Poor speeds today?

Is anyone else experiencing slow speeds today?

Here are my speed test results

http://www.speedtest.net/result/822716578.png
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/1...

I'm on 8000 pro. My router is synced at 7552 kbps. Tried rebooting it anyway but it had no effect

No, I can beat your rubbish Zen speeds today, although as I put in seperate thread, it's been going on for days, and no reason.

Hmm. I don't think your problems are related to mine though. I see your sync speed has dropped right down. Mine it still over 7000k

You're right, probably not related.

Slightly down but it is peak time.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/822972192.png

Well mine's been under 1 meg for about 24 hours now

Full 8128/448 sync on 20CN:



No problems on the network at the min either, no reason why you shouldn't get full speed. Maybe exchange congestion?

Seems most likely. I am curious though why my router is now syncing between 7100 and 7600. A while back it used to sync at 8128 every time. Not that I'd noticed any performance issues until today anyway.

Mine has a tendancy to do that, more often than not in winter though, when the nights get longer. Despite wanting to keep it at 8128, exchange congestion is generally the bottleneck, so losing upto a meg of sync harldy makes a difference.

If you post your full stats (attenuation/SNR etc.) then someone will be able to figure out what's going on. I suspect a series of disconnections at some point (thunderstorm, voice fault maybe) has pushed your target SNR up from the default of 6db. Mine can't handle 8128 at 9db or higher.

My stats, for reference:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 31 db 7.5 db
Noise Margin 7 db 27 db

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7616 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 24 db 7.5 db
Noise Margin 5 db 26 db

I did notice that the downstream noise margin was varying between 3 and 6 every time the page refreshed. Router is a Netgear DG834Gv2. My filters date right back from when I first got ADSL in 2003

Ah ha, 7616 suggests interleaving has been switched on, which with some combinations of DSLAM/router results in a max sync of 7616. Saying that, the margin is a bit low. I did see mine varying too, most likely as a result of it getting dark at the moment.

With an attenuation of 24db you shouldn't need interleaving on, unless there's something 'down the line' which is causing a lot of interference (the low SNR could be indicative of this).

If you're curious, you could try getting interleaving switched off, but that could of course cause more problems if turns out it is needed, but can always be turned back on if it causeds problems. I think you can request this in the portal, not sure from memory.

Ah no, you can't do it in the portal, you have to email support, as per http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.as...

One thing that might be worth doing is seeing what stats you get from the test socket:

http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.as...

...important to remember that speeds won't increase immediately due to the IP profile, but that stats will be a good indication. If this does show improvement (mainly on the SNR) then you should look at optimising your internal wiring. There's quite a bit of info on that on the internet (like removing the ring-wire), but I don't know of any sites off the top of my head.

edit: typo in the last sentence!

Edited by jongreen84 (Sat 22-May-10 21:42:19)

Found this in my customer portal

http://www.zen16617.zen.co.uk/lineprof.jpg

That seems about the date when the sync dropped slightly. This house does have some hard wired extensions that are unused. Could it be worth getting rid of them? I've also found that the VP status of my exchange (oakham) is red.

Yeah, that'll be interleaving then for sure. Didn't want to assume, because there is a *slight* chance that you could sync at exactly 7616 without being interleaved!

Defo remove and unused extensions that are hard wired. I'm guessing you don't have an NTE5 then? If you don't you could always fit a non-BT one, and then put a filtered faceplate on that. You're not breaking BT regs as long as you put the NTE5 after the demarc, which on non-NTE5 lines is often a junction box with the grey/black cable coming in from outside and a white one going to your first socket (which is what you'd be replacing with an NTE5 if this was the case).

If you've not got any extensions then whatever socket you've got is probably fine, and a single filter will do the trick. No real need for an NTE5 in this case.

http://clarity.it for the NTE5 and filtered faceplate.

You could always get Openreach to fit an NTE5 but you'll likely have to raise a fault on the broadband service, which I wouldn't recommend if you don't actually have a fault, as in my experience their random actions can cause more damage to an otherwise healthy line.

HTH

Jon


---
Just read the preview back to myself and it dawned on me that you might just have extensions on the back of the NTE5 that are not in use. If you remove them all then you can ignore everything I just wrote! If you need to keep some, then just get the filtered faceplate.

From what I gather the master socket is an NTE5. The extensions were already in place when we moved it. I know we have 2 wires that are somehow wired into the back of the master socket. When I traced them they somehow went upstairs into 2 of the bedrooms via the loft. They didn't actually terminate with a normal socket either, but some soft of bt labelled connector box.

I could take some photos if my descriptions aren't very good.

Sounds like they're just wired to the faceplate on the back of the NTE5, which you'll see once you take the lower half off. Personally, I would:

- Get stats from router as is (just before you do the below) and record
- Remove lower half of faceplate and plug into test socket
- Get stats again and compare.

