Well done BT!

Pleased to submit a cheerful story. I�ve been very happy with BT since August 2010 after TalkTalk had cut me off for weeks. As a light user I think the BT package of unlimited calls, line rental (paid in advance) and BB is good value at about £25 pm.

I feared the worst when BT told me our exchange was due for upgrade during April. So many �upgrades� either cost more or bring trouble. BT said there would be a brief outage, after which we would have a more reliable and perhaps slightly faster connection.

By that evening my BB speed doubled from average 4.5Mb to over 9Mb, and it�s stayed there. Well done BT.

Day before upgrade:
TBB Speed test 5.3mb
Downstream 6,976 Kbps
Upstream 448 Kbps
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation G.992.1 Annex A
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 5.7 dB / 23.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 27.6 dB / 14.5 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 10.6 dBm / 1.7 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Down/Up) 14909 / 314
CRC Errors (Down/Up) 6332 / 179
HEC Errors (Down/Up) 156198 / 178
Error Seconds (Local/Remote) 2039 / 309

After exchange upgrade...........
TBB Speed test 9.3Mb
Downstream 11,512 Kbps
Upstream 1,147 Kbps
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation G.992.5 Annex A
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 4.7 dB / 5.9 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 33.0 dB / 16.0 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 16.2 dBm / 1.7 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote) 0 / 0

That is what you get when your exchange is upgraded to ADSL2+ (G.992.5 Modulation from G.992.1)

Could do better!

You should have been getting 8 Meg Sync before upgrade and over 13 Meg after.

Have you removed ring wire? Plugged into test socket?

BT have done an incredibly simple change to your connection - BT Openreach have simply moved your BB pair from the old DSLAM to a replacement MSAN.

The fact that they got this right (remember they do hundreds of thousands a year) is simply a "you did your job".

Nothing special by BT that I can see.

Thanks Spex, I thought there might be further improvement available but present connection meets my needs.

Not a techie, but from this brilliant and helpful website I know I should not have a 15m extension from master socket in hall to my home office! I did disconnect the ring wire. Old type socket, dating from house construction in 1968; we're 3km from exchange with 150m underground cable from cabinet to pole, thence 30m overhead line to house gable, then 10m to socket in hall.

I did disconnect the extension and try my Home Hub and my earlier Linksys router plugged into the incoming socket in the hall, no difference to speed. Would it be worth trying with the upgraded exchange?

How did you measure the diffference in speed?

Sometimes there is a difference in the stats that is not immediately apparent from just a speedtest, hence taking the attenuation, connection speed, and noise margin figures before and after any changes

If that 15m extension cable between the master socket and the home office is a plug-in one, it almost certainly contains a ring wire. People have been know to pull out its T3 contact at the master end, or cover it with a tiny strip of insulation tape.

I took before and after stats over several days:
Router info 0940 Apl 18
TBB Speed test 5.3mb at 0945
Connection time 40 days, 22:58:53
Downstream 6,976 Kbps
Upstream 448 Kbps
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation G.992.1 Annex A
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 5.7 dB / 23.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 27.6 dB / 14.5 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 10.6 dBm / 1.7 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Down/Up) 14909 / 314
CRC Errors (Down/Up) 6332 / 179
HEC Errors (Down/Up) 156198 / 178
Error Seconds (Local/Remote) 2039 / 309

Today I'm getting 9.3Mb down, 0.9 up
Downstream 11,512 Kbps
Upstream 1,147 Kbps
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation G.992.5 Annex A
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 4.8 dB / 5.9 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 33.0 dB / 16.0 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 16.5 dBm / 1.7 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote) 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Down/Up) 43799 / 0
CRC Errors (Down/Up) 21684 / 0
HEC Errors (Down/Up) 687126 / 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote) 7944 / 0

I see that attenuation has risen from 27dBm before to 33 after upgrade. All these figures have remained fairly constant.

RobertoS, my extension is 24-yr-old four core cable from a BT-installed extension. I paired the two pairs in effect making a twin cable. I did try the hub direct into the entry socket (old type, about 65mm square) and it made no difference, would it be worth trying now that exchange is upgraded?.

I know it will offend the experts but I've left the setup alone since dialup days, if it's not broke don't fix it! Thanks for your always interesting and helpful comments.

Well your old figures before the upgrade are just as bad. Should have full 8 Meg sync on ADSL.
The rise in attenuation is to be expected due to changes in frequency bands used with ADSL2+.

And how are things when you run them from the test socket, bypassing this four core cable? A lot depends on how you wired it and the cable itself. So check from the test socket, accessed by taking master frontplate off.

Sounds like he has an LJ 2/1A Andrew.