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[glyndwr]

I've had Broadband at home for quite a few years and upgraded to 8Mb some years back. Being a bit distant from the exchange I have been getting around 3.7 mb. About a month ago I had a problem with the BT Voyager 2100 router so bought a Belkin adsl +2. For a week or so I was swapping routers about once a day. Then I was away for a week. When I came back I noticed that the broadband was slow and a speed check showed a data transfer rate of 310 kBPS  as opposed to 2300 Kbps normally. Router currently shows a connection speed of 2688/448 Kbps Running BT Speedtester shows that my IP profile is capped at 320 Kbps. Been in touch with my ISP (Freenetname/Madasafish) Finally got past the rude Lady who just wanted to read a list of things to try off a screen, all of which I had done. Got through to Tech support. They said that the line had suffered a high number of dropped connections so had automatically downgraded . I've usually only had never more than one dropout in an evening of using the internet continually for about 4 to 5 hours a night. Sometimes none in a week. None at all since using the Belkin router full time. The ISP Resynced the line 2 days ago but still no change in data rate.  As you can see I'm no expert on the details of adsl so if anyone can offer some assistance I'd be soooo grateful... 28 minutes to download a graphics driver for a laptop is no joke.

[kitz]

When was the last time you did a resync?
Does your router tell you the uptime?  Has it remained constantly connected since the ISP did the resync

Its highly unusual to get a stuck bRAS at such a low level, and I would expect a change like that to have occurred within a day or so.

Can you also post your full line stats so we can see the attenuation and SNR Margin figures and details of any errors  too please if theyre available.

[glyndwr]

Unfortunately this Belkin Router has practically no stats available however the previous BT Voyager had uptime stored. The BT Voyager would mostly show an uptime of a couple of days however mostly when I would use the internet after not using it for a few hours I would need to go to the control page and click connect. The dsl light would always be on and it wouldn't go through any handshaking or training, just connect straight away.. Since putting the Belkin router on I haven't had to ever reconnect. It's always on whenever I access the internet. Also it hasn't dropped out during long skype sessions, since being connected about 5 days ago. It's starting to get a real nuisance. My ISP just keep saying it should automatically fix itself in 3 to 5 days. They resynced the line Monday lunchtime. Checked again this morning and it's still just over the 300 Kbs.. Dont know where to look for any answers. I bet ringing BT would be a wasted call. Hope you can offer a suggestion or two.
Thanks for your time

[roseway]

You didn't mention what model of Belkin router you're using, but there is some guidance here which might help you to get the information. See the notes about Belkin hidden pages. The router stats will help us give you sensible advice.

[glyndwr]

Right I've reconnected the Voyager 2100 as it gives me line stats. Here is the stats straight after swapping from the Belkin.

Line Rate 2848/448
Noise Margin

[glyndwr]

Ignore previous. Sent before I'd finished.  I've reconnected Voyager 2100 to get line stats. This is what I got immediately after swapping ith Belkin Router.

                            Down             Up
Line Rate             2848              448
Noise Margin       8.8 dB             20.0 dB
Line attenuation 39.0 dB          24.0 dB
Output Power     11.9 dBm       17.8 dBm


Downstream Noise Margin varies dynamically around 8.8 -9.2

Line Mode is G.dmt
Latency type Interleave
Line coding Trellis Off

An ADSL BER test showed 0 errors

Hope this gives some sort of clue. I've had email back from IP to say I have to call their tech support and confirm I've tried all they suggested and then they'll report a fault to BT. Everything moving along at the speed of light.. Acetylene lamp on a horse drawn coach. Look forward to your assistance. You are really very good.

[roseway]

That's a very low downstream line rate for your level of attenuation. You ought to be able to get 6-7000 kbps. If you've tried all the things which the ISP suggested (including connecting the router to the test socket??) then it does look like a line fault. Just to make sure that nothing has been missed you might like to read this and the associated pages.

[HPsauce]

Those are all the symptoms of a local cabling (phone extension wiring) problem.

[glyndwr]

Well Last night I swapped back over to the BT Voyager so that I could get the line stats.  Line up time this morning over 9 hours and amazingly connection speed up to 1.7 mbs. I'm baffled but glad things are moving. While I'm here could I ask what the test socket on a BT Master socket does. Does it bypass the ringer circuit of the master box. I only have the older style Master Socket. Would it be worth me getting it changed. Thanks for all your help. Great guys.

[roseway]

With an NTE5 master socket, all your telephone extensions are connected to the removable faceplate. So when you remove the faceplate and connect to the test socket inside, all your internal extension wiring is disconnected so you can be sure that it isn't influencing the ADSL performance. If you get poor performance normally, but good performance when connected to the test socket, it's a good indication that your extension wiring is at fault, or is picking up a lot of local interference.

BT will generally charge you for replacing the master socket, unless you can find a friendly BT engineer to do it for you quietly.