Any way to cap the connection speed on a 2700HGV modem?

[ASL_Ltd]

I can't find a way of limiting the modem conection speed manually in the user interface, does anyone know of one?

Or could these symptoms be a faulty modem? BT took us for another 24 months, without providing a new modem (or a service for that matter). Engineers have visited and supposedly checked our end, after claiming there was nothing wrong at theirs.

The poor quality line - which BT are apparantly unable to fix - means the modem can only connect at around 1 MB/s - and still has quite a few errors even at that speed.

We have decided to live with 1 MB/s until BT fix the line - as it is at least useable, unlike the connection most of the time, but the modem keeps re-training and trying to connect at 3 - 4 MB/s. As soon as it does this, our connection is hopeless, with so many errors even SSH'ing in fails, as it times out after about 90 seconds.

The modem is currently showing:

Noise Margin:

2.6 dB

Attenuation:

61.5 dB

so we're not going to get much speed out of the line like that. The noise margin did get better at lower speeds, but only to about 6dB, so it's a pretty marginal connection.

The modem details are:

Model:	BT2700HGV
Hardware Version:	2701-100589-005
Firmware Version:	6.1.1.48.1-enh.tm

I've read that the 6.1.1.48 firmware is pretty well locked down by BT so we can't do anything with it to fix BT's problems. 

[JohnE]

You may have a fault, ASL_Ltd.  Firstly, try to determine if there is anything wrong with the phone line, noise, low gain or lack of dial tone, for example.  You may need to report a telephone line fault.  Failing that, please contact the Broadband Technical helpdesk. Contact Us.

[ASL_Ltd]

Yes we have a fault. We have had a fault since 2010 and BT are incapable of fixing it.

By capping the connection to 288kbps the errors reduce and we can at least limp along.

The last visit by an engineer was Friday - he took the cap off and the connection was immediately lost again. It is now Tuesday and we still don't have a connection. I have just spent about an hour and a half on the phone to customer services who claim wholesale are "unable" to put the cap back on.

The performance of BT's various divisions should be used in business schools to demonstrate how badly things can go wrong with a mixture of monopoly and split responsibilities which must have been dreamt up by accountants who have no idea how the people in this business should actually work or how they might communicate.

[MHC]

A couple of comments - a lot of the communication problems between BT departments is not BT's fault but because of the demands of OFTEL/OFCOM which does not allow departments to talk.

I had a major fault - 6 weeks without any phones (business or residential), ADSL, ISDN and all the services delivered over those.    The problem was NOT caused by BT.

There was one team that was needed to do some work to restore service, but I could not speak to them.   My business helpdesk contact (actually a helpdesk manager) was not allowed to speak to them either.   The helpdesk manager had to speak to his teams nominated contact point in his division; that person spoke to the nominated contact point in te other division; they then spoke to te team involved.   Two extra people in the chain who add nothing (except cost) and all because of rules set down by OFCOM.

Before you ask,  I do not work for BT but have a lot of experience of their operations and working practices along with obstacles and walls the staff need to overcome.

Secondly, the modem/router.    I have used numerous 2700HGVs and they are one of te best on long/high attenuation lines.     The 2700 will sync with a 3dB margin - which is better than the 6dB normally seen and allows for a little extra speed.   They will also hold sync right down to near 0.0 dB and I have even seen one of mine holding sync and data tranfsferring at near max rate with an SNR of -0.7 dB