If the stats improve much then pull off the extensions. The above will give you an idea of how much damage they're doing. With that attenuation and SNR, I'd imagine they're doing quite a bit.

Your sync is unlikely to improve as it'll be capped at 7616 due to interleaving, but if the SNR changes a lot (which I suspect it will), then you can get interleaving off and get back upto 8128. Then once 21CN comes around you're likely to get close to 20 meg (sync) with that attenuation, providing the SNR does improve.

Do this all during the day tomorrow, when the SNR is less likely to fluctuate. That is if you can resist the temptation to sit outside in the lovely weather!

Do post the results if you decide to do the above, would be interesting to see what you manage to achieve.

I have done just what you said. Connected the router via a filter straight into the test socket. It showed pretty much zero change. In fact sync speed it slightly down :/

http://www.zen16617.zen.co.uk/IMG_0225.PNG

So that's ruled out the extensions as a source of the problem. Could it just be my ageing router/filters? The filters are 7 yrs old and the router just over 5

Disappointing. Were the extensions wired to the back of the faceplate that you removed? Is it possible to tell if anything is hard wired into the back of the NTE5 itself (not the faceplate) or maybe a junction box in the wiring leading upto the NTE5?

Filters may have gone dodgy, but it's unlikely. Worth trying a replacement though. Have you got the latest firmware on the router?

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/259

The extensions were connected to the rear of the faceplate. Couldn't see anything behind the NTE5 to speak of. As far as I know the cables come straight into the house there. What I can't understand is how I was getting 8128 perfectly every time until september 08. Nothing in our house changed around that time

Yeah that is a bit curious. Unfortunately anything could have happened on BT's side of things. By the sounds of it, you've done everything you can on your end. If the cable coming in from outside is the only one going to the rear of the NTE5, then what you get at the test socket is the best you can get.

I'd certainly try a different filter and upgrading the firmware on the router, you never know! I'm not sure if changing the router would make a lot of difference, the v2 and v3 are pretty much identical AFAIK.

Sorry, forgot to mention. The router firmware is already up to date. I was thinking of changing the router anyway since it's never provided decent wifi throughput (1MB/sec local file transfers). Also, my exchange was listed on the 21CN list a few weeks ago as being due to be upgraded early 2011 and I've read that this router isn't 100% compatible.

Whatever the issue there it doesn't explain the poor speeds I've been getting this weekend.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/1...

Given that the exchange VP status shows as 'red', I'd say it's likely exchange congestion, as we both speculated before. Indeed, my speed is still good:



and everything's looking good on the centrals right now, so the congestion is not there.

Keep us posted whatever you decide to do. If there is something weird on the line, hopefully it'll get worse and become intermittent, or better still, start affecting the voice side of the service. In which case you can raise a fault and get it sorted!

My exchange is listed for 21CN migration April next year. I'd appreciate the higher upload more than anything as I have lots of servers and stuff here that I access remotely. Then again, I wouldn't complain at 14meg down!

Is it possible that exchange congestion could not affect all lines? Someone else in our street who is on bt broadband is still getting over 6 meg

Absolutely possible. There's often a number of VP's (virtual paths) going into an exchange from BT's network. In this case it's likely that your neighbour is on a different one to you. Very frustrating, I can imagine!

I'd certainly suggest reporting this to support, who may be able to raise a fault, if the throughput is low enough (I can't remember the exact thresholds off the top of my head). They also have access to line-test tools, as there could be a lot of errors on your line which are causing the poor throughput.

I imagine you'll need to run BT speedtests and the like, while connected to the test socket, ideally with a new filter. Although we've done a lot in this thread, we were only looking at the sync speeds, and not the actual throughput, so some of it may seem like repetition - but is all required to progress this type of thing with BT.

Just to clarify, while you were plugged into the test socket, looking at the sync speed, you did just have the router, normal 2m or so cable, and filter connected - i.e. no telephone extension cables to the router or anything?

In reply to a post by jongreen84:

Just to clarify, while you were plugged into the test socket, looking at the sync speed, you did just have the router, normal 2m or so cable, and filter connected - i.e. no telephone extension cables to the router or anything?

Yup. Exactly like that. Incidentally, my neighbours line is also in interleaved mode and syncing at about the same speeds as mine. It's never been a big worry for me. 7.5 is still plenty for me. It's just this throughput issue over the past few days that's been the big problem. I put it down to a lot of people trying to avoid the heat. lol

Haha that could be it! Agreed about the sync, it's just a bit annoying though! See what happens with the throughput anyway, and if it doesn't improve then give support a shout.

Have you checked your Line Data section in the portal ?

Ran a quick test this morning before work and was only getting 2k/sec. When I finished work I came home ready to call support but ran another test before picking up the phone. Good thing I checked first because I'm now getting 5-6meg

Nice one, fingers crossed it stays that way!