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Advice on what to do next.....

fagin
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-11-2009

Advice on what to do next.....

I have been with Plusnet on the "Premier Option 1" for years.
My exchange has ADSL2+ but I have no idea how I find out if I am taking advantage of this capability.  I certainly have never asked to be swapped over to it when it became available years ago.
I currently have the following stats:
5.5mb Profile with a 6336 Downstream / 448kbps Upstream (which is painfully slow imo) as long as I reduce the Noise Margin to around 6.4db hacking the Netgear router.  Line stays stable enough for me at these Noise Margin, but does drop occasionally.  I can live with that since the default Noise Margin of circa 13db gives me circa 4mb profile.
My current Line Attenuation is 42db and Noise Margin is 6.2db down and 22db / 19db upstream.
*IF* I am not on ADSL2+ would I see any benefits and/or negatives.
If it's all postives how do I go about getting moved to ADSL2+ and does this require the need to "upgrade" to a new package?
Thanks for the anticipated help / guidance.
11 REPLIES 11
Epyon
Grafter
Posts: 285
Registered: ‎31-03-2011

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

With 42db you should see a nice bump in speed
also with that said i SNR reset would not go amiss and should put you on 9/6db hopefully aswell.
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

I think it's safe to assume you aren't on ADSL2+ since your sync speeds are exact multiples of 32.
If you want to you can request upgrade to ADSL2+ on your current product (see Faster Plusnet Broadband for Free) - you would need to raise a ticket to request the change. You should see an increase in speed - however you need to be aware that the 21CN DLM is more aggressive and does not react well to users who like to tweak noise margin. Left to its own devices it generally performs better than the 20CN version.
Before changing I would be inclined to try to improve your connection so noise margin doesn't need tweaking. Have you carried out any diagnostic work to that end?
If a product change (eg to Extra) is of interest, note that charged hours run from 8am to midnight rather than 4pm to midnight. You do get 60GB bandwidth which more than compensates for many users (and you can use all of it without slowdowns on some protocols). Extra would also be cheaper - especially if you are on a Market 3 exchange. There is also the Pro Add-on for an additional £5 per month to get line speed at all times.
David
fagin
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-11-2009

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

Thanks for the replies and advice.
According to the BT Wholesale Line Checker I could achieve 2-6mb on ADSL2+.  This is only .5mb (max figure) more than I currently achieve and suspect this is one of the reasons why I have never bothered with ADSL2+.  Are these BT estimates to be believed or are they pessimistic?  Should I potentially be looking at more than 6mb based on my line attentuation?
Agreed about the SNR reset, but again, because of the 5.5mb (vs the perceived max BT is stating) I already achieve and the fact that my line stays stable with the forced SNR setting within my router.... I never really bothered with trying to sort the default SNR to circa 6db.
With regards to the "diagnostics" mentioned above for the SNR... is this a simple case of resetting my router to return back to the circa 12db SNR and leaving it for the SNR to be automatically increased and then resyncing when required?
The reason I have not bothered changing "plans" yet with PlusNet is because I use the webspace of my existing package quite a bit, with various things linked to it from a number of places.  It would be a ballache to have to edit so many URL's everywhere.  However when Infinity comes on-line at my exchange in March 2012, I think I will swallow the "ballache"!!! lol


Epyon
Grafter
Posts: 285
Registered: ‎31-03-2011

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

Yes BTs checker is very conservative
my line is given a 8Mb est
i actually get 12
and when you get moved to CN21/ADSL2+ the SNR reset will be automatic
taking 6DB into account you could probably get 9Mb sync with 6.5-7Mb download speed.
KevinG
Rising Star
Posts: 998
Thanks: 7
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎05-11-2008

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

Quote from: fagin
According to the BT Wholesale Line Checker I could achieve 2-6mb on ADSL2+.  This is only .5mb (max figure) more than I currently achieve and suspect this is one of the reasons why I have never bothered with ADSL2+.  Are these BT estimates to be believed or are they pessimistic?

They are ridiculously pessimistic since they were apparently "downgraded" a few months ago, my most recent ones before I upgraded to fibre bore no relation to my actual sync speeds, which were up to 4 times higher.
Quote from: fagin
However when Infinity comes on-line at my exchange in March 2012, I think I will swallow the "ballache"!!! lol

Why would you need to when you could just move to Plusnet Fibre, which uses the same infrastructure as BT Infinity?
fagin
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-11-2009

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

I assume I can request the move to use ADSL2+ WITHOUT actually having to change my current PlusNet broadband package?
Epyon,
Well.... assuming my SNR is sorted after the reset as part of this potential move to ADSL2+ it's a no brainer based on the feasible increase then!
KevinG,
Thanks for the further confirmation about the stats provided by BT... being on the negative side.
Apologies if you misunderstood about the last quote.  I appreciate I don't need to change ISP's and I don't really want to either, but the comment was in reference to moving on to Fibre with PlusNet.  I assume it will require me to upgrade my broadband package with PlusNet, which will effectively net me a loss of my current "inclusive" webspace deal.  As suggested, this will cause me a major issue at the moment as the current webspace has a load of data on it that is linked to all sorts of places and it will be a major pain if I need to update all these links.
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

The Availability Checker speed estimates do tend to be conservative - but consider…
Estimate 5Mbps (3-7Mbps), actual 5.5Mbps. Result - happiness.
Estimate 6Mbps (4-7Mbps), actual 5.5Mbps. Result - dissatisfaction, complaints about not getting what was promised, complaints to Ofcom…
As I said in my previous reply you can request a change to ADSL2+ *without* changing package. However, if you change package losing webspace seems to be concerning you. In fact you *don't* lose webspace. Any added value items that are actually in use are retained. My understanding is that the website product upgrade process *should* cope with that, though working through the CSC is an option.
On changing to ADSL2+ I don't think an automatic target noise margin reset occurs now - 20CN settings are carried over.
My suggestion would be to stay on 20CN for a while, ask for your target noise margin to be reset and remove tweaking from your router. That will restart the 10-day training period, but see how the connection performs afterwards. From what you say it should not be a problem. You could then move to Extra (retaining benefits) if you wished and ADSL2+ would follow.
Later this year (October) the 21CN DLM system is due to be upgraded to include what has been called quantisation (more "exact" and instantly updated IP Profiles). The system is going through production trials at the moment. Potentially this should eliminate many of the complaints about the way the DLM system behaves - focussing as it does purely on line stability.
David
fagin
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-11-2009

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

Spraxyt,
Apologies for missing the "bit" about the ability to request a change to ADSL2+ "without" change package.
I will confirm with support whether or not the webspace benefit is retained.  Hopefully it will be then. 🙂
Thanks.
fagin
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-11-2009

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

Change to ADSL2+ has been ordered and the SNR will be reset as part of this process.
Thanks for guidance.  Fingers crossed my speed is ramped up.
jojopillo
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 9,786
Registered: ‎16-06-2010

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

Hi fagin,
If you were to change package you would indeed retain your webspace.
Jojo Smiley
fagin
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-11-2009

Re: Advice on what to do next.....

Thanks Jojo - That's good news!  Smiley
Will see how the ADSL2+ upgrade goes and then look at the move to a newer package, as this will certainly provide me with better benefits at a cheaper rate.  Cool