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[Ash888]

guys iv been looking around for info on bt's adsl2 service or wbc.

basically last year i came across this, and on sites like samknows and of course on here. bt's 21cn and wbc are both set to be enabled in my area from the 31st march 2009, which was last tuesday. im currently with bt and as my contract was nearing the end i thought i would see if they are offering this service or il go elsewhere to get the same speed i am getting already for cheaper.

after being passed around, finally someone told me that it would upgrade automatically on my line from tuesday and after checking my line, he said i could get speeds of upto 9mb, i believe bt are only offering up to 10 at the moment with adsl2 until they enable more exchanged. they offered me discount on my current package option 3 aswell,  so i waited and its now almost been a week with no change at all to my line stats.
i called back, and they told me it would be active from the 6th or 7th, as that is when the new contract will start.

i checked this site again today, and there is now a green light next to bt 21cn with speed on 9mb. last week it was red and unavailable. so there must be something going on.

i was wondering if someone can tell me more about this, as im worried that i might have just tied myself down to another contract and not getting what i was told.
are bt currently offering an adsl2 service to customers?

your help would be most appreciated.
thanks

[pintosal]

Re contracts, you are probably covered by Distance Selling Regulations which means there is a 'cooling off' period.

Have a look at this,
http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/
but you must act quickly.

[kitz]

There arent many ISPs that are actually using WBC at the moment.

Although I have seen a few BT lines showing the higher sync speed, its seldom you see anyone actually getting the higher speeds.
AFAIK they dont actually offer it as a package.  They were doing some 'trials' a few months back when some users volunteered to go on the service, and only the trialists were put on the higher speeds...  and afaik for the time being at least they aren't accepting any more whilst they iron out a few problems.

IIRC the only ISPs that are offering adsl2+ via WBC now are

The entanet ISPs
Andrews and Arnold.
Plusnet (Trialist only - but any user on a WBC exchange can request to go on the trial)

[Ash888]

thanks guys

really helpful info, i guess it was a bit too good to be true, but i guess il take it up with them.
i live less than 2km from the exchange, so out of the 'upto 8mb' im getting 6.5, with sync at 7.6 on router.
so i was expecting any changes to be noticeable in the stats.

il let you guys know what happens.
thanks again.

[Ash888]

update:

my line stats have updated, so bt do offer adsl2.

im getting 10.6 and uploads of around 700.

router stats showing sync at 13408 and 855 upload.
so all good at the moment.

[kitz]

>> router stats showing sync at 13408 and 855 upload.

Excellent - thanks for letting me know.  They presumably must have re-opened their trials and put you on it 

[kitz]

Added - Just been doing a search on the BT site and came across this page if anyone else is interested.

In the next few months, BT will be rolling out ADSL2+ to new and existing BT Total Broadband customers! ADSL2+ is even faster broadband providing download speeds of up to 20Mb

/snip/

Up to 20Mb will be available in the coming months. Your local telephone exchange needs to be upgraded for you to get up to 20Mb. Hundreds of exchanges have already been upgraded and we are currently carrying out trials to make sure we provide a high-quality faster broadband service as soon as possible!

[Ash888]

yeh sounds good, i think they are keeping it at around 10mb for now, until more exchanges have been upgraded.
like i said before, i live just around the corner from the exchange, so luckily i get a good connection and usually some of the highest speeds that they offer.

let you know how it goes over the next few  days.
thanks for your input.

[kitz]

yw.

Please do let us know how it goes.

im getting 10.6 and uploads of around 700.

router stats showing sync at 13408 and 855 upload.

Thats probably about right - a sync of 13408 will give you an IP profile of 11000, so your actual throughput speed will likely be a bit under that.

What operating system do you use?  You may get a little more by tweaking your MTU - or rather RWIN if you have XP.

[Ash888]

thanks kitz

im using vista, and iv been using the belkin n1 router for that past 1 1/2 - 2 years.

il check out the link.

also, iv noticed my noise stats have decreased, might be temporary but upload has a big drop.

downstream used to be around 6 anyway, but now iv seen it as low as 5,
upstream went from a steady 19 to 6 aswell.

you think it will just take a few days for the line to settle?

[kitz]

>> im using vista,

The bigger speed increases are normally made by tweaking your RWIN - unfortunately Vista doesnt allow RWIN tweaking.

Theres a little bit about RWIN in vista here, but it may not be worth it.  If you were on XP it could well be.

>> iv noticed my noise stats have decreased, might be temporary but upload has a big drop.

If you mean the SNRM has change between you being on max and adsl2+, then this is perfectly normal. 
Expect your SNRM to decrease by about 3db on average for each 800 kbps of increased speed.  (3dB = anything from 400 to 1200 kbps of speed depending on your bit loading).

To complicate things further if you were able to sync at around the full 7/8Mb previously when on Max, its possible that powercut back may have been employed by the DSLAM, which will have reduced your signal strength in turn lowering your SNR.  Now you are on adsl2+, all lines should now run at full power.

[Ash888]

i had a look, my mtu in router is set at 1432 default, so i changed my pc mtu to the same, is that right? and would i do this on all computers connected and would it be beneficial on the ps3 aswell?

i used to tweak settings in xp but never looked into vista since i got it as the connection was good enough.

i read alot of the info on the site, so i was aware of some changes to the stats which are expected when changing from adsl to adsl2.
heres my router stats below as of now, sometime the noise value fluctuates.
i also just noticed that the interleaving is no longer there, read about that on here aswell.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[kitz]

>> my mtu in router is set at 1432 default, so i changed my pc mtu to the same, is that right?

Possibly in that case it may be best changing the router MTU rather than having to mess with all the PCs.

The router MTU should never be lower than the PCs, or else it can become a blackhole and can cause dropped packets - particularly if the remote server has ICMP turned off.  (Such as M$, hotmal, ebuyer and some other secure sites).

MTU/RWIN tweaking can be beneficial on XP, but due to the different way Vista handles the TCP/IP stack its not really worth messing about unless you have obvious problems through blackholing.  I went back to XP on my machines, but when I had Vista on I did notice speeds were slower over LAN traffic, so just disabled auto-tuning.

[kitz]

Re your stats. 

They kind of look ok, just a bit lower speeds than I'd anticipate for a good 27dB line.
Normal recommendation is check internal wiring and filters.  Test from test socket behind the nte5a if you have one.


I also notice your output power from the dsam is at 23.3 dBm - not something you'd normally see,
Usual is somewhere around 19-20dBm... but its not something I would complain about as more power output gives a stronger signal.
Noise Margin fluctuations during the day is normal - its usually worse in the evenings.

Re interleaving, your line will currently be going through a training period.  Presumably as with many ISPs on Max, at first Interleaving is off.. but the DLM will automatically turn it on if it would be beneficial to the line.

[Ash888]

im in a new build flat, so i dont have a test socket, im currently using a line in the bedroom but when i plugged it in the living room socket, it was the same.
i guess there is nothing i can do about the line stats, so il keep an eye on them and see if anything happens over the next 2 weeks.
based on your max speed adsl test, i should be able to get up to 15mb, as bt told they have only just started rolling out so they will most probably increase it later. but i cant complain with what im getting anyway.

with regards to the mtu: im not too familiar with it, what would i set the router mtu as? or how can i go about finding out?
i did a ping test in cmd with the -f -l mtu. after i set pc to 1432, only 1404 gave me 0% loss, something about 28mb header?