Broadband Related > ADSL Issues

What are normal sub 1Mbps download sync speeds?

(1/5) > >>

willbard:
I am on a long line (BT measured at 9.2 km in 2006 when bband implemented). Speeds are slow but reliability has been OK. Last October work was started locally preparing for FTTP. Coincidentally my bband connection lost reliability at about this time and was down completely for more than a month but since January has been up more than down. My query is about synchronisation speeds. I'm used to seeing Up/Down speeds such as 576/288 but since the end of Feb they have become, to my eyes, odd but I don't know whether this is significant. Examples are (RX/TX, down/up) taken using routerstats and checked by logging in to the router (Thomson TG 582)

498/611,  398/595,  523/603,  608/579,  771/587, etc.

There have been at least 16 different synchronisation pairs since 28th February with the most recent from earlier today at 787/611. Incidentally this followed a brief telephone line drop immediately after a phone call ended - synchronisation was within a minute or two of the line being restored.
The router is connected to the master socket via a BT faceplate.

Are these speeds normal or do they suggest a particular kind of fault?

ejs:
I'm guessing that you used to be on a fixed rate service using ADSL1.

It looks like you're now on a rate adaptive ADSL2/2+ service, so you'll get whatever speed your line can manage at the time it connects. All the different speeds look normal.

willbard:
Many thanks.
I didn't know enough to realise the speeds were normal and was surprised that so many were not multiples of 2. Any service change hadn't been communicated to me but that doesn't matter as long as I have a connection.
 

tickmike:
Welcome to the forum.
Can you put some details of your exchange   http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/   but remove your phone number before posting.
also some router graphs/stats etc..
Have you notice it dropping out when the phone was used before ?   when I had a HR joint
( http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,4620.0.html ) I had problems of loosing sync.

Weaver:
Sounds like you are on adsl2 on a 21CN exchange, like me. My lines are around 7.3km by road, but I recently read some note by BT that suggested 8km (is that correct from those field notes, Kitizens?) my downstream line attenuation is ~65 - 67 dB. I think your speeds are not too far off for the length of line. My ADSL2 speeds are far higher at 2.7 - 2.9 Mbps downstream sync rate. I have a number of advantages:

* shorter line,
* if I remember correctly it has been suggested that I enjoy very thick copper,
* I would also be amazed if my noise levels are not extremely low relatively speaking because of the lack of electrical activity or civilisation along the last so-many miles (the most critical ones) of the route,
* aggressive modems,
* zero house-internal wiring, no extensions, no phones, and no filter at all,
* totally over-the-top mains-filtering, for what it's worth, if anything,
* Burakkucat's no-ADSL2+-tweak (below) possibly,
* 3dB downstream target SNRM, which is just cheating, trading reliability for speed.

Faster modems might do better, and my own preferred DLink DSL-320B-Z1 modems are very cheap at ~£15 and so if you wish to give one a try then it's only a small financial risk. These are (should be) modem-only devices, not dsl routers, so you will need a router of your choice (with the usual firewall + possibly NAT and maybe wireless too) to go along with it - a two-box system.
These modems are available pre-configured for safe ADSL1/2/2+ operation as modem-only devices from the Andrews and Arnold shop, https://aa.net.uk/broadband-accessories.html. Do not use one of these devices as a combined router plus modem as they have horror security holes, and even with those fixed (poss so with firmware v1.06) they are very bug-ridden and crap as routers so I have been warned. The config will work with any ISP and no login details details are required, you just plug them in and they will work. If you get one, ask about securing the LAN-side admin http interface if the modem is accessible from your main LAN through your router.

However, to get the best out of them, I would strongly suggest that you tick the BITSWAP tickbox in the advanced ADSL config menu, as for some reason AA are neglecting to do this, and neglecting this should really stuff performance / reliability, unless AA know something I don't about a bug in the UI. If you get hold of one, ask for help with this tweak if needed. A second tweak: Burakkucat has suggested, reasonably, I think, that it might be an idea to also change the advanced ADSL auto-dsl-mode setting to be ADSL2-only, which he and I have done.

By the way, are you on LLU? Who is your ISP?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page