Slower sync on standard stability than on stable. Why?

Evening all,

Around a year ago, I experienced a significant drop in sync speed and discovered that I'd ended up with a banded profile of 3-6Mbps. My ISP arranged for the banding to be removed.

I then asked my ISP to enable the stable stability option on my line due to the frequent drops I'd been experiencing.

There was no real improvement in sync so I invested in a new router. My sync rose within days from 68xx to 109xx.

My line's been very stable for the last year, so I asked my ISP to return me to standard stability.

They've done so, but my sync has dropped to 101xx. The positive is that my ping has dropped from 32ms to 11ms, but I can't understand why my sync has dropped, rather than risen. My router is holding sync very well.

Anyone have any ideas?

TIA,

Simon.

In reply to a post by spd:

The positive is that my ping has dropped from 32ms to 11ms

Usually indicative of switch from Interleaved to Fast Path but usually the Sync goes up when that happens.

Post your full router stats.

What are your currently SNR ratios in both Downstream and upstream?? Changing to FASTPath may reduce the latencies in general but the inherent errors may increase too, leading to your increase of SNRs and consequently lowering your Syns speeds as well.

SNR Down 5.9 Up 6.9
Attenuation Down 27.0 Up 9.1
Output Power Down (Reads as Zero) Up 12.9
Attainable rate Down 12940 Up 1024
Actual rate Down 10191 Up 1019

TIA,

SPD.

Edited by deleted (Fri 10-Feb-12 22:37:02)

With those stats your sync should be up in the 17 Meg region and you are worrying about a mere 0.8 Meg drop? Something badly wrong there .

I agreed that your STAT shows about 6db SNR downstream with merely 27db associated line attenuation, and as such your should be getting much higher Sync speed! Also your current SNR is around 6db mark, which is NOT too high either.
Something is dreadfully wrong here!! Did you try resetting your modem and let it power up again??

Are you stalking me? This is the 2nd time!

I have, in fact, there's some history to this.

Around two years ago (2010), we had one of those scheduled power cuts when the national grid plan to do some work in the area. The power outage lasted about two hours, and we were out during this time.

When we arrived home, our Sky box was making some very odd noises (like a relay quickly cycling on and off) - it was basically fried.

It wasn't until a few weeks later that I noticed that my adsl sync speed had dropped, despite previously being able to achieve 8128, I was now only getting about 6500...

On the 8th January last year (2011), I was moved onto ADSL2+. My sync rose quite noticably, to over 11meg.

About 3 months later I experienced a severe loss of sync. It took a while for my router to re-acieve sync. Once it did so, I was only able to sync at 6655. I discovered that I'd got stuck on a banded profile. BT removed the banding, but my sync speed only rose to 68xx.

I bought a new router and that resulted in me re-acquiring 11meg. This co-incided with the stable stability setting being enabled on my line.

Which brings us to where we are now, last week, I was returned to standard stability, but unfortunately sync dropped, rather than rose.

I have tried connecting my router directly to the master socket (previously, but not for about a year and a half). No real improvement.

Could the power surge we experienced have caused a problem internally? I'm not sure that this is the case, having connected directly to the master socket and turning off all internal electrical items.

Or could the problem be more widespread (i.e. affecting the whole estate)?

Interestingly, broadband availability checkers suggest that I should get 11meg on average.

TIA,

SPD.

LOL. But the first AFAIK with the new router. I think that the only reason I stopped pursuing the issue last time is that the new router gave me a big jump, from 68xx to around 11meg.

I don't recall trying this one in the master socket. If I do, and there's no improvement, where do I go next? Is there a possibility that even with my stats, that the problem is exterior to my house, and if so, where is the problem likely to originate - the exchange, ISP, cabinet (assuming there is one)?

TIA,

SPD.

Edited by deleted (Sat 11-Feb-12 18:11:32)

In reply to a post by spd:

Interestingly, broadband availability checkers suggest that I should get 11meg on average.

Not very interesting! They are only an estimate based on unreliable BT data. They are not aware of your attenuation; we are!

Post deleted by spd

Post deleted by spd

This afternoon I exposed the test socket, turned everything off at the fuse box except for the sockets that the router was plugged in, and booted it up.

Instead of 10191 in the upstairs front bedroom (my study), I got 11511 in the test socket in the hall. This is the best speed I've ever synch'd at in this house.

I then replaced the faceplate, plugged into the standard socket, rebooted and the sync dropped to around 10500.

