Advice please

I live in a rural location. Line length about 6K, attenuation 73 (from 2Wire), Market 1 exchange, no ring wire/Extensions/Sky box. For 4 years have had very stable 0.5Mbs i.e. usable but not for anything other than basic browsing.

In Feb moved to BT - main reason was the remote possibility of FTTC/FTTH as no other providers likely.

Since then pretty much a disaster. Neither the HH2 or HH3 will sync. 2Wire has synced about 5 weeks since Feb.

Engineer 1 replaced drop line and master socket.
Engineer 2 said line was fine and left us without Broadband.
Engineer 3 'could not gain access to house' - odd as I was in the front room for 5 hours on Fri pm when he was scheduled to come.

The question is whether I should insist on cancelling the BB and trying another ISP.

The issue is clearly not in the house and I feel its due to the repeated attempts by the ?DSLAM to reduce the SNR to lower levels. As the line is a fixed speed service, my limited understanding is that a lower SNR will not improve the speed anyway.

Are the software protocols for line management different between ISPs?

Which ISP should I try nest? Previously it was Virgin but I'm loathe to go back because I found their helpdesk very patronising on the odd occasion I had to use them.

Which exchange are you on? Were you with Virgin ADSL or is cable available to you?
Your reducing SNR is a symptom of line noise, is your router in the master socket?

If you want to move to another ISP, migrate rather than cancel.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Which exchange are you on? Were you with Virgin ADSL or is cable available to you?
Your reducing SNR is a symptom of line noise, is your router in the master socket?

If you want to move to another ISP, migrate rather than cancel.

I am on the Field exchange and Virgin was the ISP for ADSL. The line noise test was normal (apparently) and I've done the quiet line test and it was indeed quiet.

we only have the master socket (no extensions) and the router is permanently attached to the test socket because I got tired of being told to do this by the indian call centre. New filters and cables too!!

Phil

Ah unlucky - no LLU or anything, just BT Wholesale. There was no need to swap to BT as any number of suppliers resell Fibre just as they do ADSL.

The 2wire is probably the best choice for a long line anyway. You may get some mileage out of monitoring your SNR Margin via Routerstats and see if there's anything you can do to stabilise it.

What are the attenuation and other figures from the modem?

Fixed speed lines are a rarity, I would presume you have 576Kbps down, 288Kbps up if on a fixed speed?

The line management is all handled by BT Wholesale, the difference is that some providers are better at using the systems available to them, but at your attenuation, any slight change in line and hardware can cause issues.

Cancelling might result in the line being marked as no good for ADSL.

Interested to here what made you think going to BT now, would increase chances of getting FTTC?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

What are the attenuation and other figures from the modem?

Fixed speed lines are a rarity, I would presume you have 576Kbps down, 288Kbps up if on a fixed speed?

The line management is all handled by BT Wholesale, the difference is that some providers are better at using the systems available to them, but at your attenuation, any slight change in line and hardware can cause issues.

Cancelling might result in the line being marked as no good for ADSL.

Interested to here what made you think going to BT now, would increase chances of getting FTTC?

Yes those figures are correct. Basically I have been told that those speeds are all the line can handle. I guess in retrospect it was a mistake to go with BT.

I now realise that if BT were ever to provide FTTC/FTTH in this area I could actually order the service from any provider.

Being attached to a Market 1 exchange which only had ADSL in 2005 tends to shrink the brain at these times.

Having discovered that I can get 2.5Mbs by standing in the middle of the road outside my house using my 3G Wireless router has however got me thinking of a bit of roof scrambling if BT cannot come up with a solution. :>)

Any chance of all teh attenuation and noise margin figures, it is not unknown for a line to be able to go faster, and if they are using a fixed rate their are pros/cons

1. Pro - no IP profile system to worry about
2. Cons - you may have spare noise margin and be able to manage 800-900 and get a 750Kbps profile, which while not a lot faster at your speeds it might be noticeable.

If 3G is a good, a discrete external antenna into a 3G router looks a good idea. Though usage limits are harsher on 3G, so maybe big non time critical stuff on the ADSL, and other stuff on the 3G.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Any chance of all teh attenuation and noise margin figures, it is not unknown for a line to be able to go faster, and if they are using a fixed rate their are pros/cons

1. Pro - no IP profile system to worry about
2. Cons - you may have spare noise margin and be able to manage 800-900 and get a 750Kbps profile, which while not a lot faster at your speeds it might be noticeable.

If 3G is a good, a discrete external antenna into a 3G router looks a good idea. Though usage limits are harsher on 3G, so maybe big non time critical stuff on the ADSL, and other stuff on the 3G.

Mr S, what did you have in mind re: 'discrete' external antenna' - do you mean something other than the 3G dongle or attaching the 3G dongle to a big stick?

I have to say that the glimpses of Youtube and the iPlayer i caught through the front door from the road were enticing!!

I am not a user of P2P/torrent stuff anyway (Linux distros are stuck to magazines and I prefer to own my music and software) :>)

http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-antenna-outdoor.htm plus they do the routers and cables you need

These are the latest stats.

Attenuation is actually 73 measured by 2Wire before Qwest firmware upgrade.


VPI: 0
VCI: 38
Broadband Negotiated Mode: G.DMT Annex A
Connection Status: CONNECTED
Speed (down/up): 576 Kbps/288 Kbps
Number of Retrains: 0
Number of Retrains Elapsed Time: 0H: 00M: 00S
SNR Margin (Downstream/Upstream): 6.0 dB/15.0 dB
Attenuation (Downstream/Upstream): 63.0 dB/31.5 dB

Based on that noise margin, going to Max where it is rate adaptive could prove very dangerous, its a case of balancing periods with no syncs at all (30 minutes) - versus you getting throughputs of only 0.1Mbps for long periods (days) as the IP Profile recovers.

If your SNR margin was 9 or higher, then risking Max would have been reasonable.

In reply to a post by knighton:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Which exchange are you on? Were you with Virgin ADSL or is cable available to you?
Your reducing SNR is a symptom of line noise, is your router in the master socket?

If you want to move to another ISP, migrate rather than cancel.

I am on the Field exchange and Virgin was the ISP for ADSL. The line noise test was normal (apparently) and I've done the quiet line test and it was indeed quiet.

we only have the master socket (no extensions) and the router is permanently attached to the test socket because I got tired of being told to do this by the indian call centre. New filters and cables too!!

Phil

Which field is it?

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

Which field is it?

Ouch!

Not heard of Field in Staffordshire before, though have gone nearly past it on the A50 many times.

Assuming that's where you are.

Yeah, Field is a small village between Milwich and Uttoxeter - definitely 'final third' country!!