ADSL2+ 21CN Trail on long lines

[#1]

My exchange [NDASF - Ashford Kent) is now enabled for ADSL2+ since 31st May and I have raised a ticket (29242181) to go on the trial.
I am interested to know if there are any other users (or PlusNet comments) out there that have "long lines" and have been part of the trial that have found an improvement in speed (or not as the case may be!).
I believe my line to be in the region of 6-7Km long (despite only living 3Km by road from the exchange!) and below are the stats from my router:
Connection Status Connected
Upstream Rate (Kbps) 448
Downstream Rate (Kbps) 896
US Margin 10
DS Margin 3
Modulation MMODE
LOS Errors 0
DS Line Attenuation 63
US Line Attenuation 63
Path Mode Interleaved
From what I have read on the internet, and the graph I have seen from an Aussie ISP (from memory Internode?) I should see a slight improvement to bring me perhaps up to over the 1 meg threshold.
I did a test today on http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/ and got the following results from my ADSL MAX connection:
Today 11:46 729 kbps (91.1kB/s) 381 kbps (47.6kB/s)
I am disappointed to have found out that since moving to a new part of a large expanding town BT have failed to have invested in their infrastructure as there is no competition. Virgin Media are trailing 200Meg connections locally (but not local enough)....  There is nothing it would appear I can do to improve my speed which currently means I am unable (like many) to use things like ITV Player, Ch4 on demand, and BBC iPlayer (streaming) as my line does not support streaming at a fast enough rate.  I will be interestested to see how the governments new 50p tax will improve my connection to a 2meg minimum by 2012 (wishful thinking I fear!)

[#2]

Hi.
I'm on the 21CN Trial in Sheffield. I live 1.5Km in a straight line / 3.5 km by road from the exchange.
I used to get 1.2MB/s Up & 384 kB/s Down before the trial. Now I get 1.6MB/s & 384 kB/s.
On asking about this I was told ( as seen on the Aussie site ) that living so far away from the exchange, I could not realistically expect any more.
Even with the gain turned up.
I also get 62dB / 32 dB attenuation stats.
Sorry it's no help
DBM

[#3]

Even if you get no improvement in download speed, you should get a faster upload.
Trouble is one or two people with lower speeds to start with have reported being pushed up to higher target noise margins with consequent drops in speed.

[#4]

yes in theroy adsl2 gives very long lines small but welcome increase.
am on 50db atten on adsl2 best ever sync i got on adsl was 4050 ish on 9db noise target on adsl2 best ive got is 4554 on 9db so yes the techonilgy does give a increase all bit small on long lines as said by jelv in alot of cases the DLM has decide to head for the hills and play it safe on the target noise margin at the slight hint of stabilty issues which is the case on my line at the mo am running at 15db target.
but on the other hand the DLM is very quick ish to drop you margin also so i dont fear being stuck at 15db for months on end i would think a couple of weeks top before am back to 12,9 db target
as to how many people have seen gd increases and no stabilty issues i dont know as there less likely to post about the exprince if its happy one, tends to be those having problems that want to post about it, hence why my post count is so high 

[#5]

I've got a 52dB line (1 mile by road to the exchange so the line must go miles out of the way), was sync'd around 1Mbps on ADSL, transferred to 21CN a few month ago and now get about 1.5Mbps, so a 50% speed improvement for me.
I'd probably expect to see an improvement in speed but for you and me to get more than 2Mbps we need to keep our fingers crossed that the upcoming FTTC trial goes well and the rollout afterwards reaches our areas pretty quickly.

[#6]

My line was approx 65dB and 1900kbps before transfer to 21CN.
I am currently sync'd at 3207kbps with Line Attenuation 65.5 db and Noise Margin 4.4 db.
Using DG834PN with the latest DGteam firmware. The phone line is underground most of way from the exchange.

[#7]

Quote from: dave

... we need to keep our fingers crossed that the upcoming FTTC trial goes well and the rollout afterwards reaches our areas pretty quickly.

For those on long lines in rural locations with small exchanges, it may well be FTTC is no help as there are no cabinets. There is a slim chance the will build small cabinets or mount them on existing poles, running fibre to the poles (FTTP!) but I suspect that wont happen. More likely is to do FTTP and then WiMAX to the home.
SW.

[#8]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It would appear that I should get a a small but welcome increase in my speed.....  Once I get a response from PNet when they are switching me over I need to order a new router that is ADSL2+ compatible as my current D-Link DSL-G604T is not (even with the latest 2005 firmware upgrade).  Does anyone have any recommendations.....? Thanks again
For those of us at the ends of BT's long lines it looks like we will have to wait for FTTC before anything dramatic happens. As the trial is only just beginning at two exchanges it will be a long long time coming!

[#9]

If you read most of the posts on this forum about ADSL2+, you would probably come to the conclusion that the Netgear DG834 is most favoured.
It comes in 2 basic flavours as far as I can see......... the DG834PN or DG834G for those with a need for wireless (although there is some debate about the "suitability" of the PN model.
If you don't need wireless, then the DG834UK that I am using performs well.
I have also read somewhere that the D-Link ADSL2+ router works well on long lines, but I'm not sure of the model number.

[#10]

I've been using a D-Link 2640B for the last few months on my line and it works fine, syncs stable around 1800 - 1900kbps and I don't notice any drops. Certainly performs better than the Home Hub, tried a Netgear DG834G and that was fine too. Need to get round to testing a couple of others on my line.

[#11]

Is there any update from PlusNet yet on when I will be moved over onto the trial?