Next, I removed the ring wire. Sync rose to around 106xx.

Turned all power back on, removed faceplate and connected to test socket. 114xx.

Reconnected faceplate and started to try the extensions around the house. Dining room - adjacent to hall where test socket is. 102xx.

Upstairs bedroom, 108xx.

Lounge (immediately behind TV, DVD, PVR and VCR) - currently 11303 down, 1091 up.

So, my test socket gives the best speed at (once all electrical items back on) 114xx, but my extensions (all fitted by original builders) give wildly varying results, with the lounge being only 200K behind the test socket. At that rate, it seems that there's little more I can do at my end, so I'm open to suggestions.

TIA,

SPD.

Locate the ADSL modem at the master socket, and fit a filtered faceplate to reduce the effect from the extensions, or dont connect them at all if you dont need them

By which you mean leave it plugged straight into the test socket, and leave the faceplate out - thereby removing the extensions from the loop?

TIA,

SPD.

Yes

I am exhausted with idea about your case because your previous STAT:

SNR Down 5.9 Up 6.9
Attenuation Down 27.0 Up 9.1
Output Power Down (Reads as Zero) Up 12.9
Attainable rate Down 12940 Up 1024
Actual rate Down 10191 Up 1019

You appeared to have reasonable SNRs and lower downstream ATT, which should enable you to have much HIGHER downstream Sync Rate. However your subsequent trials showed that this is NOT the case even you tried that on your Test-Socket and disconnected your Ring-Wire, despite it does show some signs of speed increased, about 12% only. Sorry to ask you that question, it seems that there is a Sync Speed-capped some where to around 11Mbps despite your line and its conditions could allow for much higher!!

A banded profile is possible if its a WBC ADSL2+ service.

Also Sky DLM does operate capping too.

Enta WBC 21CN is what I believe that I'm on, but I thought bands weren't applied beyond 8128?

SPD.

Edited by deleted (Mon 13-Feb-12 14:24:55)

http://community.plus.net/library/broadband/dynamic-...

Covers the bands and seems to match my memory

SPD,
It is wise to confirm from your ISP that if your broadband is "banded/capped" to around 10Mbps downstream despite your line is showing a "steady" (I let you to verify that if you're still suffering from random drop-outs/speed-decreases and SNR changes). If that is the case, with your ISP's agreement and yours, perhaps it is worthwhile to temporarily remove that cap completely and try again on your Test-Socket trials etc.
Just my thinking!!

And having at one time been stuck on 6655, I can confirm those bands. But, if the upper band is 14336, then I'm some way below that.

SPD.

Quite a lot has changed on WBC so there may be more bands now (that list was 2009)

Response from ISP.

"The lower sync speed on your extensions would likely be due to low
quality copper being used in the extensions when being built. These
extensions are considered outside of the BT network, and so would not be
considered a fault.

The sync speed into the test socket can be higher, but would be limited
by the amount of times you have been restarting your router. If you were
to leave it in a higher quality extension or the test socket, you would
likely see your sync speed increase further.

Also, sync speed is not set solely on line attenuation. There are many
other factors including length of line, signal to noise ratio,
disconnections, initialisations etc. Sync speed is decided by the BT
DSLAM based on all these factors and more."

SPD

Mostly a load of bull.

Extension wiring poor quality copper would reveal itself as an attenuation increase.
Externsion wiring not using twisted pair, or wrongly wired will cause slow speeds.

In short ISP is washing hands I think.

That leaves me to ask two questions.

1. Where would you suspect the problem to lie? Exchange? Somewhere between here and there?

2. Currently buying through an Enta reseller (although that support answer came from Enta directly). I've been tempted to switch to an LLU provider - would you recommend it?

Exchange = CMBRI.

TIA,

SPD.

EDIT: Well, blow me down with a feather. I've not rebooted the router for nearly 27 hours. It's connected to the fastest socket in the house outside of the test socket - in fact, I've even mounted it on the wall with rawl plugs, screws and all - and it currently sync'd at 13303. It's climbed 2000Kbps! Hmmm, downstream SNR has dropped though to 3.0.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-12 19:24:45)

If the in property wiring is not an issue, then down to the configuration of your service in the big BT Wholesale cloud.

if you want to email telephone number, and copy of stats, can enquire of BT Wholesale if you are banded.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew, but I've edited my post as you were writing yours. Take a look.

SPD.