I live in S2 and complained to Plusnet due to the pittyful broadband speeds, especially in the evening.

I found out that the Cuttlers telephone exchange is 'contended' and has a RED status on their report.

Plusnet have informed BT but there is no action due and no review date planned for this exchange.

If this effects you I would like to get as many names together so I can write to OFCOM about the poor service.

Do you live in S2 and suffer poor internet speed - does not matter what provider it is, many use the same exchange.

Thanks

SImon

I live in S2 and complained to Plusnet due to the pittyful broadband speeds, especially in the evening.

I found out that the Cuttlers telephone exchange is 'contended' and has a RED status on their report.

Plusnet have informed BT but there is no action due and no review date planned for this exchange.

If this effects you I would like to get as many names together so I can write to OFCOM about the poor service.

Do you live in S2 and suffer poor internet speed - does not matter what provider it is, many use the same exchange.

Thanks

SImon

Hi Simon,
I live at S14, and am also with Plusnet. I find that the internet is often slow, usually around soaps time when all the bored peeps get on the net. It also loses the dsl signal regularly and disconnects as a result. It's also bad at weekends, so I wonder if it is the increase in traffic that the exchange can't handle? I don't know where the cutlass (I'm pretty sure that's the name) exchange is, but we are near the water tower, and have the same probs.

YES!! I do. It has been driving me crazy for months now, and I was completely without internet for several weeks in March and July this year. I switched providers, thinking it was their problem, but although it has improved with a new one, it is still VERY slow (eg can't play continuous video clips on You Tube etc). I was informed that they were messing with the local exchange in July, and I feel that is where the problem lies, particularly as it is so far away in Sharrow.

Glad I'm not alone!!

Check to see if we're using the same overloaded exchange going to samknows(dot)(com) (see top right corner of page)

Enter your postcode or telephone number and the exchange is displayed.

Mine is exchange code SLSF located in Sheffield.

If I can get the names and numbers of even a dozen or so people together I get write a letter to OFCOM.

I pay line rental to BT, and Plusnet get their money whatever speed I get. We're promised up to 8Meg of broadband when we sign-up but get dial-up speeds because BT can't maintain their equipment.

You can check your speed at: speedtest(dot)(net)

Hi winterof78,
My exchange is SLSW, but there's no doubt overloading in a fair few of them.
Good on you for trying to do something about it anyway.
Good luck!

My internet keeps going slow disconnecting etc. Went without it for a good few days!!I`m with Orange, it cost me a fortune ringing up to resolve the problem. It takes ages to connect, I was better of speed wise when I had dial up. ( not cost wise) I`m in S2 but my exchange comes up as SLIN ... Intake.
I`m now wondering reading this thread if I was too hard on my I.P.

To be fair, I use the same exchange (http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange.php?ecode=SLSF) in S3 and I don't really have any issues with it, I can only get 1meg BB but my ISP (Tiscali) told me that and charged me a fair price for it, so sounds to me like your ISP are taking you for a mug, I'd be happy to sign your petition though, all I can do to help:thumbsup:

Where do I sign?

My internet keeps going slow disconnecting etc. Went without it for a good few days!!I`m with Orange, it cost me a fortune ringing up to resolve the problem. It takes ages to connect, I was better of speed wise when I had dial up. ( not cost wise) I`m in S2 but my exchange comes up as SLIN ... Intake.
I`m now wondering reading this thread if I was too hard on my I.P.

I'm on the Intake exchange.

I was with Orange and my broadband went down for 2 weeks. Orange don't know their arse from their elbow.

After trying to resolve the problem witrh the Indian call centre I gave up and requested my MAC code and swapped to Be Internet on their 24mb package.

Now I get around 14-15mb downloads speeds and it's not gone down once so i'm happy.

The future with Orange is far from bright.

