Higher speeds possible?

I've seen posts by other people with similar stats to mine i.e. atternuation, noise margin who have higher connection speeds than I do -

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 16491 kbps 975 kbps
Line Attenuation 21.0 db 9.5 db
Noise Margin 7.1 db 8.0 db

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.254.138] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 < 1 ms <1ms <1ms myrouter.home [192.168.0.1]
2 25 ms 25ms 25ms cr0.sdpchvn.uk.easynet.net [87.87.248.135.131}
3 21ms 21ms 21ms 87.87.134.193
4 25ms 25ms 25ms te0-0-0-0.er11.thlon.ov.easynet.net [89.200.135.131]
5 25ms 38ms 25ms 212.58.238.189
6 25ms 25ms 25ms 212.58.238.153
7 25ms 25ms 26ms virtual-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]

The router is plugged into a filtered faceplate plugged into the master socket via a short 1.5m dsl lead. I've done a quiet line test and theres no discernable noise on the line. I'm well past DLM.

So what do you think? Is it worth contacting Sky to get the line profile changed? If so, what would you recommend? And whos the best people to call etc?

Cheers

You have several options here, you can buy a router that uses a similar chipset to the easynet exchange kit (1st hop) conexant chipset, such as the Netgear DG834 V5 or one of the Billion 7204 series routers as some if not all will allow you to tweak certain aspects of your connection such as lowering the downstream snr, but with both routers will obtain a higher sync rate both upstream &downstream out of the box,
2, you could ring sky ,& ask them to lower the default SNR from the 7db to say 4 or 3db you would see an increase of sync rate, there is also another way but sky won't enable it fastpath, lowers the ping times and gives a increase of a few megabits in sync downstream and a little on the upstream, as the level of interleave delay is less by default, sky's upstream is capped at 1.3mbit, btw there is the necessary info on the www. regarding extracting the user name and password from the sky supplier router, that you simply enter into the router of your choosing

Tommy can Sky lower the noise margin below 7?

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

Tommy can Sky lower the noise margin below 7?

Course they can as their network supports it, but the million dollar question should be will they change the Target snrm from the default value of 8-7db? no harm in asking them, but i would be surprised if they would do it, as a ex ukonline customer who had both pure fast path enabled and a target snr of 4db, i know how good that easynet network was ,but sky with it's one size fits all approach made sure that i never signed up to them
But you can always get a router that allows you to tweak setting such as snr either out of the box through telnet interface or via dmt or routerstats,or even a 3rd party f/w such as the dg team

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 16-Feb-11 18:45:15)

I might give them a ring and see if they will do it....i've a VIP account, might chance getting fastpath if its possible on the new ISAMs.

I did have a DGN2000 which i had tweaked to 3dB but that gave up there a week or 2 ago, havin to use the sky DG934

Not sure about the newer sky exchange kit, but it should have that feature available, i know the older easynet kit normally used for smpf lines does, just that sky seem not to use it

Thanks tommy. Its a bit strange that some people can manage 18-19mbps on the same attenuation and router. I guess there must be noise on the line somewhere huh? I am in a block of flats so maybe we all share the same cable, or something. I've still got a DG834GT lying around will that do as well as a V5?

Edited by deleted (Thu 17-Feb-11 10:28:01)

Hi my stats same as yours
This is my current stats with Sagem

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 18008 kbps 923 kbps
Line Attenuation 21.0 db 9.4 db
Noise Margin 7.1 db 8.5 db

This is Sky manually configured

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 19506 kbps 997 kbps
Line Attenuation 21.0 db 9.5 db
Noise Margin 7.2 db 8.0 db

(DLM ran again when i took price reduction havent called to have line reconfigured)

Always worth testing in the test socket to ensure figures are the same

In reply to a post by Chug_a_Bug:

Thanks tommy. Its a bit strange that some people can manage 18-19mbps on the same attenuation and router. I guess there must be noise on the line somewhere huh? I am in a block of flats so maybe we all share the same cable, or something. I've still got a DG834GT lying around will that do as well as a V5?

Can depend on a few different things,such as quality of the pair, noise, the ADSL profile set by the isp, such as is DLM capping the sync rate, higher than normal snrm, interleave or fastpath,
using the DG834 GT you will have to manually lower the snr to gain some extra speed, as that has a broadcom chipset, not a conexant one,

Sky will not , i repeat will not lower your target SNR below there default 7db just as they will not totally remove interleaving , and do not have or are ever likely to ever have custom line profiles .

Sky is a good product but it is one size fits all product with very little flexibility away from the default profile , as far as i know the only profile away from the default is the gaming profile that's not available to some users on the older Easynet equipment ( by all accounts )

But if you like wasting your time by all means phone up and ask .

I was reading this gaming profile on this thread, but when I phoned this morning to sign up, I asked about and the lady I was speaking said she hadn't heard of it (though she hadn't heard of Pings either), she put me on hold to ask a techinical bod and then cut me off. Hopefully it wasn't something I siad?

So does it actually exist with Sky, what do they actually do and what difference does it make?

Thanks

In reply to a post by tommy45:

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

Tommy can Sky lower the noise margin below 7?

Course they can as their network supports it, but the million dollar question should be will they change the Target snrm from the default value of 8-7db? no harm in asking them, but i would be surprised if they would do it, as a ex ukonline customer who had both pure fast path enabled and a target snr of 4db, i know how good that easynet network was ,but sky with it's one size fits all approach made sure that i never signed up to them
But you can always get a router that allows you to tweak setting such as snr either out of the box through telnet interface or via dmt or routerstats,or even a 3rd party f/w such as the dg team

I never said that they will waiver from their one size fits all approach,Was the main reason i didn't just switch to sky myself, the old easynet kit assuming it was the same conexant based gear that i and most uko customers where connected to ,then fastpath sra ect are features that kit supports , just a case of them being used,by those in control, and good old sky won't use them,for whatever the reason is

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 19-Feb-11 12:52:38)

they reduce your interleaving depth which improves your ping times for gaming ( hence the name " gaming profile ") but they wont remove interleaving completely .

The gaming profile helps allot as Sky default interleaving depth is 40ms(i believe ) and the gaming profile reduces this to 8ms and its been reported the gaming profile removes you from Sky dynamic line management that can be a real problem on lines that have noise events .

Its probably best you forget your time with UKonline when advising Sky customers .

@boysteve

Cheers, thats what I thought, I think I'll give Sky a call.