Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: Possibily the worst line, ever?  (Read 10807 times)

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Possibily the worst line, ever?
« on: February 14, 2007, 10:03:50 PM »

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
Logged

havelock

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 110
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2007, 12:01:14 AM »

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
Logged

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2007, 11:40:51 AM »

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
Logged

mr_chris

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2007, 12:00:11 PM »

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 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 page, e.g. getting an ADSL faceplate, plugging your router direct into the master socket, etc.

Hope this helps :)
Logged
Chris

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2007, 12:36:03 PM »

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
Logged

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2007, 10:47:23 PM »

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
Logged

soms

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 537
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2007, 12:13:33 AM »

>>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

>>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.
(Description of exchange contention/status checker written by kitz  here.)

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 :)
Logged

roseway

  • Administrator
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 43467
  • Penguins CAN fly
    • DSLstats
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2007, 07:28:36 AM »

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
Logged
  Eric

Jameseh

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2007, 10:57:52 AM »

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
Logged

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2007, 02:17:22 PM »

Hi,

No I haven't run the BT Speed Tester yet. Will give it ago when I get home from work later.

Cheers
Logged

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2007, 09:18:47 PM »

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
Logged

mr_chris

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2007, 09:52:13 PM »

Yeah, the BT speedtester is a bit flaky. You've gotta keep trying unfortunately.
Logged
Chris

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2007, 07:55:55 PM »

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]
Logged

havelock

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 110
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2007, 01:06:52 AM »

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
« Last Edit: March 27, 2007, 03:47:03 AM by havelock »
Logged

shauntr

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 11
Re: Possibily the worst line, ever?
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2007, 06:04:39 PM »

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


 
Logged
Pages: [1] 2