trying to diagnose slow speeps

I'm back at my parents house for Christmas and they've been having problems with their broadband.

Apparently for the past year or so their router has been dropping connection and telephone has been intermittently crackly. They had a visit from a BT engineer who said there was a problem with the line running into the house possibly due to damp getting into the cable. He swapped over the line that runs into the house with an old line that we used to use years ago as a second line. Since then the phones are no longer crackly and the internet does not drop out but we are now experiencing slow speeds. We're on Pipex .5Mbit but usually averaging about .1-.2Mbit. The speed does not seem to depend on the time of day.

My parents want to change to BT and think that Pipex might be at fault but I'm wondering if changing over to this old second line might have something to do with the slow speeds? I've seen 25% packet loss whilst pinging my ISPs servers also.

Another strange thing is that I was looking at options for changing to a different provider, and saw that the BT wholesale availability checker is only indicating that our max available speed is 0.5Mbit even though we used to have working 1Mbit broadband a few years ago. We're approx 0.5 km from the exchange as the crow flies and downstream Line Attenuation is 12.0 dB. How does the availability checker work and is it "aware" that the line into the house has been changed over by the BT engineer?

The router is connected through the master socket, and the configuration of the phones around the house hasn't changed since the days when our internet was working perfectly.

Also, I've ruled out viruses/spyware and faulty routers. I'm really trying to work out whether Pipex are just cr@p or there is a physical problem with our line.

I know this is a long post with lot's of questions, any help appreciated!

In reply to a post by glasvegas:

We're approx 0.5 km from the exchange as the crow flies and downstream Line Attenuation is 12.0 dB.

Is that the current attenuation reported on the new line?

What about all the stats including SNR?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by glasvegas:

We're approx 0.5 km from the exchange as the crow flies and downstream Line Attenuation is 12.0 dB.

Is that the current attenuation reported on the new line?

What about all the stats including SNR?

yeah, new line.

Connection Speed 576 kbps 288 kbps
Line Attenuation 12.0 db 5.5 db
Noise Margin 30.2 db 27.0 db

In reply to a post by glasvegas:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by glasvegas:

We're approx 0.5 km from the exchange as the crow flies and downstream Line Attenuation is 12.0 dB.

Is that the current attenuation reported on the new line?

What about all the stats including SNR?

yeah, new line.

Connection Speed 576 kbps 288 kbps
Line Attenuation 12.0 db 5.5 db
Noise Margin 30.2 db 27.0 db

Looks like the connection is fixed speed and not Max i.e. up to 8Mbps, isn't Pipex owned by Tiscali who are now owned by Talk Talk?

The line stats are very good and using this devised by MrSaffron will give an indication of the line's capabilities when you enter the line data/stats.

Might be a good time to look at other ISPs if contract T&C not a problem, see what is available at the local exchange, there might be some good LLU providers there.

>>> samknows exchange check.

Alastair

omadasafisho

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

Looks like the connection is fixed speed and not Max i.e. up to 8Mbps, isn't Pipex owned by Tiscali who are now owned by Talk Talk?

The line stats are very good and using this devised by MrSaffron will give an indication of the line's capabilities when you enter the line data/stats.

Might be a good time to look at other ISPs if contract T&C not a problem, see what is available at the local exchange, there might be some good LLU providers there.

>>> samknows exchange check.

So, if the stats are good any idea why the bt wholesaler checker say that the max available speed I can get is 0.5 Mbit?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Looks like the connection is fixed speed and not Max i.e. up to 8Mbps"? That I'm on a 0.5Mbit connection?

What we are subscribed to is a 0.5Mbit connection but only getting average 0.2Mbit which is like being on dial-up again

Thanks for all the input so far.

In reply to a post by glasvegas:

What we are subscribed to is a 0.5Mbit connection but only getting average 0.2Mbit which is like being on dial-up again

That attenuation could get you a 24Mbit connection which would be a good deal faster. Are there any LLU providers like BE/O2 at your exchange?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by glasvegas:

What we are subscribed to is a 0.5Mbit connection but only getting average 0.2Mbit which is like being on dial-up again

That attenuation could get you a 24Mbit connection which would be a good deal faster. Are there any LLU providers like BE/O2 at your exchange?

no just ADSL max. what is the maximum speed with that? 8Mbit?

Does anyone have any idea why the BT Wholesale checker could be giving max speed of .5 Mbit and if this could be anything to do with the "swapping" of my line by the BT engineer as mentioned in my first post?

because they haven't updated the database yet...?
If you swap to ADSL Max, you should see 8 Megs no problem, unless the line is aluminum not copper...
Which exchange...?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

If you swap to ADSL Max, you should see 8 Megs no problem, unless the line is aluminum not copper...

Hmmm? Surely the point of knowing the material is to either predict the attenuation (which we already know) or to explain high attenuation (which they don't have) for a short length.

His current ISP is giving him a truly rotten service or left him on one. Shame on them.

I suppose there could be noise higher up the spectrum that doesn't impact his current pitful sync but it seems unlikely.

Andrue Cope
Brackley, UK

Just because he can

Edited by Andrue (Wed 23-Dec-09 12:51:48)

Yes, I'm quite sure he'll get full speed with such a short line.
He just needs to move off the fixed 500k service.