Slow BB speed, not sure what else I can do!

Greetings!

So, I live on the Isle of Wight and I am currently getting terrible broadband speeds, especially compared to other people I know. So a little info;

I am currently on Sky.
Based on my postcode/phone number, broadband.co.uk says I am 1.3km from the exchange.
The absoloute max speeds I am getting are around 2mb down and 0.6mb up.
Currently my router speeds are:

DownStream Connection
Speed: 2043 kbps / Attenuation: 37db / Noise Margin: 14db
UpStream Connection
Speed: 606 kbps / Attentuation: 15db / Noise Margin: 16db

I have the master phone socket in my bedroom upstairs. I have an extension cable leading downstairs into the living room which is then connected to the phone and router. I have been told this could be an issue before for speed but I have tried connecting it directly into the socket and other options but nothing increases the speed. I have countless times called sky to see if they can try and increase my speed but to no luck. I am at a dead end and I'm pretty tired of not being able to play games whilst someone is just on facebook or something like that. Any help is much appreciated.

Kind Regards,

J

How long have you been with sky?

What router are you using?

I have been with sky for a couple of years now I think. I am using the router that they gave when we switched. I was unable to get my netgear one to work so I just used the one they gave me.

Is it one of these?

The DG834GT is the first router that was originally supplied by Sky. It is the only Sky router that has a white case.

The DG934G router has a dark grey case. The manufacturer name, printed on the label on the underside of the router, is Netgear

The F@ST2504 router also has a dark grey case, but the manufacturer name, as shown on the label on the underside of the router, is Sagem

The DG934G router has a dark grey case. The manufacturer name, printed on the label on the underside of the router, is Netgear

This would be the one!

That's good news, hopefully, you will be able to retrieve your username and password once the cm9 skypass website comes back (if ever). This will allow you to use your own router.

You're actually 2.7km from the exchange in terms of your line length, although it may be down to poor extension wiring.

I imagine sky's DLM has capped your speed due to noise issues, you should get around 8-10Mbps sync down and around 1Mbps up. You should ring sky and ask them to put you on the gaming profile and see if that helps.

You'll probably need to sort out your wiring. A good first test to see if this is worthwhile is to plug your router into the test socket within the master and take the line stats from there. Make sure there are no phones, sky boxes, etc. on the line when you do this.

I will give that a go and get back to you. As it stands I am currently on the gaming profile according to sky, which was only after months of badgering about terrible connections.

Currently my router speeds are:

DownStream Connection
Speed: 2043 kbps / Attenuation: 37db / Noise Margin: 14db
UpStream Connection
Speed: 606 kbps / Attentuation: 15db / Noise Margin: 16db

Ok. Looking at these stats there is a definite cap in place.

The noise margin is 14 db on downstream. Idealy this would be 6 or 7 db (decibels)

Noise margin is basically, how much spare noise there is.

When the noise margin gets extremely low e.g. 0 to 2db - the line usually drops or develops errors.

Right. On a good connection, the noise margin will be around 6db.

This leaves around 4db of 'noise' or interference on the line before it starts causing issues.

On a poor line. The interference is too high for a 6db noise margin. This is likely because the interference is higher than 6db. It might be 9db of noise. 6 - 9 = -3db... This isn't possible, hence the interference just knocks the broadband off.

In this situation sky lower the sync. This makes your noise margin higher.

This lower sync might highten your noise margin to 15db. At 15 db, 9 db of noise doesn't knock your broadband off or cause errors as 15 - 9 = 6db - which is fine.

I have the master phone socket in my bedroom upstairs. I have an extension cable leading downstairs into the living room which is then connected to the phone and router.

This needs sorting out. The router needs to plug into the master.

Imagine it this way. The wiring to the master is twisted and shielded and picks up little interference.

The internal wiring. (The cabling from the master to the extension) is poor quality.
This wiring is basically like a giant antenna, and as it passes light switches, plugs, pipes, microwaves etc it picks up interference.
This often causes enough interference for sky to lower your sync, and your noise margin goes up from 6db.

In your case the noise margin is 14db. There is a definite problem

Also you say you are on a gaming profile. Basically this reduces / disables interleaving.

What is interleaving? Well, it kind of compensates if your connection isn't perfect. Without it, on a poor quality line it can make things worse. I'm speculative of whether you should be on a gaming mode.

Anyway GET IN THE MASTER...

Then ring up SKY. Try to get through to the customer solutions team (CST). I don't know 100% if this department still exists but they did around 6 months ago. They can do anything with your broadband.

When speaking to sky, ask for them to uncap the line. Ask for the noise margin to be lowered to 6 or 7 db. They ARE capping it.

The reason why - because something is causing interference.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 02-Jan-12 09:46:42)

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

I will give that a go and get back to you. As it stands I am currently on the gaming profile according to sky, which was only after months of badgering about terrible connections.

Then your speed should be uncapped and your SNR margin should be low, instead the opposite is true which looks like DLM is on.

So I went to test the socket inside the master socket. And there isn't one. There is just a standard socket and no face plate to take off.