Slow internet BT Broadband

[NLC]

We had the same problem in North London. The speed at your house depends on the distance from the exchange and how many people are on the server at the exchange. We had free internet from Sky and then switched because it would slow down as people got home. The internet was still slow. After changing the box about three times we switched to 02 and had the same problem. They did multiple line test between our house and the exchange. Ultimately the problem was that the line was corroded between our house and the box and the end of the street and it would slow down when it would rain. The companies including BT are reluctant to get Openreach (who run the network) to come out since they have to pay I think £150 for an engineer. A broadband engineer told me that the best way is to say that you hear clicking on the line and once the engineer is out they can do a full test. We have our phone with Sky and internet with 02. Easier if your land line and internet with the same company. Sky broadband is utter crap and the call centre in India. 02 service I find very good. Anyways sounds like you need to get Openreach out to test the line. Good luck.

 

[cookie]

If your a sky subscriber ring their broadband department and they will test your line and honestly tell you what speed the line can give you.

I changed from BT to sky and my speed quadrupled over night! I changed nothing except to there wi fi box, same phone line, filters etc.

probably due in some part to BT being ADSL, and sky being ADSL+2, though that wouldn't account for such a massive jump.

dunno about sky, but o2 (also ADSL+2 on LLU equipment), do not use the BT "line training" model.
as has beene said BT use programs to lower line speed until disconnections reach an acceptable (to them) level. others just leave the issue until a customer complains of disconnects, then raise the target SNR to alleviate the problem.
personally, i can stand a merely reasonably stable line in exchange for more speed.

on a couple of occasions i have disconnected my router and gone on holiday, only to find greatly reduced line speed on return. calls to the ISP have just resulted in complete denial of any problem, followed by mysteriously restored connection. can't think of any technical reason the drop should happen, or how it has been fixed

 

[E. Buygum]

I think most CPs employ some form of DLM or at least rely on a similar, albeit less invasive, mechanism built into the LLU equipment (Seamless Rate Adaptation). DLM is implemented by BT Wholesale (not Retail) so any non LLU rate adaptive line (whatever the ISP) will have it. If you disconnect the router for 2 weeks, DLM will go mental. When you reconnect, the line will retrain but it could take days. If you call the ISP and they know what they are doing, they will just reset the line profile to a recently attained stable speed.

BT set DLM to be very conservative so the line can sometimes be set lower than it needs. However, if the synch speed is bumped up, as well as the odd drop out, the line error rate can be high so throughput on the line can suffer, even though the headline synch rate appears good.

I have never seen a 4x speed increase going from ADSL1 to 2+ If a line is slow on "upto 8Mb", it'll be slow on "upto 20Mb", possibly slower than on ADSL1. Roll on fibre....

probably due in some part to BT being ADSL, and sky being ADSL+2, though that wouldn't account for such a massive jump.

dunno about sky, but o2 (also ADSL+2 on LLU equipment), do not use the BT "line training" model.
as has beene said BT use programs to lower line speed until disconnections reach an acceptable (to them) level. others just leave the issue until a customer complains of disconnects, then raise the target SNR to alleviate the problem.
personally, i can stand a merely reasonably stable line in exchange for more speed.

on a couple of occasions i have disconnected my router and gone on holiday, only to find greatly reduced line speed on return. calls to the ISP have just resulted in complete denial of any problem, followed by mysteriously restored connection. can't think of any technical reason the drop should happen, or how it has been fixed

 

[ianf]

I've just been through this with BT. The problems all started after my exchange went to ADSL2+ in October. Kept on getting my line profile stuck down to 1Mbps. Phone India, gets reset, week later back there again. Was rock solid at 7mbps before the upgrade (and the smarmy marketing email about it being improved).

Asked BTO to root cause it, as I didn't want to phone india weekly, and Openreach engineer came round. Sharp intake of breath and disclosed the old v1.0 white homehub doesn't work properly on ADSL2+. Stuck his test equipment on the line and got 18mpbs with no errors over a half hour.

Told me to wait until he'd reported the problem, and to phone for a new black hub.

New one duly arrived, sync speed is 15mbps, achieves around 12, no loss of service, no dropping of profile. Had to re-sign up verbally for a year, to get free router, even though technically it was their upgrade that obsoleted the old one, no amount of arguing with sub-continentals could get that point across.

use speedtester.bt.com to find out what your profile is set to, and what the throughput is.

BTO bod also disclosed my exchange will be FTTH in March as a pilot scheme.

