Speed Variation

Hi, moved house in Janurary and started with BT broadband (up to 8meg). Apart from one or two blips I had got consistent speed of around 2.8meg via speedtester. However in April for four consecutive days my speed increased to aprox 3.8meg, then dropped down to original 2.8ish where its remained. Just wondering if anyone would have any idea as to why? I would be keen to get the increased speed all the time.

An external noise source disappeared? Maybe a business was closed or a neighbour on holiday ...

Might be useful to know your line stats. See http://kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Didn't realise that so little could make such a big impact. I always assumed it was the collective masses that caused slower speeds such as in peak times. Though I have had no peak time variance.

Thanks for taking the time to look. Interestingly the router stats show speeds as Downstream 3,776 Kbps
Upstream 448 Kbps
Though running the TB speedtester shows my ever faithful 2.8meg speed down and 376kb up. Below are my other stats, are these all thats required?

Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 13.4 dB / 23.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 36.0 dB / 19.0 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 19.0 dBm / 11.9 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local) 0
Loss of Signal (Local) 7
Loss of Power (Local) 0
FEC Errors (Down/Up) 2603698 / 4
CRC Errors (Down/Up) 548 / 2147480000
HEC Errors (Down/Up) nil / 1
Error Seconds (Local) 2974

You missed the point. I was not suggesting that your neighbour's usage caused the difference but that it is possible they have a device that is causing a lot of RFI - electronic noise and it has been turned off whilst they went on holiday.

Yes I did miss that point, my apologies. Though it does mean that one users problem can effect others. Does the kind of interference you suggest effect everyone connected to the same line? I have posted my router stats, will that show external sources of interference? Can BT do anything?

Thought I'd mention that the wiring in the house isn't complete so currently hub is conected to primary socket and the computer is connected via ethernet cable across a small room. It is this computer I use for my speedtests and link to my profile. Testing with a laptop in another room has shown mixed results with 0.1 to 1.0meg drop in speed.

Ummm .

You seem to have a serious problem somewhere there.

The most important figure is the attenuation. 36dB should get a connection speed of at least 7Mbps on ADSL Max, and I would expect around 12Mbps on ADSL2+. Do you know which you should be on?

Does your master socket look as though it opens as in this pic, or is it like an extension socket and a fair-sized grey box on the wall outside, as shown at the bottom of this page?

Is it a new-build house, and please can you post the URL of what samknows says about your exchange? (The latter tells us if it is BT ADSL2+ enabled).

You have a noise margin of 13.4dB. That indicates considerable instability. We could do with knowing what the figure is immediately after a reconnection. The BT norm is 6dB, and the connection-time setting rises in 3dB steps, so yours could be 12dB or 15dB. Each step costs 500-750kbps.

Even at 6dB though it doesn't look as though you would beat 6Mbps.

The high number of local error seconds is also a concern.

I suggest you turn the router off for 20-30 minutes. Then on and reconnect, read and post the stats. We can take things from there, and try to find the problem.

Do you have a Sky box?

Looking at the stats there is a definite problem somewhere ... you should be up in the 6 to 7 Mb region based on attenuation.

13dB of noise margin suggests that your line has been given a 12dB margin because of problems or your last resync was at a time of a "noise event" which caused the line to resync.

Get a copy of RouterStats Lite http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm and run that for 24 hours with a 3000 point graph and 30 second updates - that will give a 24 hour graph. From that we can see what your noise margin does over a day - it will vary but teh graph will show major anomalies.

RFI can cause problems on one line, or a large number. Your flashing and cycling Christmas lights may only affect you, but wind them round the telegraph pole and you could affect 10. Put a large generator or compressor (as used in road works) next to a BT cabinet and 400 could be affected.