Speed dropped and am I getting the best speed possible?

I'm on sky broadband up to 16mb £10 a month (£10 because we have SkyTV etc) deal, been with them for about 2 and a half years now.
My dad and I usually complain about the internet, it's becomes frustrating when I'm playing Xbox live on a very low connection speed and he can hardly stream youtube videos. We've phoned up sky on various occasions, I remember one of them was about capping our bandwidth due to a virus on a computer which we had got rid of ages ago and we've always wondered if that is limiting our speed at the moment.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1258217332.png

I usually get around 4500kbps download speed which I think could be better but I don't understand the stats well. Today it has dropped down to 1824 kbps download and 128 kbps upload. I'd like to know if we should be getting a higher speed and if so what speed roughly.

Our nearest exchange is http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LWGAR (0.8 miles from my house)

These are our stats from the Bounce sky router program:

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 0
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 128 Kbps, Downstream rate = 1824 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.3 7.0
Attn(dB): 40.0 29.5
Pwr(dBm): 19.1 12.3
Max(Kbps): 2016 192
Rate (Kbps): 1824 128
G.dmt framing
K: 58(0) 5
R: 16 16
S: 4 16
D: 32 8
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 58 5
M: 4 16
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 4.2711 18.6666
L: 472 48
D: 32 8
Counters
SF: 83364 83367
SFErr: 0 0
RS: 1417202 353808
RSCorr: 489 11
RSUnCorr: 0 0

HEC: 0 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 6096872 0
Data Cells: 175809 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 21 0
AS: 1418

INP: 4.33 10.66
PER: 1.86 2.04
delay: 34.16 37.33
OR: 29.96 27.42

Bitswap: 0 0

Total time = 24 min 11 sec
SF = 83364
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Latest 1 day time = 24 min 11 sec
SF = 83364
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 9 min 11 sec
SF = 32391
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 50973
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Showtime Drop Reason: 0
Last Retrain Reason: 0



Thanks in advance

Edited by deleted (Mon 18-Apr-11 21:14:23)

can anyone help?

Seems there is a fault somewhere. With that attenuation you should be pushing 10Mb/s.

Do you have a test socket on the main socket? If so, you need to try plugging the router into that and see what the stats are. That would rule out (or show) any issues with your internal cabling. Also, try a different filter if you have one.

If the connection is still as bad there then it is probably time for a call to Sky.

Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.3 7.0
Attn(dB): 40.0 29.5
Pwr(dBm): 19.1 12.3
Max(Kbps): 2016 192
Rate (Kbps): 1824 128

DEFINITE line problem somewhere. Inside your house or outside...

With 40.0 db attenuation I would expect between 8 and 12 meg download speeds. You are getting 1.8. Also the SNR indicates there is no cap, your line just can't handle any faster... Well the line SHOULD easily handle faster. Hence the fault somewhere.

Are you in the master phone socket? I have seen this issue so many times and it turns out the homeowner is using so many extension cables & has so many additional phone sockets etc...

So how many phone sockets are in your house?
Are you using the master socket?
Are you using an extension cable?
Does every phone socket that's in use have a filter plugged in?

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 19-Apr-11 14:06:36)

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.3 7.0
Attn(dB): 40.0 29.5
Pwr(dBm): 19.1 12.3
Max(Kbps): 2016 192
Rate (Kbps): 1824 128

DEFINITE line problem somewhere. Inside your house or outside...

With 40.0 db attenuation I would expect between 8 and 12 meg download speeds. You are getting 1.8. Also the SNR indicates there is no cap, your line just can't handle any faster... Well the line SHOULD easily handle faster. Hence the fault somewhere.

Are you in the master phone socket? I have seen this issue so many times and it turns out the homeowner is using so many extension cables & has so many additional phone sockets etc...

So how many phone sockets are in your house?
Are you using the master socket?
Are you using an extension cable?
Does every phone socket that's in use have a filter plugged in?

Thanks for replying

There are 2 phone sockets in my house, both have the filter
The router is connected to the master socket, an extension cable is used to power the router. The other phone socket is for the phone.