I find Bethere.co.uk very good

Hi Simon,
I live at S14, and am also with Plusnet. I find that the internet is often slow, usually around soaps time when all the bored peeps get on the net. It also loses the dsl signal regularly and disconnects as a result. It's also bad at weekends, so I wonder if it is the increase in traffic that the exchange can't handle? I don't know where the cutlass (I'm pretty sure that's the name) exchange is, but we are near the water tower, and have the same probs.

I live in S14 as well and am connected to the Intake (SLIN) exchange, I have no problems here (apart from the usual rush on the ISP which happens every night).

You can check if your exchange is congested by putting your number in here: http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

I live in S2 and am with Orange and don't seem to have any problems, occasionally (maybe once a week) goes down for a few minutes but I put this down to updates on the livebox. But other than that internet is very quick and reliable.

I live in Heeley S2, and my virgin bb has been down for about 3/4 weeks now, all I can get out of Virgin is "there is a problem in your area" so that what it is, surely they could just tell us that theres no point in even having BB?

Ahh... so it's not just me. I’ve got an 8mb connection with Bulldog, so it’s not a BT line, but I think they still use the BT exchange, so this might explain it. I was previously using Bulldog whilst in Jet Centro (also S2) and I think for the most part it was alright, but moving to a new build I’ve been plagued with problems.

High pings/latency, packet loss and slow download speeds, web pages timing out etc… At first I thought it was the service but after a few calls to Bulldogs tech support team they did a few checks on the line and claimed it wasn’t at fault and that it must be the internal wiring in the flat.

I’ve found the problem isn’t as bad if I plug my router directly into the master test socket (remove plastic faceplate of the master, plug the router directly into the ‘hidden’ socket), that way I only get slow download speeds around ‘peak times’ (drops from 600-700k/sec down to about 10) but something's definitely not right with it.

HUMM, mine is fairly slow, but mine says SLIN

I live in Heeley S2, and my virgin bb has been down for about 3/4 weeks now, all I can get out of Virgin is "there is a problem in your area" so that what it is, surely they could just tell us that theres no point in even having BB?

I got the same thing, then after 4 days it was "fixed", no explaination, no nothing.
I wish Telewest were still running it.

There are several factors that affect speed:

1. Distance.
The further you are away from the exchange the slower the speed will be. This is a physcial restriction and means that only those extremely close to the exchange will get top speeds (i.e. less than 1km). And remember this is line lenth, not the straight line distance from the exchange which is longer..

2. Internal wiring
The speed of the BB is determined by the quality of the phone line. A noisy line means that your speeds will have to be dropped to maintain a connection. In most cases, it's the internal wiring of a house that causes the issues (as per Andhet's experiance).
If you do have BB issues, then I would suggest that you locate the master socket, unscrew the faceplate and connect to the internal socket. This will remove internal wiring from the problem..

3. Contention
The BB service is contented, so you do not have a dedicated amount of speed between you and the internet. This is not just contention at the exchange buy also contention at the ISPs network. You will usually find that speeds are lower during busy time (such as after 6pm).

4. Traffic management
I see a lot of people here use plusnet (perhaps out of loyalty to the city - although they are owned by BT) - and they employ traffic management to ensure that a fair amount of network bandwidth is distrubuted amongst the users. This means a reduction in speeds during busier times..

5. LLU
Remember that just because you using Broadband, doesn't mean that it's provided by BT. Other operators can install their equipment into BT exchanges, and only use the portion of the line between your house and the exchange. Openreach will maintain the physcial copper, but it's down to the other operator to maintain the equipment and connectivity. Therefore make sure you address any concerns at the right level.

Also, there are no guarentees on a BB service - so whilst OFCOM may take an interest, there are no license obligations to provide a BB service, so the stick isn't that big.

I live in Heeley S2, and my virgin bb has been down for about 3/4 weeks now, all I can get out of Virgin is "there is a problem in your area" so that what it is, surely they could just tell us that theres no point in even having BB?

I'm in S2 Heeley and mine has been fine. I'd ring em back and get em told!

