Where's my speed gone?

Hi all
Been beating my head against a brick wall on this (as have UKOnline's tech guys), so I thought I'd get round to registering and seeing if anyone in here had any ideas...

Been with UKOnline since feb, after they LLU'd my local exchange (Whitchurch Cardiff SWWXC).
Originally had a fantastic increase in speed over my previous (ono LLU) ISP, and went straight up to 8meg

My line stats back then were:
Downstream
Speed 8.2meg
Attenuation 45.5
SNRM 6.4
interleave depth 64
Upstream
Speed 0.78meg
Attenuation 26.8
SNRM 8.0
interleave depth 4

All was fine for many months, with speeds varying between 7 and 9 meg - well happy!

This continued up until at least mid Sept (last time I have proof of speed from a recorded speedtest.net test), and I believe, up until 2 weeks ago (ish).

I was off last week (half term), but when I logged back on on Monday, it all felt a bit well, slow.

Test showed I was getting about 2.5meg...

Called tech support, spoke to about half a dozen different people, who tweaked settings (got speed to about 3.5meg) and eventually called out a BT Eng.
BT Eng arrived at the exchange at 10am Tues, and (apparently) by 3pm had "cleared the fault" (no idea what the fault was, or what they did to "clear" it).
That seemed to make little or no difference though

Banged my head against tech support guys again, who eventually seemed to come up with "we've done all we can *shrug*"

I now have a MAC code, in readiness to wander off elsewhere

BUT - I don't really want to go - I like UKOnline, and apart from this incident, they've been great.

I've been in email conversation with Claire in Customer Services, and she has now re-forwarded my emails to tech support for a last ditch attempt to resolve it.

My current line stats are:
Downstream
Speed 3.8meg
Attenuation 42.0
SNRM 4.6
interleave depth 16
Upstream
Speed 0.89meg
Attenuation 27.5
SNRM 8.0
interleave depth 4

So attenuation has gone down (usually a good thing!), interleave has dropped from 64 to 16, and speed is about half what I used to get

I'm (still) waiting on tech support to reply - but has anyone in here got any ideas? (Please! )


The other possible note of interest is that previously my line was supporting solid use of frequencies up to about 850kHz, plus fairly solid up to 1540kHz (downstream), and up to about 350kHz (upstream).

Now it's only reporting to about 750kHz down and 170kHz up.


I'm kinda guessing that something physical has happened to my line (all tests and numbers taken direct from Master Test socket) - but how can I find out for sure (and get it undone!)?


I really don't want to leave - but if the techs shrug their shoulders again then I'm probably going to have to

Be* / O2 have enabled my exchange, so report that I could get 8meg from them - which is at least back to about what I used to get - but I don't really want to go there...


Many thanks for reading - apols for such a long first post but I'm pulling my hair out here, so any help would be MUCH appreciated

Hi,

In reply to:

---

SNRM 4.6

---

There's your problem right there. If you PM me your username I'll see what I can do with it, but it looks like your line conditions have deteriorated. Remember that winter is here, and as the weather gets worse a lot of people will see a reduction in sync speed.

Also, no matter what speed an ISP tells you that you 'should' be able to achieve, it's entirely dependant on the copper between you and the exchange. If you change do a different provider, it's likely BT will just re-jumper your line in the exchange and your connection will be just as bad.


--------------------------------------------
Dan Govier - Escalations & Fault Management
#easynet | UKOnline
--------------------------------------------

"I'm not a geek, I'm a level 70 Mage."

Thank you Dan

PM just sent

"Remember that winter is here, and as the weather gets worse a lot of people will see a reduction in sync speed"

My lines got better :P lol and im on FP heheehehe

UK Online LLU 7.0 - 8.0Mb

Granted speed usually drops in the winter but not by over 50%!!!

I think it would be somewhat unprofessional to try attributing a less-than-half-the-original-sync-rate drop to atmospheric conditions!

And if the SNR has dropped from 6.5 to 4.5dB, surely this should have yielded a HIGHER sync rate? Doesn't really explain it atall...

I think the interleave depth having been lowered from 64ms to 16ms will have decreased the sync rate a little, but again, there's no way it would have made such a big difference.

The Attenuation drop is an odd one also...

Something has definitely happened to the line physically that won't change with any line coding tweake (unfortunately for Dan )

It could be any of the following:

> Router's modem on it's way out
> Faulty filter(s) allowing PSTN leakage onto the ADSL tones
> Faulty PSTN device or extension causing RFI on the ADSL tones

So the first thing to do would be to test another modem or router right in at the test socket.