Roll on 50Mbps.

White homehub going spare if anyone wants it

 

[cookie]

I think most CPs employ some form of DLM or at least rely on a similar, albeit less invasive, mechanism built into the LLU equipment (Seamless Rate Adaptation). DLM is implemented by BT Wholesale (not Retail) so any non LLU rate adaptive line (whatever the ISP) will have it. If you disconnect the router for 2 weeks, DLM will go mental. When you reconnect, the line will retrain but it could take days. If you call the ISP and they know what they are doing, they will just reset the line profile to a recently attained stable speed.

BT set DLM to be very conservative so the line can sometimes be set lower than it needs. However, if the synch speed is bumped up, as well as the odd drop out, the line error rate can be high so throughput on the line can suffer, even though the headline synch rate appears good.

I have never seen a 4x speed increase going from ADSL1 to 2+ If a line is slow on "upto 8Mb", it'll be slow on "upto 20Mb", possibly slower than on ADSL1. Roll on fibre....

i said "others" when i should have written o2 and Be as using a different method of line stabilisation.

not holding my breath for fibre. fully anticipate it being obsolete technology by the time it gets implemented here. that seems to be BT's normal MO

read this and weep:

 

[turbine_2]

Couple of things to bear in mind with FTTH.

1. It's still 'up to' (And it's 40Mb/s I think, not 50)
2. Just because they're stucking it in, doesn't mean you'll be able to get it (we've got FTTH in Basingstoke, but BT are only putting it in areas that are already covered by VM cable and not the areas that are suffering poor speed outside of that footprint, and that's not down to population density).

 

[cookie]

Couple of things to bear in mind with FTTH.

1. It's still 'up to' (And it's 40Mb/s I think, not 50)

i think FTTH is up to 100mbs and FTTC is up tp 40mbs.

 

[ianf]

The more important point (not to sideline the original ADSL behaving badly) is the upload path is 10Mbps on the Infinity products. Will make backups work much better. I can live with 40Mbps.

Still worth fining out if there's a white hub in the equation...

 

[turbine_2]

Oops, missed the H, thought it was C. My bad.

 

[GS_or_bust]

I used to get 7Mbs I then upgraded to a 20Mbs connection. My connection then dropped to less than 1Mbs with a poor signal to noise ratio. I called up my ISP (Zen) who immediately called in an Openreach engineer. He traced it to a fault with the equipment at the exchange end of the line. This was replaced and I have had 17Mbs ever since.

 

[casperfelix]

You should probably install what BT touchingly call a "Broadband Accelerator" on your Master Socket. If UR with BT Retail/ Total Broadband, I think you can get one free.

http://www.productsandservices.bt.c...c.do?topicId=25075&s_cid=btb_FURL_accelerator

Absolutely right. My money is that it's the internal telephone wiring that's your problem. So split the ADSL line from the internal telephone wiring where it comes into the house and you may find your problem is sorted.

 

[cookie]

Absolutely right. My money is that it's the internal telephone wiring that's your problem. So split the ADSL line from the internal telephone wiring where it comes into the house and you may find your problem is sorted.

he's done that.

I already plugged the filter into the internal socket on the BT socket. There is nothing else connected in the house apart from the ADSL box - not even a phone.

 

[Mr K]

Sorry. Haven't been able to help.
My work laptop has died and they sent me a replacement pre-used one and I have yet to get back on line at work.

 

[illustratedman]

Broadband

Whereabouts in kent r u? i've got an older bt router lying around that i know works. you can borrow it to eliminate the router as a factor in the problem if you want, i'm in whitstable.

 

[stolzy]

Whereabouts in kent r u? i've got an older bt router lying around that i know works. you can borrow it to eliminate the router as a factor in the problem if you want, i'm in whitstable.

That's a kind offer and w=ione I might take up next time I'm back.

There's an engineer going to the exchange and to the property to check it out today. Maybe I'll have news later.

Thanks for all the tips.

 

[Deleted account Cooperman]

My BT connection seems OK

 

[shugie]

My BT connection seems OK

Lucky barsteward.

 

[stolzy]

So, BT sent an engineer who fiddled in the exchange and came to the property and tested various things.

Apparently there was a problem somewhere between the pole in the street and the box in the house.

I'm told I now have a 4.5 Mb connection, although I haven't been able to test it in anger yet. Not exactly blistering, and about half what I was told I would get. I guess in BT world thats a result.

Must remember to reinstate the standing order.