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[rugby675]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some advice for the issues I have at the moment. I have FTTC broadband where my line stats indicate I can receive ~76 Mbps down but is currently connected at approx 63 Mbps down. Ping in on speed tests is approx 25 ms. My router will disconnect in the early hours every few days and then generally return to the same ~63 Mbps. However having got faster speeds than this in the past and much better ping I've been in touch with BT and Openreach trying to identify whether there is an issue with the line or equipment and agreed that my profile may be banded at 67?. A week or so ago (on the weekend) they activated a DLM reset and by Monday morning the router disconnected and came back at connected speed of 68 and achievable speed of 68, ping was reduced 4 to ms which was much closer to what it used to be until about 2 years ago. However it disconnected again a few days later and returned to the 76 achievable and 63 down. It has since returned to the 68/68 profile once since but for the last week or so has remained at 63 down, 76 achievable.

My question is does this appear to be a banded profile? Also why would the achievable change and come down after a DLM reset and then increase again after a further disconnect? Is the cab recording errors on my connection which is just enough to prevent me from achieving the higher rate but not enough to be forced lower on the speed?

Someone suggested to me that there may be an issue with my DSLAM card or port at the cabinet but every time I mention this to BT or Openreach it's instantly dismissed and they refused to look at it further as all tests pass every time. Without any proof of this they will not budge.

Some help with this would be brilliant, my job involves the downloading of quite large files (4k drone surveys) and the extra speed would be such a time saver.

Many thanks

[burakkucat]

Welcome to the kitz forum. 

A couple of quick questions: Is BT your service provider? What are you using as a modem/router?

[Weaver]

If you really need more speed, you could always get a second line and bond the two together, as I have done with my three copper lines. That would give you double speed even for single downloads and uploads. It’s not cheap, mind.

[rugby675]

Hi, BT is my provider and currently using a Home Hub 6. I do also have a HG612 which is connecting at a similar rate. However the HG612 always performs better on download speed than the HH6 60 Mbps Vs 52 Mbps

[burakkucat]

BT is my provider and currently using a Home Hub 6.

Thank you. With that information, let's see what our members suggest . . .

[gt94sss2]

As the sync speed is changing, I would say your line is not banded.

Do you know the make of your cabinet? I wonder if your line is switching on interleaving when it claims you can get 76MB.

[j0hn]

It also sounds to me like it's interleaving.

A DLM reset makes the speed go up, latency go down and the attainable matches the sync. That's interleaving being removed by the DLM reset.

Then a few days later interleaving is applied again.
Speed goes down, attainable goes up, latency goes up.

It's not banding and there's absolutely nothing any ISP can do about it. The DLM is 100% automated/hands off. The only tool your provider has is to reset the DLM but it will keep adding interleaving back on after a few days/weeks if it decides the line needs it.

It is of course possible the line had some banding prior to the DLM reset. Banding at 67Mb when the line is synced at 63Mb does nothing though. The banding (if there was any) would have been removed by the DLM reset.

[rugby675]

Many thanks for the replies. My make of cabinet is ECI. Is interleaving the first tool so to speak that Openreach or the ISP have at their disposal to make line stable if it detects errors. Seeing that all the line tests have passed would it be possible that my equipment is leading to this? My homehub 6 has never worked as it should, frequent disconnects, lower download speed compared with my HG612 even though sync speeds are the same. Would I be able to see from the hub log what is causing interleaving to be applied?

[j0hn]

Interleaving is the ONLY tool available on ECI cabinets.

DSL is designed to work with errors and error correction. Every line receives errors.
Openreach have decided a threshold where if the number of these errors are exceeded they apply interleaving.
There are a large proportion of lines on ECI cabinets that always have interleaving enabled because of this.
My ECI line wouldn't run without interleaving.

Some lines run for years without interleaving then it is suddenly enabled. There's a couple reasons for this.
Over time more subscribers take FTTC from your cabinet and the interference they create (crosstalk) increases the errors for other lines in the same cable bundles. This pushes done lines over the error thresholds and interleaving is enabled.
Another reason is that Openreach have lowered the error threshold over the years.

So it isn't necessarily something in your property or your equipment that has caused it.

We know what causes interleaving to be enabled and you can indeed see it in an unlocked HG612. It's the Error Seconds (called ES for short). What causes each Error Second is impossible to tell.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Interleaving is the ONLY tool available on ECI cabinets.

The only tool that actually tries to correct the errors and maintain a decent speed you mean.

As obviously increasing the SNRm or banding the line, are other tools they use to try to keep a line stable at the cost of dramatically reducing your speed.

[j0hn]

Increasing SNRM isn't a tool that can be used. It's a consequence of banding being applied.

I should have added banding to that though.

[rugby675]

Many thanks for the replies. So sounds like I am stuck then and the DLM reset may have removed the interleaving temporarily and system has since decided it's necessary. For all I know many connections from same cab will have a similar fate. It doesn't bode well that they are building a new development near by as well which could well be fed from same cabinet...

So frustrating as when it was reset last week it was saving me 40 mins plus on every download of 100GB. Ping would also be useful for gaming which I think is awful at 30ms

They have full fibre less than 1 mile down the road, but looks like it could be as long as 2026 until we get it it 

[gt94sss2]

To add to what John has said, it's worth noting that the 76MB that the modem lists as achievable when interleaving is on is fictional - you're not going to get this.

If they are building a new development now, you would hope its fibre enabled by default.

[rugby675]

The 68 I get when interleaving off is probably the max. Not sure why it goes up when interleaving on. Is there a way to check how much error is being produced to warrant the interleaving and how much interleaving has been applied if that's possible.

Fibre for the new development would be useful and hopefully would mean they would put a new cab in for us as well. Knowing my luck only the development would be given fibre

[g3uiss]

You would need some details stats from your router to establish the error rates.