Advice and help Needed

Hi.

Looking for some help and advice from the folk here please.
I've been with Xilo since April last year and everything has been good as far as speed is concerned, links below, and great customer service. I did have a time of slow speeds in March and my noise margin fluctuated up and down getting as low as 5.1db and as high as 6.7db. Now I'm not sure if these readings are good or bad but thought I'd add them in case they might help with advice. My speeds were to begin with more than I expected around 16.5 mbps down 0.90mbps up which suited me fine.
However the speeds are creeping down and I'm now getting around 14.2mbps down and around 0.91mbps and the most annoying bit is that the connection drops. My line can be connected for 3 or 4 days then it can drop 2 or three times over the space of 2 days sometimes dropping twice in a day. I'm on a TTB backdrop from Xilo. I have had the opportunity of fibre since the end of last year but I was quite happy to stay on adsl however with the problem of line drops and speed drops seemed to be ongoing I'm thinking of moving to fibre if I can't get a stable line with adsl. Link below for my cabinet status. Can these problems I'm having at the moment carry on if I move to fibre?
I'm not sure which company to go with and what I'd need. I've seen on these forums talk of self install now I'm not sure I could do that. Could someone explain if there is an option for BT to do the install and how to go about getting that? Would I need a new modem/router, using a Netgear N300 at the moment. Prefer a modem/router to just having a router separate from the modem so can anyone recommend a modem/router that might suit my purpose and that is easy to use? I would also like as short a contract as possible. Xilo only offers a 12 month contract which seems long considering I'm on a monthly contract with them for adsl. AAISP offers an intial six month contract then monthly but what like are they with customer service and do they have lots of downtime? Appreciate any help and advice given.

Caley.

http://www.petremembrance.co.uk/test1.jpg

http://www.petremembrance.co.uk/test2.jpg


test done 27/02/15

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Link Rate 19107 Kbps 1023 Kbps
Line Attenuation 19.0 dB 8.7 dB
Noise Margin 5.7 dB 13.0 dB

test done 5/05/15

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Link Rate 16615 Kbps 1023 Kbps
Line Attenuation 19.0 dB 11.5 dB
Noise Margin 5.9 dB 13.5 dB

Hi Caley, I am with Xilo too on a similar setup using TTB backhaul. Something has definitely changed between your router readings from Feb this year to the recent ones. Your upstream attenuation has changed which seems to be effecting your downstream speed.

What router are you using? Is there any noise on the line like crackling? Have you opened a ticket with Xilo about the disconnections, Matt is pretty good at these sort of things.

Also in the My Xilo Control panel, you can check the session history to see what caused the disconnection. If it was carrier lost that may be noise on the line or port error which might be a line card problem. Also how old is the router?

Its certainly worth opening a support ticket with Broadband support to see what is suggested before moving to fibre if you are happy with ADSL.

Thanks for you comments Banger. I did think something had changed but didn't know what. I contacted Matt in March about a speed drop and he investigated but came back and put the speed drop down to line problems possibly crosstalk so I just accepted that. However with the line now dropping on an almost regular basis I now think it's time to do something. I haven't as yet contacted Xilo, just trying to get facts together before I make a decision on which way to jump. Would like to stick with Xilo on adsl but if this speed drop and line drops keep happening I'll have to move.
My router is a Netgear N300. Used it for well over a year now and had no problems with it. I do have a Netgear (like Netgear) D6200 which I keep as a spare. Tried it a few times but find it doesn't quite give me the bit extra I thought it would when I bought it. There's no crackling on the line that I can detect. My phone line is with IDnet and never had any problems with it. Never thought there was somewhere in the control panel that showed history but never really investigated all the control panels wonders. I have uploaded a screen shot of the history and wow there are a number of line drops on it. See what you think, appreciate your advice..

http://www.petremembrance.co.uk/test3.jpg

Caley.

Most are lost carrier which could be bursts of noise. User request is the router and port error could be the exchange, not sure what NAS error is.

Have you tried your spare router for a few days to see how it copes with the disconnections as this may rule out the other Netgear router. It is not unknown for a router to go wonky.

Edited by Banger (Wed 06-May-15 13:32:16)

I'll change my modem/router to the other one now and let you know how it does.
Do you think if I change to fibre the problem would still be there? If it won't then I'd be better to do the change sooner rather than later don't you think?

