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[backtogeek]

So I recently moved home and after getting pretty much the best possible speeds in my previous homes 16Mbit/20Mbit for the last few years dropping to 0.75 mbit is extreamly frustrating so I set about reading to see if there was anything I could do to improve my situation myself.

I had a very old main box with loads of extentions and alot of noise on the line, I got a BT engineer out and he replaced it with a new box and all extentions were removed, he also checked out the cabling to the 'box' outside and re terminated it etc.

The above work got me syncing high enough to reach 1mbit, seems small but that is a 33% increase so that was a good start but its still painfully slow considering I work from home and have 4 laptops sharing the connection at any given time.

Next step was after reading alot of forums and info on this site I replaced the plusnet router with a Netgear DG834GT v4 with DGTeam firmware which I read are very good for long lines, plusnet have told me my line is just over 5.5km which puzzles me as I am only 2km from the exchange and the crow flys and even taking the road im 2.6km from the exchange but I accept that its possible deppending on how the line is snaked around the town.

Got the DG834GT and replaced the microfilter I got from plusnet with one I had from sky and got the line syncing at 1660 and after about 15 days of complaining to plusnet that my ip profile was still at 1000 kbps it jumped up to 1250 kbps so thats now a 66% increase from the original 750 kbps profile.

Although I accept that anyone should be happy with a 66% increase in speed the overall number i.e. 1250 kbps is still very low compared to what I am used to.

So the next step was to start playing with the SNR margin with the DGTeam firmware and swap the microfilters (XF-1e Professional by adsl nation) and high quality short rj11 cable that I baught from broadband buyer.

Now with those last steps I have managed to get the line syncing stable at 2272 (which is a 36% jump from the previosu sync speed 1660) again it has been over 90 hours and the ip profile is STILL at 1250, I spoke to plusnet about this and they said there is nothing they can or will do about this as 1250 is close enough to the initial line estimate ...... thanks plusnet...

Anyway I live in hope that the ip profile will change at some point as plusnet have told me that the ip profile has nothing to do with them.

If I have the phone plugged in at the same time the sync speed does drop from 2272 but it is still high enough to get my ip profile to jump to 1500 (The next target)

So in summery I would like to say:

If you are on a long line please dont just accept it there are things you can do to give your self a bit of a boost.

my current sync stats with the phone plugged in:

Connection Speed 1856 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 61.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 10.9 db 19.0 db

So thats my little story I think I have covered everything but I am wondering if anyone wants to add any tips or advise to get that little boost or if anyone know if plugging the phone in as well as the router should be dropping the sync speed by about 300, normal?

My exchange NEAC is due to upgrade to ADSL2 on 31/01/2010,.. is that likley to help with plusnet or should I be looking to move to an LLU provider?

On a whole plusnet have been fine but I dont like the general "just give up thats the best you can get" attitude that they constantly give me, if I had accepted that I would still be on an ip profile of 750 instead of 1250.

[backtogeek]

sorry that should have been 31/01/2011

[waltergmw]

Hi BTG,

You'll see here that you are just a little down on Kitz's estimated speed for 61 dB attenuation.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

If you want to experiment some more with your long line you might try a 2Wire 2700HGV from Amazon or ebay using these instructions:-

http://bt2700hgv.tripod.com/002.htm

Kind regards,
Walter

[backtogeek]

Thanks for the reply walter.

I should have mentioned I baught a 2700HGV from a friend for a couple of ££ and it was better than the router plusnet sent out by about 15% but the netgear DG834G v4 seems to be better on my line.

Based on the caculator I sould be able to get around 2336 which I pretty much can at 2272 but with the phone plugged in as well as the router I only get 1824 is that normal to get a significant drop with the phone plugged in?

Anyhoo been connected at 1824 or higher for 115 hours now and my ip profile is still 1250, anything I can do about that, plusnet simply dont care?

[waltergmw]

Hi BTG,

No it certainly isn't normal for the phone to have any affect at all on the broadband service.
Your symptoms sound precisely like a high resistance fault.
You might try posting on the PlusNet forum where they are usually quite co-operative.

I'm afraid you just have to be patient with the IP Profile, but if the sync speed drops even for a very short time your IP profile will drop almost immediately.
I.e. this is a second-order problem until you have cured the phone problem.

Kind regards,
Walter

[backtogeek]

Just an update incase anyone reads this.

Line is now syncing nicley at 2464 after an engineer visit just waiting for my ip profile to jump up from 1250 to 2000.

MY SNR had been set to 18 after having interleaving turned off which is the real reason I was syncing in the 1800's all of a sudden nothing to do with the phone it seems (confusing) dont know why they changed the target snr to 18 buy I used the DGTeam firmware to override that and am now back at 2464 with an error free line which I think is quite good considering its a 5.6 km line currently at 62db

[jeffbb]

Hi
"dont know why they changed the target snr to 18 "

If you are 8 max then it is automatic .If the line is seen as unstable then The Target SNR increases in 3db increments up to a maximum of 15 . 18 seems odd maybe plusnet had capped your connection?

quote from Kitz: During the sync process the DSLAM and router negotiate a sync speed based on the various conditions of your line, allowing "spare SNR" for normal fluctuations.

With the rate adaptive products, profiles that can be typically set are 6dB, 9dB, 12dB or 15dB -with 6dB being the default. Longer lines are more susceptible to noise and therefore often require a larger margin than shorter lines.

Read more: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats.htm#ixzz1AkslvoAT

Regards Jeff

[iwish]

SNR can be set to whatever they want, I had mine set at 30 at one point

[razpag]

iwish is correct ...... the DLM can see the D/S SNR set at 30+ dB if needed to increase stability. In fact i had one only today as a fault.

The common culprits are circuits provided for the older generation. We (politically incorrect I know) tend to call it 'old dear's syndrome', whereby old Mrs Smith religously turns all the power sockets off when she retires to bed of an evening. Likewise, she turns them all back on in the morning. The DLM will only put up with this for so long and will eventually 'cap' her via a massive increase in D/S SNR.

The DLM is just doing its job by trying to stabilise the circuit, as it perceives the switching off of the Hub/Router to be a fault. A bit of guidance and a phone call to their SP always cures the problem.

Going back to the OP's original statement, you can get a further increase by asking the engineer whether you are on the 'Best cable to cab', if not, a simple E-side change can dramatically improve your speed.