Speed drop, and line attenuation increased

[#1]

For the past couple of days, my broadband speed has been much slower than normal.  It makes watching streaming video service very frustration - lots of pausing, buffering, restarting etc. - to the point of things being unwatchable.

My router settings page (a Thomson ST546) says my ADSL connection bandwidth is 2,365 kbps down, when normally it's at least 6,500 kbps.  And I notice that my Line Attenuation is 57.5 dB down, when normally it's around 47.5 dB.  BTW, my SN margin is currently 2.0 dB down and normally it fluctuates between 2.0 dB and 9.0 dB.

There has been no change in any electrical equipment or wiring or the location of anything in my home.  https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer_speed gives Line speed as 6.7Mb.

Assuming that the change in Line Attenuation is what is causing the low speed, what can I do about it?

[#2]

Is your landline phone working normally, and does it pass the quiet line test (17070 option 2)?

[#3]

I so rarely use my landline, it hadn’t occurred to me. There’s no dial tone. So I’ve reported it to my phone provider, BT, on 0800 800150. Their automated system detected a fault and said they’d get it fixed by the end of Monday.

Thanks for the prompt. Is there anything I should be doing in the meantime, or anything I should do if I see the engineer?

[#4]

The symptoms you described (i.e. change in attenuation accompanied by severe broadband speed reduction) are familiar to me having had it happen twice. One of the pair of telephone wires will be either earthed or broken, which kills the phone but can allow the broadband to limp along.

You could check inside your master socket to make sure a wire is not obviously broken or detached from the terminal, but the odds are the fault lies outside your property.

[#5]

Hi there. I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing speed problems.

A higher than normal line attenuation is usually indicative of either a line fault or internal wiring issue. I'm glad to hear that your phone provider has found a potential problem on the phone line.

Please let us know if you continue to experience problems with your broadband connection when that's fixed.

EDIT:

Is there anything I should be doing in the meantime, or anything I should do if I see the engineer?

Don't think so. If you do see the engineer though it might be worth asking them to make sure your phone service is working 100% with no noise on the line.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

BT seem to have fixed the phone line, which has also fixed the broadband speed etc.  I didn't see the engineer.  Everything is back to normal, and my broadband sync has been 7200kbps (down) for over 11 hours, line attenuation is 47.5dB, SN margin is 5.5dB, and there's no noise on the line.

Thanks for the helpful posts.

[#7]

Glad to hear your speeds are back up once your phone line was fixed.

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.