Yes, I thought two vans odd ...I'm assuming they were next door as they were both parked right outside their house, and there are no cabinets on this side road - they're around 70 yards down the main road.
Not sure how long they were at the house next door though.
We can get FTTC, but I don't know about FTTP ....not mentioned on SamKnows

If you can get FTTC you can't get normal FTTP, but you can get FTTPoD if you have a lot of money and find an ISP that (a) knows what it is, and (b) sells it.

Not sure if they have a lot of money, but they do run their own businesses.
Whatever

Shall I leave my connection alone and see how it goes, or shall I pull the router plug for half an hour on a fine morning to see if it re-connects with a better result?

I forget if we know what router you have.

If it is listed in the table for this product I suggest you download that and run it all the time your computer is on. (Stick a link to it in your Startup folder).

If you check the graph now and then, (you can rescale the vertical and horizontal axes), pick a time when the downstream SNRM is running high - preferably a bit higher than the 7.1dB in those latest stats.

Turning off for 30 seconds should be fine. I wouldn't wait much longer than that.

It's the Billion 7800n - I downloaded that, and it sets the router address itself.

I think I did it all correctly, and didn't really change anything ..just ticked all the boxes on the 'capture' tab, but although it's running, it registers zero for NM and zero for speed!
Must have something set wrong?

I'll need to sort that out tomorrow if you have any notion what I did wrong ..too late now

NM's are 6.3down/6.5 up right now. Hasn't been higher than 7 since 26th.
I've been keeping a note of that:

fter I re-started it on 4July due to it being sluggish, I got this:
04/07 11.50am re-start 8935/1088 NM6.1/5.6 11.50AM
Then it disconnected on 24th:
24/07 11.10am disconn 7826/1096 NM 9.4/6.0
24/07 14.15pm retry 7818/1097 same speed
25/07 01.25am 7.9/6.0
25/07 11.23am 9.2/5.9
26/07 00.45am 8.6/6.0
26/07 12.35pm disconn 6653/1084 NM 6.6/6.4 14.30PM
26/07 23.00pm 5.9/6.4
29/07 01.00am 5.1/5.7
29/07 11.00am 6.5/6.4

and it stayed like that until today.

I just checked the line data information, and it shows noise margin re-sets in that column that sort of tie in with the disconnections I had:

Noise Margin Reset
Run Mode
Run Mode Changed
Interleave
Date

N Interleaved N Auto 26-Jul-2013 12:18
Y Interleaved N Auto 26-Jul-2013 12:18
N Interleaved N Auto 24-Jul-2013 06:19
Y Interleaved N Auto 24-Jul-2013 06:19
N Interleaved N Auto 12-Jan-2013 12:36
N Interleaved Y Auto 12-Jan-2013 12:36
N Fast N Auto 10-Jan-2013 15:03
Y Fast Y Auto 10-Jan-2013 15:03

I decided not to mess about with it and phoned Zen Tech seeing their lines were quiet - chap called Ray had a good look at everything and had me use the test socket with a new filter just to see ..still no difference, so I'm guessing not this side of the line.
He went and did some line tests, returned and discussed the anomalies and my line data, and went away again promising to return 10-15minutes.

Seems he got a BRAS cap removed! He said it had been banded at 3-6Mb (I've been getting around 7.5 down for months though), and said it would take 72 hours to settle properly to the 82%
No-one had known why it had been applied in the first place though, so I'll just hope it stays stable!

So, these are the stats right after I plugged it back into the normal side of the socket:

DMT Status No Defect
Operational Mode ADSL2+
Upstream 1137
Downstream 9360
SNR Margin(Upstream) 5.8
SNR Margin(Downstream) 6.4
Line Attenuation(Upstream) 27.4
Line Attenuation(Downstream) 46.5

Very strange. Seems Zen are back doing what they have the reputation for - great support . hey seem to have occasional batches of unhappy customers, but that is first class.

I think he will be wrong about the 72 hours though:). I think that 82% is 88.2%, and it should set immediately. Unless they have a slow-responding copy, which I don't think is the case.

Easy enough to find out. Run the BT Wholesale performance test, and when it gives the noddy results page click the Further diagnostics at the bottom. It'll ask for the phone number than give graphs, and more usefully text boxes with the Down and Up sync and IP Profiles.

It would be interesting if you copy and paste the content of both.

Downstream IP Profile 8.23?

I have to be honest, I may not have had many problems, but whenever I have, Zen have been very good.
Today however was particularly good service, and he spent a good while tracking down the problem, and rang back quickly both times he went to check or test things.
He said it had been banded at 3-6.
When I thanked him for his time, he replied that he just likes to make people happy! That kind of service or response from people is not always easy to find

Even with my limited knowledge, I doubted it would improve further in the coming days as it's the best it's ever been - just as long as BT's systems don't mess with it again ..remains to be seen.

He even told me to do one of the BT tests, adding that the results are recorded by BT, so I saved the results (just before 4pm):

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
8.23 Mbps

0 Mbps 21 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speed achieved during the test was - 8.23 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 4 Mbps-21 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 8.26 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
0.97 Mbps

0 Mbps 0.83 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.97Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 0.83 Mbps

I see my upload speed is still exceeding the stated maximum.

The NM's are currently 5.3 down / 6.1 up (down was 4.8 an hour ago)

Anyone on the phone when it was 4.8dB?