I have for the last few years had a 2Mb broadband service from BT. I recently decided to change ISP, the migration to the new provider seemed to go very smoothly with out a problem last Thursday (25th Jan). I noticed that morning that the line had sync'ed to a higher speed, with 5.5Mb down and 488k up. Although disappointed that it had not increased to 8Mb I had already been told to expect about 5.5Mb so this was not a surprise. The noise margin on the line also dropped from around 19db to around 6dB. Again having read lots of the good stuff on this web site I was also expecting this to. The Thinkbroadband speed tester was showing I was getting around 4.5Mb download, and around 370k up.
I recalled reading an item on this web site about improving your noise margin by disconnecting the wire from pin 3 on your master socket as this had been known to cause noise on the line. I did this the following day and re-booted the router (a Voyage 2091 with unlocked ISP code - Dynalink). I checked to see what effect this had and was initially disappointed as it only showed a slight increase in the noise margin, this now been between 6.5 and 7 dB. However, I then noticed the sync speed had increased giving me 8Mb down and 448k. The router was even suggesting a sync speed of 1Mb would be achievable. Great a thought, less see what this does to the down and upload rates I thought.
I have been monitoring the down and up rates over the last few days, still using Thinkbroadband. The download rates have been steadily falling and now they are back to just over 2Mb. the upload rate is also falling but not by the same degree. I can see that there are errors on the line, there were before the upgrade, but there are a lot more now.
I have been advised by my new ISP that the rates will fall (and this is normal?) but should pick up as I progress through the training period. I have read conflicting information as to what this training period actually does, and also if the BRAS profile, which I believe is what controls your down/up load rates, continues to update itself through the life time of your broadband service, or whether it is set in stone after the 10 day period.
Can any body shed some more light on this grey area for me. Is my download rate going to recover at all, or am I going to be stuck with this 2Mb limit?
As I mentioned above I am using a Voyager 2091 router with modified firmware to enable me to continue to use it on a non BT service. the firm is from Dynalink whose routers I believe use the same chipset. I had replaced the Voyager with a new Belkin F5D9630 router, but even with help from Kitz and others, include Belkin (who I must say were pretty useless), I could not find any way of displaying the error stats on the line. So I changed back to using to using the Voyager so I could keep a check on the errors (and took the Belkin back to the shop). Could the router be contributing to the problem, is it worth changing it?
If any one out there has a few minutes and give me some advise I would very much appreciate it.
Thanks
Vic