Issues with Business ISP

Good Morning,

I am posting on behalf of a friend who I am helping with her business connection.

She is on a Business contract with what appears to be a re-seller.

The connection is at best awful. I have spoken to the ISP who informs me that the speed is the "best the line can offer".

I have checked the router stats and get this:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Link Rate 283 Kbps 888 Kbps
Line Atten 6.5 dB 2.8 dB
Noise Margin 41.7 dB 17.3 dB

Can anyone shed any light on if this is good or bad?

I checked the online details for the number, this shows:



BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Telephone Number 01255****** on Exchange HOLLAND ON SEA
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)
WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 19
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 19

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)
--
Up to 1.5
Downstream Range(Mbps)
17.5 to 21
17.5 to 21
Availability Date
Available
Available

ADSL Max Up to 8 -- 7 to 8 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available

As we can see FTTC is not currently available.

So is the line useless or can I get the ISP to do more to provide a better service?

I guess what I really need to find out is what can we do to improve the connection?

Thanks in advance.

The line is being artificially limited by something and should be VERY much faster. The ISP need to get this fixed as it is an incorrect setting somewhere. Who is the ISP?

Hi there Ian, thanks for your reply.

They are called 3D Telecom.

Thanks

The line stats show that 19 Mbps downloads i.e. what checker suggests should be achievable.

Are those stats from when using the test socket?

Looks most likely that the line has been banded, i.e. an artificial speed limit in response to some perceived instability, this can be reset but if the issue that is causing instability still exists over a period a few days or months the line may end up in the same situation.

Good Morning MrS,

they are not from the test socket, I will do stats later from it but we are open at the moment so it's a bit hard to go moving stuff around.

I am keen to test from the socket and then re post when I can so I have more evidence with which to challenge the provider.

Thanks for the information so far.

The "business ISP" appears to be a bloke in a shop in Oldham http://www.consumerdeals.co.uk/news/2013/01/cold-cal...

Thank you BatBoy.

Worrying

Update:

I have this morning ran a speed test with the router plugged into the main socket via the Test Socket.

This is the info from the Router:
System Up Time 00:08:08

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Link Rate 283 Kbps 888 Kbps
Line Attenuation 4.5 dB 2.3 dB
Noise Margin 41.9 dB 16.6 dB

This is the speed from a BT Speed Test (the only one that would load)

Download Speed 0.15 Mbps
Upload 0.71 Mbps
Ping 64.38

I have done pings to Google and BBC, but the connection is SO slow I cannot upload them to a free hosing site.

I am now awaiting a call back from 3D...

Hi,
Looking at those stats I would say there had been a fair bit of instability on the line this has cased the DLM to work its stuff and keep bringing the SNR up to stabilise the line.

Now you have it in the test socket, and with no other equipment connected (if possible) speak with the ISP and tell them you are now in the test socket and ask them to do an SNR reset, make sure you don't reboot the router or make any other changes and this will bring the line back and then you can investigate with the ISP the root causes of the stability issues.

Hi there Vivaciti,

Thanks for that. I had to move the Router back to where it was. I think the best thing I can do is deal with this out of our regular opening hours.

We have a PDQ that runs off the main phone line so removing anything during business hours will be very inconvenient.

It's so slow right now that it's almost impossible to post this reply.

Thanks