You can console yourself that with 46dB attenuation you cannot get a downstream connection speed of 8000kbps with the normal 6dB margin. You have a very good connection.

Your only chance of higher is if it does lower the sync-time margin to 3dB. Unless you want to start messing around with tweakable routers, but on a BT-Wholesale based connection like yours that can be risky. Best to let the system sort itself out now it does have a 3dB setting. Until recently 6dB was the lowest it would go.

Let us know if it does speed up.

Right - so 46 attenuation isn't good. What causes it to be so high - line length? Lowest I've seen it in the past weeks has been 45.5.

Right now, the SNR is 5 & 5.1Db. In recent weeks that has varied from 3.8-5.4Db down.

I only got that 8652 connection rate after last nights power cut, and it had been 7867 & 7895 on previous BT tests, and now it's 7799.
It all made me wonder if it had suddenly got onto a 'proper' ADSL2+ connection that it then lost after today's re-sync.

Shame really, but no, I don't want to start messing around with tweaking.
After all the problems since October until I got the new router and then the new socket in December, I have to agree that things are far better than they were

I do still have the option of FTTC, and as far as I know the cabinet is only around 60-70yards away, and where we are will have somewhat newer copper than that further down towards the exchange.
I do however wonder if I really want to spend so much more each month for far more potential speed than I need.

I got FTTC partly for the sake of it, but considering I was on £9.50pm on O2 LLU, (connection around 6Mbps which was perfectly adequate), I couldn't justify it. My main excuse was there is an old very dodgy cable between the cabinet and the exchange, and frequently the line would play up and I would get continuous disconnects/reconnects, (20 seconds to connect, 10 seconds up, down again), that would go on for hours if left alone.

It was fixable by doing a Quiet Line Test and leaving that running for several minutes. Sometimes until it timed out and needed dialling again. That usually cured it within seconds, but you had to leave it running as stopping it too early caused the connection to drop again.

I expected/hoped it would be cured by FFTC, and it was . Phone tends to crackle though, so I think that is getting worse.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

but on a BT-Wholesale based connection like yours that can be risky.

In the early days of Orange WBC, when they lumbered me with a high margin, I tweaked it down with no issues arising.

Yes, but given the possibility it could drop to 3dB by itself, and the fact she has only recently got it running as it should, I didn't think it wise, at least for now. It's not as if she is desperate for it, though if she is I'm sure either of us could help.

(Waits while Trishah mops up the coffee).

Do you know if that router is easily tweaked, perhaps for the future?

Yes, strictly for the future.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Do you know if that router is easily tweaked, perhaps for the future?

Dunno, if it's that Billion, but the Netgear might have.

Thanks Bob & XRay -

I think because faster speeds are attainable (either ADSL2+ or FTTC) then I'd like it ..just because - and also because it appears to be far more stable.

I must admit that after all those weeks of frustration, I'm reluctant to muck about with things, or go ahead and order fibre ...in case it has problems.

It seems the Billion 7800n has a couple of features to tweak things - one being Impulse Noise Protection (off by default), the other a hidden fix for SNR tweaks (the info is on spaldwick.com/billion-7800n).

As for mopping up the coffee ..no , when and if I think it may be worth trying, this will be the first port of call!
For now I'll just leave it and see how it goes over the next couple of weeks.
SNR 5 & 5.8 right now

Fibre is still fascinating me though!