In reply to a post by 4M2:

In reply to a post by David_W:

We're blessed with a decent line - 14/1 Mbit/s on ADSL2+ and the full 80/20 Mbit/s on FTTC. The one fault we had was traced to dodgy crimps in a damp distribution point, which was fairly quickly found and fixed (new crimps and new dessicant packs in the DP).

Did that fault become apparent when you changed to vdsl?

No - it was a sudden drop of around a third in the downstream sync speed on ADSL2+. It took some perseverance by Zen and, I think, three engineer visits, before the fault was found and fixed.

What protocol / technology does cable use instead of ADSL? Is it TCP/IP over Ethernet?

No it's called DOCSIS - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS

This - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_fibre-coaxial - shows how the components hang together between the consumer's modem via an optical node back to the CMTS at the local head end.

The guy asked about potential speeds. Every VM line can potentially hit maximum speed unless there's a problem. Actual speeds are obviously a different matter.

Edited by deleted (Tue 15-Oct-13 19:23:33)

ok fair enough

I think most dsl isps have improved significantly since we both moved to cable.

traffic shaping almost gone, visible contention much decreased. On BT I did see some visible contention early 2013 the time when they started true unlimited, but my guess is they did some network upgrades pretty fast as since march onwards I havent seen any visible contention except that one night on my tbb graph with ios updates.

Also peering quality is vastly improved on my BT connection over what I had on VM. Speeds from all EU locations I use are as fast as UK locations.

Sounds like I might need to reconsider ADSL or maybe FTTC. The thing is since retiring and getting a holiday caravan I'm only home for about half the year and cost is obviously more of a consideration than when I was working. The cheapest ADSL/FTTC option by far appears to be TalkTalk and their FTTC is still more than I'm paying for 60Mbps on VM.

TT has always had a pretty poor reputation for support but I don't see complaints about the service once it is working - my fear is could I risk them on a possibly dodgy phone line - it was an HRDIS which never got fixed despite 5 callouts each of which claimed to have swapped out a different line segment for a new pair apart from one who said he'd remade the joints at the top and bottom of the pole and the first who ran a new drop cable. The last said report it through the ISP as an ADSL engineer would have better diagnostic kit. The problem there was that O2 support was pretty much useless - my complaint was about the noise on speech. Their initial response was to set a massive target noise margin which clearly just reduced sync and made no difference to the noise. When I called back again they offered to replace the router (???) but refused to call BT. At that point I ordered cable and cancelled the ADSL and BT phone line.

that will always be the problem with dsl, you at the mercy of the line and if its a problem then have to deal with the openreach fault system, some isps seem better than others in dealing with these problems, plusnet seem good at line faults and they are cheap. BT on the other hand are firmly in the "if you higher than the estimated speed with no instability then no fault".

To give you more hope, you may remember on adsl I had a horrific service, as you have been a regular for a while the same time as me on these forums. the problems I had on adsl have not been present on my FTTC service, so the engineer who told me it was E-side was probably right. I am on 6db fast path.

Trouble is I suspect the cable run from the top of the pole to the bottom. The bloke who remade the connections there told me the cable was poor and that he'd logged a request for it to be replaced. Every other section was supposedly swapped for a different pair. I have no idea it the pole cable was ever replaced.

SamKnows figures and the TBB chart all point to oversusbscription on my VM connection but not really dire so at the price I'm paying I'll probably stick with cable unless it gets worse.