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[jimmyca69]

Hi all

Going to be a lengthy post this as i try to explain – I have been with Sky nearly 2 years on the Max package. I had issues at the start with connection drop outs and slow connection speeds which eventually settled down to a consistent 3500kbps connection rate. During that time I removed ring wires, checked faceplates etc and all was solid connection compared to first couple of months.

The problem is though that for the previous year before Sky I was with 3 other ISP’s on normal ADSL. These were Newnet, Aquiss and then Vivaciti (Entanet) and I was getting 6000-7000kbps easily with my Netgear DG834Gv2 I had. As soon as I changed to LLU and Sky the speeds dropped. Its taken a while but when rebuilding my PC and finding an old post I had saved as a doc it detailed my line stats on previous ISP.

It mentioned a line attenuation of 45db, a sync speed of 6556kbps and a noise margine of 7db. When I checked my Sky router stats it comes up as the following:

ADSL Link     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    3360 kbps    768 kbps
Line Attenuation    60.0 db    31.5 db
Noise Margin    7.1 db    11.0 db

As you can see the LA has increased a lot which as I understand it – is usually down to line length from exchange. This is where another issue has come to light – from all the tests you can do im 2.2km as the crow flies from the exchange, 3.5km in main road distance and 3.08km if you use BT’s 1.4x2.2 rough calcuation for line length. I know these are guides but coupled with fact I had the previous speeds to match these distances tells me something has either changed or gone wrong.

Stats from exchange checker on here:

Exchange: Barry. BT Code: SWCFK
Location: Dock View Road, CF63 4UF
Distance:- Direct: 2.15 km
(appx)* By Road: 3.54 km
Status
ADSL enabled : May 14, 2003
DSL Max enabled: January 5, 2006
SDSL enabled : Enabled
21CN due : (PSTN) No Info
21CN WBC (Broadband) RFS date 31.03.10
Broadband Access† Market 3

I also downloaded the Sky Router Tool and it showed im actually on G.DMT which as i understand it is ADSL 1 and not ADSL2? Probably due to LA being high but still means im not getting what I thought I was.

My wiring is fine, ive gone through all that before - plugging into the master socket does increase the connection to say 3600-3800kbps but still lacking a bit with what i had before with 3 previous ISP's over the course of a year.

I spoke to Sky and got to tier 2 support and they sending me a new Router to test that as according to their system im 6.5km away from exchange. But they admitted their system uses the current LA on the line to guess the line length. This seems to be the same for most checks you can do on your phone line as people such as BE and O2 say im over 6km away and wont touch me, saying ill only get 1000kbps connection speeds. O2 though did say they would process the order after I gave them my line stats.

I still havent received the new router but I did find my old DG834Gv2 and set that up with my sky details. Once connected to the test socket (all other sockets dead when faceplate removed) the stats it gave were as follows:

ADSL Link     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    3776 kbps    768 kbps
Line Attenuation    56.0 db    11.5 db
Noise Margin    7 db    11.0 db

So a slight improvement (noticeably on upstream?) in the LA and connection speed but not to levels of previous ISP’s.

I did have a look at the wiring outside of my house and behind the BT master socket to check this. I did find something interesting in that my upstairs extension is spliced into the main BT line in. Its jellybeaned to 2 wires that run in and into the 2 and 5 points on the faceplate. No idea why they didn’t just run lead into house and directly into faceplate connections so just wondering how that may affect it? Problem is doesn’t technically solve my problem as has always been like this unless wires degraded over time but then my speed been same for over a year now.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1229/sdc10904.jpg - Outside cover of the line

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/990/sdc10911h.jpg - underneath cover reveals the grey lead from upstairs socket spliced into main BT line. The green and brown wires in the BT line are cut and then jellybeaned onto the same coloured ones from the grey cable. They then run into the faceplate connections 2 and 5. The Solid Blue and Solid White cables in the BT line connect to A and B connectors at back of master socket.

