Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => ADSL Issues => Topic started by: shauntr on February 14, 2007, 10:03:50 PM
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Hi,
I'm new here just thought I would post my stats to see if anyone could give me some advice on speeding up my broadband. I'm with Virgin Media (formerly NTL). I'm on 512k line. My stats are below:
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1152 kbps 288 kbps
Line Attenuation 63.5 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 16.5 db 18.0 db
I have a Netgear DG834GT Router and a stable connection. I just want to go faster, but from what I've read, short of moving house it doesn't look like I can. Would appreciate any and all suggestions.
Thanks
Shaun
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Does Virgin not do Cable broadband in your area as opposed to ADSL? If you can get cable then you can have any speed they supply (10Mbit) as it's not limited by distance like xDSL is...
Any you've got 1Meg there mate.
Havelock
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Thanks for the reply Havelock.
No cable I'm afraid. Not likely to cable Cornwall anytime soon I dont' think. If it was available I would definitely get it.
Cheers
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You have a very good connection for the apparent length of your line, and you might be able to squeeze 1.5Mb or even 2Mb at a push out of it, if you upgraded to a Max-based service.
As havelock says, you're actually connected on a 1Mb line. Before MaxDSL, there were 4 choices of speed that ISPs could order from BT wholesale: 256k, 512k, 1Mb and 2Mb. ISPs have commonly provisioned a line on the fastest connection speed that BT say you can have - in your case it was obviously 1Mb, and then just throttle your speed down to 512k at the ISP end.
That way, if you wanted to upgrade to 1Mb in the future, they could just up the throttle without paying BT a regrade fee.
You'd have to go to their "Plan 2" to get upgraded to MaxDSL. Like I say, it might let you squeeze an extra 0.5 - 1Mb out of your line, if you think it's worth it.
What I would say is.. due to the length of your line, it would be best to make sure that your SNR is reasonably stable before upgrading.
There's a program here (http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm) called RouterStats which will graph your SNR margin and see if there are any major fluctuations e.g. at night, when other household equipment is turned on and off, etc..
Also, to improve your line quality, you can follow the advise in kitz's Low SNR (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm) page, e.g. getting an ADSL faceplate, plugging your router direct into the master socket, etc.
Hope this helps :)
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Hi Chris and thanks for the reply.
I think I will phone my ISP, but in the past they have been very unhelpful, saying that they are surprised the line supports broadband!
I have the router connected to the master socket, only have one sockeet in the house. Last night I took off the faceplate and connected the router directly, it didn't make any difference. Although it was only connected for 15 mins or so, should i leave longer?
I will try that RouterStats program tonight.
My SNR only seems to vary between 16.5 16.8. I've read that Netgear routers are good at keeping sync'd even at 0 SNR.
So you think I maybe be ableto get 2Mb, Well I hope so.
Thanks again,
Shaun
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Hi,
Have changed providers to Virgin in the last days or so. After many, many phone calls. My new stats are:
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2304 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 63.5 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 5.5 db 11.0 db
My download speeds are still quite poor: example taken from www.thinkbroadband.com speed test.
Date 15/03/07 22:42:23
Speed Down 186.82 Kbps ( 0.2 Mbps )
Speed Up 276.81 Kbps ( 0.3 Mbps )
Are there any other speed test sites you would recommend? I have tried this at various times during the day with litte improvement. Any ideas on how I can reach my 2MB download speed?
Thanks again
Shaun
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>>Are there any other speed test sites you would recommend?
Kitz has a web page with links to many speed test sites here - Kitz - Speed Tests (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/speeds.htm)
>>ny ideas on how I can reach my 2MB download speed?
This could be nothing more than exchange contention, or contention on the ISPs network. In either case there is nothing you can really do. There is a PlusNet exchange checker thingy which lets you know if there are bandwidth related problems etc. PlusNet Exchange Checker (http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/).
(Description of exchange contention/status checker written by kitz here (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/status.htm).)
Also your line isn't the worst here!
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 1,184
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 31.5 / 63.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 8.0 / 7.5
I do feel better though when I get most of my downloads at around 115Kb/sec :)
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Hi Shaun,
You probably need to monitor your connection over a few days to see what happens to the connection speed. It might sync at a much lower speed from time to time, in which case you'll have a low IP profile which will limit your download speed.
But if it consistently syncs at about the speed you reported then your IP profile would be 2000 kbps (if it never syncs at less than 2272) and as Soms says, contention would seem to be the problem.
Eric
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Hi Shaun,
Have you run the BT Speedtest to see what your IP Profile is? Sorry if you have and I've missed it!