Caley.

Can only answer that question after you've tried out the fibre connection and found out if the problems are due to a cable between cabinet and exchange, or noise that is outside the VDSL2 range and thus not affecting it.

Lots of people find VDSL2/FTTC more stable, but some don't and difficult to predict without spending lots of time on site with lots of expensive hardware.

What Andrew said. I anecdotally read less problems on here with fibre apart from some ISPs capacity problems. Fibre will also be better speed, who were you thinking of to provide fibre?

Thanks Andrew for the info. I have been told and read on these forums that fibre is more stable than adsl and the chance is the fault, if it is a fault, won't follow me but the proof of the pudding etc. So unless things settle soon and the line drops stop I will take the step to FTTC and take it from there. If it's still a problem then hopefully I'll be able to rule out my wiring indoors and the like and OR will have to play it's part.

Caley

Hello Banger.
I did hope to go with Xilo but they have a 12month contract which doesn't suit me at all. I liked the reliability of Xilo and Matt is the man that never sleeps so customer service is great. However I've been looking at AAISP. I've only ever heard good things about them too and if the problem did follow me don't they have an invite to those who have a problem with their set up, that they will help to solve it? Read that somewhere on their site. I so wanted to stay with ADSL but I cannot see that happening. What on earth would cause all these line drops. It's the WAN that drops. I look at the system time up in the modem/router stats and it's always the WAN that's dropped. The other ports keep their time but the WAN has started from zero again. Does that point to anything? I'm not versed in the internals of communication, maybe you'll know.

Caley.

In reply to a post by caley:

I did hope to go with Xilo but they have a 12month contract which doesn't suit me at all.

Unless things have changed recently, the Openreach FTTx products the ISPs use to provide fibre broadband have a 12 month minimum contract period. This means there are very few ISPs that offer fibre broadband without requiring at least a 12 month minimum contract period from the customer, because of the risk of the ISP being left to pay early termination fees to Openreach.

AAISP states on their Home 1 package "Only a 6 month term, then rolling monthly contract, no catches"

That caught my attention when I was browsing their site. like you I had always thought that it was a 12 month min contract but there you are it's there in black and white.

Caley.

AAISP appear to be taking a calculated risk, on the basis that the market advantage of offering a lower minimum term will more than offset the cost any early termination fees they have to pay to Openreach if customers leave between the sixth and twelfth month. AAISP are a premium priced operator, so their monthly profit per customer should be higher than the mass-market operators for whom Openreach early termination fees are unacceptable.

From their Home::1 page (near the bottom, penultimate sentence):

Why a 6 month term

We would far rather have no minimum term at all, and we try and do that on other tariffs. We would prefer that people stay because they are happy and not because they have to. The issue is that we have costs that have minimum terms on some things and some complicated cease charges. Some costs that don't have a minimum term and stop immediately. Some costs like the time and effort and cost of configuring and shipping a router when you start, and so on. These mean that, on other tariffs, there are minimum terms on some things and extra cease costs on others, and so on. It is complicated. The Home::1 tariff is meant to be simple, and we think a simple 6 month term and then monthly rolling contract should work out on average, though in some cases we will lose out. We will review this in a year, and may even be able to lower the term a bit.

You are correct in saying they are taking a risk but I don't think AAISP lose a lot of customers through higher pricing it's the peace of mind that they pay for and a service that is supposedly good. If the comments on these forums are anything to go by AAISP are expensive but their excellent customer service means that customers stay longer so giving AAISP less worry about the risk factor.

Caley

If it were me I would want to sort the fault out, the disconnections on ADSL, which AAISP could also do if you moved to their LLU adsl option. But if you are dead set on fibre go for it.

Thanks for the help and advice Banger. I'll contact Xilo and see what they can offer help wise first. If I can get the dropped lines sorted then I'll stay with Xilo which I'm very happy with but if things don't change then I'll try a move onto fibre and see if that helps. I'm positive the problem isn't in my setup because I've done all the recommended tests including using another modem/router. I've just attached this new modem/router so want to give it a few days to see if things improve. If things stay the same then it's certainly a move onto fibre which would hopefully solve the problem.

Caley.