Is there any hope---

of getting back to the d/l speeds that I was getting last spring?
I live on the rural fringe of a suburban exchange (Hooton) and am about 3 miles from the exchange and 1 mile or so from the cabinet. Until about early 2012 I was getting download speeds of anywhere between roughly 1000 and 1500 Kbs/sec.
After 21cn was brought in and I was put on to ADSL2+ and after a lot of "yo-yo-ing" I started to get reasonably consistent speeds of around 2200Kbs/sec, which increased from end April 2012 to around 2500Kbps (great, I thought).
Then, around the end of July everything started to go haywire with speeds varying from abt 850 to 1100 on a good day and with at least one or two disconnections per day.
After about a month of online and 'phone discussions the help staff seemed quite content when the d/l speeds went up to around 1500 or 1600 and I sensed that was as far as it was going to go. However I was still getting disconnects more or less daily for several weeks more.
Then, for no obvious reason, the disconnects stopped and I have had a steady connection with only one unexplained drop in the last three months but d/l speeds are still around 1300 to 1500, give or take a few hundred.

As background info. BT speed test on 28/05/2012 showed Max achievable d/l speed 4Mbps, d/l speed 2.14 and IP profile 2.58 Mbps.
In contrast, on 15/1/13 the btw test showed Max achievable speed 2Mbps,d/l speed 1.29 and IP profile 1.32Mbps. Although the numeric differences are not very large, they are proportionately big enough to make a significant difference.

These are the current router stats:


Uptime: 14 days, 11:11:08
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 446 / 1,870
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 2.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.5 / 0.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 43.0 / 67.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 10.0 / 6.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 18 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 76 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 3,759,206
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 11,885
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 8,470

What I would really like to know is whether it might be worth trying to get the speeds increased - I'm not sure how - perhaps turn off interleaving or switch from ADSL2+ back to ADSL2 ? I do know though that I couldn't stand more weeks of plugging in to test socket, unplugging everything, going without landline 'phone for periods etc. etc., all without making the slightest difference to anything.

Can anyone offer any helpful thoughts?

I would say probably not

Checkout this link and enter your Downstream Attenuation and it'll show you.

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

Still, just maybe one of those clever Plusnet folk might spot this and come up with a bright idea.

The automatic systems appear to have done their job and given you stability as oppossed to an unstable but faster link.

67dB attenuation means you are in the realms of lucky to get an ADSL service.

If you have control of the router, I would recommend forcing it down to ADSL2 (G.992.3) mode, and after seeing how that behaves trying the old ADSL (G992.1) mode.

ADSL2+ carries no benefit on very long lines, so may be source of errors, and sometimes the ADSL2 can actually perform better.

In reply to a post by Roberto1:

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.5 / 0.0

Hmm, that doesn't look right.

As far as I can make out my router (basic Plusnet TG586V7 several years old) does not allow me to change anything much. I think I'll hang on here for a while and if nothing turns up I'll try PN help desk to see if they will do it for me.

Agreed the output power figure looks odd, but then so does the Data transfer/received figure.
I really haven't a clue whether the accuracy of these numbers makes any difference but I'll let it ride pro tem.

In reply to a post by Roberto1:

Agreed the output power figure looks odd, but then so does the Data transfer/received figure.

The data usage figure is usually at or near zero on the DSL Connection screen. Look at the Internet Services screen for proper values.

Thanks Oliver. We live and learn-- though in my case rather slowly

Not now, but when daylight I would be giving that router a reboot just to see if things improve

ADSL modems only every drop the connection to connect at slower speeds, i.e. if the line gets even fractionally better it does not renegotiate the speed automatically. It waits for us humans to decide when we don't mind the connection dropping.

You can force the ADSL mode if you login to the router via telnet and issue a few commands.

Carry out this procedure at your own risk.

Click here

PeteB

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Not now, but when daylight I would be giving that router a reboot just to see if things improve

ADSL modems only every drop the connection to connect at slower speeds, i.e. if the line gets even fractionally better it does not renegotiate the speed automatically. It waits for us humans to decide when we don't mind the connection dropping.

I turned the router off and on again shortly after 8.00 this morning. The bandwidth shown on the router increased by all of 48 Kbps (!) but there was no change whatsoever shown on the TBB speed test.

Seems to fit in very well with your comment.