Upgrade to 'up to 20mb' network

[reab]

Silly really - small home network running ok and never any real problems with with BT running up to 8mb, so I took advantage of the offer to upgrade to 'up to 20mb' after bt transferred me to the 'new' higher speed network now available in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

BT's website didn't make it clear exactly what steps needed to be taken such as to resign for a new contract period and what the implications were (I was on option 1).

However, I've resigned to option 2 apparently as I opted for a 12 month contract thinking the price would be the same but . .  yes its a higher cost, plus my static ip address and ip phone.

BT seem to think I'm upgraded but after several days my hub seems to be stuck on the same speed (its also got a different interface than that shown in bt's help). My ip profile also states 'up to 8mb' and that hasn't changed either.

BT say 10 days to settle down before contacting engineering support - so is this normal behaviour during an upgrade or am I expecting too much?

Ah yes . . tried the speed tester

Results are:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 7115 Kbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 1000-7150 Kbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :8124 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 7000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 12.9:23.07:64.03 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

Any help appreciated as the initial tests indicated that I should receive up tp 13mb!

Roger B

[reab]

PM sent at 1pm

[Alun]

Hi,

I have replied to your PM regarding this now.

[Alun]

Just to confirm, your service should be corrected on the 6th October. If you could let us know how you get on after this date we would be grateful. Thanks.

[reab]

OK - the upgrade to 20mb uncapped happened as agreed on 6th October, it was at no cost to me (apart from time taken to sort all of this out) and I've given time for things to settle down to an optimum level.

But heres the thing:

For the first few days the download speed stayed the same at around 7.5kbs but the upload speed tripled to around 1440kbs.

Now:

Same download speed as on the old network and download speed back to 448kbs - just checked with BT's line checker and it thinks 5.5kbs is my max download speed? If this keeps up I'll soon be at 0kbs!

So:

Being around a half mile from the exchange I expected something a little better than this or is there something that BT is not openly admitting to about this upgrade and 20mb availability? Is the general wiring from the exchange so poor that it can't support anything better? Even my extension was carried out by BT to ensure best quality signals (don't mention the cost) and I still can't get anything better.

Incidentally all the line checkers from Virgin etc show much the same figures for my line.

How do I get answers on this?

Roger B

[reab]

Oh dear,

Just checked the router and it still thinks that the cap rate is 8469 kbs, could the router have a problem?

Roger B

[reab]

Hmm . . .

Looked further into the router system>DSL and get the following:

DSL Diagnostics - Training History Physical Line 1 General Information

DSL Line (Wire Pair):	Line 1 (inner pair)
Downstream Rate Cap:	24384 kbps
Downstream Atten. at 300kHz:	27.7 dB
Uncancelled Echo:	-20.1 dB	Ok
VCXO Frequency Offset:	13.1 ppm	Ok
Final Rx Gain:	17.9 dB	Ok
Impulse Noise Comp. Tones:	0	Ok
Excessive Impulse Noise:	0	Ok
Impulse noise protection:	0.00
Delay of latency path:	0.09 ms

Is the attenuation too high?

Roger B

[Alun]

Hi Roger,

First of all, I am  sorry to hear you are having problems still. Have you noticed the broadband dropping out at any time? Also, can you confirm that you are using the Business Hub and has this been changed recently?

Thanks.

[reab]

Thanks for the reply Alun,

I'm using the original BT2700HGV hub supplied when I changed to business broadband about 5-6 months ago (may well be more as time seems to go quickly now a days!) It still has firmware v 6.1.1.48.1-enh.tm installed and hasn't been upgraded that I know of.

The only dropout that I've been aware of was the upgrade/regrade of the broadband package and probably lasted only a matter of minutes. Generally its been fairly reliable compared with the problems others face judging by this forum. Of course there may have been other dropouts that caused odd lockups on my PC's (my Apple Mac seems generally unaffected) but its difficult to pinpoint this.

I do have a new spare BT2700 that I could swap out with thats unused to see if it helps although it will have the same firmware as its the same age. I also have a static ip address and VoIP with extensive custom firewall settings - inconveinient but not insurmountable!

So . . . should I try a swap out?

Roger B

[Alun]

Hi Roger,

I would suggest to swap out the router if possible to see if that resolves the issue.

If  this does not work you would need to contact the technical helpdesk to get it looked at again as I would appear that the line has not been the most stable, causing the line to slow.

[reab]

Thank Alun,

I've swapped out the hub and it gave the same results almost immediately. Before I attempt to contact the technical helpdesk perhaps you can help with the fact that the hub management shows two different settings.

In settings>broadband in shows rate cap 8701kbps

and in Diagnostics>DSL downstream Rate Cap 24384kbps

Is there a difference?

Roger B