Help and advice please

Hi guys,
I would be extremely grateful if anyone could give me some advice regarding my broadband connection and it's speed or rather lack of it! I will try and provide as much info here as possible.
I live in Kilmarnock, Scotland and am about 3 miles from the exchange. Since moving here my ISP has been the Post Office. My broadband speed is supposed to be around the 2 - 2.5mb mark (apparently the best speed for my locality). On Wednesday I noticed that the router was losing sync with the exchange continously. The router was supplied by the Post Office and is a Netgear DG834GSP v3. Resetting the router didnt achieve anything, eventually sync was achieved but the speed was very slow. I tested the connection at http://speedtester.bt.com/ and the results were
Download speedachieved during the test was - 80 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 50-135 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Assured Rate IP profile on your line is - 135 Kbps
After contacting the Post Office I was asked to connect the router to the test socket etc, etc. All day Wednesday and Thursday nothing improved, to cut a long story short, I eventually got through to a supervisor at the Post Office who told me he would reset my ip profile. After a short time my speed increased as high as 2.5 mb at one stage but as the day went on it dropped back to a download speed of 112kb! I have been told by the Post Office to reinstate the wiring in my home as it is clear to them that the fault is not within my home. I have a master line jack in the lounge which normally only has a broadband filter and a cordless digital phone connected to it. The extension wire is a four wire solid conductor telephone cable which is only about 18 feet long as it goes straight up to the bedroom directly above the lounge. There is an extension socket in the bedroom which normally has just the filter and my desktop pc and another digital cordless phone connected. When I had the router connected to the test socket I used a brand new filter in case that it was it that was faulty. My line connection speed fluctuates a lot, It was 1760kbps all day yesterday. Sometimes the only way the connection speed can be raised is by turning the router off and back on again. My connection to the router is wired using standard cat5 lead supplied by the post office with the router. On Friday night all I had connected to the test socket was a filter,and the router. I connected a laptop to it on Saturday morning to check the line speed but was still getting only 112kbps download speed and had an ip profile of 135kbps! This morning I ran another speed test and I got this result:

The Performance Tester is now testing Broadband connection. Your configured download throughput speed for this service is 135 k

Please do not move away from this page and do not start any other download activity on your computer.

Download speed achieved during the test was - 82 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 50-250 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :2784 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 135 Kbps
The line stats from the router are:-

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2784 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 58 db 15.5 db
Noise Margin 9 db 19 db

My ip profile is consistently 135kbps which I know is the lowest achievable. After 3 phone calls to the post office customer support team yesterday, they have decided to pass the situation on to someone from BT. I was told that BT had carried out some "Line checks" yesterday but I think they told the post office that everything was alright, however the fault has been escalated and I have been told someone from BT will come to the house tomorrow morning. I just want to make sure that everything is being looked at correctly as I dont want the situation dragging on by not being investigated properly. So far only one guy from the post office knew what I was talking about when I told him my ip profile keeps reverting to 135kbps! If anyone can help or give me advice it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Derek

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2784 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 58 db 15.5 db
Noise Margin 9 db 19 db

so at that point it was quite good, at least the connection to the exchange.

The 135k profile suggests the sync speed is bottoming out at 160k sync speed periodically. I wasn't clear from your description if you added the extensions back but it seems to me you need a fully filtered faceplate or to stay connected to the test socket. Is all your telepohony equipment filtered inc Sky box, Fax, Alarm, CLID unit etc ?

If you need to reconnect the extensions for now plug the existing/old faceplate into a microfilter and plug that into the microfilter plugged into the test socket that is also feeding the router.

Hi Phil,
Thankyou for your prompt reply to my post,
To answer your questions, yes I have reinstated the extension upstairs and connected my desktop back up to that extension. I agree the current connection speed looks not too bad (2784kbps) but that was only after I had reset the router, before that it had been at 1760kbps. In fact whatever speed it syncs at seems to stay at that speed unless the router is rebooted, is that normal? I don't have anything else on the line apart from the telephones and the router that I described. I don't have the sky box connected to the line. I will disconnect the extension going upstairs and just plug the router into the test socket if you think that will help. Should I leave it setup like that for the BT engineer calling? I can always plug a laptop in and check the line stats. I just checked the line again before sending you this post and the results are:-
Download speed achieved during the test was - 83 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 50-250 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :2784 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 135 Kbps

So nothing has changed, I installed routerstats and noticed that the Rx noise margin fluctuates quite a bit Max value 14db minimum average value 12db Last 100 samples average 8.6db, is that ok? I dont know how to send you the graph or I would.
Thanks again for helping me, I appreciate it.
regards
Derek

the speed will fall if the router retrains due to an increase in noise or similar. It won't retrain to a faster speed unless rebooted or the adsl wire unplugged.

The 135k profile will stick around for a while and might take a day or more to be fixed. While tha tis low you're going nowhere - unless you get them to reset it.

