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[RosehillClaret]

Hello, I've been a lurker on this forum recently, and have decided to register!

I recently upgraded from Sky Fibre (40/10) to Sky Fibre Max (80/20), after being told that I should be able to receive the full speed increase.

When the upgrade happened, download connection speed was at 65mbps, and upload connection speed was at 20mbps.

I contacted Sky to advise them that I didn't have the full download speed increase, and after doing various tests, including plugging into the master socket, they arranged for a BT Openreach engineer to come out to investigate.

He came yesterday, and spent a good three hours investigating certain things.  He replaced my old adslnation faceplate with a BT Openreach MK3 faceplate (is this better or worse?  I'm not sure), but I was only connecting at 60mbps!  He went to the cabinet at the end of my street, and tried plugging my line into a different port, which made no difference.

Eventually, it turns out that I have aluminium on my line, rather than copper, which means that 60-65mbps is the most my line will ever achieve.

This morning, I checked my router stats and log, and I'm now connecting at 57mbps!  I'm really tempted to reboot the router to see if that improves things, but I understand this can mess the DLM (I'm not sure what DLM means), and I've been advised to leave it for at least 10 days to find a stable connection.

Here are my router stats:

Broadband Link           Downstream   Upstream
Connection Speed   57445 kbps   19999 kbps
Line Attenuation            9.2 dB           0.0 dB
Noise Margin             6.3 dB           5.15 dB

How do these stats look, and is there anything I can do to improve them?

[Dray]

For some reason in your post, you're dividing your speeds by 1000

[RosehillClaret]

For some reason in your post, you're dividing your speeds by 1000

whoops, sorry, you're right!  I've amended the post - thanks!

[Dray]

I don't think the stats look too bad. You've doubled your upload and put almost 20 Mbps on your download. I think the Mk3 faceplate is better then the ADSLNation one.

The only problem is that your router won't give you enough information to be able to see what's really going on so I suppose it comes down to whether you're happy with the upgrade or not.

Do you have many phone extensions?

[RosehillClaret]

Thank you for your reply.  I'm a relative newbie to all this, but learning all of the time!

I don't have any phone extensions - just the master socket.

[kitzuser87430]

We need to know your distance to/from the FTTC cabinet, and the results of the BT dslchecker for your number (please edit out your phone number before posting)

edit (typos)

[RosehillClaret]

Thank you for your reply.  I am about 200m away from the FTTC cabinet.

I tried to do the BT dslchecker for my phone number, but it wouldn't let me, so I have done it using the address lookup tool:

VDSL Range A (clean): Downstream - 80 high, 75.7 low.  Upstream - 20 high, 20 low
VDSL Range B (impacted): Downstream - 80 high, 57.6 low.  Upstream - 20 high, 18.1 low

[kitzuser87430]

BT dslchecker for my phone number

Sorry; you are on sky it will not work for your number (but using your address you have found the estimates)

It may well be the aluminum in your line and this is the best you are going to get.

[davinci8128]

I don't buy it. I think the Openreach guy was just making excuses as he was not able to find the fault..

Based on the attenuation figure and dsl checker your sync speed should be 80 meg.
It would be nice if we could compare with other users connected to the same cabinet and with similar copper length though.

[Chrysalis]

looking at those BTw checker results I would be disappointed.

The checker should take into account your line is ali so I think the excuse from the engineer is weak unless some other pairs connected to your pole are copper and those pushed up the estimates.

Right now you syncing at the low end of the impacted range, something is up.

He was there for 3 hours and in all that time he didnt check the junction box or try a pair swap?

[Black Sheep]

Going off your user-name I think this was actually my mate who did the repair at your house, and I would say he's one of the best there is at all kinds of repair.

He actually rang me up to confirm he hadn't missed anything after doing a D-side change with no further gain as your entire D-side is aluminium cable and most of the DP (Telegraph pole) is providing broadband to your neighbours too. The cross-talk is what's killing your line.

He said he'd rang the DCoE who confirmed his findings but the silly sods did a DLM reset and knocked your INP off, probably losing you in the region of 8-10 Meg ?? This will likely be returned in due course ??
I asked my mate to leave you a note pointing you in the direction of this site with references to INP and Vectoring (as you are on a Huwaei Cab).

He said the readings of the MPF were absolutely perfect with the only point of note being the AC Balance in the mid-fifties (if memory serves ??). This is a problem with Ali cable as it allows more cross-talk than Copper cable would, resulting in a hit on your speed. There is nothing that can be done about this other than Vectoring helping out as and when it gets introduced.

Take it from me though, if this guy has been at your premises (and I'm 99.9% it was him), then all avenues will have been explored. He's probably one of only a handful of engineers I'd have working on my own circuit.     

[kitz]

Connection Speed   57445 kbps   19999 kbps
Line Attenuation            9.2 dB           0.0 dB
Noise Margin             6.3 dB           5.15 dB

If that atten of 9dB is correct, then about 200m seems about right.
57 Mbps seems low for a 200m line and I would expect it to sync around 80Mb... but based on the SNRm there doesnt appear to be anything left to give.

Yes there may be ali, but wouldnt that affect attenuation. Im thinking more crosstalk....  and as I read down the thread...  Ive just noticed BS has responded... 

I was going to suggest if possible running DSLstats on a compatible modem..  where you can sometimes see cross-talk in QLN and bitload..  and you may be also able to spot it on continual monitoring if the disturber switches off their own modem. 

[kitz]

but the silly sods did a DLM reset and knocked your INP off, probably losing you in the region of 8-10 Meg

Damn...  yes it should recover, but may take a few weeks

[Black Sheep]

I've just looked at his notes ..... it was last Friday (4 days ago) that he visited the premises, he actually carried out a 'Lift & Shift' (DSLAM port change), to ensure it wasn't this that was causing the less than expected synch speeds over this distance, maybe it was the L&S that caused the removal of INP ?? I have to admit to not knowing if this would happen, or if indeed a 'manual reset' would have to be done to remove INP ??

Either way, it's still early doors. 

[kitz]

Was thinking, if it was a full DLM reset (done by the engineer or at his request) then it should have gone on to open profile at least for a few days.
I have no way of knowing from the limited stats to see if interleaving has been applied.   Its only if it is interleaved, that it will lose sync speed.

Just double checking... Has it had G.INP knocked off?   INP will only be there if Interleaved.