Crap broadband speeds in an area of average speeds

Is there any possibility of getting Openreach or anyone else to have a
good look at why broadband speeds in a specific area are lower than
the adjoining areas?

I live on an estate that was built around 1998-2000, and my broadband
speed is ~2.5Meg with ADSL+, ADSL2 or ADSLMax (not sure which). A
speed checker says that vanilla ADSL for my address is around 1Meg.

If you plug in the addresses of houses around the estate, they
register at about 4-5Meg. Even the houses on the other side of the
fence from me (about the same distance from the exchange) show as
3.5Meg. I assume that the signal shouldn't deteriorate by 3Meg over
the half-a-mile from the end of the road to my house (the most likely
path for the cable).

It's not a 'fault' as such in that the actual speeds achieved are as
good as a speed checker suggests, and it probably affects about 100
houses (how many of those would be bothered I don't know). Is there
any way to get someone to look at the speeds to see if they could be
improved? Is there something about 1990's cabling that slows things
right down?

There is FTTC available, but that would only improve speeds to 7Meg -
I'm not paying another £15/month to get speeds that most people get as
standard.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have I strayed"?

Hugo Nebula wrote...

>
> Is there any possibility of getting Openreach or anyone else to have a
> good look at why broadband speeds in a specific area are lower than
> the adjoining areas?
>
> I live on an estate that was built around 1998-2000, and my broadband
> speed is ~2.5Meg with ADSL+, ADSL2 or ADSLMax (not sure which). A
> speed checker says that vanilla ADSL for my address is around 1Meg.
>
> If you plug in the addresses of houses around the estate, they
> register at about 4-5Meg. Even the houses on the other side of the
> fence from me (about the same distance from the exchange) show as
> 3.5Meg. I assume that the signal shouldn't deteriorate by 3Meg over
> the half-a-mile from the end of the road to my house (the most likely
> path for the cable).
>
> It's not a 'fault' as such in that the actual speeds achieved are as
> good as a speed checker suggests, and it probably affects about 100
> houses (how many of those would be bothered I don't know). Is there
> any way to get someone to look at the speeds to see if they could be
> improved? Is there something about 1990's cabling that slows things
> right down?
>
> There is FTTC available, but that would only improve speeds to 7Meg -
> I'm not paying another £15/month to get speeds that most people get as
> standard.


1 - Do the houses over the fence actually get 3-4Mb ?
2 - The houses over the fence may be on a much shorter line from the exchange
than you are.
3 - Do you have too many phones/computers connected to your line

"Hugo Nebula" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is there any possibility of getting Openreach or anyone else to have a
> good look at why broadband speeds in a specific area are lower than
> the adjoining areas?
>
> I live on an estate that was built around 1998-2000, and my broadband
> speed is ~2.5Meg with ADSL+, ADSL2 or ADSLMax (not sure which). A
> speed checker says that vanilla ADSL for my address is around 1Meg.
>
> If you plug in the addresses of houses around the estate, they
> register at about 4-5Meg. Even the houses on the other side of the
> fence from me (about the same distance from the exchange) show as
> 3.5Meg. I assume that the signal shouldn't deteriorate by 3Meg over
> the half-a-mile from the end of the road to my house (the most likely
> path for the cable).
>
> It's not a 'fault' as such in that the actual speeds achieved are as
> good as a speed checker suggests, and it probably affects about 100
> houses (how many of those would be bothered I don't know). Is there
> any way to get someone to look at the speeds to see if they could be
> improved? Is there something about 1990's cabling that slows things
> right down?
>
> There is FTTC available, but that would only improve speeds to 7Meg -
> I'm not paying another £15/month to get speeds that most people get as
> standard.

Be very suspicious about the line speeds predicted by the various sites. All
these are derived from BT's system and are notoriously inaccurate. There
could be a multitude of reasons. The first thing to do is make some basic
checks. Assuming you have a master NTE5 socket remove the faceplate and plug
the router modem into the test socket. The test socket is the one that is
exposed by removing the faceplate. This isolates the internal wiring. Check
the sync rate and if it has improved significantly then you probably have a
fault in your internal wiring.

You should also follow the guide here that gives a number of things to
check.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm

Plenty of help hear so check back when you have done the basic tests.