1. Unplug the other phone and other filter and the cable going to that socket if possible, check again

A nice round number for the upstream, suggests to me maybe NOT a line problem, but Sky DLM might have gone mad and put you on a slow profile.

if upstream and downstream sync speeds are the same ALL the time now, then DLM looks likely.

Stats after phone line unplugged.
Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.8 8.0
Attn(dB): 40.0 30.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.6 12.5
Max(Kbps): 2208 192
Rate (Kbps): 1888 128

Stats after phone line unplugged and router restart

Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.2 8.0
Attn(dB): 40.0 30.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.6 12.5
Max(Kbps): 2368 192
Rate (Kbps): 2048 128

slight increase but nowhere near the speed we were getting before or the speed others have said I should be getting.

Should I ring up sky and ask them to give my old speed back (around 4.5mbps) or could I ask for around 8-12mbps like others have said I should be getting.

Is your Sky TV box plugged into the phone line? Something is reducing your SNR Margin.

The Sky TV box is plugged in to the master socket as well.

That's usually the problem.

Stats with skybox unplugged

Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.3 7.0
Attn(dB): 40.0 30.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.7 12.3
Max(Kbps): 2432 192
Rate (Kbps): 2112 128

The sky box has always been plugged in so I doubt it could have caused the recent speed drop and it doesn't look like its going to make my standard connection go up to 8-12mb

You're also on a g.dmt connection, not ADSL2+, so that won't help either.

What you need to do is take the router stats with only the router plugged into the phone socket, preferably the test socket behind the master.

A switching power supply is often responsible for reducing SNR Margin too.

Definitely not DLM (Skys profile system) as your sync speed is changing. Looking more & more like a line fault... the upstream is fixed by dlm though (this is common)

Do you have a master socket that looks like this

http://www.hotfrog.co.uk/NewUploads/PressReleases/BT...

If so can you do the following...

These sockets have a TEST socket. This eliminates your side of the equipment...

To access the TEST socket, unscrew the front part of the socket and plug the filter into the TEST socket. ONLY plug the router in, nothing else.

Plug the filter and router into the part of the socket shown on this picture (arrow to test socket)

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-i...

get the statistics in this socket...

then try a different filter and get the statistics too

post both of the stats into this forum.

So we want statistics in the test socket. only the router plugged in. using 2 different filters.
This would help 1000 times

ALSO right now there is no way you could get 4.5 meg, the line is maxed out as it is. sky wont reduce the snr anymore.

we need to find out why the line is maxxing out at 2 meg and not 8 - 12 meg like it should be easily reaching. It's either your internal wiring or the BT wiring. If it's the bt wiring your need an engineer out, if it's your wiring it's your responsibility.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 19-Apr-11 19:21:52)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

You're also on a g.dmt connection, not ADSL2+, so that won't help either.

What you need to do is take the router stats with only the router plugged into the phone socket, preferably the test socket behind the master.

A switching power supply is often responsible for reducing SNR Margin too.

Stats with only the router plugged in

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 0
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 128 Kbps, Downstream rate = 1952 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.1 8.0
Attn(dB): 40.0 30.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.3 12.5
Max(Kbps): 2272 192
Rate (Kbps): 1952 128
G.dmt framing
K: 62(0) 5
R: 16 16
S: 2 16
D: 64 8
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 62 5
M: 2 16
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 2.2539 18.6666
L: 504 48
D: 64 8
Counters
SF: 3891 3829
SFErr: 0 0
RS: 132326 16273
RSCorr: 0 0
RSUnCorr: 0 0

HEC: 0 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 304835 0
Data Cells: 1712 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 18 0
AS: 66

INP: 8.12 10.66
PER: 1.97 2.04
delay: 36.06 37.33
OR: 28.39 27.42

Bitswap: 0 0

Total time = 1 min 34 sec
SF = 3891
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Latest 1 day time = 1 min 34 sec
SF = 3891
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 1 min 34 sec
SF = 3891
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Showtime Drop Reason: 0
Last Retrain Reason: 0

we really need the stats in the TEST socket. no good otherwise as it doesn't rule out your internal wiring.

