Some Advice On Speed v SNR Margin

[#1]

I was chatting to a BT engineer who was installing a neighbour's BB and I happen to mention that I get speeds in the region of 4.5M to 5.5M. I said that I sync at 7040.
I can see the exchange from my window and it's very close and the engineer indicated that the line is practically direct.
He asked what my stats were:

Quote

Local Line Atten.: 2.0 dB Remote Line Atten.: 4.5 dB Local SNR Margin: 13.5 dB Remote SNR Margin: 26.0 dB

He then said that my speed would increase and I'd probably sync higher if I requested my SNR to be reduced to 6dB.
Is this true? If so, is it something PN can do? Is it worth it?
P.S. No complaints of my current service and it is very stable.

[#2]

Keep tabs on this thread : http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,64286.0.html

[#3]

Raise a ticket and ask PN to raise a call with BT to drop your Noise Margin back to 6.

[#4]

Thanks for the replies and have read the other thread.
I think I will raise a ticket but, before I do, is the connection liable to become unstablle &, if I am not ahppy, can it be raised back up again?
Thanks again.

[#5]

Potentially & Yes

[#6]

Thanks James.
I'll raise a ticket for this,

[#7]

Hi James, if you are there
I raised a ticket (25524670 ) and got the following response:

Quote

Dear Mr xxx, Thanks for your query I would suggest trying to keep the router plugged into the master socket and switched on for at least 3 days continuously. this will very likely to stablise the connection, update your connection IP profile and keep the noise margin down. If the noise margin still more than 12, please make sure that you've tried it on the master socket after disconnecting any other phone/set-top box from the phone line and see if that makes any difference. if you've tried both of these options and was unable to reduce the SNR, you can then raise a fault on your Broadband account at http://faults.plus.net explaining the reasons of this request. The following websites might be helpful as well: http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/troubleshooting/test_socket.shtml http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm Kind regards,

Do I really have to go through all the above. I have not got a fault and never mentioned fault in my ticket but I did give the links to this thread and the other mentioned above.
My modem is plugged into the master socket. Not sure how they expect the noise margin to reduce?
I still wonder whether the guys at CS really do read the tickets thoroughly and understand what's been asked of them
Cheers.

[#8]

To be honest, I don't have much of an issue with that ticket reply.  The advice is reasonable.
Your best bet though, is to raise a speed fault via the faults troubleshooter as that will go through to our faults team, who'll be able to raise your request accordingly to BT.

[#9]

I appreciate what you're saying, James but why do I have to go through a fault proceedure just to have something done that may or may not increase my speed further even though I do not have a fault and my speed is fairly good at the moment anyway. Was just trying to see if I could squeeze out a little more juice
Previous posts have said that one can request a drop in SNR margin. Is anyone else aware that you have to report it as a fault first?
Perhaps I'll just leave things as they are.
Cheers

[#10]

Hiya,
The reason why I'm suggesting to use the faults checker is because this will go straight through to the analysts that are responsible for handling faults.  Otherwise it'll just go to a standard technical support analyst who would necessarily have the experience in faults to address your query accordingly.

[#11]

Thanks for the further info James.
I think I'll leave things as they are. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
If I get the SNR reduced and the connection becomes unstable then I'll only have to go through the same proceedure to get it rectified and I don't think it's worth the hassle.
I am satisfied with the conection I have and the service I receive
I just know I used to sync higher and wonder what I could, potentially, have achieved.
No harm done and thanks again for all the advice.
Cheers.

[#12]

If your line is unstable at a lower margin then BT's equipment will automatically raise it again - you won't need to raise a ticket for it. Asking for the reduction is probably worth doing. You never know, it could still be stable and faster with a lower margin.