Is this acceptable?

My father's BT Broadband is constantly losing its sync (or failing to sync
at all) with the exchange and the BT Wholesale engineer is telling us that
with an SNR of 12½ and attenuation of 61, everything is fine from his
perspective for a standard 512 service. He doesn't seem to have the
facility or inclination to do any other tests.

Are these stat's acceptable for ADSL?

On Mon, 9 May 2005 10:16:38 +0100, "Bob C" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Are these stat's acceptable for ADSL?

an SNR margin of 12.5 is quite good and certainly above any minimum
Equally the attenuation of 61 dB is just over BT's 1M limit. Time to
try a different modem perhaps?

Phil

>>Are these stat's acceptable for ADSL?
>
> an SNR margin of 12.5 is quite good and certainly above any minimum
> Equally the attenuation of 61 dB is just over BT's 1M limit. Time to
> try a different modem perhaps?

The modem is BT's standard Speedtouch 105 (the silver number with the three
lights) and my alternative is an older Alcatel frog which is sitting in my
cupboard. As this is a standalone computer which is running on a really
tight budget, splashing out on replacement modems or routers isn't really an
option, especially when this might not solve what is still an undiagnosed
problem.

The problem is that the line to the exchange either fails to synchronise or
drops after a time and the engineer's stance is that since it look OK from
his tests, he doesn't have to do anything else. Unfortunately, we didn't
get the very helpful engineer who came last time and offered to re-route the
telephone line down a different twisted pair. This one just seemed to do
the basics.

Could it be a local issue on the PC? It's a mongrel Celeron 766 with 640 MB
of RAM running Windows XP Pro and SP2. Apart from this it's very stable.

All suggestions are gratefully received!

"Bob C" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:427f2ae0$0$13898$(E-Mail Removed)...
> My father's BT Broadband is constantly losing its sync (or failing to sync
> at all) with the exchange and the BT Wholesale engineer is telling us that
> with an SNR of 12½ and attenuation of 61, everything is fine from his
> perspective for a standard 512 service. He doesn't seem to have the
> facility or inclination to do any other tests.

My attenuation is 63db and 11db SNR. The line drops around twice a day but
it doesn't lose sync with the exchange. Is there any pattern to the
disconnections? Either you've got a duff modem\router or you've got an
intermittent line fault.

>
> Are these stat's acceptable for ADSL?
>
>

>> My father's BT Broadband is constantly losing its sync (or failing to
>> sync
>> at all) with the exchange and the BT Wholesale engineer is telling us
>> that
>> with an SNR of 12½ and attenuation of 61, everything is fine from his
>> perspective for a standard 512 service. He doesn't seem to have the
>> facility or inclination to do any other tests.
>
> My attenuation is 63db and 11db SNR. The line drops around twice a day
> but
> it doesn't lose sync with the exchange. Is there any pattern to the
> disconnections? Either you've got a duff modem\router or you've got an
> intermittent line fault.

We've tried with a friend's modem (same one) and got the same results - no
sync. Confusingly, the slightly reticent BT Wholesale engineer this morning
was able to connect with his laptop, so while it could still be an
intermittent line issue, it's less likely to be the modem.

I should clarify that the issue is with the modem losing sync with the
exchange (or indeed failing to effect any sync on boot-up), not just
dropping the connection.

"Phil Thompson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Mon, 9 May 2005 10:16:38 +0100, "Bob C" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>Are these stat's acceptable for ADSL?
>
> an SNR margin of 12.5 is quite good and certainly above any minimum
> Equally the attenuation of 61 dB is just over BT's 1M limit. Time to
> try a different modem perhaps?

I was under the impression that a low SNR was bad

On Mon, 9 May 2005 11:52:19 +0100, "Beck"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I was under the impression that a low SNR was bad

it is, but 12.5 isn't that low. 6 or less would be low.

Phil

On 9 May 2005 11:40, "Bob C" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Could it be a local issue on the PC? It's a mongrel Celeron 766 with 640 MB
>of RAM running Windows XP Pro and SP2. Apart from this it's very stable.
>
>All suggestions are gratefully received!

Any chance of borrowing a router from a local PC shop if you have none to
hand and none from friends/neighbours to try out ? Not familiar if that
one in use is USB, but every 15 minutes seems a bit iffy, and if that's
repeatable on a router it would be more proof of ISP/line problems than
at present, where the PC/USB might be giving the headaches. Peter M.

[I'd offer to lend you one of mine, but you can probably find a shop
that is willing, perhaps with some deposit from you, on the basis a
sale may be forthcoming from it, if the line is not faulty... :-]

--
Plus.Net <http://tinyurl.com/5jpa4>
I recommend them and save some cash.

With a guarantee allowing new users to migrate if they're unhappy!

On Mon, 9 May 2005 11:40:05 +0100, "Bob C" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>The modem is BT's standard Speedtouch 105 (the silver number with the three
>lights) and my alternative is an older Alcatel frog which is sitting in my
>cupboard. As this is a standalone computer which is running on a really
>tight budget, splashing out on replacement modems or routers isn't really an
>option, especially when this might not solve what is still an undiagnosed
>problem.

I didn't suggest "splashing out" on anything, merely *trying* an
alternative. What does the frog do ?

If the BT engineer can connect with his modem (voyager 105 small black
brick ??) and laptop then he has a point in saying that the signal is
workable.

USB modems do use the PC to do the work for them, so the computer
could be an issue. Trying different modem types may give better
results with the line and maybe with the PC too.

Phil

"Phil Thompson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Mon, 9 May 2005 11:52:19 +0100, "Beck"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>I was under the impression that a low SNR was bad
>
> it is, but 12.5 isn't that low. 6 or less would be low.

Thanks. I think mine is 13 with a db of 59 (according to router). BT
insist my db is 63 therefore I cannot get 1meg. Its a shame, but I am happy
with what I have.