Sky broadband - should my speed be better?

Hi,

I have had sky broadband for a number of years now (virtually since it was launched), unfortunatley my line speed has dropped in that time. I have the mid package (up to 8Mbits/s).

My actual download speed is roughly 1.7Mbits/s. Previously this has been as high as 2.5Mbits/s. The BT line checker predicts my broadband speed to be 4Mbits/s, significantly faster than what I actually get.

My router's sync speed is 2047 Kbits/s and stays pretty constant. I have tested my router on the master socket and the test socket, all yielded no improvement to my sync or actual speeds. I also purchased a BT iPlate which increased my sync speed by about 100 Kbits/s.

My line stats are: (taken while connected to master socket)
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2047 kbps 412 kbps
Line Attenuation 48.5 db 28.5 db
Noise Margin 9.9 db 22.0 db

Surely with those numbers I ought to receive a greater connection speed.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Mike

I'm no expert, but the number that sticks out to me is your noise margin of 9.9db - seems like a noisy line to me.

If you try the speed calculator at

http://www.farina1.com/adsl/

your numbers show you should get 2.1Mbps on ADSL and 5.5-6.3Mbps on ADSL2+

1.7Mbps isn't that far removed from 2.1 and could be down to congestion?

Ideally from the www.farina1.com/adsl checker it says you would expect to see a speed around 3400Kbps for 48dB attenuation.

The 9dB noise margin is slowing you down, i.e. if this was allowed to drop to 6dB you'd gain some speed back, so need to talk to Sky and ask them to set their DLM to have a target noise margin of 6dB.

Ok thanks for that guys!

I am in email conversation with sky ATM. Will report back

What causes a noisy line? As you can see from the line attenuation we are not that far from the exchange - about 2.8km according to samknows. I think BT relaid the cable from the street cabinet up the back path to my house (at least I think that's how the phone comes in), could this have caused a problem?

Is there anything I can do to help a noisy line?

Many Thanks,
Mike

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

What causes a noisy line?

MW radio usually. The ringwire acts as an aerial. Removing the ringwire helps.

I have a BT iPlate fitted with the effect of removing the bell wire. Also my numbers are the same even when connected to the BT Test Socket bypassing the bell wire altogether.

Can it be caused by poor wiring on BTs part?

Thanks,
Mike

It could be BT, but as long as the ADSL works, they are not going to investigate squeezing the last ounce out of a line.

If you have extensions that are not using twisted pair cable this can also have an effect, i.e. testing everything at the test socket behind the faceplate is a good move, this is the best you can manage in the home, and if the speeds drop as you add kit, well time to look at cabling/filters

Many thanks for all your help.

It seems that the number is posted earlier were actually from an extension socket - my mistake!

From my REAL test socket the numbers are as follows:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2047 kbps 412 kbps
Line Attenuation 47.5 db 27.8 db
Noise Margin 13.4 db 22.5 db

Using the ADSL calculator these numbers seem a lot better. Unfortunately they drop even when used with the standard master socket. Is there anything that I can do to help them?

Sky are investigating my line, but, I am not holding my breath.

Thanks,
Mike

I think Sky have you on their version of a 2Meg fixed speed product, as I'd have expected the downstream speed to go up, rather than the noise margin.

Is there any extensions connected to the master socket, even though the modem is not on the end of the extension this wiring can have an effect

Andrew,

I wonder if that's is the case - It wouldn't surprise me Sky are useless at everything.

Yes there are a couple of extensions fitted. I bought an iPlate with the hope that it would improve my speed. Would the extensions still create a problem even with the iPlate fitted. I'm thinking about snipping the bell wire as well to see if that will help. Do you think it would?

I think that I will get on to Sky and find out what the heck is going on!

Many thanks,

Mike