Peter Crosland

On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 08:57:18 +0100, Peter Crosland wrote:

> "Hugo Nebula" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Is there any possibility of getting Openreach or anyone else to have a
>> good look at why broadband speeds in a specific area are lower than
>> the adjoining areas?
>>
>> I live on an estate that was built around 1998-2000, and my broadband
>> speed is ~2.5Meg with ADSL+, ADSL2 or ADSLMax (not sure which). A
>> speed checker says that vanilla ADSL for my address is around 1Meg.
>>
>> If you plug in the addresses of houses around the estate, they
>> register at about 4-5Meg. Even the houses on the other side of the
>> fence from me (about the same distance from the exchange) show as
>> 3.5Meg. I assume that the signal shouldn't deteriorate by 3Meg over
>> the half-a-mile from the end of the road to my house (the most likely
>> path for the cable).
>>
>> It's not a 'fault' as such in that the actual speeds achieved are as
>> good as a speed checker suggests, and it probably affects about 100
>> houses (how many of those would be bothered I don't know). Is there
>> any way to get someone to look at the speeds to see if they could be
>> improved? Is there something about 1990's cabling that slows things
>> right down?
>>
>> There is FTTC available, but that would only improve speeds to 7Meg -
>> I'm not paying another £15/month to get speeds that most people get as
>> standard.
>
> Be very suspicious about the line speeds predicted by the various sites. All
> these are derived from BT's system and are notoriously inaccurate. There
> could be a multitude of reasons.

<conspiracy theory> BT's line checker is for the benefit of BT and ISPs: it
shows a low speed available, then when the actual speed is crap but faster
crap than the checker showed the punter is (relatively) happy. </ct>

The result for my line is 'up to 1Mbps but an engineer might have to call' -
I connect at 2.6 - 2.9Mbps and get the d/l speed commensurate with that.

> The first thing to do is make some basic
> checks. Assuming you have a master NTE5 socket remove the faceplate and plug
> the router modem into the test socket. The test socket is the one that is
> exposed by removing the faceplate. This isolates the internal wiring. Check
> the sync rate and if it has improved significantly then you probably have a
> fault in your internal wiring.
>
> You should also follow the guide here that gives a number of things to
> check.
>
> http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm
>
> Plenty of help hear so check back when you have done the basic tests.
>
> Peter Crosland


--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 04/10/2011 22:18, Hugo Nebula wrote:
> Is there any possibility of getting Openreach or anyone else to have a
> good look at why broadband speeds in a specific area are lower than
> the adjoining areas?
>
> I live on an estate that was built around 1998-2000, and my broadband
> speed is ~2.5Meg with ADSL+, ADSL2 or ADSLMax (not sure which). A
> speed checker says that vanilla ADSL for my address is around 1Meg.
>
> If you plug in the addresses of houses around the estate, they
> register at about 4-5Meg. Even the houses on the other side of the
> fence from me (about the same distance from the exchange) show as
> 3.5Meg. I assume that the signal shouldn't deteriorate by 3Meg over
> the half-a-mile from the end of the road to my house (the most likely
> path for the cable).
>
> It's not a 'fault' as such in that the actual speeds achieved are as
> good as a speed checker suggests, and it probably affects about 100
> houses (how many of those would be bothered I don't know). Is there
> any way to get someone to look at the speeds to see if they could be
> improved? Is there something about 1990's cabling that slows things
> right down?

Who's your ISP? If you have one with good support try ringing them and
see if your router is disconnecting too frequently. Too many
disconnections will cause your speed to be lower than expected.

> There is FTTC available, but that would only improve speeds to 7Meg -
> I'm not paying another £15/month to get speeds that most people get as
> standard.

Who says most people get 7Mbps 'as standard'. I think the national
measured average is around 6Mbps (I can't find the link ATM), so most
people /don't/ get 7Mbps.

[Default] On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 08:57:18 +0100, a certain chimpanzee,
"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the keyboard and
wrote:

>"Hugo Nebula" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>> Is there any possibility of getting Openreach or anyone else to have a
>> good look at why broadband speeds in a specific area are lower than
>> the adjoining areas?

>> It's not a 'fault' as such in that the actual speeds achieved are as
>> good as a speed checker suggests

>Be very suspicious about the line speeds predicted by the various sites. All
>these are derived from BT's system and are notoriously inaccurate.