To be honest though i've always thought mine was slower than it should beut i don't know how to check.

There's a thread in the Computer & Tech chat along similar lines, relating to broadband speed.

Try this;

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php



.

After seeing the Gadget show last night, they asked broadbanders to go to their website - The Gadget Show.com and take part in their survey by checking just what your download and upload speeds are on their webpage and then they are running a campaign to get a faster speed/cheaper cost for all!!! Checkit out

After seeing the Gadget show last night, they asked broadbanders to go to their website - The Gadget Show.com and take part in their survey by checking just what your download and upload speeds are on their webpage and then they are running a campaign to get a faster speed/cheaper cost for all!!! Checkit out

Of course this won't highlight any internal issues - and seeing that adsl is self install then I would say that this will account for a large proportion of slower BB speeds..

Speeds are largely determined by distance, so their aren't too many options. You really want to be talking to the regulator to see why companies don't feel their is any return on this type of infrastructure investment (DSLAm in cab/fiber to the cab)

Glad someone else thinks orange is s**t. My broadband went down for nearly a week a few weeks ago...call centre in India, 6 phone calls at premium rate. Then they put me on 'free' dial up while it got fixed, but when phone bill came, it hadn't been free at all!! Refused to refund the £30 in calls...I sent them the bill, gave me a month free instead (£12) I'd actually asked for my mac, they tempted me to stay by cheaper monthly costs...when it comes up for renewal in april, I'm off...even if they offer it free!!! And started with 7.8mbps.. now down to 5.2 !

The "up to 8mbps" are all rate adaptive. So you may start at a higher speed, but if the line is not stable, then it will drop down. So going from 7.8 to 5.2 might not actually be a problem. Are you plugged into the master socket?

To understand if this is a problem, you need to look at the stats from your router (attenuation and the SNR)

However, Orange is an LLU operator, so I'm not sure how they determine their line speeds. It may be different from BTs implementation.

mine okey on the Manor.

And they say living on the Manor is rubbish...

Norfolk Park S2 my provider is Plusnet and if it gets any slower i may have to revert to snail mail:hihi: or maybe train a couple of pigeons

Seems to be going off the original thread slightly so i'll drag it back somewhat.

One thing to understand is that your ISP can (most cases does) have it's own equipment in your local exchange.

Okies. I live on Norfolk Park. Connected to our 'local' exchange which is Cutler (how can 5km be local?), Fulwood i believe. It is glowing a nice red at the moment if you check plusnets exchange checker service. In fact, it's been that way for over a year whenever i have checked.

Last week we lost out internet. I rang AOL several times. They ended up performing 11 (yes eleven) line tests. They comissioned a BT engineer to check the line. Eventually they ran out of ideas and blamed our computers.
(Note: All along i was asking them if the exchange being red was a problem.)
A fresh install of my OS later and they finally conceeded it was nothing on my end. I managed to speak to a techie who knew what he was doing. He figured out that Fujitsu had installed the wrong peice of kit. They replaced it, rebooted the system and all is now fixed (touch wood).

But yes. The broadband we recieve here in s2 is pathetic. I have a 1mb connection. I would love more but i simply cannot have a faster connection due to being in what seems to be a different hemisphere to my 'local' exchange :?

One thing to understand is that your ISP can (most cases does) have it's own equipment in your local exchange.


Most ISPs don't install equipment into exchanges, as this is expensive. Some LLU operators do (such as Sky, Tiscali, Talk Talk, Be) but these cover only 7 or so ISPs.


Okies. I live on Norfolk Park. Connected to our 'local' exchange which is Cutler (how can 5km be local?), Fulwood i believe. It is glowing a nice red at the moment if you check plusnets exchange checker service. In fact, it's been that way for over a year whenever i have checked.


Bung your details (phone/postcode) into here and tell me what exchange it comes back with. I find it hard to believe that you are connected to an exchange in fulwood, rather than something closer..

