Sky ADSL, limited at 4096 kbps max? SNR allows more ...

Hi,

I had my line activated more than 10 days ago. The downstream and upstream speeds is almost definitely capped at 4096 and 800 kbps respectively, even though my line attenuation and average SNR margin allow more than that, as reported by my modem.

This is what my Billion 7800DXL is reporting reports with SNR margin set to "auto" -- note the attainable rates:

Downstream Upstream

Rate (Kbps) 4094 799

Line Coding (Trellis) On On
SNR Margin (dB) 5.5 12.7
Attenuation (dB) 57.5 36.1
Output Power (dBm) 16.6 12.4
Attainable Rate (Kbps) 4872 980

On this router I can tweak the SNR margin. Here's what it reports when I set the SNR margin to 4 dB -- connection is stable, and the 7800DXL constantly reports attainable speeds above 5500 kbps, even though it fluectuates slightly in the last 2 digits:

Downstream Upstream

Rate (Kbps) 4093 799

Line Coding (Trellis) On On
SNR Margin (dB) 4.3 12.5
Attenuation (dB) 57.5 36.1
Output Power (dBm) 16.8 12.4
Attainable Rate (Kbps) 5637 980

That's 1.6 Mbps difference, which would make a big difference to me right now ...

So ...

- Can do anything about this?
- I read some older posts about asking Sky Customer Support to switch me to a gaming profile. Does that still apply and does that only affect ping times?
- Can I ask Sky CS to remove any DL/UL caps? (I am almost certain my connection is capped)

Cheers

Easiest is to continue with your tweaking.

Harder but possible path is asking Sky to tweak the line settings, gaming profile affected latency and connection speeds generally giving best performance but at risk of instability.

The Sky DLM operates on capping, but people are reporting target values as low as 3dB sometimes.

Ive been in same boat as you after switching to Sky from Be*.
I was on a 4096/796 sync setting, and through the 10 day training period it didnt budge a bit, so not much 'learning' going on there.
I was a bit miffed at the sudden loss in upstream from previous and reliably 1100 odd to the now 796.
I started a ping pong of complaints by email and telephone with Sky and in the end after threats to leave etc they did bump it up to a download sync of about 4790 or something similar, but one thing I could not get them to change was the upstream, it appears Sky limit the upstream to 800(ish) with a target snr of about 14db or so and no matter what I said they said they couldnt change it.
Ive given up talking to them and when I next get the inclination I will move providers.
I must admit I loved Be's connect as fast as it can attitude regardless, none of the profiles and DLM rubbish.
I dont think anyone does that anymore.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

Sky upload can go faster than this, think modem is synced at 980 Kbps.

But their line management seems to work on the assumption that if the downstream needs some management so does the upstream, i.e. the two are linked in their view.

We migrated from O2 last Thursday - we're directly connected to the exchange, so no FTTC for us

O2 Works was giving me 18Mbps down and 2Mbps up.

Sky DSLAM/modem training seems to be ongong:

17OCT13 Sky modem installed - synced initially at 7005/798
18OCT13 sync 10237 / 1117
19OCT13 13307/1117
20OCT13 16377/1117 VPI = 0, VCI = 38
21OCT13 19006/1212 DITTO

While the training tends to settle it remains an ongoing evolving situation.

A good cs rep can get line tweaked if you are patient I have found