Im starting to tear my hair out as I know if the router doesn’t solve it (doubt it will given old router didn’t) then they are unlikely to get Openreach engineer out as they will use the line length excuse for speeds and use the old phrase “the lines can run anywhere and ive seen lines run 3 times the length of straight line distance” etc etc.

Maybe if someone can explain technically how 3 ISP's can get me 6000kbps line connection but Sky can only get me 3500kbps i can get on with my life but the low speeds keep nagging me so finally trying to do something about them!

Sorry for the extremely long post – trying to put as much info in as possible and understand if people read half and get bored! But any help would be appreciated.

[Ezzer]

from what I can make out you have an underground lead-in on a 5 pair cable. your line should be on pair1 (blue/white) which goes to the back of the nte (a and b terminals)

when using the grey 101 capping contractors are ment to leave a cable through the wall so the 5 pair cablecan be crimped through ad gives us access to test the line up to the crimps if no ones in and we can't access the nte.

looks as in this case the 5pr cable has been pushed through the wall and directly to the nte. A mute point.

also it looks as if someone has used pr3 of the 5 pr cable (green white) to feed back and connect to the grey cable running up the wall. I assume this is connected to 2 & 5 on the face plate on the nte so it's disconnected when you remove the face plate

[jimmyca69]

from what I can make out you have an underground lead-in on a 5 pair cable. your line should be on pair1 (blue/white) which goes to the back of the nte (a and b terminals)

when using the grey 101 capping contractors are ment to leave a cable through the wall so the 5 pair cablecan be crimped through ad gives us access to test the line up to the crimps if no ones in and we can't access the nte.

looks as in this case the 5pr cable has been pushed through the wall and directly to the nte. A mute point.

also it looks as if someone has used pr3 of the 5 pr cable (green white) to feed back and connect to the grey cable running up the wall. I assume this is connected to 2 & 5 on the face plate on the nte so it's disconnected when you remove the face plate

Yes your right the 5pr cable has been pushed right into wall

Again yes - (although the colours used are the green and brown) do go into faceplate so disconnected when faceplate is removed.

[jimmyca69]

Anybody got any ideas at all on this?

Have today got my mac code from sky (nothing to do with this as going to o2 as mobile customer and cheaper with 3 months free) and put in order with o2 home broadband.

Am not expecting this to solve anything as doubt ill be that lucky but may look into this again when the o2 line settles down and see what im left with them, but im close to giving up as not willing to pay for openreach engineer investigation 

[orainsear]

If your problems started when you moved to Sky LLU it could be faulty Sky equipment, or a tie pair fault - the cables that connect the Sky equipment in the exchange to the BT telephone wires.

[jimmyca69]

If your problems started when you moved to Sky LLU it could be faulty Sky equipment, or a tie pair fault - the cables that connect the Sky equipment in the exchange to the BT telephone wires.

The tie-pair was mentioned previously to me as possibility - would the move to o2 mean new exchange equipment being used and if this was the problem then it would resolve it? Or do the LLU ISP's tend to use same equipment such as tie-pairs?

[waltergmw]

A pair of wires will need to be removed from the old ADSL equipment and either the same pair at the BT end moved across to link into the new LLU equipment, or a new pair wired through completely. I would have expected a new pair of wires would be used, but nobody can be certain what was actually done.

Kind regards,
Walter

[jimmyca69]

A pair of wires will need to be removed from the old ADSL equipment and either the same pair at the BT end moved across to link into the new LLU equipment, or a new pair wired through completely. I would have expected a new pair of wires would be used, but nobody can be certain what was actually done.

Kind regards,
Walter

Well fingers crossed, i suppose there is nothing i can do in meantime anyway.

Any suggestions in advance if the speeds remain as they are currently? how would i go about getting the tie-pairs etc checked? through my ISP or BT?

[orainsear]

You would have to contact your ISP who would then make the arrangements for a tie pair swap.  Although there shouldn't really be much downtime (how long does it take to swap a pair of wires) you may be told (and experience) that the service will be unavailable for several hours.