ADSLMax woes

Hi guys and gals, I've been having problems with my broadband connection for several months now, and I thought one of you clever people could maybe make a suggestion as to what the problem is.

Last summer, I had a 2 Meg connection with Wanadoo/Orange, it was very fast for a 2 Meg service (download speeds over 200K), which is what I expected as I am less than a mile away from my exchange. I was tempted by the ADSLMax offers of other suppliers though, and as I was outside contract, I decided to leave Orange and go elsewhere. I phoned up to cancel, and was told that if I stayed I would get three months free broadband and they would move me to ADSLMax. So, I consented to stay. After my "upgrade", I was now on a 1 Meg service, and I was told that the ADSLMax service would be available for awhile yet. So, I asked to go back to my 2 Meg service, only to be told that 1 Meg was the fastest my line could support. When I pointed out that until recently, I had a 2 Meg service with them, I elicited nothing more than a "hhmm....that's weird". So much for Orange technical support.

So, I got my MAC, and moved to Tiscali's (I know, I know) ADSLMax service. The first thing to go wrong was my connection went down for a few days while I moved suppliers. Not quite the MAC experience I had been hoping for, but no matter. During the training period, my line wasn't really much faster than 2 Meg, but I hoped it would improve. It didn't, even though I had a sync speed of over 7000 kbps. Went through Tiscali technical support, and was told that they didn't really know what was wrong, I could have a MAC if I wanted to go elsewhere, but they were doing some upgrades soon, and my situation might improve then. As I was better off than my 1 Meg with Orange (and it was

Edited by Mairtin (Sun 18-Feb-07 16:59:55)

Some statistics might provide 'us' with a little more to give an informed opinion based upon. Attenuation, sync speed, SNR.

Attenuation of 53dB seems reasonable with a 4000kbps sync. It implies a line length of about 3 miles! 7000kbps would not be possible with that attenuation IMHO.

You should be getting a download speed of ~3000kbps and upload of ~375kbps.

Do speed tests from the test socket inside the master socket at 3 different times of the day and send them to your ISP.

How do you connect all 5 devices you mention? Different sockets or wireless?

I think you are probably suffering from an ISP problem but you need to be more specific about your plight.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Sorry if I wasn't specific enough. My router stats (a Netgear DG834G v2 with the latest firmware) are as follows:

Downstream sync: 3995 kbps
Upstream sync: 36 kbps

Downstream attenuation: 53 dB
Upstream attenuation: 16.5 dB

Downstream noise margin: 12 dB
Upstream noise margin: 16 dB

My ISP (Tiscali) has requested, and been given, speed results from the BT test socket at least five or six times now. I have also tried using the USB modem supplied by Tiscali with no improvement. According to Google Earth, I am 0.89 miles away from the exchange.

All the devices are connected wirelessly to the router. I am using WPA security, the router is not broadcasting the network name, and the access control is turned on, thus restricting access to the devices I mentioned previously. All speedtests have been conducted with only one device connected.

My router is on a telephone extension and is connected to an ADSL Nation XTF-68 pre-filtered socket. The problems were apparent before I installed the XTF-68. As I say, connecting to the BT test socket makes no difference, so I'm reasonably certain my wiring is not to blame. I have tried leaving the modem connected to the test socket for several days, but to no avail.

I have managed to find some of the original details of my connection before I moved to LLU, on the Tiscali technical support forum. They were:

Downstream sync rate: 7648 kbps

Downstream attenuation: 41dB
Upstream attenuation: 11dB

Downstream noise margin: 7dB
Upstream noise margin: 26 dB

The fastest speed I got with these figures was:

Download Speed: 1422 kbps (177.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 366 kbps (45.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

As you can see, my line quality has diminished substantially since I was moved to LLU, but I was never receiving the speeds I should have been in the first place. Even if my move to LLU has been messed up, there still must be an underlying problem.

Thanks again for all your help. If you need any more info, please ask.

Edited by Mairtin (Mon 19-Feb-07 00:43:32)

Just to eliminate everything, I would prefer a test from a different modem plugged directly into the test socket hard wired to the computer. This is what a BT engineer would do anyway.

The 12dB increase in attenuation is worrying but could be part of wiring alterations by BT or a fault.

I presume the upstream sync is a typo otherwise you have a real fault!

Did you post your IP profile?

OK, I'll plug the Tiscali supplied modem straight into the test socket this evening and post my result.

No, the upstream sync is not a typo; it really was 36. It's 42 (forty two) kbps today.

How do I check my IP profile? The test.speedtester.bt.com page has never worked for me ("Unexpected result received when querying the network to find your services connection details. Please try again shortly"). Does it work if you're on LLU?

Tried to connected with my Speedtouch 330 modem using the latest drivers, but it would not connect. They were playing around with the interleaving on my line today, and I know it is turned up very high. I don't know if this would have any effect.

I ran a line quality test at dslreports.com. The results are available here:

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2186021

I'm not too clued up as to what most of it means, so if someone could interpret it, I'd appreciate it.

The upstream speed and sync are a clue to a fault. The fault could be anywhere from your own modem to the BT line to the exchange equipment.

Thanks ETEE. I haven't heard anything for almost two weeks, so I rang Tiscali technical support on Monday, and was told that they couldn't tell me anything, but someone would call me within 24 hours. Needless to say, that didn't happen.

Just got off the phone with them again (the line for updates on already reported faults, mind you); they had no info on what my fault was, so I had to tell them all about it again. They tried to fob me off by saying that they didn't support Macs, but he gave in when I argued that I didn't want support for my Mac, I wanted support for my connection. Then he told me to do a speedtest three times a day and ring them back. I explained I've already done this many many times, but he insisted that I need to do it again.

How long can this go on for? All I want is a MAC, and then I'll bother them no more. Surely Tiscali can't string it out indefinitely? Does anyone know of any timeframe for resolving technical issues?

I think most ISPs will string you along, as long as they can get away with it.
The longer you stay with them (without asking for a MAC code) the more money they make.

With regard to Tiscali, I think this says it all...
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php?
Bottom of the list now.

Had the same problem with Virgin about speed, emails back and forth for months, luckily it drastically improved for me before I left them.

Good luck,

Mike.