 Metric:1
RX packets:21360 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:24003 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:13157622 (12.5 Mb) TX bytes:12099193 (11.5 Mb)

Uptime 1790900.74 1784063.67
Wan up 1790145.56 1783316.06

AR7 DSL Modem Statistics:
--------------------------------
[DSL Modem Stats]
US Connection Rate: 288 DS Connection Rate: 1152
DS Line Attenuation: 48 DS Margin: 17
US Line Attenuation: 31 US Margin: 29
US Payload : 3486589040 DS Payload: 3726252880
US Superframe Cnt : 49365738 DS Superframe Cnt: 49365738
US Transmit Power : 0 DS Transmit Power: 0
LOS errors: 0 SEF errors: 0
Frame mode: 3 Max Frame mode: 0
Trained Path: 0 US Peak Cell Rate: 679
Trained Mode: 3 Selected Mode: 1
ATUC Vendor Code: 54535443 ATUC Revision: 3
Hybrid Selected: 1 Trellis: 1
Showtime Count: 5 DS Max Attainable Bit Rate: 4864
BitSwap: 1 US Max Attainable Bit Rate: n/a

[Upstream (TX) Interleave path]
CRC: 0 FEC: 0 NCD: 1
LCD: 0 HEC: 0

[Downstream (RX) Interleave path]
CRC: 0 FEC: 0 NCD: 0
LCD: 0 HEC: 0

[Upstream (TX) Fast path]
CRC: 45 FEC: 4352 NCD: 0
LCD: 0 HEC: 68

[Downstream (RX) Fast path]
CRC: 4374 FEC: 0 NCD: 0
LCD: 0 HEC: 0

[ATM Stats]
[Upstream/TX]
Good Cell Cnt: 430551213
Idle Cell Cnt: 139483347


[Downstream/RX)]
Good Cell Cnt: 793458151
Idle Cell Cnt: 1486669083
Bad Hec Cell Cnt: 10743
Overflow Dropped Cell Cnt: 0

[SAR AAL5 Stats]
Tx PDU's: 103469134
Rx PDU's: 102297355
Tx Total Bytes: 2032229485
Rx Total Bytes: 1872718626
Tx Total Error Counts: 0
Rx Total Error Counts: 5026


[OAM Stats]
Near End F5 Loop Back Count: 0
Near End F4 Loop Back Count: 0
Far End F5 Loop Back Count: 0
Far End F4 Loop Back Count: 0
SHOWTIME
1

Used Mel's first link. I hope this means something!
 
Timeless, you are on fixed rate 1MB I presume, by the upload speed. ADSL Max is nearly twice the upload speed.

I would say you may squeeze another 256K or so from download synch using a 6DB s/n profile, but thats pretty much it. You are even further away from the exchange than me.

Hope that helps.
 
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From what I can see there you have a internal wiring problem with them stats, for Max it is roughly 3db snr for 800k sync speed, you have about the same attenuation as me but I would of thought ur SNR would of been higher about 22-24db.
 
Thanks Mel (resident techy ;) )


AR7 DSL Modem Statistics:
--------------------------------
[DSL Modem Stats]
US Connection Rate: 288 DS Connection Rate: 1152
DS Line Attenuation: 48 DS Margin: 17
US Line Attenuation: 31 US Margin: 29
US Payload : 3486589040 DS Payload: 3726252880
US Superframe Cnt : 49365738 DS Superframe Cnt: 49365738
US Transmit Power : 0 DS Transmit Power: 0
LOS errors: 0 SEF errors: 0
Frame mode: 3 Max Frame mode: 0
Trained Path: 0 US Peak Cell Rate: 679
Trained Mode: 3 Selected Mode: 1
ATUC Vendor Code: 54535443 ATUC Revision: 3
Hybrid Selected: 1 Trellis: 1
Showtime Count: 5 DS Max Attainable Bit Rate: 4864


You router indicates a max Attainable rate of 4864 (for the line condition when it last synced)- I'm not sure, but I think that possibly might be based on a target margin of 0db as you are on a fixed rate connection, which would make it optimistic.

The ADSL Max guestimator here http://www2.farina1.com/ADSL/default.aspx estimates 2700kbps.

I notice the router has reconnected in the last 15 minutes, unfortunately I can't remember which error stats the DG834G resets when it loses sync :(

If you have any telephone extensions wired into your master socket, then checking the stats (particularly the downstream noise margin) with the router plugged into the test socket behind the master socket should give you a better idea of the condition of your line - preferably in the evening when RF interference tends to be at it worse.

If you want to get the best speed on an up to 8mbps service, it is best to filter the extensions at the master socket. If you can't have the router near the master socket run an unfiltered ADSL connection to the router using good quality twisted pair cable (just terminals 2 & 5 connected), oh and avoid running it closely parallel to mains cabling.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Mel,

I have a filter at the main socket, then an extension running round the back of the kitchen units into a BT socket. The wire then goes from there under the lounger carpet to another socket. This has a filter and my router plugs into it. My pc is then plugged into the router.

Recently I have noticed my connection dropping and then re-starting. I hear that other AOL users are experiencing drop outs.

I have some filters in the garage from my old AOL modem, perhaps I should stick one on the BT socket which hasn't got one.

I would not like to put a new wire in for the pc as it would mean pulling carpets up which have not long been down.
 
If you are not using the socket it doesn't need a filter.

You may still be able to improve the SNR a fair bit by disconnecting the ring wire at the master socket (if it hasn't been disconnected already). You only need terminals 2 & 5 connected, decent adslfilters (including the ones supplied by Netgear) include a ring capacitor so the phones will still ring. I did this myself a few years ago as a temporary measure :laugh: as I need to pull up several floorboards and remove a gas fire to extend my network closer to the master socket so I can move the router. It made quite a considerable improvement, but I still lose anything from 512 kbps to 1mbps compared to the test socket, even though the extensions are all twisted pair and I wired them myself.

Another option might be to plug the router into the master connect all the extensions through a filter (eg use a filtered faceplate) and use a wireless connection or a pair of mains networking devices.
 
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