For the length of your line, your sync rates are actually really good.
James
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Hi,
No I haven't run the BT Speed Tester yet. Will give it ago when I get home from work later.
Cheers
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I have tried running the BT Speed Test by following the instructions on Kitz's page, but all I get is an error message?????????
I have carried out another speed test, link below. It looks like my speed is improving but my sync rate is going down.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/11740796155953694678.html
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2048 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 63.5 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 6.4 db 10.0 db
I think I'm just going to have to give it time and see what happens :no: Or move house ;D
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Yeah, the BT speedtester is a bit flaky. You've gotta keep trying unfortunately.
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Hi,
I'm back! ;)
I now regularly connect at 2208kbs which for my line length is not too bad. I am assuming if I connect at this speed then my dowloads should be around 400k as I'm connected at 2Mb, is that correct, the most Ive ever achived using the speed teser here is 180k, http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/
I have also been looking at my internal phone wiring. I removed the front panel of the phone socket, which allowed me to view the wiring. I have two wires going into the top part of the socket, a blue one and a white one, with a number of other wires disconnected. Is this correct? Should the wires go into the top part of the socket or should they go into the holes numbered 1 - 6. Im sure this would be easier to explain with pictures which are attached, sorry there a bit blurry.
Thanks for everyones help, again :)
Cheers
Shaun
[attachment deleted by admin]
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Hi Shaun,
You should be getting a MINIMUM of 400kbps on the BT speedtest, right up to 2208kilobits per second.
This is the top theoretical transfer rate, so with network overheads etc. I would expect about 250KiloBytes/Sec, or about 800Meg in an hour.
For speedtesting, id try downloading a file of Virgin's own network, as this will give you a better idea of speeds in real-world transfers on the shortest possible routes.
E.g. ftp://mirrors.virginmedia.com/sites/gentoo/releases/x86/current/livecd/
Download one of the Iso's for 10 minutes and see what sort of throughput you're getting.
To be honest, if the speedtester at bbmax is limiting out at 180k, then you're only getting about 10% if the total throughput you should be, and less than half what BT would say is acceptable.
If at all possible you need to try and connect to the BT speedtester login Kitz posted previously and try to complete this. BT will NOT take into account 3rd party speedtests
Rgds
Havelock
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Right got some speed test results from the BT Speed Tester. Here they are:
Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 1500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 1760 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1377 kbps
These are my connection statistics at the time:
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2144 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 63.5 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 6.4 db 10.0 db
So it looks like I need to phone virgin and complain because of their rubbish service. Would you agree?
Thanks
Shaun
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>> So it looks like I need to phone virgin and complain because of their rubbish service. Would you agree?
That test shows that any restrictions is down to your line rather than Virgin.
From that we can now see that you are on maxdsl, which means your line will connect at the best speed it can depending upon how much spare SNR you have, which can and does vary on a daily/hourly basis.
Throughput of 1377kbps on a line with an IP profile of 1500kbps is about right... youre getting circa 1.5Mb speeds.
Its your line that has been profiled at 1.5Mb
To get 2Mb speeds your line will have to syncat more than 2272 kbps and remain stable at there for more than 3 days. (see roseways post).
Theres an explanation of how dslmax works here:-
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/maxdsl2.htm
At the bottom of that page theres a table which shows what speeds you have to sync at to get the actual throughput speeds.
The best chance you have of increasing your speeds is by trying to increase your SNR Margin, however you are nearing the maximum your line can handle due to distance.
Im a bit confused right now because that looks like a performance test result which doesnt bypass your ISPs network... and your speeds of 1377kbps is perfectly fine.
What happens if you do a BBMax speedtest?
http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/
or is it that as the evening wears on and contention kicks in that your speeds start to deteriorate.
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I'm still not clear whether you're mixing up your bits and your bytes. Your connection stats and IP profile are the sort of levels to be expected with such a high attenuation. You said that your best download speed was 180k, but is that 180 kbits per second or 180 kBytes per second? The former would be terrible, but the latter would be as much as you could hope for.
Eric
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I have also been looking at my internal phone wiring. I removed the front panel of the phone socket, which allowed me to view the wiring. I have two wires going into the top part of the socket, a blue one and a white one, with a number of other wires disconnected. Is this correct? Should the wires go into the top part of the socket or should they go into the holes numbered 1 - 6. Im sure this would be easier to explain with pictures which are attached, sorry there a bit blurry.
That what you have there is your BT line master socket/line box, an NTE5A if we want to be technical.
The blue and white wire are your incoming network line wires. That is perfectly correct.
The terminals labelled 1 to 6 are for you to connect any extension wiring to. Since nothing is connected, you have no extension wiring!
