Disastrous migration to 21CN

Hi all,

You may remember a few weeks back I was mulling over migrating to ADSL2+
as it had recently been enabled at my exchange. Well, I took the plunge
and what a mistake that was

Ever since, my connection speed has plummeted from solidly 8Mbps to
between 3.5-6Mbps (mostly 3.5Mbps) and my download speed has been
equally dismal. I raised a fault with plusnet and after a bit of testing
a problem was found on the telephone side of things, which was very
quickly 'resolved', but there was no change in my broadband performance.
I don't know what the issue was as I wasn't at home when the engineer came.

I have tried all the usual things of different filters, connection
direct to the test socket and even borrowed a different router, but to
no avail: my broadband is consistently crap. BTW the BT wholesale
checker claims that I should be able to get 13Mbps, with a range of
7-17Mbps, via ADSL2+. Which is doubly infuriating as instead of doubling
my throughput it's halved it! >(

Can anyone shed any light on why this could be happening and what else
can be done to at least get close to the speed I was getting before?

This is also a warning to anyone else considering the move as you may
not get what you're expecting :-/

On Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:59:25 +0000, chris <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>You may remember a few weeks back I was mulling over migrating to ADSL2+
>as it had recently been enabled at my exchange. Well, I took the plunge
>and what a mistake that was
>
>Ever since, my connection speed has plummeted from solidly 8Mbps to
>between 3.5-6Mbps (mostly 3.5Mbps) and my download speed has been
>equally dismal. I raised a fault with plusnet and after a bit of testing
>a problem was found on the telephone side of things, which was very
>quickly 'resolved', but there was no change in my broadband performance.
>I don't know what the issue was as I wasn't at home when the engineer came.
>
>I have tried all the usual things of different filters, connection
>direct to the test socket and even borrowed a different router, but to
>no avail: my broadband is consistently crap. BTW the BT wholesale
>checker claims that I should be able to get 13Mbps, with a range of
>7-17Mbps, via ADSL2+. Which is doubly infuriating as instead of doubling
>my throughput it's halved it! >(
>
>Can anyone shed any light on why this could be happening and what else
>can be done to at least get close to the speed I was getting before?
>
>This is also a warning to anyone else considering the move as you may
>not get what you're expecting :-/

FTTC is the way forward. I was struggling to get 400 kbps then moved
to fibre to the cabinet and it shot up to between 36 and 37 Mbps. Not
yet available in all areas.

On 23/03/11 13:59, chris wrote:

>
> Can anyone shed any light on why this could be happening and what else
> can be done to at least get close to the speed I was getting before?

ADSL 2+ appears to be more susceptible to poor cabling. If you keep
hounding them it will get fixed eventually.



--
Bernard Peek
(E-Mail Removed)

On 23/03/11 14:46, Scott wrote:
>
> FTTC is the way forward. I was struggling to get 400 kbps then moved
> to fibre to the cabinet and it shot up to between 36 and 37 Mbps. Not
> yet available in all areas.

That's the understatement of the century!

The other key difference is cost. I doubt very much you'd be able to get
FTTC for <£10pm.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
Bernard Peek <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On 23/03/11 13:59, chris wrote:
>
> >
> > Can anyone shed any light on why this could be happening and what else
> > can be done to at least get close to the speed I was getting before?
>
> ADSL 2+ appears to be more susceptible to poor cabling. If you keep
> hounding them it will get fixed eventually.

I found that on my long line, even when I had moved to 21CN, I had
better performance by having the line in ADSL1 mode. Being on 21CN
doesn't force you to use ADSL2/2+.

Cheers
Tony
--
Tony Mountifield
Work: (E-Mail Removed) - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: (E-Mail Removed) - http://tony.mountifield.org

On Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:01:41 +0000, chris <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 23/03/11 14:46, Scott wrote:
>>
>> FTTC is the way forward. I was struggling to get 400 kbps then moved
>> to fibre to the cabinet and it shot up to between 36 and 37 Mbps. Not
>> yet available in all areas.
>
>That's the understatement of the century!
>
It's the start of a roll-out.

>The other key difference is cost. I doubt very much you'd be able to get
>FTTC for <£10pm.

That may be the second understatement of the century! However, it
depends whether you place quality before cost.

On 23/03/2011 15:03, Tony Mountifield wrote:
> In article<(E-Mail Removed)>,
> Bernard Peek<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> On 23/03/11 13:59, chris wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Can anyone shed any light on why this could be happening and what else
>>> can be done to at least get close to the speed I was getting before?
>>
>> ADSL 2+ appears to be more susceptible to poor cabling. If you keep
>> hounding them it will get fixed eventually.
>
> I found that on my long line, even when I had moved to 21CN, I had
> better performance by having the line in ADSL1 mode. Being on 21CN
> doesn't force you to use ADSL2/2+.

Interesting. I'll try that and see.

chris wrote:
> On 23/03/2011 15:03, Tony Mountifield wrote:
>> In article<(E-Mail Removed)>,
>> Bernard Peek<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>> On 23/03/11 13:59, chris wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone shed any light on why this could be happening and what else
>>>> can be done to at least get close to the speed I was getting before?
>>>
>>> ADSL 2+ appears to be more susceptible to poor cabling. If you keep
>>> hounding them it will get fixed eventually.
>>
>> I found that on my long line, even when I had moved to 21CN, I had
>> better performance by having the line in ADSL1 mode. Being on 21CN
>> doesn't force you to use ADSL2/2+.
>
> Interesting. I'll try that and see.

The crossover is according to www.kitz.co.uk about 4-5Mbps. If you get
more than that on ADSL2, then 21CN will be better. OTOH if you get less,
you should probably stay with ADSL2

"chris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:imcubv$s0p$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all,
>
> You may remember a few weeks back I was mulling over migrating to ADSL2+
> as it had recently been enabled at my exchange. Well, I took the plunge
> and what a mistake that was
>
> Ever since, my connection speed has plummeted from solidly 8Mbps to
> between 3.5-6Mbps (mostly 3.5Mbps) and my download speed has been equally
> dismal. I raised a fault with plusnet and after a bit of testing a problem
> was found on the telephone side of things, which was very quickly
> 'resolved', but there was no change in my broadband performance. I don't
> know what the issue was as I wasn't at home when the engineer came.
>
> I have tried all the usual things of different filters, connection direct
> to the test socket and even borrowed a different router, but to no avail:
> my broadband is consistently crap. BTW the BT wholesale checker claims
> that I should be able to get 13Mbps, with a range of 7-17Mbps, via ADSL2+.
> Which is doubly infuriating as instead of doubling my throughput it's
> halved it! >(
>
> Can anyone shed any light on why this could be happening and what else can
> be done to at least get close to the speed I was getting before?

As I have already posted, 21CN services are more prone to problems with
noise spikes and the like and it doesn't take many to get you down to the
speeds you are getting, say one every 3-4 days. Speaking from experience
(in the field) the only sure way to get you the speeds you had originally is
to go back to 20CN and then be patient about the roll out of FTTC and see
what the prices are like when it eventually gets to your part of the world
(if it ever does).

Scott wrote:

> FTTC is the way forward. Not yet available in all areas.

Let me fix that for you ...

> Available in hardly any areas yet.

There.