Speed variation

I am a new talktalk customer being conected via LLU only a few days ago. i have tried to check my speed using the new SmartAX MT882 ADSL2 modem supplied by talktalk and my old Speedtouch 330 modem with updated drivers. The supplied modem, with an ethernet connection, is returning a download speed of 1320Kbps. and the Speedtouch modem (USB) is returning 1875Kbps. I am supposed to be on an 8Mb. supply. Can anyone explain the difference in these figures, I understood that an ethernet cable would give superior results. Would buying a brand-name modem make a difference, if so bearing in mind that I do no require a Router, which model would be the most likely to improve my speed. I should add that I used 'Speeedtester' for these results.

Best thing to do first is to post your stats. See here http://kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm

The line connection speeds may be different on both modems too, since there are variations between different devices.

As for being on an 8Mbps service it is up to 8Mbps as in rate adaptive, but if your exchange has not been unbundled by Talk Talk yet then a good chance you are simply on a fixed speed 2Mbps service.

If the upstream connection speed is 288Kbps then very likely its a fixed speed Home 2000 service

Sorry for the delay but I have had a lot of trouble trying to get the informationfrom my SmartAX Mt882 modem when I enter my username and password into the browser window it keeps on rejecting either or, which is strange since i am connected to the internet via this modem. i have had to abandon this and i can give you the information from my Speedtouch 330 which is :-

Speedtouch 330 USB Modem (Driver 301.0.0.12)

ReceiveAttenuation_dB= 45
ReceiveMargin_dB= 14

SendAttenuation_dB= 26
SendMargin_dB= 17

I have no idea what all of this means but hope it will help.
As i mentioned in my 'post' I do seem to be gettin much faster download speeds from this modem than using the MT882 with ethernet.

Thanks for the assistance

We need to know the line sync speeds also to intrepret the data.

Thanks, please excuse my ignorance but where do i get this information.

I have had a look at the Dr. Speedtouch screen and it shows (up/down) as
448/2.336 kbps. Is this the information you require.

Have a read of this. http://newsnet.googlepages.com/maxdsldiagnostics

It is possible to get increased speeds by asking TT 2nd line to reduce your noise margin from 15dB to 6dB or intermediate levels but you may suffer a less stable service.

The difference between modem performance is likely to be settings such as MTU and RWIN. The Huawei ought to be better in theory as it operates in ADSL2+ mode capped to 8Meg.

On a line like yours 5-6 Meg downstream ought to be possible as long as there is not excessive noise pick up.

OK it looks like you need to request Talk Talk to use a lower target noise margin, a figure of 9dB would allow you to almost double your speeds.

A sync of 2336Kbps if every thing is running perfectly should give you downloads of about 1900 to 2000Kbps from the internet.

Thank you for all the help and advice. As I am curently in the 'care' of the TalkTalk high level complaints team, they have arranged for me to have a discussion with a broadband 'expert' on the 2nd. April. Thanks to the very good advice I have been receiving from this posting I will be much better placed to ask the correct questions, for that I am extremely grateful.
I will report back to the forum after this has taken place.

I had (have) a speedtouch 330 for a long time. I swapped to the netgear 834gt connected via an ethernet cable and it has made a big difference. I just need to get it fine tuned now.

Thanks for the tip 'Shaky' if TalkTalk cannot offer any improvement or advise me further then I am prepared to dump the cheap Modem they provided and buy something decent. Your experience is worth knowing about. Thanks again.

Dear Jaycup

Sorry to hear about your speed issues.

If your local exchange has recently been unbundled, you may experience sudden fluctuations in speed. This is because we are testing the line to ensure you get the maximum download speed possible. This is a normal occurrence after an exchange is unbundled.

Top speeds for individual lines may fluctuate initially because of the number of variables involved. For example, your physical distance from the exchange can make a huge difference to the speed achieved

In reply to:

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Dear Jaycup

Sorry to hear about your speed issues.

If your local exchange has recently been unbundled, you may experience sudden fluctuations in speed. This is because we are testing the line to ensure you get the maximum download speed possible. This is a normal occurrence after an exchange is unbundled.

Top speeds for individual lines may fluctuate initially because of the number of variables involved. For example, your physical distance from the exchange can make a huge difference to the speed achieved

Spent over half an hour witht the TalkTalk broadband advisor. He decided to set the target noise margin at 9.0db. as was suggested here. This gave an increase in speed to around 1750kbps.
He asked me to take speed tests at various times of day over the next 48hrs. and als o to do some Ping tests and record the findings so that they could be sent to the Engineers before they do a check up on my connection. He suggested I use the BBc web site and the TalkTalk web site. This has now given me a new set of problems which i urgently need help with.
When I enter e.g., "ping www.bbc.co.uk" in the RunBox I get an eror message "request timed out". i get the same error no matter what web address I use. Another problem i have is that if I use "ping localhost" I can see some data in response but the Command Prompt window flashes off the the screen in an instant and any data is unable to be read. I have searched for some information on these problems (google) and whilst they seem to be quite common I am finding little success.

As I said earlier set your MTU to 1400 on the Huawei router. Make sure you save the setting.

Then if you are still having ping problems try ping -? to get a list of parameters to change.

To get the ping command to remain visible

START | RUN | CMD <press enter>

This will open a DOS command window which will remain open.
Pinging the BBC is not always a good idea as they have multiple servers around the world, and you may be directed to an overseas one if the UK ones are busy.

Tried cmd in to the run box and then entered the command prompt "ping www.talktalk.co.uk2" and got the message 'ping is not recognised as an internal or external command'.

What operating system are you running?

windows XP Professional SP2 and fully updated.

I have overcome the Ping problem by using another program http://www.tellurian.com/scripts/tools/ping.asp, this will allow me to collect the data requested by TalkTalk but I still have no idea why windows will not perform this task.

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/other-software/ping-not-recognized-internal-external-command-15364.html

Seems a path variable may have been messed up by some software previously installed.

http://forums.techguy.org/t420462.html also mentions it

Great stuff!, thanks for the links I am still working my way through the information, in between collecting data for TalkTalk, I will post back later on in the day, hopefully with a success story.

Some success, I have now sorted out the Path problem and the CMD.exe is working ok, e.g., I can get it to respond to "ipconfig /all" now and other commands as well but I still cannot get it to accept a 'ping' command it keeps returning "request timed out". I decided to further test this command by booting into my back up copy of Windows XP which I have on a different drive. This is a bare bones installion with just internet access anti-virus and a few other small utilities. The 'ping' command would not work here either.
Whilst I was in this windows installation i decided to try the speedtest that I have been conducting for TalkTalk and was astonished to find that the figures were significantly higher.I am getting over 2400kbps. consistently and 185kbps. (uploads) this compares with 1600kbps and 130kbps. 50% higher than I am getting from my normal operating system, is there a clue to the problem here?.

Not all web hosts are pingable, so which hosts are returning a request timed out, and some software firewalls are known to block ping, or can be set to do this

I was trying .bbc.co.uk and taltalk.co.uk have just tried amazon.co.uk, same result.

Only bbc.co.uk returns a result for me, the second two time out due to the server not responding to ping

Worth knowing, I tried bbc.co.uk again but it timed out in just over a second.

Things have moved on at quite a pace in the past 24hrs. I decided to check my Microfilters (3) and found one that I deemed to be faulty, this i replaced and saw an immediate improvement in my download speed. I was now getting speeds of 2400-2600kbps. quite an improvement. today TalkTalk have made some adjustments to my connection and I have completely un-installed my speedtouch modem and re-installed the drivers for my SmartAX Modem.I am now getting download speeds of 3500kbps. which I am delighted with.