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

well i can recommend 3 mobile - there new interent plug-in thingy no landline needed and so far not a single problem

Most ISPs don't install equipment into exchanges, as this is expensive. Some LLU operators do (such as Sky, Tiscali, Talk Talk, Be) but these cover only 7 or so ISPs.



Bung your details (phone/postcode) into here and tell me what exchange it comes back with. I find it hard to believe that you are connected to an exchange in fulwood, rather than something closer..

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Okies... It comes up with General information
Exchange name: Sheffield
Exchange code: SLSF

No idea what that means.

A more userfriendly congestion checker is available at Nildram. http://www.nildram.net/support/tools/congestion_checker/

It also gives handy timeframes for upgrades.. although invariably as soon as the cutlers exchange becomes uncongested, it fills up pretty quickly. We used to have loads of issues with it when we lived there :)

I'm in S2, connected to the Sharrow exchange (SLSW). My ISP is Tiscali but I am looking to change having been out of contract for at least a year now.

The connection during the day seems to be fine but after 7pm it takes ages to go from one screen to another and the green triangle ADSL indicator which should be permanently lit up sits idle.

I pay around £14/mth for an alleged 2.3 Mbps connection which is pretty poor but I am cautious of moving to an ISP which promises 8Mbps or more because I don't know if the line can take it.

Damned either way really :mad:

Wake up call people! 5.2Mb is a bloody good speed - above average of around 4-5Mb on an UP TO (yes, up to) 8Mb connection.

And the vast fluctuation is speeds (not to mention dropped connections and loss of sync) is not the fault of any of the ISP's. The speed you get is due to line quality and distance from exchange.

To itterate - it is not the ISP's it is BT, thats British Telecom folks. Their speeds, their lines! ISPs just give you the gateway to the WWW at the end of it!

Wake up call people! 5.2Mb is a bloody good speed - above average of around 4-5Mb on an UP TO (yes, up to) 8Mb connection.

And the vast fluctuation is speeds (not to mention dropped connections and loss of sync) is not the fault of any of the ISP's. The speed you get is due to line quality and distance from exchange.

To itterate - it is not the ISP's it is BT, thats British Telecom folks. Their speeds, their lines! ISPs just give you the gateway to the WWW at the end of it!


Their could of course be congestion related slowdown and loss of data transfer if you ISP is crap but this won't alter throughput (unless there are a few contention issues at the exchange - and by the way, exchange contention is BTs fault too!!!)

Okies... It comes up with
General information
Exchange name: Sheffield
Exchange code: SLSF

No idea what that means.

It means you're connected to the central Sheffield Exchange located on Charter Row (not Fulwood).. So probably only 1km in distance...

Wake up call people! 5.2Mb is a bloody good speed - above average of around 4-5Mb on an UP TO (yes, up to) 8Mb connection.

And the vast fluctuation is speeds (not to mention dropped connections and loss of sync) is not the fault of any of the ISP's. The speed you get is due to line quality and distance from exchange.

To itterate - it is not the ISP's it is BT, thats British Telecom folks. Their speeds, their lines! ISPs just give you the gateway to the WWW at the end of it!

I totally agree with the majority of what you say MrNM, the line and stuff does belong to BT but the number of ISP's who use high speed connections as a major selling factor when the speed can't be sustained because of the line or customer usage just isn't right. Like I said, I want to change but I am cautious of moving just on the promise of a maybe.

To itterate - it is not the ISP's it is BT, thats British Telecom folks. Their speeds, their lines! ISPs just give you the gateway to the WWW at the end of it!

Their could of course be congestion related slowdown and loss of data transfer if you ISP is crap but this won't alter throughput (unless there are a few contention issues at the exchange - and by the way, exchange contention is BTs fault too!!!)

Remember that a few (large) ISPs put equipment into exchanges, so contention is an ISP issue. BT (openreach) maintains the local copper line only.

