Exchange upgrade

Last summer BT emailed to advise me of an exchange upgrade on 23/8/12 which might increase my broadband line speed. The nature of the upgrade was unspecified, but I understand that my exchange (Bentley - THBT) is now 21CN enabled.

Being some 6km from the exchange I didn't expect too much, so I was delighted to find that my previous 1.2-1.4 Mbps (at best) changed to a reliable 1.8-1.9 Mbps with an occasional 2.0. My pleasure was slightly dampened by the realisation that the promised 2 Mbps for everyone might not improve things much more.

The odd thing is that my IP address is being reset very frequently - some 20 times in the past month. Fortunately the change has happened only once while I was active on line, and I do not suffer from any real drop in line speed at each reset. But I am wondering if this behaviour is usual as I haven't read anything about it anywhere.

BT as with other providers do not issue resets of IP address.

The IP address only changes as the result of a resync or authentication event, e.g. the modem dropping the ADSL signal for a few seconds or you switching it off/on

My modem stays on 24/7, although we do suffer from mains power blinks from time to time. But the frequency of IP address changes seems greatly increased since the upgrade. I had been under the impression that glitches on the line could cause the modem to reset.

I guess your exchange is now ADSL2+, but at 6km I believe the data loss would be significant at the new 'speed'. I am 4km away and have seen no speed improvement (or increase in data losses). You might try going back to ADSL to see if that improves things?

In reply to a post by glyndavies:

But the frequency of IP address changes seems greatly increased since the upgrade.

The IP resets are actually re-syncs due to discons which are happening more often as you are pushing the line harder.

Please post your router stats so we can advise if there is anything you can do about it.

ADSL line status

Connection information

Line state Connected

Connection time 0 days, 7:58:24

Downstream 2,400 Kbps

Upstream 448 Kbps

ADSL settings

VPI/VCI 0/38

Type PPPoA

Modulation ITU-T G.992.1

Latency type Interleaved

Noise margin (Down/Up) 6.1 dB / 12.0 dB

Line attenuation (Down/Up) 57.0 dB / 31.5 dB

Output power (Down/Up) 16.1 dBm / 12.8 dBm

Loss of Framing (Local) 10

Loss of Signal (Local) 3

Loss of Power (Local) 0

FEC Errors (Down/Up) 16447 / 0

CRC Errors (Down/Up) 578 / N/A

HEC Errors (Down/Up) N /A / 0

Error Seconds (Local) 2416

In reply to a post by glyndavies:

Modulation ITU-T G.992.1

You have not been upgraded; you are still on ADSL Max.

Your speed is about 2/3 rd slow.

Error Seconds (ES) are v. high.

Your line length is about 4 km, not over 6 km.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Sat 12-Jan-13 17:41:09)

Obviously something was upgraded on the promised date or there wouldn't have been the sudden jump in line speed.

I'm just under 4km from the exchange as the crow flies. A BT engineer told me that my line follows the shortest road link, which is almost 6km. Any more direct route is unlikely as it would mainly be through forest.