Serious speed problems

Hi,

I started a connection with UKFSN on the 15th of this month. Although the official date was the 15th the connection was live 3 days earlier. For those three days everything was perfect. Then on the morning of the 15th my line started to disconnect continuously. I called UKFSN and told the problem and they said they would tell BT. The next day everything seemed fine and working well, although the sync rate was dropping slightly every time I connect.

However, since yesterday the connection is unbelievably slow. I run a the BT speed test and below are the results. I am new to these things and i dont really understand what they mean but for sure i can see there is something wrong.

Could anybody make any suggestions?

I am on the up to 8Mb program. I am around 930m straight line from the server and I am using a USB modem

The results from the BT test were

"Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 283 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 4544 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 220 kbps"

Thanks a lot
mount199

Your experience suggests that your modem is losing sync frequently. This will cause your profile to be lowered, regardless of the sync speed you achieve at a given time. The IP Profile is odd, though, normally it is given in 500k increments starting from 500k. For the sync speed you have, your profile should be 4000kbps, but you're only just into the 4000 range, so 3500 might be more realistic.

If you can post your line stats, we may be able to give you more specific advice, check here for instructions on how.

IP profile for your line is - 283 kbps

Looks to have had a low speed crisis in the last 3 days.

Is there a 283kbps profile, Phil? It's not on my list, I just wondered if it's a 'worst case' fallback.

pass. The lowest on the "list" tends to be 500 I've seen ones that are 1xx presumably from 160k sync speed.

I am sorry to sound like an idiot but what are these things you are mentioning. Do they mean I am in serious trouble?

I am not sure which line stats I should post because on my modem (BT Voyager 105) ther are loads but here are two of them:

...........................Local....Remote
Attenuation (dB).....23,15.......14
SNR Margin (dB).....16,5.........11


Do these make anything clearer?

Thank you very much

mount199

Also regarding to what Phil said:

"IP profile for your line is - 283 kbps

Looks to have had a low speed crisis in the last 3 days.

Phil"

Not really.As I said in the initial post i and problems with stability and speed but then they were fixed. Before this thing happen (i.e. my 284kbp profile) I was downloading at good speeds of around 300kb/s in torrrents. And then, the next day everything was changed.

Thanks again
mount199

Thanks, Phil.

You don't sound like an idiot, we all had to learn this weird ADSL-speak when we started.

Are you in serious trouble? On the evidence you have given us, yes. It would appear from your profile that your line is unstable and that your modem re-syncs (connects) with the exchange frequently, more than 10 times an hour. This triggers the BT line management software into pushing down your profile in the hope of finding a stable speed.

For the attenuation and margin you report, it seems odd, and suggests there may be a problem with your wiring, possibly between the exchange and your house or, more likely, within the house. This could be as simple as a missing or faulty filter (every phone, Sky box, analogue modem etc must be filtered). Try unplugging everything but your modem, and see if the position improves. Because you are using a modem rather than a router, it is unlikely to log re-sync events, so you need to keep an eye out for flashing lights.

If it's not caused by device plugged into your line, then you need to take a look at the wiring. Do you feel confident to do that?

To give you an idea of how way out your stats are, I have 54db of d/s attenuation on my line, a noise margin of 9db, but I get a 2500 or, with a following wind, a 3000kbps profile. You should be seeing a much higher figure han I am, not to mention than you are.

You may want to call your ISP as they will be able to tell you of your session history, the number of times you have dropped the connection.

so is it more than three days and a night since it was fixed ? If so and you haven't had any low speed events then the profile is stuck and you need the ISP to give it a belt.

For <40 dB downstream / local attenuation you should be getting 7-8M sync speeds not 4M. Test socket ? see link in sig below.

Thanks a lot Rik and Phil.

However, i wanted to ask one more thing. When you say that:

"...your modem re-syncs (connects) with the exchange frequently, more than 10 times an hour."
"...the number of times you have dropped the connection."

Do you mean that the line drops completely and the modem redials (because this used to happen but does not happen anymore)?

OR

Do you mean that these two little PCs icons on the down right side of the screen flashing (which also causes one of the modem lights to flash. however i think the modem light is the "data" light and does not have to do with the dropping of the line, right?)

After I read you posts I called my ISP and they told me that my line seems to drop very often, as you had said. However, as I explained to the tech guy, it is possible that this does not happen due to line disconnection but because I unplug the model from my pc frequently in depserate attempts to get a better connection. He said that I should wait and stay connected for long periods and call back in 3 days.

Thank you very much.
mount199

p.s. it s very nice that there are people out there that have knowledge and are willing to help others. Thanks again.

we're talking about the number of times the exchange and the modem lose contact with each other, or fall out over the state of the connection.

As you have a USB modem unplugging it causes it to re-sync and doing that 10 times in an hour should incur the wrath of the MaxDSL gods.

You have to think of this in different layers - if the modem speed to the exchange is 4000-odd then its doing fine, the problem is elsewhere and there's no point in disconnecting the modem when this is the case.

Hi Mount

What Phil said. It's a bad idea to keep unplugging the modem, either from the computer or the phone line. The monitoring software BT uses will see that as an indication of an unstable line and will keep pushing your profile down in order to try and correct the problem. Which is the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. To get your speed up to where it should be, you will need to maintain a high sync speed for a period of 3 days. As Phil says, if nothing changes after that, you need to talk to your iSP about the possibility of a stuck profile.

Assuming you have the normal 'frog' modem, from memory, there are two lights on it, power and ADSL. The ADSL should be a constant green. If it starts flashing, as distinct from flickering - which just indicates traffic), then you have lost sync.

In the longer term, I would advise you consider going for a router, even if you are only connecting one PC. They sometimes provide a better connection, they always provide a much higher degree of security, and put less load on the PC, both power and CPU cycles.

138Kbps is the lowest I have seen.