Advice needed

Hi.

I've been with Zen for nearly 3 weeks now and my speeds are not bad but not good either. I find that after the initial period my speed still fluctuates mainly in the evenings going down from a steady download 6.900kbps to sometimes 2.000kbps and as low as 1.000kbps and my upload is usually around 370kbps and remains around that speed consistently.
A friend had a look at my router statistics and said that the line attenuation was too high, not sure what that means. I've put the readout from the modem below. It's a Netgear DG834N modem/router. I don't want to make changes as I'm not sure how to or even if I should.
Any advice gratefully received.

Caley.

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 19.0 db 11.0 db
Noise Margin 11.8 db 26.0 db

In reply to a post by caley:

I've been with Zen for nearly 3 weeks now and my speeds are not bad but not good either. I find that after the initial period my speed still fluctuates mainly in the evenings going down from a steady download 6.900kbps to sometimes 2.000kbps and as low as 1.000kbps and my upload is usually around 370kbps and remains around that speed consistently.

If I recall you're on an exchange in a relatively remote area where BT haven't yet upgraded to ADSL2+ or the WBC network. So its likely congestion on the ATM Virtual Paths (VP's).

Try checking your exchange status:
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

A friend had a look at my router statistics and said that the line attenuation was too high, not sure what that means. I've put the readout from the modem below. It's a Netgear DG834N modem/router. I don't want to make changes as I'm not sure how to or even if I should.

attenuation is a measure of line length. It can't be "too high", as it depends physically how long the wire is between your home and the exchange.

Your friend might have meant SNR margin was too high, and normally the target is 6db - but your router is connected at the full 8megabit speed possible on the old BT wholesale network and there is plenty of margin left, so you're at 11db.

You would have been better off on your LLU service (sky, talktalk etc), as they operate a newer network platform. Hopefully BT will upgrade your exchange to ADSL2+ and the WBC network soon, this will generally improve things.

Thanks for responding.
I'm not in a remote area. I'm about half a mile from the exchange as the crow flies but you're right about the exchange being ancient. There is work going on at the moment in the area, upgrading to fttc for most of the homes here (16000) but there are a number of homes like ours that look like we'll be by-passed as our lines go directly to the exchange and not via a cabinet. A number of people, like me, are waiting to see how things will go. The switch on looks like it'll be about 4 weeks from now. I'm not too sure about joining Talk Talk, they seem to have people complaining constantly about speeds on their LLU and the speed I'm getting at the moment is better than some but thought I might be able to get a bit more.

Caley.

In reply to a post by caley:

I'm not in a remote area. I'm about half a mile from the exchange as the crow flies but you're right about the exchange being ancient.

You're close to your exchange, but BT must consider the exchange itself in a fairly remote area, or low population density, to not have upgraded it yet to WBC. I have a business colleague in Forres, and their exchange did not have WBC until last year, and that is despite 4,000 homes connected.

In reply to a post by caley:

I'm not too sure about joining Talk Talk, they seem to have people complaining constantly about speeds on their LLU and the speed I'm getting at the moment is better than some but thought I might be able to get a bit more.

Don't confuse TalkTalk physical network, with TalkTalk the very discount ISP. You can buy service from other ISPs that use the TalkTalk physical network. The TalkTalk ISP is generally congested, as they don't charge enough to built a high performance network for all customers all the time.

Edited by jchamier (Wed 26-Feb-14 21:21:53)

You are connecting at full whack to exchange at the best that exchange has to offer. So changing settings in router can't improve matters. Indeed, I wouldn't listen to your friend. He can't know anything as your attenuation (= line length) is in fact quite low; > 40 dB would be highish.

What your are suffering from is contention during peak hours at & beyond your exchange, which is probably a remote congested one.

No idea why BT has left this exchange in the dark ages. There are more and more houses going up here day and daily. But as I said they're leaping into fttc quickly because somebody else is paying.
You intrigue me with your information on Talk Talk. Do you mean if I joined another isp who uses Talk Talk network my speeds might increase? If that's the case how do I find these isp's that use the Talk Talk network?

Dark ages too here in the NE , speeds day time 7,500 KPBS , night time it's just a waste of time as speed drops off to dial up speeds
I think they still using wind up phones and morse code in our little village !

In reply to a post by caley:

You intrigue me with your information on Talk Talk. Do you mean if I joined another isp who uses Talk Talk network my speeds might increase? If that's the case how do I find these isp's that use the Talk Talk network?

You should ask in the Which ISP? forum on this bbs. I believe Vivaciti is one, and there are probably others. They may not have the product or price you want however.

If FTTC is being installed, then Openreach may be running the fibres back to a completely different exchange, and may not upgrade your local exchange.

I'm on the outskirts of Inverness in a large housing estate which has a telephone exchange that hasn't had any improvements done since 2006. Some people here get no more than 2000kbps at any time so I can class myself as one of the lucky ones who get's more than 6000kbps when it's good during the day but evening I can get half of that at times. You must be depressed at getting dial up speeds some of the time. I know I would be.

Not sure what BT are doing but I know that a lot of the folks around have been watching their cabinets getting upgraded but no such luck here. There's not another exchange close enough here to running cables to. The nearest I think is Inverness 4 miles away and I don't think BT will run that amount of cable unless they have to.
I'll check out the forum you recommend and see if there is anything I could get that might suit me. I'm not too fussy about price if I can get a bit faster speed.
Thanks for the tip.