Improve slow adsl

Hi all,

This is not my field of expertise and since there no fiber available where I live in always wondering if there's anything to improve my ADSL.

I've found this box downstairs and was wondering if anyone can make a comment regarding the status/room for improvement: https://ibb.co/bBHb5a

Thanks

I wouldn't touch that

We need a lot more context than that. Is this a business? What stats are showing for the broadband? Are there any extension sockets of the main phone point? What does the main phone point look like?

So this is all residential, our flat has 2 phone sockets a plain old nts5 with a microfilter and a router/modern attached to it and an extension on the same room again filtered and with a phone plugged into it.

I'm getting just under 9mbits/s and our exchange is this one: https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/CLBER which is probably less than a mile away on a straight line.

I'm not sure I understand your question but am happy to post more photos/screenshots etc.

Thanks again

Start with telling us the make and model of the modem/router please . Then someone may be able to tell you how to find the line stats. Basically we are looking for information like

Upstream rate = 14193 Kbps, Downstream rate = 65258 Kbps

Down Up
SNR (dB): 6.2 6.2
Attn(dB): 19.0 0.0
Pwr(dBm): 13.7 7.4

Those tell us what can be expected from your line at the moment, as opposed to what you are getting and what might be possible with help that with luck will come later. Forgive the high speeds, I'm on FTTC.

Which ISP and product are you on as well please? This can be relevant.

My current provider is origin broadband and I've got their basic ADSL package. I had the same sort of speeds with sky from which I left last month.

My router is an Asus dsl-n16 n300 and here are my stats :

https://ibb.co/hJbm5a

41.2dB attenuation suggests either aluminium in the line or you are more than 1 mile line length

41dB is around the 3km of copper cable distance

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc/index.php?param=RG...

Gives an option of 'slightly low' and a range of 7250 Kbps to 11000 Kbps is to be expected.

A 6dB target margin would increase your speeds if the line is stable to around 9600 Kbps

what does www.dslchecker.bt.com estimate for your line?

I would guess that picture shows the guts for an entry phone system, or maybe an alarm system.

Put the lid back on and walk away.

It is the box of the entry lines to our flats but it looks rather messy and I wondered if there were any unused connections there that I could perhaps use to improve my connection.

dslchecker.bt.com estimated WBC adsl 2+ at 8 to 19.5 and the same with annex M (which weirdly my router seems not to like - it won't connect unless its A)

Regarding the SNR the router / modem has this feature of dynamically adjust that for me (not sure its doing a great job thou)

Simple answer don't touch, as if you break stuff you could be landed with a bill to fix it all and upset neighbours in the process

Annex M is a facility on ADSL2+ that requires the ISP to activate it.

It is also the last thing you could possibly want - it would be a disaster for you. Its purpose is to increase the upstream maximum speed from 1.3Mbps to 2.5Mbps.

On ADSL2+ the upstream frequencies are below the downstream ones. What Annex M does is double the number of frequencies allocated to upstream, taking those frequencies from the bottom end of the downstream.

The effect is that unless the downstream connection speed is above 16Mbps on Annex A, then you lose at least 2.5Mbps downstream speed, but at that level of downstream attenuation the upstream attenuation is also high and the increase above 1.3Mbps simply doesn't happen. Lose-Lose!

At 24MBps downstream on Annex A then the strength of the top-end downstream frequencies is enough to compensate fully for the loss of the bottom end ones. and the attenuation each way is obviously much lower. So the full upstream increase is obtained. Win-Win!

In between those two extremes there is a sliding scale of downstream loss against upstream gain.

Your line just isn't suitable.

I see. Now it makes a bit more sense. Thanks for the in depth explanation.

I've read somewhere that if I see no difference from speed testing the connection directly with the test socket vs nts5 socket than I shouldn't invest in a vdsl filtered faceplate and cat5 cable do you know if that's true?

If the adsl2+ stats are no better in the test socket then investing money in faceplates and cables won't make much or any difference

Noise margin is too high at 10db this will lower the speed. This happens if the line is dropping normally or if the routers doing some funny business.

Can you get fibre? It seems unlikely not given the location.

Can you get your details here and post back the results?
https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 06-Mar-17 23:19:23)

Nope. Just ADSL available.

What do you mean the line is doing? Connection is super stable.

Simply put you'd only be put on a 10db noise margin if the connection is unstable.

You mention the router can manually edit the noise margin, is this something you setup? I guess this could be the issue too?

Basically at 6db you'd have faster speeds but more chance of the line dropping.
Out of the box you will be on 6db, so for some reason dynamic line management has decided that's too unstable and changed it to 10db. This lowers the speed but makes it less likely to drop.
Very stable lines get 3db noise margins but one of your length is unlikely to get that.

Yeah it's a setting on the router. I can disable it and set the snr to something else. What would you recommend?

+1

Just leave it at whatever it decides next time you sync, I mean do not impose any SNR setting yourself! Then take the stats immediately and post them. Do not do this right now. Connections made well inside daylight hours are nearly always higher than ones made at dawn, dusk or night-time.

We need to see your stats as the system wants them in order to advise you what to do.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 06-Mar-17 23:32:42)

In reply to a post by Ricardoespsanto:

Yeah it's a setting on the router. I can disable it and set the snr to something else. What would you recommend?

Given the way dynamic line management works, if you try to beat it by manually setting your own SNR it's going to start doing some crazy things in response.

Ultimately DLM sets the noise margin, not you, and playing with it will not end well.

You need to disable this feature entirely at your end, and then post stats up. Don't be shocked if the stats are even worse initially.

You do not want to be playing with the SNR what-so-ever at your end. DLM does this all for you automatically, it's why it is there.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 07-Mar-17 00:02:29)