I have had a fault reported since December and right now I am still with the same problem. I've jumped through countless hoops, had an engineer visit and PN have done a couple of tests but I'm still with the problem.
I feel very much "in the system" with the issue just being passed around without anyone actually seeing things through. If you will indulge me, I'd like to post my "story so far" and see if any of you bright sparks can come up with a diagnosis.
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Before December I was on ADSLmax. I had a stable connection with no more than one disconnection/day - maybe non for days. My sync speed would vary between 5 to 5.5Mb/s or so. Typical download speeds 4Mb/s to 4.5Mb/s
In mid December I noted my speeds were less than usual. My router stats showed a low sync speed of 2489kb/s - I also noted the letters ADSL2 in my stats (note no "plus"). I learn from PN's "my questions" page that Pn had moved me over to ADSL2+ early December. I was not told about this, but hey. The main point is that my sync speed was less than half my usual speed on ADSL max. I reported to this to PN before Christmas.
Nothing has changed since then.
I ALWAYS sync at 2489k/bs exactly, always on ADLS2 (no "plus"). This figure does not change, ever. My down SNR margin is large, being between 18dB (no lower) to 22dB. Typical stats:
Upstream Speed: 444 kbps
Downstream Speed: 2489 kbps
noise margin downstream: 20 db
output power upstream: 18 db
attenuation downstream: 40 db
noise margin upstream: 20 db
output power downstream: 12 db
attenuation upstream: 26 db
My router is located within 12inches of the master socket (filtered faceplate). There is only one telephone connected (wireless base station). No extensions whatsoever.
I have a 3 year old ZyXel P660 HW - T1 router. It has always been very stable and appears to be fine.
Last friday I had a BT.OW. engineer out to my home - organised by PN. He said he could find nothing wrong at all. I noted that his dsl line stats were a little different to mine. I am looking forward to the Bt report/result from this.
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Yesterday (monday) I brought my Thomson Speedtouch 585 v7 from work (where it is very stable) to try at home. Note that this router was provided by my work/office ISP, Opal (business TalkTalk). It is less than 6 months old.
The thomson speedtouch syncs at 4539kb/s - 2Mb faster than my zyxel at 4539kb/s. It also connects on ADSL2+ (note the "plus" unlike my zyxel). The sync speed never changes, it is always exactly 4539kb/s. every reboot or reconnection brings the same sync speed. This "fixed sync" speed nature is just like my zyxel. There are some very odd readings in the stats too:
Uptime:
0 days, 11:57:23
DSL Type:
G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:
440 / 4,539
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]:
0.00 / 2.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]:
13.0 / 0.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]:
24.0 / 44.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:
24.0 / 9.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote):
TMMB / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote):
0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down):
4,294,967,264 / 28,005
CRC Errors (Up/Down):
4,294,967,264 / 4
HEC Errors (Up/Down):
0 / 4
Note the crazy errors! Note the Output power downstream. I also note the Line atten is 4dB greater than my zyxel.
The Thomson appeared to work fine though. Up until that is I tried to do anything with it. I wanted to set-up a forwarded port for my home NAS. This tended to crash the router. Then I noted the router world just drop its dsl connection for no reason and then crash. It would not make a re-connection till after a full power cycle. When it made a connection it would always sync at EXACTLY 4539kb/s. If I don't "fiddle" with it the router appears to keep a solid connection but because of the rubbish way it stores the logs I can't be sure.
summary:
My zyxel router syncs ALWAYS at 2489kb/s on ADSL2 (no "plus")
My thomas TG585 v7 syncs ALWAYS at 4539 on ADSL2+ (yes "plus")
Note, my actual download speeds from speed testers etc is the roughly the same for both routers: about 1900kb/s
Why such a difference in sync speeds?
Why don't these sync speeds vary a little after re-boot?
Something just doesn't seem right to me: two routers behaving completely differently. Stats that don't make sense. Half the speed than ADSLmax.
Sorry for long post, I welcome your thoughts.
