No longer impressed

Though I have note been with A&A for all that long, I was getting the impression that this was the best service provider I have been with so far. Not that I am a service provider w h o r e (sorry for the spaces the filter made it look like i had a potty mouth); it�s only my 4th in 9 years of having ADSL!

Anyhoo I have migrated both my lines over and I noticed that one line was performing badly. I do have a total of 3 ADSL line coming in to my premises, the third being supplied by work for VPN purposes.

Line 1 (A&A) Sync speed around 6600 average, bras profile 5.5 Meg
Line 2 (A&A) Sync speed always 3072 (very strange no mater which modem I use) bras profile 2.5 Meg
Line 3 (Work VPN) Sync speed around 5800 average, bras profile 5 Meg

It is clear that there is a problem with line 2, so I decided to query it. Initial progress was good even though this was done by email, no problems.

Now things have come to a complete halt, with the rubbish of it must be your modem even though I have more modems than fingers that I can use. They all give the SAME results on this line!

Now it has been several days since my last communication received from them (and no read receipt either) so it feels to me that they are just the same as most of the other service providers. Fain interest until the going gets tough, and then hope the problem goes away!

Sorry for my ramblings, however I needed to voice my frustration and hope this gets their attention in a public place

Is there a major difference in the stats on L1/3 compared to 2?

Matt

Line 1
Attenuation ~48 dB
Noise margin ~6 dB
Speed 6624 Kbps

Line 2
Attenuation ~49 dB
Noise margin ~6 dB
Speed 3072 Kbps

Line 3
Attenuation ~50 dB
Noise margin ~9 dB
Speed 5728 Kbps

These are my current modem reported stats

Ade

Very strange indeed. L1/2 and almost identical and would be even closer if the last had 6db on the SNR front.

It's going to be something, somewhere. If you've tested socket'ed it, checked the filter and router - could be something on the way to the exchange. Has the idea of a visit from BTOR been reviewed yet?

Matt

Edited by deleted (Fri 15-Jan-10 21:05:45)

Everthing has been change my end, faceplate, leads and modems even tested from test socket etc. BTOR are playing the stupid game of its not below minimum fault rate so no problem here!

Ade

Edit I should have said all three lines do have lots of HEC and RS/FEC errors (as reported by the modems)

Edited by DrPepper (Fri 15-Jan-10 21:29:38)

In reply to a post by DrPepper:

Edit I should have said all three lines do have lots of HEC and RS/FEC errors (as reported by the modems)

Yes. In fact you should give all of the stats. Does line 2 show more errors than the others?

I am looking into the history of this and will respond back later

May take some time

Thank-you very much, looking forward too hearing from

Should have that line sync the same as the other one shortly.

It would appear BT have banded the profile meaning it will always sync up at the current rate. The line does have quite a lot of errors which is why DLM has banded/capped it, and why it was never removed from that profile

Once removed I will have a better idea of what is going on and should then be able to investigate properly.

I am sorry this was not picked up previously but the report we get from BT on banded lines etc was empty for that circuit which is not very helpful.

Will email you shortly

Just a quick update.

Since airing my dirty washing in public things have improved. It looks like DLM had decided to have a fit over this line and limit the sync speed to 3 Meg, not good!

This has now been removed and the line is syncing at around 6 Meg and this morning (Tuesday 19/01) the BRAS rate updated its self to 5 Meg. Much better, the modem did re-sync once over night, though I am not surprised about that.

Will report again after a few day to see what happens.

Thanks for everyone�s views and help so far.

That sounds like good news.

I hadn't heard of 'banded' before. Has anyone any more details on this please?
I thought the DLM would just increase the Target SNR to limit the sync rate?

If DLM fails to reduce the error rate to what it considers acceptable by increasing the SNR, it'll put a hard cap on the sync rate. You sometimes see if it someone has been 'tweaking' the SNR on their modem.

Oh dear, even though sync is >6 Meg for some reason the BRAS pushed the rate back down to 2.5 Meg this evening - D'oh!

Yay BRAS now at 6 Meg, it's outperforming line one!

In reply to a post by DrPepper:

Oh dear, even though sync is >6 Meg for some reason the BRAS pushed the rate back down to 2.5 Meg this evening - D'oh!

I've had a similar problem with my line, and was stuck with a line profile of 2500kbps on a line which was capable of 5000+kbps. It's not AAISP's fault, because they can't control BTW's draconian DLM system. What I have now done is to get AAISP to move me over to BE's LLU service (which also gives me ADSL2+) and initial results are showing that it's working a lot better.

I am sure you have your reasons but why did you not go with Be or O2 directly from Zen?
Did you go to AAISP to get the line issues fixed?

bookey asked:
> I am sure you have your reasons but why did you not go with Be or O2 directly from Zen?
> Did you go to AAISP to get the line issues fixed?

AAISP aren't just a line-fixing service! Have you ever seen the real-time circuit controls they provide to their customers? Constant circuit monitoring? Static IP blocks routed as you instruct? Native IPv6? L2TP? IRC-based support? Staff that know their subject and fix things on the spot? Cutting-edge technology trials?

Gee whizz...

In reply to a post by Northwind:

bookey asked:
> I am sure you have your reasons but why did you not go with Be or O2 directly from Zen?
> Did you go to AAISP to get the line issues fixed?

AAISP aren't just a line-fixing service! Have you ever seen the real-time circuit controls they provide to their customers? Constant circuit monitoring? Static IP blocks routed as you instruct? Native IPv6? L2TP? IRC-based support? Staff that know their subject and fix things on the spot? Cutting-edge technology trials?

Gee whizz...

Well, I went from Zen to AAISP because I wanted an ISP that would be firm with BT to get my ongoing problems fixed, and they have a great reputation for that. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there was a bonus - they are also very approachable, and when you are having problems you feel part of the loop, not an outsider looking in.

I had considered Be, but I needed to have at least 16 IP addresses, and Be do charge an absurd amount of money for these, so I discounted them at the time. Then, about 2 weeks after I joined, AAISP announced that they could offer Be LLU services in addition to the BT Wholesale product they supplied. Actually, I can get Be LLU with 16 IP addresses from Andrews & Arnold at a very attractive price, and still have the legendary AAISP service

I must admin I have been wondering if I would be better off moving one of the lines over to A&A�s BE LLU service, however I am not sure of how much this will cost me in the long run!

It would be a better service iin the sense that everything on LLU can be changed on the fly with a reboot to correct at the customers end which is done by the exchange most of the time.

I miss the old Remote control system I used to use. The problem is with BT's DLM is it does it's own thing which can be a blessing and a curse. And with LLU you don't have to ring up BTO to get things sorted.

As for price no reason why it shouldn't be cheaper. A lot of the hefty wholesale prices are removed.