>Plenty of help hear so check back when you have done the basic tests.

I've done all those tests before, and 2.5Meg is about the best I can
get at the end of BT's bit of cable. That's not the problem. I'm
getting a higher speed than that predicted for my line, so it appears
that I'm wringing out the fastest speed I can from it.

It's the bit of cable between the faceplate and the end of my road
that I'm querying. If the line speeds are innaccurate, surely they are
consistently innaccurate, i.e., they underestimate the speeds
achievable for everyone. I've used the exchange mapping from
Samknows.com to plot predicted speeds in the neighbourhood. What I'm
querying is why does my road achieve such a lower predicted speeds
than the roads around and about?

I've run a BT speedtest, and the results are:

"Test1 comprises of two tests

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Download Speed 2459 Kbps
Download speedachieved during the test was - 2459 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 1200-4000 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :3060 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 2699 Kbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.
Upload Speed 346 Kbps
Upload speed achieved during the test was - 346 Kbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 448 Kbps

We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service
at this time"

It's this last line I'd like help on. How do I get from that, to "your
performance could be a lot better; here, we'll do something about it".
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have I strayed"?

[Default] On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 01:24:31 +0100, a certain chimpanzee, Jon
<(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the keyboard and wrote:

>1 - Do the houses over the fence actually get 3-4Mb ?

No idea.

>2 - The houses over the fence may be on a much shorter line from the exchange
>than you are.

Probably, which is why I have also checked the speeds at the 'start'
of the estate where the new road connects to the end of the main road
that's the most likely path from the exchange. There's a 3Meg drop in
predicted speeds from there to my house.

>3 - Do you have too many phones/computers connected to your line

Personally? Or on the estate?

The former, no. One router and one phone.

If the latter, there's about two hundred houses on my estate (half is
cabled, so they may connect that way). I would presume we're about as
wired as any other suburban estate. Is that a possible reason for the
low speeds, and something Openreach should do something about?
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have I strayed"?

[Default] On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 09:18:07 +0100, a certain chimpanzee,
PeterC <(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the keyboard and
wrote:

><conspiracy theory> BT's line checker is for the benefit of BT and ISPs: it
>shows a low speed available, then when the actual speed is crap but faster
>crap than the checker showed the punter is (relatively) happy. </ct>
>
>The result for my line is 'up to 1Mbps but an engineer might have to call' -
>I connect at 2.6 - 2.9Mbps and get the d/l speed commensurate with that.

Similar to mine. Do you live in a suburb of a major city less than two
miles from an exchange too?
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have I strayed"?

[Default] On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:56:47 +0100, a certain chimpanzee,
chris <(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the keyboard and wrote:

>Who says most people get 7Mbps 'as standard'. I think the national
>measured average is around 6Mbps (I can't find the link ATM), so most
>people /don't/ get 7Mbps.

Do you really mean FTTC/Infinity achieves average of 6Mbps? Or is that
copper wire?

If the latter, that's my complaint. I'm paying £11.49/month for
2.5Mbps. I would begrudge paying £28/month for super-duper Infinity
FTTC if the best I could get was 7Mbps.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have I strayed"?

On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:57:32 +0100, Hugo Nebula wrote:

> [Default] On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 09:18:07 +0100, a certain chimpanzee,
> PeterC <(E-Mail Removed)>, randomly hit the keyboard and
> wrote:
>
>><conspiracy theory> BT's line checker is for the benefit of BT and ISPs: it
>>shows a low speed available, then when the actual speed is crap but faster
>>crap than the checker showed the punter is (relatively) happy. </ct>
>>
>>The result for my line is 'up to 1Mbps but an engineer might have to call' -
>>I connect at 2.6 - 2.9Mbps and get the d/l speed commensurate with that.
>
> Similar to mine. Do you live in a suburb of a major city less than two
> miles from an exchange too?

No, in a village. The exchange, by road, is almost exactly 1.85 miles but
the cable might 'wander' a bit as some sites show 3 - 3.2km/2 miles.

Looking at other houses in the village, one is around 3Mbps or a bit over (I
can't remember exactly) and the others seem to be significantly worse than
mine. I have done some work on the PC side of it and, with an updated
driver, the old Thomson 'frog' just connects in the same range every time
with none of this 'training' crap needed.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway