Understanding interleave and upstream speeds

A while ago I had a line fault causing frequent ADSL drops (ticket 46668387 ) which is now largely resolved. As part of the diagnostic process interleave was turned on which I believe is common practice. This seems to have a disproportionately bad effect on upstream speed. I think was getting over 1Mb/s upstream before the fault. It went below 500k for a while which I was told was a limit artificially imposed as part of the diagnosis. After I had asked about this it went up to 888k. Then is went down to under 600k again. A few days ago a PN rep phoned me and we agred to turn off interleave. This was done and upstream is now well under 500k again. I've put this on the ticket but not yet had a response. Upstream speed is useful to me as I frequently send large email attachments.

I'm confused! Really would like to get this problem finally sorted.

Uptime: 3 days, 1:31:13
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 440 / 16,429
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 0.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 9.0 / 21.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 30.0 / 3.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): NA / 26,500,482
CRC Errors (Up/Down): NA / 16
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 12

Interleave is still on for the downstream, but looks as though it is off for the upstream.

The 440kbps though is the standard setting for Plusnet, even on ADSL2+ which you are on. So it looks as though what he did was just reset you to the defaults. They uncap the upload, so your ticket should sort it.

There is a possibility that they automatically turn interleaving on when they uncap it, so don't be surprised, but I wouldn't expect it significantly to affect the upstream. Though others, with experience of the Plusnet settings, may know that it does affect it.

The noise margin on up looks dire hence the low up speed

Wrong! The up margin looks absolutely brilliant. The upstream sync is capped so the margin will be high.

capped was 448 i thought not 440 but I stand to be corrected

It is supposed to be 448 but for some strange reason it often results in a 440 sync.

In reply to a post by jelv:

It is supposed to be 448 but for some strange reason it often results in a 440 sync.

Yep.

Just had a message from PN to say that for some reason the upstream speed was capped when they removed interleave. They have promised they will sort it out. just hope it will all settle down soon. I really don't want to have to nurse my broadband, it should be like the water, gas, leccy and phone, it should just work with minimum hassle.

I'm just thinking what an unaware or unskilled user would make of all this. I'm an engineer, fairly clued up about communications and usually know what questions to ask and where to ask them (here!) if I don't understand something. Then I start to wonder what might have happened if I'd been with certain other major ISPs when this fault occurred. This makes me happy that I'm still with PN. They are not perfect, far from it, but you can usually get a reasonable answer from somebody who speaks english and further support from the PN reps who hang out here.

Footnote: I saw some guys installing an FTTC cabinet near my house recently. While I don't really need the extra speed I may go for it when it's available simply to get a nice solid E side connection. The D side cable from the box to me would only be about 300m.

Edited by ppppenguin99 (Tue 08-Nov-11 10:52:56)

In reply to a post by ppppenguin99:

Footnote: I saw some guys installing an FTTC cabinet near my house recently. While I don't really need the extra speed I may go for it when it's available simply to get a nice solid E side connection. The D side cable from the box to me would only be about 300m.

Go for it - you won't regret it!

I saw some guys installing an FTTC cabinet near my house recently. While I don't really need the extra speed I may go for it when it's available simply to get a nice solid E side connection.

That was my major reason for getting FTTC, the secondary one being just for the sake of it.

E-side here is terrible and ADSLx suffers badly because of it. I haven't had a single disconnect that I'm aware of since FTTC in February, whereas from the occasional audible phone noise and the thunderstorms around I would have had the normal inconvenience.