If you have one of the newer BT master sockets try connecting to the TEST socket for a good while to see if the disconnections still occur.

Some long line connections are more stable on plain old ADSL (G.992.1) with speeds up to 8Meg which you won't get due to the line's high downstream attenuation figure.

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

If you have one of the newer BT master sockets try connecting to the TEST socket for a good while to see if the disconnections still occur.

Some long line connections are more stable on plain old ADSL (G.992.1) with speeds up to 8Meg which you won't get due to the line's high downstream attenuation figure.

The line is connected to the master socket, and has been since it was set up.

A pretty rotten mess, but from those stats the best you are going to get will be quite low whichever ISP you go to. And if you mean Virgin Media ADSL then that wouldn't be frying pan into fire, it would be frying pan into the depths of Hades.

If you mean Virgin Media Cable, then go for it !

You really do need to see what you get with the filter into the test socket inside the master, see the socket on the wall at the back in this pic. Do not use a plugin extension cable to get to it either, just router >> short ADSL cable >> filter. BUT! Don't do it until it is daylight. It can make a big difference.

Assuming you don't mean VM Cable, you may as well let us help you get this sorted, then think about migrating. Otherwise you will just go crazy with getting nowhere.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 23-Oct-11 21:33:00)

Thanks for the tips.

It is connected to the test socket (sorry, should have made that clearer). This was suggested on the Plusnet help pages.

Yes, I did mean cable, which in my experience has always been worlds better than ADSL. I've had some pretty bad experiences with ADSL, although never as bad as this.

Attenuation 60dB is very long, have a look at the average and maximum for it on this graph.

The BT estimate of 5.5Mbps is rubbish, but it is only that sort of database that ISPs can access to give you a possible figure. If you put your number into most others I would expect the same silly result.

VM Cable is definitely the way to go for you. Plusnet aren't really to blame for the speed of the line, or even the misleading estimate. Hard, but true .

What won't have helped is any disconnections and the couple of reconnections you did. See the 9dB Noise Margin in your stats? That should be 6dB, but jumps in 3dB steps when there is instability. That is costing between 500kbps and 750kbps.

As for the 72 hour wait, that too is garbage, as it is an out-of-date reference to a thing called the IP Profile rising if you have a good sync. You don't have a good sync, not even for your line, and that is because of the 9dB noise margin. That takes at least 10 days to drop, and sometimes it never does.

Sorry to give you bad news, but ADSLx where you are is unlikely ever to be over 3Mbps, even with everything perfect apart from the length.

In reply to a post by batchano:

I signed up for Plusnet just over a month ago and have had nothing but problems ever since. I've just about had enough.

Firstly, despite being quoted an expected speed of 6Mb, the maximum I've been able to get is 1.5Mb. I contacted Plusnet about this, and they told me that this was the best I'd be able to get with my line and that the speed on sign up was not guaranteed.

Now, in addition to being mis-sold a slow connection, I find that my connection speed has reduced even further! My broadband kept disconnecting a few nights ago (I suspect this was to do with a service outage publicized on Plusnet's website), and I reset my router a couple of times to see if that would fix the problem. Since then, I have not been able to get speeds of more that 0.5Mb. Again, I contacted Plusnet, but they told me that the reduction was due to me having an unstable connection, and that the problem would hopefully resolve itself within 72 hours.

Well, that's just not good enough. Why should I be stuck with a painfully slow and barely usable connection for three days?

To anyone considering going with Plusnet: THINK AGAIN. Save yourselves a lot of hassle and look elsewhere! Unless my line speed and the service from Plusnet improve dramatically, I'll be switching to Virgin Media at the end of the month.

I have had slowdowns, poor customer service and exactly the same further reduced service after the outage. My two monthe with Plusnet have been a total tale of woe and incompetence, so can only gat better from now on. I do wonder though how PN get so much favourable support from sites such as this, when others show 90% of longstanding customers very unhappy.
http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband/review/plu...

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

As for the 72 hour wait, that too is garbage, as it is an out-of-date reference to a thing called the IP Profile rising if you have a good sync. You don't have a good sync, not even for your line, and that is because of the 9dB noise margin. That takes at least 10 days to drop, and sometimes it never does.

Thank you for your informative post, RobertoS.

I had started to accept that I was never going to get faster than 1.5Mb on this connection, but I didn't expect it to drop further. So you're saying that I could now be stuck at 0.5Mb indefinitely?! If that were the case, I would switch immediately. Is there anything I can ask Plusnet to do which might rectify the problem and restore my original speed?

This whole situation is such a nightmare. I was using mobile broadband before I signed up for Plusnet and even that was miles better!

They can do an SNR reset. That sets everything back to the defaults and redoes the 10 day training. That should get you back to something like you had before. But I doubt if it will ever be much better than that.

It would help as well if they force ADSL2 or ADSL, rather than ADSL2+. ADSL2+ uses higher frequencies which are less stable and at your length give no benefit anyway.

You also get, on any BT Wholesale based system, the IP Profile effect. There are two versions of that running at the moment, which one you are on depends an the particular exchange kit you are connected to.

The IP Profile controls the maximum actual download speed.

The old one uses the table on this page. The new one sets the IP Profile to 88.2% of the connection speed. That sounds bad, but it isn't as bad as it seems, as basically the IP Profile takes care of the overheads that are unavoidable on ADSLx. The old one was a sledgehammer, the new one is much better and doesn't lose you any real life speed.

In reply to a post by batchano:

Yes, I did mean cable, which in my experience has always been worlds better than ADSL.

My sentiments exactly. I'd always choose cable, if available. Though cable can have latency issues if you end up being connected to an over subscribed UBR. This may bother some people (gamers mostly), but I really wouldn't be too fussed by it - I'd rather have a stable working connection, running at a reasonable speed, with above average jitter, than a slow drop out ADSL connection like you appear to have landed up with.

Cable every time. Fibre preferably. Unfortunately, when I moved into my new flat, seems they wired up the entire place with BT only. Thankfully I landed up with a stable 12 Mbps ADSL2+ connection, so not all so bad. Waiting for FTTC, but I'll be waiting until end of next year for that to show up at this rate.

If you can move to cable now, and ditch Plusnet, do it. Do it now.

RobertoS - can I just ask them to do a SNR reset? Can/will they do that quickly? Getting back to my original speed would be just about ok, for now. At the moment my connection is practically useless - I'm making cups of tea between page loads!

mixt - I probably will end up switching to cable. Costs £50 to install though