It is true that the laws of physics mean that (in general) the further away you get from an exchange then the lower the speed. There is not much that can be done about this, practically speaking of course. Better technology may one day allow faster speeds - but the real change will only happen when fibre is deployed into the access network.

As for speed, I suppose this all depends on whether you are talking about higher sync speeds (i.e. line speeds) or data speeds up to that sync (i.e. a 5mbits/sec line running at 200kbytes/sec).

Certain ISPs such as Plusnet implement traffic management - so this could indeed be a bottleneck for faster data speeds.

Exchange contention is a well known factor though and the service given to ISPs has always been known to be at least 20:1.

All network services are based on contention - even your own standard telephone service has a limited number of circuits available. It's not viable to build a network that has dedicated paths (you get a lot of waste and it would be extremely complex) so there is always a compromise to be made.

As more people get broadband, and start tyo use higher speeds, then contention is always going to be a problem. The introduction of more video based services will put a further strain on the network and it remains to be seen exactly what impact this will have on speeds.

Damned either way really :mad:

Looking at the tiscalli website, 14.99 is the 2mbps limited package. The only real way to determine whether you are going to be able to get a faster speed is by either bunging your details into a BB checker (such as http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php which uses Bt estimates for speed) or post up your router stats (Attenuation/SNR/current sync speed). These can then use these to work out a possible top speed..

Seeing as your are centrally located then I would guess that you have a very good change of increasing that speed..

Bah, should have come on here to confirm it wasnt a single house line issue when I was having major trouble end of last week/earlier this week, rather than trying to get my ISP's Indian call centre to do a line test ("Our tool is down at the minute sir" - sure it is you lying &%*$).


And I should know better. When I used to work for an isp BT very very rarely admitted to problems until after they had fixed them. I suppose you cant know for sure how bad something is until its fixed, and until then etas arnt possible etc, therefore admitting somethings wont change the fact etc etc....

Anyways. Much better now but still odd issues.

It means you're connected to the central Sheffield Exchange located on Charter Row (not Fulwood).. So probably only 1km in distance...

If that's the case then shouldn't i be able to get more than the poor 1mb connection i have now?

I'm connected to Sharrow. Speed varies tremendously and often goes on and off at Peak Times. It used to be worse till I took it up with my Service Provider and they took it up with BT.

Mine's been rubbish lately (Blueyonder/Telewest/Virgin/whatever) - really dragging in the evenings :(

We're promised up to 8Meg of broadband when we sign-up but get dial-up speeds because BT can't maintain their equipment.

I think we all suffer from that. What makes it worse is that BT are saying they don't see the need to spend money on installing the fast optical broadband network that many other countries already have or are beginning to roll out.

When you've got a total monopoly on the broadband network and relatively few people can access an alternative I suppose you don't care if you're screwing your customers with a decaying copper network.

im on bt internet and have emailed them a complaint about the speed of my internet, i pay for up to 8 mb but am only receiving 1.7mb, it takes ages for pages to load and it keeps timing out, still waiting for a response from bt, they told me 3 to 4 working days, tomorrow is the 4th working day.....i wont hold my breathe

Don't get to excited - there could be up to 400 people hammering the internet at the same time as you, sharing the same 4Mb circuit from your local exchange to the internet. Check this out. (http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/11) :(

Is this happening to anyone again? Our AOL connection is dropping every few mins again for some reason. It only DC's for a second or two but thats enough to know me off WoW or whatever else we're doing.

If that's the case then shouldn't i be able to get more than the poor 1mb connection i have now?

Sorry - I must have missed this thread..

I would have throught you could get more than 1mb. It coud be the product (1mb fixed?), it could be the ISPsettings (are they limiting your speed for stability reasons), it could be your internal picking up lots of interference.

The only way to tell is to get you router stats which show:

Current downstream/upstream sync speed
attenuation
SNR (Signal to noise ratio)

From these you can tell if you have a lot of interference for the line length. Not sure what router you have, so I have no idea where they might be. If it has some web interface, then see if you can find them under some line statistics for something..