If that doesn't make any difference (watch out for and make a record of the SNR margin when you do this), then it's something external. One of the following:

> Faulty ADSL port on DSLAM
> Faulty Tie Pair in Exchange
> Faulty jointing on PSTN side somehwere in the network
> A neighbour or neighbours having connecte equiptment to their phone line injecting RFI into all the asjacent pairs in the E-Side from Pole to Cab or Cab to Exchange (I.e. a TV with faulty leaking capacitors connected to a power socket very closed to a PSTN device or a PC with a faulty PSU sharing an outlet with a DECT phone).

The possibilities are endless. You will find that all ISPs are reluctant to go too far with this sort of fault as most of the time it's nigh on inpossible (and certainly economically unfeasable) to track down and eliminate the root cause of a problem like this if there aren't any obvious copper line faults, like a rectified loop, battery contact, earth contact, etc. If any of these faults were present, they would have been picked up when UKOnline first did a line check.

But try a new router in at the NTE5 test socket and see what you get. Jumping ship to another ISP is the last thing to do (And the way Be* and O2 are going chances are you'd get under two meg throughput even if your sync rate went back up to seven or eight meg with them)

'iZools

_____________________________________________
UKOnline Premier
16637K Down, 3.0dB SNR, 34dB Loss
1022K Up, 9.0dB SNR, 18dB Loss
Linksys AM200 & D-Link DIR 635
Thanks to UKOnline for allowing a 3.0dB Target SNRM!
Speed Test

This thread makes me realise how lucky I am that my phone line is underground to my house so is not really effected by the weather of winter.

UK Online LLU Upto 8MB

Hi all, and many thanks for the comments

things have been moving on a bit, with a big move last night...

First up, yep, have indeed tried all the normal stuff - master test socket, different filters, different router etc
Nothing made any noticable difference, so I'm convinced that the problem is outside my house...

As of last night, a tier3 tech has contacted me, and we are now in the process of organising a full blown BT healthcheck on the line - proper pukka BB eng with full testing kit, who will plug into the line at various stages between the exchange and my house, to work out where the problem is
(Just need to agree a date for this - murphy's law dictates that I'm out for 3 days now LOL )

Got to say that UKO (inc Dan) have been really good about this, and are really pulling out all the stops to try and get it resolved - very impressive


So it most certainly looks like I'll be ditching my MAC code into the circular filling cabinet - it was really only as a last resort anyway, and the tech guys have now fully restored my faith!

thanks again - I'll let you all know how the results turn out (but that might be next week now)

cheers

In reply to:

---

And if the SNR has dropped from 6.5 to 4.5dB, surely this should have yielded a HIGHER sync rate?

---

This is not entirely the case. If you lower the 'target' SNR to 4.5dB on a good line you would of course expect to achieve a higher rate of sync due to more bits per bin being encoded.

However, if the in-service SNR drops to 4.5dB and the sync speed drops with it, with the target SNR remaining unchanged, you can be certain there is a degradation of line quality or an appearance of noise/interferance. The only question that then remains is what is causing that noise? (Which is near impossible to identify without a Health Check in most instances)


--------------------------------------------
Dan Govier - Escalations & Fault Management
#easynet | UKOnline
--------------------------------------------

"I'm not a geek, I'm a level 70 Mage."

In reply to:

---

However, if the in-service SNR drops to 4.5dB and the sync speed drops with it, with the target SNR remaining unchanged, you can be certain there is a degradation of line quality

---

Yup, see where your coming from now

Let's see how this BT Healthcheck works out huh.

Can any LLU ISPs do a TAM test like BT Wholesale can on their test equiptment. Would tell you three minuites after clicking a button whether the line card / port was faulty.

Anyone know what a TAM test is?

Well... In BT Wholesale Land they have a device called a "Test Access Matrix" and what this does is, by way of nifty relays, disconnect the ADSL Modem on the DSLAM from the Subscriber and connect it to a "Test Access Matrix" inside the exchange, which would attempt to sync up with the subscribers DSLAM port and attempt to authenticate on the RAS.

This has the effect of telling the ISP immediately if the port is faulty, as you would expect with the TAM being in the exchange it should>

Sync at the full speed (8128K or 24576K on ADSL 2+)
Authenticate on the RAS
Show a 0dB looploss

If the TAM doesn't do that, then you know straight off the bat that the line card is faulty and an enginner visit to CP is not nesacerry, but a Lift & Shift is.

Nifty huh? If only LLU operators could do the same...

_____________________________________________
UKOnline Premier
16637K Down, 3.0dB SNR, 34dB Loss
1022K Up, 9.0dB SNR, 18dB Loss
Linksys AM200 & D-Link DIR 635
Thanks to UKOnline for allowing a 3.0dB Target SNRM!
Speed Test

I had the same thoughts but didnt want to argue with a ukonline support rep.

The attenuation change shouts out physical change on line, could be his pair been swapped with someone else or a fault.