Ok we've just found out that our phone line isn't working and I remember it wasn't working since 2 Fridays back so we're going to ring up BT and sort that out first then see if that has any impact on the connection and if not proceed with the test socket thingy.

*Edit*
BT said that there's a fault with our line and that they've sent engineers to go fix it and it should be done by next Tuesday. So I guess the problem was with the line and not our own wiring

thanks for all the help from everybody, I'll post my stats back once they've fixed the line and see if I've got the 8-12mb connection.

Edited by deleted (Tue 19-Apr-11 19:59:38)

Interesting that the broadband is still working...

Possibly two different issues. Best of luck though!! Keep us informed.

Was reading the thread and next question was going to be is the phone working...

Phone needs both wires connected.
Broadband will function with just one connected, but is usually easy to spot as attenuation usually doubles at this point.

So get the phone working, and then see what happens

Andrew

The engineer fixed the line yesterday (got it to around 6.6mbps better than we ever had it) and then came to our house today to fix the faceplate and now its 8mpbs

Down Up
SNR (dB): 8.9 14.0
Attn(dB): 29.0 20.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.8 10.1
Max(Kbps): 8960 1184
Rate (Kbps): 8096 768

What is a normal upload speed for this kind of line and am I getting it?

www.farina1.com/adsl estimates

With ADSL you are at your maximum
With ADSL2+ a Rate of 16.5Mbps

So need to find out if Sky are capping you now.

So do I have to wait till the exchange changes to ADSL2+? I'm not sure how it works.

and what do you mean by Sky capping me, I've only got up to 16mb and if I'm at my maximum now for this line then surely they can't be capping me.

In reply to a post by luijee:

So do I have to wait till the exchange changes to ADSL2+? I'm not sure how it works.

and what do you mean by Sky capping me, I've only got up to 16mb and if I'm at my maximum now for this line then surely they can't be capping me.

From your previous stats, this line

Mode: G.DMT

shows you're on ADSL not ADSL2+.

You need to ask Sky to put you on ADSL2+ as that's the only way you'll get the higher speed.

Confirming what's been said really.

You have the HIGHEST sync for non-adsl 2 + on sky... (highest they could ever seem to give me anyways)

Once you get ADSL 2 + will hopefully see 12 meg ish Maybe higher - but let's not expect too much.. (TBF I'd like to see 14 - 17 meg)

Just need to ask sky to enable this. Customer Solutions Team at sky will definitely be able to do this (although they are hard to get to nowadays)...

Whilst your on the phone ask for DLM to be turned off. This way your sync will stay high! & they can do it regardless of what they tell you. Again customer solutions team can do it.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 22-Apr-11 05:38:38)

Phone sky now, and ask them in fact demand that you be put on ADSL2+

skys customer service can be ok, you just need to get them to compute, sometimes you get a rep that knows what he/she is talking about other than following a script.

It really is simple for them to do this, no exchange work needed, all they do it reconfigure the line at there end and it's done.

Yep it'll be done instantly whilst your on the phone

Any update on this?

*UPDATE*
Since resolving the problem I had been getting 8mpbs download and 0.7mbps upload according to my router which is great. A few days ago we rang up sky asking to be put on ASDL2+ being quite persistent, yet they said that our line won't handle more than 8mbps and that the best they could do was put us on a gaming profile (now we're getting around 7.2 download and 1 upload).
So did they lie or can my line really not handle more than 8mbps even though we're paying for up to 16mbps.

I will dye my hair red if your line at 29dB attenuation proves unable to go faster

Down Up
SNR (dB): 8.9 14.0
Attn(dB): 29.0 20.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.8 10.1
Max(Kbps): 8960 1184
Rate (Kbps): 8096 768

The 8096 figure is what I believe the maximum value is when capped by the Sky system. Its not that they are lying, simply the people you are talking to do not understand, beyond what they've been told.

It's no good asking to be put on ADSL2+ as Sky are working from the figures when DLM LAST ran.
You need to tell them you had a problem on the phone line which has now been sorted and ask for DLM to be ran again.This should then put you on ADSL2+.