EDIT: Ah it's probably a netgear. Go to http://192.168.0.1/ and see what you can find.

I don't really know what all that means but i found:

Connection Speed 1152 kbps 288 kbps
Line Attenuation 39 db 13.5 db
Noise Margin 28 db 30 db

The connection is an fixed 2MB one. They say i can not have any more than 1MB on my line though.
At least now they have accepted there is a problem with the line. A 3 min line test took 20 mins due to disconnections. It would be nice to know if i can get a faster connection though.

Also... Found this log. Gives a bit of an insight in to how many DC's we've been getting :huh:

Sat, 2008-01-26 23:33:28 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2008-01-26 23:33:28 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2008-01-26 23:33:30 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2008-01-26 23:47:01 - LCP down.
Sat, 2008-01-26 23:47:02 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2008-01-26 23:47:03 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2008-01-26 23:47:05 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 00:05:40 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 00:05:41 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 00:05:42 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 00:05:44 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 09:19:49 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 09:19:49 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 09:19:51 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 11:55:57 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 11:55:59 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 11:55:59 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 11:56:04 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 12:25:15 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 12:25:17 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 12:25:17 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 12:25:19 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 14:06:39 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 14:06:41 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 14:06:41 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 14:06:43 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 15:50:35 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 15:50:37 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 15:50:37 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 15:50:39 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 17:07:08 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 17:07:09 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 17:07:10 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 17:07:12 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 21:39:37 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 21:39:38 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 21:39:40 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:18:27 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:18:28 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:18:28 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:18:31 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:39:01 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:39:29 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:39:29 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:39:32 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:39:44 - Loss of synchronization :1
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:48:12 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:49:21 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:49:21 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:49:24 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:49:44 - Loss of synchronization :2
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:58:37 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:58:39 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:58:39 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 22:58:42 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:03:08 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:03:10 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:03:10 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:03:12 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:12:34 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:12:34 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:12:36 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:16:56 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:17:23 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:17:23 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:17:26 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:17:45 - Loss of synchronization :3
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:24:26 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:26:19 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:26:19 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:26:22 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:26:45 - Loss of synchronization :4
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:27:12 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:29:11 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:29:15 - Loss of synchronization :5
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:30:12 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:30:12 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:30:14 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:30:15 - Loss of synchronization :6
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:30:44 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:32:28 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:32:28 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:32:37 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:32:45 - Loss of synchronization :7
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:35:46 - LCP down.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:37:21 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:37:22 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:37:24 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2008-01-27 23:37:45 - Loss of synchronization :8
Mon, 2008-01-28 00:43:30 - LCP down.
Mon, 2008-01-28 00:43:31 - Initialize LCP.
Mon, 2008-01-28 00:43:32 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Mon, 2008-01-28 00:43:34 - CHAP authentication success
Mon, 2008-01-28 00:57:08 - Administrator login successful -

I don't really know what all that means but i found:

Connection Speed 1152 kbps 288 kbps
Line Attenuation 39 db 13.5 db
Noise Margin 28 db 30 db

The connection is an fixed 2MB one. They say i can not have any more than 1MB on my line though.

Hmm - that is a fixed speed 1mb product. You can tell as the upsteam is set at 288kbps. You have a decent enough attenuation and noise margin, you could probably get 5-6mbps on the line easy on a variable speed max product (i.e. an "up to 8mbps" product). Anyone ISP who tells you you can't get more than 1mbps doesn't deserve to recieve your business.


At least now they have accepted there is a problem with the line. A 3 min line test took 20 mins due to disconnections. It would be nice to know if i can get a faster connection though.

Looking at those log entries, combined with the stats tells me that it's more probably you have a line fault somewhere. I would double check all filters are in place on other phones within your house, disconnect all other phones for a period or connect to the master socket to see if that helps to eliminate the problem. If not then it's most probably an external issue..

