upgraded cabinet - downgraded my service - HELP!

Hi all, I need some help.
BT upgraded the cabinet (to what I don't know) and I've been having nothing but problems ever since.
My service was previously a solid un-droppable 500k download and 400k upload (abismal I know). Now post upgrade my service is flaking out at least once a day (often when the phone rang?) and I am very lucky to get past 225k download and 600k upload (which I find odd - upload faster than download?).
I've had 6 engineer visits and they've changed all sorts, worked with the various parts of BT (openreach and retail etc). The last thing I was told is its a profiling issue. Friday I had a new profile issued which shot my sync'd line speed up to 1.9M (indicated on the router page) but 3dB noise margin (used to be 6). Then I couldn't do anything, google took 20 mins to download.
As of now my router indicates 660kbps download 770kbps upload (still round the wrong way) and 5.6dB noise margin, with 66dB attenuation down.

Now that would be fine. but all my devices report 210kbps download and 580kbps upload.

Whats going on? 3 months without usable 'tinters' is starting to grate.

thanks for your replies, sorry for the huge post.

You'll have to wait for one of the BT guys to comment but cutting out when the phone rings may indicate a high resistance fault.

Do you have a test socket (inside modern BT master sockets)? If so could you plug your modem/router in there and recheck the stats.

See http://www.dslzoneuk.net/socket.php?type=html

For stats see http://www.dslzoneuk.net/adsl_line_stats.php or http://kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

yeah, had the router plugged into the test socket for the first month. The engineers tried that too, then replaced it. Changed my d-side (?) and some stuff at the cab, then the exchange, also on 3rd router (bthh2 then two different bt hh3's).

I can't work out how the hub reports (right now) 659kbps download, which I'd be happy with (ish) but everything is so slow. A couple of different speed tests tell me my download is only around 250kbps. Its almost unusable.

Line state: Connected
Connection time: 0 days, 04:01:28
Downstream: 659.8 Kbps
Upstream: 730.3 Kbps

ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI: 0/38
Type: PPPoA
Modulation: G.992.3 Annex A
Latency type: Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up): 5.7 dB / 6.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up): 66.8 dB / 39.9 dB
Output power (Down/Up): 14.2 dBm / 12.5 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up): 2710849 / 682
CRC Events (Down/Up): 1073 / 143
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
HEC Events (Down/Up): 911 / 108
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 150381 / 459

screen shot off home hub 3

not what you want to hear but the
Line attenuation (Down/Up): 66.8 dB
is the kicker. I would think this has changed for some reason, hence the low download speeds

400 upload previously suggests an older ipstream Max product (up to 8Meg) and now you are on an ADSL2+ (connecting at ADSL2 due to line length) and this has faster upstream speeds possible.

If the line attenuation is around the same as previously, then suggestions are

1. Force modem to connect using only ADSL mode (G.DMT 992.1)
or
2. Source your own ADSL modem , 2Wire 2700 HGV is a common recommendation for long lines.

Why? Previous versions of the home hub were not great on long lines, and this may be the case again

As Mr.S noted, you would appear to be on an ADSL2+ service now, and this is often less stable on very long lines. I using the phone is causing the broadband to drop, then that's indicative of a fault *possibly*. You have had a D-side swap out, so when the next engineer comes ask if they can swap out the E-side, also, did they check the fit ? How the wire gets from the distribution point to your socket ?

Right guys, firstly thanks for your help.
As suggested forced router to adsl, and touch wood, no drops (dispite plenty of land line use) for 1 day 22 hours. A record since upgrade!
After much cajoling I've managed to get some form of engineers report. I'm on my third pair apparently. Does a pair consist of D+E?
The first engineers visit changed out the cable from my master socket to the pole because there was two bad joins on it (next to my house) and it wouldn't stretch for a re-termination at the pole.
Does any of this make sense? I got most of the info off an indian somewhere.

Speed as indicated by the hub is right now 656kbps up and 760kbps down (still seams the wrong way) however internet speed tests are coming in at 230kbps and 420 kbps ish.

latest BT answer is to rebuild my profile again, with one last BT engineer visit booked for 12 days after the profile rebuild.

Wish I could get mobile broadband here!!

Edited by deleted (Thu 03-Nov-11 11:49:08)

Your profile is at www.speedtester.bt.com so worth a visit to see if its at the best value yet for the connection speed.

Your output power is too low. It should be closer to 19.dbm

Top call on speed tester. profile capped at 250kbps download, 730kbps upload. Not dropped since your help on forcing to adsl. 4 days and counting!

Why has it fallen to me to milk you guys for info to get broadband working? Surely the BT engineers should have sorted this stuff out? On the phone now trying to get cap removed. Fingers crossed I will have super speedy stable half meg throughtput by the end of the day! HA!

Can I alter power output? Is that something BT can alter?
It's a bit off topic but what is FEC, CRC, HEC, VPI/VCI, latency type, and why is output power measured in dB metres?

I don't think you can alter output power. I doubt if BT can either.

Nothing to do do with metres, millwatts.

dBm = 10 log (power out / 1mW)

FEC forward error correction - this is a count of the number of errors automatically corrected at the receiver (using the checksum data in the interleaved packet).

CRC cyclic redundancy check - an uncorrectable error

HEC an error in the header byte of an ADSL packet (data is broken down into ADSL packets of 53 bytes)

VPI/VCI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Channel_Identifier

latency type - fast path or interleaved

Many thanks for all your help yet again guys.

Still having some issues, and I don't know if BT are fobbing me off. Had another visit from engineers armed with some guff about an echange issue and rebuilding my profile again.
Things seam more stable and the speed has increased, but downloads still take for ever (30kbps ish from amazon). The engineer set things back to adsl2+. Was that the right thing to do?
here is the screen shot off my homehub3:

ADSL Line Status
Connection Information
Line state: Connected
Connection time: 1 days, 19:52:47
Downstream: 664 Kbps
Upstream: 759.9 Kbps

ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI: 0/38
Type: PPPoA
Modulation: G.992.3 Annex A
Latency type: Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up): 3.1 dB / 6.1 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up): 67.8 dB / 35.9 dB
Output power (Down/Up): 14.6 dBm / 12.6 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up): 268719460 / 6155
CRC Events (Down/Up): 829437 / 696
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
HEC Events (Down/Up): 679387 / 772
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 591825 / 3062

Is that amount of fec/crc/hec right?