Ridiculously terrible connection (with BlueEther stats)

Hey guys,

For ages now my connection has been getting progressively worse, to the point that it is practically unusable now. We are about 4.5Km from the exchange, so have never been able to get great speeds, but always managed about 1-1.5 Mb/s consistantly. For the past 6 months however this has gradually been getting worse, to the point at which we are now at, where at best we manage about 10% of this! The connection is with Virgin Media, although we cannot get cable, so it goes through our existing phone line.

I'm using a Netgear DG834G v4 router, which works fine elsewhere. I've tried the usual, unplugging other phones, checking the line for hissing/crackling, etc., and the line is plugged into the master socket.

I uploaded stats from the router to BlueEther's stats checker and pasted the results below (there's a link to more detailed stats in the post if anyone who has a clue fancies a look).

While most of the numbers mean little to me, I don't mind fiddling with settings if anyone thinks they can help to improve the situation

BlueEther's stats checker at http://adsl.tin2tin.net thinks my line is made of some Welsh hill farmers old fence.
Can you help me fix my line?

http://adsl.tin2tin.net/yourstats.php?statsID=143235

Down sync is low (7% of the theoretical maximum).
SN margins vary by too much.
Attenuation looks normal.
The power values are out.
There are lots of error seconds (downstream).
There are Lots of FEC errors.
There are a few uncorrected FEC errors.

Text

1 23 45 67 89 1011 1213 1415 1617 1819 2021 22

Uptime:                 17h 47m 44s Modulation:             G.DMT - Interleaved on Annex A                                (Up Stream)     /       (Down Stream) Sync:                                   448     /       192Data Transferred:                               /       Attenuation:                            31.5    /       63.5SN Margin:                              13      /       8 Power:                                  12.5    /       12.4Vendor:                                         /       Modem:                          an unknown modem with adslctlLoF:                                    0       /       0 LoS:                                    0       /       0Error Sec.:                             0       /       5330 FEC (Uncorrected):                              2340FEC (Corrected):                                13043885 FEC (RS Counter):                               33697280  HEC (Errors):                           0       /       483Data Cells:                             0       /       2709262  CRC (SFerr):                            0       /       2137 Supper Frames:                  3964368 /       3964385

Any insight or suggestions you could offer would be greatly appreciated and if I can get this sorted there will be cake for everyone!

In reply to a post by adfinlay:

..... and the line is plugged into the master socket....

Master socket or test socket?

I did mean test socket, but on closer inspection there was another socket plugged bwtween the faceplate and test socket, that appeared to serve no purpose. I removed it and power cycled the router, and resynced at the slightly higher downstream of 288kb/s, and the noise margins were slightly lower (both between 6 and 7dB)

The connection is still pitiful though, and I'm not sure if removing that socket did anything as I dont have any other sets of figures than the one I posted to compare to - the 192kb/s sync could have been unusually low.

Any more thoughts?

What exchange are you on? No LLU I take it? Unfortunately your downstream attenuation doesn't look good if your through a BT ipstream product that with IP profiling will strangle any speed out of a longer line if there is a fault, or intermittent connection.

I am on the Ballymoney (Northern Ireland) exchange (code: NIBO), if this is what you mean...according to http://www.samknows.com/old/broadband/exchange.php?e... LLU is enabled, but it would seem not for C&W (who I believe handle Virgin's LLU services, although I could be wrong)

If I am reading your post right, it sounds awfully like there isn't much I can do about the situation...is this the case?

I am no longer tied to Virgin, so would changing to TalkTalk LLU be worthwhile, as they seem to be enabled on my exchange...

Thanks for the post

Edit: I swapped out the filter and managed to sync at 448kbps down and up, but still can't manage more than 15KB/s download speed...here is the new stats analysis, which appears worse despite the higher sync rate...

http://adsl.tin2tin.net/yourstats.php?statsID=143247

Edit 2: I did a BT quiet line test (17070 option 2) and may have had some hissing...should the line be completely 100% silent, as before I would have passed the sound I heard off as background noise or speaker sound or something...

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Jun-10 21:24:36)

You have checked everything and swapped stuff where possible? Changing filter or trying another modem if you can loan one? I know someone who was having problems with his line last week, called isp, turned out a filter had gone bad.

There shouldn't be any crackling on the line, probably hissing isn't good either, try and escalate a fault so your isp may be able to have a look at it for you, if they identify there is a problem, then they may get bt out to have a look.

Asides that it may be worth going over to talk talk, as if you have got a problem with the line, this will avoid the need for bras profiling, which currently is not helping and restricting your connection speed at the minute.

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Jun-10 01:32:04)