Is speed reasonable - lower than I expected

Hi - I am paying for up to 20Mbps ADSL2+, but according to the speedcheckers on this site and elsewhere I am getting a range of 4.2 to 5Mbps down / 0.6 Mbps upload.

Service provider: AOL via the local Ivybridge exchange
Router: Huawei HG532

Router admin page detail:
Upstream line rate (kbit/s) 872
Downstream line rate (kbit/s) 6702
Line standard ADSL2+
Channel type Interleaved
Upstream SNR (dB) 15.1
Downstream SNR (dB) 14.4
Upstream interleave depth 2
Downstream interleave depth 64
Upstream line attenuation (dB) 20.3
Downstream line attenuation (dB) 40
Upstream output power (dBmV) 12.5
Downstream output power (dBmV) 0
Upstream CRC 40
Downstream CRC 65505
Upstream FEC 51772
Downstream FEC 65494

Thanks in anticipation.

Your noise margins for upstream and downstream are both high. Should be around 6dB for a "normal" line (although the upstream will top out at over 1Mb without getting as low as 6dB). Yours are 15.1 and 14.4 respectively. Those coming down to 6dB would make a big difference. Contact your ISP and ask them to lower the noise margin.

No, you should be getting 9 Meg Sync Speed, Your NMs are high. Errors look high.

You may have a wiring fault. Have you taken those stats from the hidden test socket behind the faceplate of master socket? Have you disconnected ring wire?

Hi -

The face plate is the original one that came with the house many years ago and does not have a test socket.

The ring wire is still connected as the socket has not been opened for the best part of 25 years as far as I recall.

I asked AOL call centre if the old socket could cause any problems and was assured that it did not, but that if I were willing to pay (I think they said something like £80 or £100) they could send an engineer out to confirm that it was ok.

Then 1st try to get AOL to reduce NMs, as suggested.

There is no real reason you should open up the master and disconnect the ring wire. T3. Just be very careful and makes sure you do not disturb T2 and T5. Only 2 and 5 do anything.

If other terminals are also connected it does no harm to disconnect those as well. In theory there is no way they can have any effect. In practice we have seen a few cases where they do.

In your setup it might pay to disconnect the ring wire at all extensions as well. Again, theoretically that should make no difference, but has been known to.

Is everything that uses the phone line connected through a filter? Nothing should connect direct to the line. Phone-connected burglar alarms also need an internal filter, so if you have an old one that may also be a problem.

There is no real reason you should open up the master and disconnect the ring wire.

Is it just me Bob or do you have something a little wrong in that sentence? I think you needed an n't on the should there

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

There is no real reason you should open up the master and disconnect the ring wire ....

Should of course read "There is no real reason you shouldn't open up the master ...." as ian pointed out. (Out of time for editing).

Thanks Ian. D'oh!

LOL - we knew what you meant