Disconnection update..... Said they fixed it. Lies! Now we have an engineer coming out to play. No idea when though :suspect:

Speed update..... I passed on what it says here. They say i 'might' be able to go to 2MB and will update my line to run at full speed (whatever that means). 10 day wait.

Disconnection update..... Said they fixed it. Lies! Now we have an engineer coming out to play. No idea when though :suspect:


Good luck - hopfully it will be something simple.


Speed update..... I passed on what it says here. They say i 'might' be able to go to 2MB and will update my line to run at full speed (whatever that means). 10 day wait.

There is no might about it - you can run faster than 2mb easy.

I assume they have put you on the "up to 8 meg" product where they let the line condition decide the speed rather than capping you at a certain upper limit. 10 days is the usualy quoted time to allow the line to stabilise (i.e. find your fastest speed without issue). However you disconnect problem will cause some issues - hopefuly they will solve it before this gets finisalised.

Let me know how you get on...

Let me know how you get on...

Erm... The engineer came out and confirmed that we could get a possible 5MB connection. He also said there was nothing wrong with the line at all.

AOL said to use it and see what happens :suspect:

3 disconnections later and i phone AOL back. 1.5 hours and 3 departments later they decide the line has to be at fault. The line tests disconnect the phone line as well which apparently points to a weak signal. This combined with an amber light when the router tries to reconnect convinced the 'senior' tech guy.
He has now sent it back to the engineer to sort out again tomorrow.

On a side note... I have been looking online for similar problems. I have found a few references to rapid signal drops (SNR?) and the Netgear router not being able to cope with it so auto disconnecting. My old BT Voyager router did the same thing though.

The joke continues :(

Good to hear that someone else thinks you line is capable of a lot more too...

As for radip SNR drops - I'd discounted that as your margin was already 28dB and the cut off for a disconnection is usually 3dB. If radip drops are the cause, then something nearby must be introducing a large amount of noise onto the line..

Do these disconnections happen at the same time of day? Evenings/night-time is usually the worst as environmental noise increases (streetlights coming on, people getting home and using their electirc appliances, etc)..

We're getting into the realms of having to craft some diagnostics, but there is software of there that can monitor and chart various stats but the problem is then configuring it (which may or may not be your bag)..

Perhaps it's a case of isolating the fault - swapping copper pairs, different modem, isolating internal wiring, etc..

good Luck

Update (hopefully last one) :)

We have had a small army of engineers out all day today. They have replaced all the BT hardware in the house. They found a 'small' fault on the line between the house and the junction box down the road so they had the covers up and jointed that (whatever that means).
The engineers seem to think the trams may be effecting the signal but the work done should stop it happening again. Time will tell.....

On the speed issue.... Our line has now been opened up to run at it's full capacity. This was taken just before i posted:


Connection Speed 8192 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 43 db 13.5 db
Noise Margin 9 db 28 db

I can see it's a lot better but what speed is that, 2mb or 8mb? :confused:

Our line has been confirmed as over 4 miles long even though we are only one mile from the exchange. Reason being that BT couldn't go under the train station so they went around it (via a pub crawl by the look of it).

I live in Heeley S2, and my virgin bb has been down for about 3/4 weeks now, all I can get out of Virgin is "there is a problem in your area" so that what it is, surely they could just tell us that theres no point in even having BB?

Same here, it's totaly crap since Virgin took over, I wouldn't mind if it was cheap but it's not.

We have had a small army of engineers out all day today. They have replaced all the BT hardware in the house. They found a 'small' fault on the line between the house and the junction box down the road so they had the covers up and jointed that (whatever that means).

Sounds like they found a poor join and made it good. If you live near a line, perhaps the vibrations had just worked this one loose.


I can see it's a lot better but what speed is that, 2mb or 8mb? :confused:


That's the full 8mb - which is top speed. Enjoy...