Foobys' I'll fix your internet thread'

[Fooby]

Ahem fooby.... http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3625977987

Challange accepted: http://www.speedtest.net/result/3626892976.png /smugface

Not asking for a fix, but advice. Could you do the thing where you find out who has the best hardware in the area of my new flat so I can get the internet set up, please? It's only 2 people, not massive usage, and is at B30 2AF.

Cheers 'en

Sure, your exchange is (based on postcode) Kings Norton : http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/CMKING

Its always best to check on telephone number since sometimes different lines can go to different exchanges.

It all depends on what package you want and how much you are prepared to pay. I'd personally stay away from TalkTalk and AOL.

Hoping you might be able to give a littel advice on what to ask for specifically as I've had a lot of problems with my internet and average 8 months before having to call someone out to look at it.

When I moved in it was slow. So I removed all the house wiring back to the master. That helped.
Then I set about getting an engineer out to fix the slowness. They replaced the in house wiring to the master box and the wiring from the pole to the house. No help on speed but better SNR.
Then they switched the trunk from the village to the exchange. Two trunks, one older than the other, now on the newer one and that made a difference.
Then I managed to get them to change the port in the exchange I was connected to (lift ans shift?). Boom. head shot. problem gone.

So I get when it's working just over 3Mb down (various from 3 - 3.5) and 768K up max.
Not bad if you consider it was 512/64 when I moved in

Then I started having problems. I'd loose connection. router would say still connected but nothing. Then I got what sounded like cross talk.
Every time we'd have a phone call the line would disconnect.
So they came back out, no fault found. but changed the master for one with a filter (which failed after 24 hours and had to be replaced!) and all then was fine for a little while.

Next came a problem with upload speeds. Connection would drop and then come back with 64Kbps indicated, but in reality I couldn't use the internet as data was not getting sent out, despite their and my end saying it was connected. Several power off / resyncs made it work again, but I was plagued.
The ISP (Plusnet BTW) suggested an upgrade to ADSL2+ but wanted money for that, said no and we settled on a hybrid line.
I also got one of the ADSL faceplates fitted too. Which are great if not a little deep !!
So I've not got - to my understanding - ADSL down stream and ADSL2+ upstream. Confused the hell out of the last Openreach engineer that visited, but apparently that's what I've got now.

Been solid for a good while and then recently it's been playing up again doing silly buggers and dropping upload sync speed.

Now fibre is due end this year, but it's going to be FTTC and the green box is a fair way away, this house is 60year old and the boxes around tend to fill with water which tends to cause call outs so have a feeling it's not going to be the top whack when it does get here.

Regardless of that, is there anything specific I should be asking them to look at ?
I will have to suffer a home visit again, the 5th in 4 years, despite everything in the home being new and having been put there by BT themselves
Just for them to say everything tests fine and then later on inevitably I'll drop again.

Since it's a fault that has never in any of the visits manifested itself whilst an engineer is on site, what can be done to persuade them to look at the green box or the exchange for the source of the problem ?

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Current stats:

Code:

ADSL Link           Downstream   Upstream
Connection Speed     3520 kbps    576 kbps
Line Attenuation     59 db        15.5 db
Noise Margin         5 db         10 db

So its' not performing well on the up right now

For what it's worth, I care more about the up than the down as there are home systems I want to be able to access and right now 3.5Mb is fast enough.
I'd happily take 1Mb up/down as a compromise if only it was stable !!

Firstly well done on managing your ISP (plusnet are actually pretty decent from what i've seen) getting a lift and shift done (correct term) is basically a tie pair change at the exchange. Normally does fix a lot of problems.

It should be quite easy to determine what ADSL modulation you have (ADSL, ADSL 'Max' (upto 8meg) and ADSL2/2+) The modulation is known as G992.5 (thats for ADSL2+) if you can tell me what modulation you have i'll tell you what connection you have.

Now; you get 3.5meg on 59db. I have to say, thats pretty impressive given the line length. Since according to my calcs, and 'average' line is max 2.9meg. So your line must have pretty decent copper going (which it sounds like it does from all the work that you say has been carried out)

Upload is generally harder to get on the longer line distances. But if we check your modulation we'll be able to see if thats a limiting factor.

There most likely isn't much more you can do, because unfortunately i suspect your issues are going to be down to battery faults and water damage. Problem only arising when it rains and by the time the engineer gets there its dried out.

And again, your ISP will be reluctant to keep working on it since you are getting better than average speed.

Best thing to do would be to monitor it and when you get poor sync speed, record it like the above. Feel free to paste it in here and i'll have a gander when it happens.

Potentially that splitter could be screwing the whole schebang up.. it doesnt take much to interfere with a line..

...

you need to rewire the telephone cabling in your house thus...

Code:

[pole]-----[master]-------------[extension]--------[extension] (daisy chained)

Exactly what Toseland said

Those connections before your master socket are 100000% your problem.

You need to sack them off and re-wire them into your master socket.

Guys, I owe you both a drink, just disconnected those two sockets -



Just under 2.7Mbps now I'll ring them and ask them to change the line settings as well Fooby.

WOW amazing, you've gone from 64db to 39db. Insane.

Even still, you still have some issues but lets let it settle, Since i bet your BRAS profile (also known as your IP Profile) on the line will have you limited, it will take a while to reset itself. But i'd be estimating you should be getting between 8 and 10meg down. But get that fastpath off