I think your target margin is 9 dB so that should appear after a reboot, it will fluctuate +/- 2dB typically or more if there's a problem.

The key test is whether you get a better sync speed on the router in the test socket compared to with the extensions wired in. If you don't then it doesn't matter much about the wiring.

Hi Phil,
An update to my situation. I received a call from an openreach engineer thismorning. He said he was carrying out some tests in the exchange and would call at my home within 30 minutes. When he arrived he connected up his test gear to the test socket and it failed one of the tests. I asked him what it was but he didn't know.Something about bridge resistance according to his laptop. He took off the master line jack and clipped onto the line directly using crocodile clips. All tests then passed, He put on a new master socket and promptly left, saying he would send the results to my ISP.
When I carriedout a speed check after he left I was still getting only 128kbps download and an ip profile of 135kbps.I called the post office and asked the guy what happens now, as my ip profile was still unchanged since last Wednesday and I am virtually unable to browse the internet due to the low speed. He told me I would have to wait 56 hourse for my line to settle, I told him I have been waiting since last wednesday and asked him if he would manually reset my ip profile in case it was stuck at 135kbps. He denied he could do this and then tried to get me to perform an ipconfig/renewall command etc! I told him my pc wasnt the issue,it was the line. After a bit of arguing I insisted I speak to his supervisor and was put on hold. When his supervisor came onhe told me he was looking at the line stats and they were actually worse than they were yesterday! He said he would reject the openreach engineers report that the line was ok andask them to do a "lift and shift". I dont know if that means anything to you, apparently it just means that they will shift my line circuit onto a new card at the exchange. He then muttered that perhaps BT were throttling my line!Surely BT would need to inform the post office if they were doing that? He finished by telling me he will callme in the morning and update me as to what BT are going to do. At the moment I still have my extension socket disconnected and I have a filter plugged directly into the test socket behind the newly fitted master socket. I have connected a laptop to the filter via a lan cable, so they cant blame any internal wiring! I have been monitoring the line all day using routerstats and I have performed a few speedtests, Here are the latest results:-

Download speedachieved during the test was - 86 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 50-250 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :2848 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 135 Kbps



System Up Time 07:54:08

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 27679 36965 0 166 1213 07:53:30
LAN 10M/100M 70659 67312 0 1783 393 07:54:04
WLAN 11M/54M 13291 0 0 120 0 07:53:54

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2848 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 58 db 15.5 db
Noise Margin 9 db 19 db

If I posted you the full routerstats log, would that help you to see what is going on with my line? The rx noise ratio alarm has been triggered quite a lot!

Thanks in advance Phil
Regards
Derek

Just in case Phil doesn't notice your post; it can take up to 5 days for your IP profile to return to normal [following a low sync event].
So, providing your connection speed stays at or above 2848kbps you should end up on a 2.5Mbps IP profile (giving you a download speed around 2.2Mbps).
However; 2848kbps is the minimum sync speed required for a 2.5Mbps IP profile, so if your connection (sync) speed drops even 32kbps below 2848kbps you'll end up on a 2Mbps IP profile.

In theory BT have mechanisms to speed up the response of the IP profile in the event of a significantly higher maintained speed (in comparision to the low sync event) but they don't always seem to work - so you might just have to wait out the 5 days.

Edited by adebov (Mon 07-Jun-10 21:32:36)

Thanks for that Ade, so it looks like I will have to just sit it out then! I just thought that BT may have been trying to throttlemy line without admitting it! Incidentaly is there a way to include a graph from routerstats in my post or is it not possible to include graphics? Thanks again Ade
Regards
Derek

You can upload to Imageshack or similar and then point to the URL from here.

Thanks Deadbeat! I will try that. Just after my last post the alarm on routerstats went off again and I just wondered if by posting the graph it would help explain what is happening on my line. So here goes,
Regards
Derek

[IMG]http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3659/graph1v.jpg[/IMG]"]Graph 1

Still a lot of noise on that line (is it fed via overhead cables and poles?) which may well be giving the massive swings in connection speed.
It looks like even a 9dB margin is too low for stability on your line (my 56dB line is stable with a 3dB margin) and maybe 12dB would be better.
Given it's now connected at just under 2Mbps (which will give you a 1.5Mbps IP profile) with a margin of 11dB I'd be tempted to leave it alone (DO NOT resync to get a higher speed, or power down your router) and see if it's stable at 11dB and 2Mbps.

There's no point in you re-syncing to get a higher speed if the line is unstable at that speed.
Because BT's system can take up to 5 days (120 hours) of maintained higher sync, before it increases the profile, there's nothing to be gained from a short high sync period on a BT wholesale line.
Re-syncing during the day to get a day (or so) of high speed only works with LLU providers (e.g. BE, O2, Sky) who don't have BT's stupid BRAS profiling system.