Perhaps not, to answer my original question. The Business Hub originally made no difference (apart from showing NM as up to 18) for the first three weeks.

But this morning (on PC being switched on for the first time in a week) stats show the following (a bit of a difference from the 2268/285 synch I've had for the last 2 years:
Protocol: G.DMT2 Annex A [so it's at last slipped down from ADSL2+)]
Downstream Rate: 5186 kbps
Upstream Rate: 875 kbps
Channel: Interleaved
Current Noise Margin: 10.9 dB (Downstream) 9.5 dB (Upstream)
Current Attenuation: 47.6 dB (Downstream) 29.5 dB (Upstream) [lower as expected for ADSL2}
Current Output Power: 19.4 dBm (Downstream) 12.5 dBm (Upstream)
DSLAM Vendor Information: Country: {0xB5} Vendor: {IFTN} Specific: {0xBE71}
...
Internet Connection Details
..
Internet Address: 2.25.17* {edit: having checked this shows up as Orange Home WBC not Orange LLU as previously, confirming my theory).

The DSLAM and internet address details look different from the traditional Orange, so is it a switchover to BT 21CN, though I've had no advisory e-mail from Orange. These speeds are as good as ever achieved (temporarily) on my line in last 4 years with Orange, so perhaps its not just the dry spring weather has at last got to the decrepid underground line!

Edited by deleted (Sat 09-Apr-11 10:47:22)

In reply to a post by smurf46:

having checked this shows up as Orange Home WBC not Orange LLU as previously, confirming my theory

Where do you check this?

Ripe http://www.db.ripe.net/whois?searchtext=2.25.17.&sea...

Batboy's correct, though of course I didn't give out my full IP address in the post but it's the same result!

Yes, thanks! I know all about Whois, but never realised that these descriptions included "LLU/WBC".

Presumably the descriptions are used by Orange staff and might perhaps be the only way they can tell the difference?