firstly, uncleUB you said they have worst customer sevice for all ISP's - no need for the ISP bit, they just have the worst customer service
i havent gone into depths about my frustration with orange's DLM. i didnt want to bore people but it is DLM that is my problem, my speed dropped the day the equipment went in. coincedence?? no chance... but i listened to what they said and they told me that there was a line problem, which to be fair there was. since it was fixed i expected DLM to re-evaluate my line and increase my maximum stable rate from the 1.8 they told me it was... this hasnt happened after 3 days since it was fixed. I agree for some reason i think it is stuck. but to get orange to increase my profile manually just isnt going to happen. its like getting water out of a stone. i can see my line is capable of more than that and so did escalations hence the fob off of trying to use congestion as the issue... why cant they admit they have a problem and do something manually.
i shall give the different router a try just incase that was the reason for the stuck profile, and lack of change in the maximum stable rate figures. if that doesnt work after a few days then i'll phone and ask for my line to be regraded. hopefully DLM will then be re-started and i can start as if its a new connection. getting them to do that may be difficult as they have already done so prehaving my fault fixed.
thanks for your help. i now have routerstats working on my router so will watch carefully. i am yet to see any drops in my SNR it just seems maxed out, the same as my sync speed. the quiet line test on the phone proved i have no noise (unless its a different type of noise?) so intereference cannot really be blamed either.
every speed test and your advice shows my line is capable of more than orange's stated 1.8 meg max stable rate. so their DLM is not working as it should.