iplate, any info from plusnet

[#1]

Two things.
If you remove the bottom half of the master socket faceplate are there any wires attached to it
What are your router stats - attenuation, noise margin and sync speed

[#2]

Quote from: Oldjim

Two things. If you remove the bottom half of the master socket faceplate are there any wires attached to it What are your router stats - attenuation, noise margin and sync speed

The front plate is removed so there were no wires connected. I use an ADSL filter plug directly into the phone socket. Can't remembr why but we must have previously had a problem with the built in filter.
Re stats:- Attenuation 60.8 down 31.5 up, Noise (SNR) 9.8 down 23 up, Sync speed test 473 down 235 up. Does that help?
Thanks
David

[#3]

As you are using the master socket this takes out all the internal wiring (if there had been any it would have been attached to the faceplate you removed).
The bad part is that with that attenuation you aren't going to get much better speeds although the upstream speed is puzzling as you should get better than 235kbps.
Are those numbers the ones reported by your router or an actual speed test result.
The only hope is that there is a problem on the line and a quick way to check that is to see what this says about the speeds you should get and the distances between you and the exchange  by putting in your post code and telephone number. http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php
As an example my distances are
Distance:-  Direct:    4.07 km
  (appx)* By Road: 4.99 km
and the BT guess for Max ADSL is 3,000kbps
My attenuation is 52dB and I can get around 3,500kbps synch speed

[#4]

Jim
My road distance is similar to yours but direct is about 3.5miles. Perhaps it might be worth thinking of MAX again as I am on a fixed speed. Milton Keynes would be such an easy place to install fibre optics to all the street boxes. We even have an analogue cable system which no one is willing to upgrade.
David

[#5]

David,
You might have problems.
With that distance and attenuation in Milton Keynes there is an extremely good chance that you are suffering from the problem of aluminium cable joints.
With that downstream attenuation and present noise margin you could well finish up with an unstable line and ultimately a higher noise margin and lower speeds.
At present, as you are on a fixed speed line, your downstream synch speed is 512kbps (this is also the equivalent rate limit value - which is used on MaxDSL). To achieve the same effective speed on Max you would need to synch at 576kbps and to get any better you would need to synch at above 832kbps. These are the figures http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/IPprofile.htm.
Frankly unless you really want the higher upstream speeds I would stay on the fixed rate product.as the chances of getting better speeds are almost nil and they could be worse.

[#6]

@klyne
Your stats suggest that 2meg (or maybe a little more) could be achievable.
It might be worth asking again to try a faster fixed-rate product (initially 1meg then maybe 2) to see if anything has changed and stability is possible.
I would leave ADSL Max well alone for now.
What make/model of router are you using?

[#7]

@HPsauce
Would you like to explain how a synch speed of 512kbps with a noise margin of 9.8dB would give a speed of 2000kbps or faster on max

[#8]

It's the 61dB attenuation that suggests it.
Did you miss the key word "could" ?

[#9]

OK - please explain how he could given the existing noise margin and speed.
The point is that the klyne lives in Milton Keynes where there are major problems with ADSL and aluminium cables and despite the attenuation there is no way at all he would ever get 2000kbps and it is unlikely he would get even 1000kbps stable.
Under these circumstances, where he is asking about moving to MaxDSL, I wouldn't want to even suggest as remotely possible that he would get 2000kbps

[#10]

I'll bow to your superior knowledge as I'm not familiar with the specific issues in MK.
As to aluminium cables, I thought the main problem was the higher attenuation (and we already know what that is) and failing joints, but the latter generally should show up on a Quiet Line Test and so can be fixed by reporting a telephony fault to BT.
And I agree with you totally about not considering Max. 

[#11]

No problem.
I was perhaps a bit abrupt (sorry) but I didn't want klyne to go jumping into Max with the likely problems he would face.
With regard to Milton Keynes - the problem was actually the large number of users with attenuation at or above the original 55dB limit which was subsequently increased to 60dB  (BT used to refuse to connect anyone to ADSL with an attenuation over 60dB  - I don't know if that has changed).
With respect to failing joints - I agree that is the major problem with aluminium.
I am led to believe that one of the problems with high attenuations (60dB or higher) is cross talk which doesn't show up in a quiet line test. but can badly affect the noise margin which is probably what is happening here.

[#12]

Quote from: Oldjim

I am led to believe that one of the problems with high attenuations (60dB or higher) is cross talk which doesn't show up in a quiet line test. but can badly affect the noise margin which is probably what is happening here.

Which is what is happening to me I would think at the moment, attnentuation is 55-58dB depending on which router I use, and PN are being tardy at doing anything because the BTO staff say 'the compter says no'.
SW

[#13]

Jim and HP
Thanks for your contributions. A higher speed would be a nice to have but a stable connection would be preferred. I did at one point try a fixed 1MB connection but that was pretty unstable so reverted back. Am I the only one to backwards down the super highway! As you say MK has a lot of issues with its telecoms infrastructure,which by all accounts was done on the cheap and perhaps without the foresight for future developments which is something we will have to live with for the immediate future. There is something in MK called Wi-Max which I could have but its so much more expensive. As to failing joints I thought that was something I suffered from!!!!
David

[#14]

Hi David
I also live in MK and personally I think the council is more likely to fund a launch site for the European Space Agency than fibre or indeed updating our ancient cable system.
The council's "solution" to the chronic broadband is town wide WIMAX at £30/month
Personally I don't trust wireless data one little bit, anyway getting back to your problem.
I'm on PN essential which is a DSL Max circuit and get significantly better performance than on a fixed rate connection (sync speed is currently on 1500 Kbps and actual downstream bandwidth reported by my router is around 1874 Kbps and performance is acceptable (PN are the best ISP I have used for network performance although the 'last mile' has a large impact on your experience)
My advice is go for it mate.
I don't use an iplate btw and have an attenuation of 59 dB