Adsl line appears to be speed capped low

I'm an old Pipex customer who was moved over to Talk Talk a while back.

My adsl broadband speed has always been poor but I thought that was just a distance thing and having an old moden (Speedtouch v4).

I have just got a new modem (Billion 7800N) and I'm not seeing any discernable difference in bb speed, I'm seem to hitting a limit of 2.6Mb/s, the modem reports the adsl speed as 3072kbps.

I've played the SnR on the billion and all that happens in the test is that I hit 2.6Mb faster.

I wasn't aware there are hard ceilings on adsl lines that are purporting to offer faster speeds, 8Mb in my case.

I called Talk Talk support and was told my line is capped at 3Mb/s as that's all it's capable of reaching, when I argued the toss she hung up. I called back and spoke to another one of their tech support and was told there was definately no low cap and my limit is 7.8Mb.

So who's right here, I'm seem to be hitting a brick wall at 2.6Mb/s.

Many thanks,
Peter

Connection rates, attenuations and noise margins please just after a reboot and your question will be answered

Thanks Mr Saffron, info below:

DSP Firmware Version A2pB025f.d22k
DMT Status No Defect
Operational Mode ADSL2+
Upstream 885
Downstream 3072
SNR Margin(Upstream) 6.5
SNR Margin(Downstream) 17.3
Line Attenuation(Upstream) 20.3
Line Attenuation(Downstream) 41.0

First thing to do is to try the test socket (the one behind the removable lower half of the master socket) and report the stats as you have a major problem

Edited by Oldjim (Sat 12-May-12 19:49:05)

If you take the definition of a megabit as 1024 kilobits (rather that 1000) then the sync of 3072 is EXACTLY 3 megabits, this would be a huge coincidence given the previous statement that the line was capped at 3 megabits (along with the 17.3 dB SNR as a line 'maxed out' against a cap will show a high SNR).

Don't ignore Oldjim's advice though as any cap that may have been placed may have been due to issues including extension wiring.

Edited by Al1264 (Sat 12-May-12 23:44:58)

Thanks guys.

From what I can see there doesn't appear to be a master socket. Where the line comes into the house it's wired halfway through the house to a socket in the hall. There's another socket upstairs which is what I'm connected to.

A friend's borrowing my laptop I'll have to get it back and connect up via the hallway socket and see if there's any difference there.

Pete

Just got off the phone with their support again, spoke for about 20 minutes of really getting nowhere (apart from my cap being actually 9.2Mb), as I was unhappy with the issue and wanted it escalated, they spoke with a 'Product Specialist' who told them my 'profile' shows I do indeed have a 3Mb cap on the line.

There explanation was that network engineers would have tested the line and found there were too many errors at higher speeds.

I find that a little hard to believe as I was customer carried over from Pipex that their own engineers have been anywhere near my line, I doubt it's been checked in years, it's certainly the first I've heard of it.

I was told only a network engineer can lift this cap (and there must be a cost in involving an engineer as their support seemed very reluctant to do so), is this true, would it be capped at the exchange or at the Talk Talk end?

What should my next move be?

Many thanks,
Peter

Just a few buttons to press on a computer for someone with the appropriate rights

And if it's raised above the capabilities of the line I'll have lots of errors or does it find its own level?

It fnds its own level every time the modem connects