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Bad or not?

mminghella
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎11-07-2010

Bad or not?

Here's a shot from my router today.  We've always had a really slow connection but I wondered if anyone here could shed any light on a particular cause.  Over the 7 years we have lived here, we went from too far away from the exchange, to just on, to BT engineer shrugging his shoulders after a home visit and many, many calls to BT, Talk Talk and Sky to see if they knew why
17 REPLIES 17
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Bad or not?

Working from the basic attenuation figure you should be getting around 2,500 to 3000 kbps with that sort of noise margin.
Do you have a modern master socket.
If so can you plug the router into the test socket with nothing else connected and report the stats - noise margin, speed, attenuation
mminghella
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎11-07-2010

Re: Bad or not?

I feel a strange sense of deja vu  Cheesy
I'll try it and see what happens.  In the past, it has always come back as no obvious problems, but then we'll see
How long is best to leave it in for?
jim:quote
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Bad or not?

Just long enough to get the results although it wouldn't hurt to leave it until we have had a look at them
Can you also advise which exchange you are on (aluminium cabling can cause all sorts of problems)
mminghella
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎11-07-2010

Re: Bad or not?

Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Bad or not?

There is no obvious record of aluminium cabling in that area so that takes out one possibility
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Bad or not?

Sorry to butt in, but how on earth do you find records of exchanges where aluminium cabling has been deployed?
mminghella
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎11-07-2010

Re: Bad or not?

In the master socket now
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Bad or not?

I assume that when you say the master socket you mean the test socket.
When you removed the lower faceplate I assume that there were wires attached to it and all your other sockets were dead,
If the above is correct then you are in the unfortunate position where the low speeds are caused by the wiring between you and the exchange and BT Openreach won't do anything about it  Sad
mminghella
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎11-07-2010

Re: Bad or not?

Yep, pretty much what I expected  Sad
Thanks for taking the time to have a look though
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Bad or not?

@ReedRichards
There is no generally accessible database covering this so I tend to use the Google advanced search starting with the exchange to see if anyone is complaining about it.
This usually picks up exchanges where there are known problems and if there are whether BT are doing (or being pressurised to do) anything about it.
It obviously doesn't cover where there is a small amount of aluminium used but usually picks up widespread problems such as in the exchanges in Milton Keynes.
Given that the OP's exchange isn't in a new town it is likely that most of the wiring is fairly old copper rather than aluminium
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Bad or not?

Oldjim seems to think your line might be capable of a higher speeds but many lines in my locale have a similar downstream attenuation but operate at slower speeds.  Think yourself lucky that the equipment hasn't decided on a higher S/N ratio that 6 dB.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Bad or not?

I use the Kitz calculator which is fairly accurate http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Bad or not?

I'm sure that the Kitz calculator accurately calculates the maximum speed but what are your chances of achieving the maximum speed?  In my locale the downstream attenuation can vary by 20 dB from one street to the next and those streets on 55 to 60 dB of downstream attenuation do well to achieve 1 Mb/s actual downstream speed.  I am fortunate enough to be in the better 35 to 40 dB range and can achieve up to 6 Mb/s.  I only offer this by way of consolation to mminghella.
BenTrimble
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,106
Registered: ‎06-02-2008

Re: Bad or not?

@mminghella
The highest target SNR margin is 15dB, yours has been pushed to 17dB by electrical noise. If this noise is sufficient to cause disconnections then this can be investigated by our Faults Team. Your connection has been a little intermittent over the past few days so please leave the router in your test socket and monitor for any disconnections. If there are any, report this to the Faults Team at http://faults.plus.net by answering 'On' for question 7.
If there are no disconnections then we can still investigate this for you as a speed problem, but we may be limited as to the potential solutions. Just fill out the fault checker, answering 'Speed' for question 3.