Just answering that question for you ;)
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Not neccessarily Shaun.
What you completed was a PTTR test, unless you connected using the username speedtest@speedtest_domain instead of your usual @Virgin login, the speedtest was done over Virgin's network anyway. Did you try downloading the ISO file in my previous post? What sort of download speed did you get there? If you are downloading a file at 150-175kb/s (1500kbps as per your IP Profile) then it's just as likely to be BT's fault as Virgin's
(If you did connect using the speedtest_domain login for this test, then yeah, it is Virgin at fault)
Just as a sidenote, besides using speedtests, what sort of download speeds to you usually get when downloading files (for example from download.com or whatever)?
Rgds
Havelock
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Hi,
Can I just say thanks to everyone who has posted here, it's helping a lot.
I'm still not clear whether you're mixing up your bits and your bytes. Y
Just completed a speed test at http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/ got these results:-
Last Result:
Download Speed: 1335 kbps (166.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 205 kbps (25.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Not neccessarily Shaun.
What you completed was a PTTR test, unless you connected using the username speedtest@speedtest_domain instead of your usual @Virgin login, the speedtest was done over Virgin's network anyway.
yes it the test I did was using my Virgin details, I did try using the speedtest@speedtest_domain but the test just kept giving me an error.
Did you try downloading the ISO file in my previous post? What sort of download speed did you get there? If you are downloading a file at 150-175kb/s (1500kbps as per your IP Profile) then it's just as likely to be BT's fault as Virgin's
Yes, speeds varied between 65kB\Sec - 168kBSec, this was left running for 15 mins. The speed would fluctuate a lot. It would peak, stay for 30 secs or so then slow down to around 65kB then build up again?
(If you did connect using the speedtest_domain login for this test, then yeah, it is Virgin at fault)
Just as a sidenote, besides using speedtests, what sort of download speeds to you usually get when downloading files (for example from download.com or whatever)?
Tried downloading Titan Quest from download.com max speed reached was 8.9kB\Sec (I kid you not >:()
Tried downloading the Prey demo from http://www.computing.co.uk max speed reached was 123kB\Sec
Thanks to everyone once again
Cheers
Shaun
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Just tried the BT Speed Test again.
Unfortunately it didn't work, used the details from Kitz's main site
USER: speedtest@speedtest_domain
PASS: testing
The page didn't even load, checked my router and my IP address had changed to 217.something, so I had connected to the network but the page wouldn't load. Now trying with my Virgin details and get the following results, similar to the one before.
Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 1500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 2176 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1314 kbps
I've never been able to connect to the BT Speed Test site using the speedtest login. Am I doing something wrong or just unlucky. I know the site can become very busy but the only way I can carry out a test is by using my Virgin details, so im not bypassing their network which is what I need to do.
Thanks again.
Cheers
Shaun
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There are sometimes when it is extremely difficult to do one of the old style BTw speedtests, unfortunately BT are supposed to be phasing it out in favour of the new style one :(.
From what I have seen sometimes it depends on which RAS you are connected via.
Your actual throughput speed on that last test seems ok for your IP profile.
The BBMax speedtest at 1335 kbps also looks right for your line. The download from computing whilst a little bit slow is still giving you around 1Mbps speeds. So it looks like normal http traffic is ok.
The download.com one though is very slow and may be due to Virgin Traffic Shaping.
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Looks like you're confusing your bits and bytes as well as having some speed issues. To clarify; 1 byte = 8 Bits
So when you run a speedtest and it reports your speeds as 1300kbps, this is the exact same as getting 162.5Kb/S
Quick question mate. Are you using a USB modem or a router? If its the former the I have come across the type of behaviour a couple of times before where the user's PC was both using the wrong type of USB mode (bulk as opposed to isochronous) and had a lot of stuff connected to the USB bus
By default USB1.1 will only handle 12Mb/s half-duplex (Approximately the equivalent of 6mb/s each way) which I guess was causing the buffer to stack up and dump causing the rise and fall in speeds, this is pretty rare though. If you have a mate either with a router they can bring round to test, or even a laptop and different modem, this would eliminate the chance it's your PC causing the issues.
With regards to increasing your overall speed, the best bet is to follow Kitz's troubleshooting for improving your SNR margin, as at the moment I would say about about 75% sure it's not Virgin shaping your traffic as there's no way any sensible ISP would shape traffic within their own network - there's no benefit to be gained from doing it, even shapping HTTP traffic is pretty unusual - most ISP's only bother shaping Usenet and p2p as its common to have to pay the manufacturer of the shaping device per gb of traffic.
Havelock