Someone is the DLM! As has been suggested it has taken it upon itself to reduce Target NM to 3dB, but you are still not getting what your line should be capable of, about 9 Meg @ 3dB NM.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by David_W:

Both AOL UK ... operations have long since been taken over by TalkTalk

While AOL BB (not AOL UK which is part of AOL Inc) may now be owned by TT, they do still offer separate LLU BB products over a separate network (according to SamKnows). Admittedly not brilliant.

Indeed they are one of the few (only) retail ISPs to still offer a Partial LLU product, but only "Up to 8 Meg" [ugh].

Interesting - thanks for that. You'd think after some five years that TalkTalk would have migrated customers and shut down the legacy AOL network entirely. It must be getting increasingly difficult to support an old G.DMT only network. The exchange equipment is obsolescent (5 years is a long time in data communications) and the underlying network might be based on ATM (which is becoming increasingly rare, as it contrasts with the modern preference for Ethernet based technologies such as MPLS).

It seems BT Wholesale are adopting the approach of giving notice on their 20CN system (the same generation of technology as the 'up to 8 Meg' AOL network) in certain exchanges with 21CN ADSL2+. This allows the 20CN network links to be shut down and the exchange equipment recovered for spares to keep the remaining parts of the 20CN network going.


It would be helpful if SamKnows were updated to reflect the reality for those ordering today. Useful information isn't there (like which of TalkTalk, Sky and Zen has FTTx presence at the handover node for that exchange), some of the information is out of date (the Zen information is for their legacy LLU deployment at a handful of exchanges, not the newer 200 exchange MPLS based network), and some relates to networks that, at most, exist only to serve legacy and/or wholesale customers.

In reply to a post by David_W:

It must be getting increasingly difficult to support an old G.DMT only network.

Afraid you picked up the wrong end of the stick there & thereafter.

AOL LLU network is ADSL2+; it is just that their Partial LLU "Up to 8 Meg" product is capped to that speed, like many other ADSL2+ LLU ISPs, e.g. Orange, O2, Be, used to offer as a cheap entry-level product.

I certainly did - but the important part of that post was the last paragraph, which still holds. SamKnows is not a particularly useful guide to your options today.

Given the fact that Virgin cable runs past my front door and also given the opportunity that's probably the way I would go and forget about all the ins and outs of DLM etc etc...

Hi there,

I'm sorry I've not been able to respond to you just yet FraserSoft. I've checked your account and I'm unable to see anything obvious that may be causing you to receive the speeds that you are at the moment.

I've noticed from the ticket you raised with some further speed test results that this has got worse unfortunately, however I notice that we haven't looked at this from a faults angle at all yet so I'm going to advise raising this through our faults troubleshooter at http://faults.plus.net


Adam

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

]While AOL BB (not AOL UK which is part of AOL Inc) may now be owned by TT, they do still offer separate LLU BB products over a separate network (according to SamKnows). Admittedly not brilliant.

From the AOL website: "AOL Broadband uses the UK's biggest next generation network (covering 85% of the UK) to deliver you fast, stable broadband."

Since I don't think AOL LLU reaches anywhere near 85%, I suspect they are talking about the Talktalk network.

Thanks I have probably done all the trouble shooting tests when I was on the phone last Friday and was advised to make a complaint which I did and presently waiting for a reply.

Likely they use TT backhaul.

As my speed/snr seems to have settled at around 5megs download would there be any advantage to me using my Netgear DGND3300v2 modem in place of the Technicolour one ?