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What Max Speed can I get and why?

RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

What Max Speed can I get and why?

Having experienced a line fault recently, I have done a few BT Wholesale speed tests and looked up info on SamKnows and I am not sure that I understand what type of ADSL service I am on.
The main thing I don't understand is what limits me to 4Mbps, is this hardware at the exchange or just cable length? Also will I benefit from FTTC when it finally arrives?
So if anyone can clarify here is what I do know:
Exchange name: Longmorn
Exchange code: NSLMN
Cabinet 3
Sam Knows says:
The following services are available in your location:
BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
I am 3700m away from the exchange as the crow flies but only 3000m from the cabinet.
Btw Speed test:
Download speedachieved during the test was - 2.43 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 1.2 Mbps-4 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 2.81 Mbps
14 REPLIES 14
Anoush
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Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

Hello there. It could a bit of both; the length & quality of your line and the equipment in your exchange. ADSL Max is essentially Openreach's 20 Century Network, as opposed to their 21st Century Network, which is more reliable and usually offers faster speeds.
From the sounds of it at 1.8 miles from your cabinet, you might not receive good FTTC speeds. However, it's difficult to tell until it's actually provisioned. Hopefully, I'm wrong. Smiley If you go to the following webpage, you could try to petition Openreach to upgrade your area if you gather enough support (and money) from your neighbours and council.
http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/
Hope this helps
This is my personal Community Forum account to help out around these parts while I'm at home. If I'm posting from the 1st March 2020, this means I'm off-duty with no access to internal systems.
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ejs
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Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

NSLMN was upgraded to WBC / 21CN in November 2015, and you must have already been switched over because your IP profile was 2.81 rather in steps like 2, 2.5 or 3. The Sam Knows information on 21CN availability is out of date. You might still be on ADSL1, but because of the length of your line, switching to ADSL2/2+ would make little difference.
If you are that far from the cabinet, you might not be able to get FTTC at all.
RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

@ejs Thanks for the info, that make more sense. Was very confused that some sources say that ADSL max is already obsolete yet my exchange shows no 21CN.
So why 4Mbps?
and how would i go about switching to ADSL2/2+ ?
@Anoush  BT website says FTTC will be available to my number within 4 months. Although sounds like it won't help much, you would think in rural areas like ours that BT would have installed more cabinets to cater for the many lines that are thi far from the existing cabinets  Sad
HarryB
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎25-03-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

Quote from: RobRS
and how would i go about switching to ADSL2/2+ ?

You're already on ADSL2+
Quote from: RobRS
yet my exchange shows no 21CN.

http://dslchecker.bt.com shows 21CN availability (ADSL2+)
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Harry Beesley
 Plusnet
RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

OK I see, thanks HarryB, so on the BTw test where it shows max possible as 4Mbps? I thought DLM negotiated for best speed/reliability so why the 4Mbps hard limit?
RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

Just to add I'm sure this must be a glitch but on the BTw test it sometimes reports speeds in excess of 4Mbps but as I say must be a glitch as at one point it reported 22.8Mbps.
ejs
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Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

The max possible speed shown by the BT speedtester is almost completely meaningless. If your line achieved a higher speed, the max possible speed shown would be higher. If something happens and you end up connected at a much lower speed than usual, the max possible speed shown would be lower.
Could you please post the ADSL stats from your modem/router, then we could get some idea of how good your speed is for your line.
RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

Quote from: ejs
...Could you please post the ADSL stats from your modem/router, then we could get some idea of how good your speed is for your line.

Would do but its a home hub 4 and I believe doesn't really give any useful information.
I think a wise move would be to try a new router at some point to give more visibility. Did use the PN supplied Technicolor at first but swapped it when it started randomly dropping the line.
edit---------------
10:59:41, 01 Mar. (41212.620000) DSL noise margin: 6.00 dB upstream, 3.00 dB downstream
10:59:40, 01 Mar. (41212.050000) DSL line rate: 910 Kbps upstream, 3190 Kbps downstream
10:58:49, 01 Mar. (41161.160000) DSL is down after 684 minutes uptime
10:58:49, 01 Mar. (41161.160000) ETHoA is down after 684 minutes uptime
10:58:49, 01 Mar. (41160.820000) PPPoA is down after 683 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN DSL -​ Up)]
10:58:46, 01 Mar. (41158.110000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]
That's the best I can get, notice the "PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]" this happens once or twice a day at the moment, please be aware also the line was down for a month, and has only been back up for 2 days.
Anoush
Aspiring Hero
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Registered: ‎22-08-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

Hello. *Fingers crossed* you get more than 4 Mb on FTTC. If anything, it should be more reliable at least than solely copper cables.
ADSL2+ is not always faster than ADSL1, having said that, what's your ADSL2+ estimate at http://dslchecker.bt.com? If it's higher than your current sync speed, then it's worth troubleshooting the fault at http://faults.plus.net and then potentially raising it to our faults team for further investigation.
This is my personal Community Forum account to help out around these parts while I'm at home. If I'm posting from the 1st March 2020, this means I'm off-duty with no access to internal systems.
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RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

OK, got a new router so can now get some useful line stats:
ADSL Link                          Downstream        Upstream
Connection Speed            3654 kbps            827 kbps
Line Attenuation                57.5 db                35.7 db
Noise Margin                      3.5db                    6.0 db
ejs
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Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

Those speeds seem about right for the line length. You could still consider optimising your internal wiring as much as possible: if you have any extension sockets, getting a filtered faceplate so that everything is filtered at the master socket, or disconnecting extension wiring if it's not needed. Avoid using long extension cables between the modem and socket.
RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

That all makes sense now, I have had a read up on ADSL2+ and can see how this works out. I have also started running RouterStats to log line conditions, just for my own interest.
The only thing that doesn't add up now is the anomaly that I sometimes get on the BT wholesale speed test i.e. although everything suggests that I will never get more than about 4Mbs down, on some tests it has reported 9Mb, 12Mb and even 22Mb.
Could this be due to some kind of local caching on my PC?
Added screen shot off BTw Speed test anomaly.
ejs
Aspiring Hero
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Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

I don't think it's deliberate caching in the sense of something trying to speed things up. It might be some oddity with your antivirus, firewall or Internet security software. If the data gets scanned in advance, then it might all arrive very quickly after the scanning completes, so I suppose that might be a plausible explanation.
RobRS
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎29-10-2015

Re: What Max Speed can I get and why?

It's a bit of an odd one. The worst I got was all details as the screen grap but download speed was shown as 22.8Mbps.
I don't know how the speed test works, but presumably just transfers data of a known size and calculates based on the time taken to transfer. The reason I thought cache, is the only way it could calculate incorrectly is if some of the data was on my PC from a previous test and didn't need to be transferred :-\.