MAXdsl - what a disaster!

Hi

I've been through the MAXdsl hoop - and I'd advise anyone who is considering
volunteering to wait a while until it settles down.

My line is a long one, I had a very stable 1 meg connection, but 1 meg seemed to be
the limit my line would hold. I went for MaxDSL to see what would happen.

Hmmm

After the training period my line settled down and I got around 1.4 -1.5 d/l speeds
at syncs of between 2000 -2200. All seemed okayish, but from time to time I would
lose the IP address from my ISP (loss of PPP I believe). Things were reasonably okay
for periods of time, then I would have periods of poor connectivity. At the time I
was with Plusnet, and I never got their customer services to investigate - there were
always excuses so I never got as far as getting my line investigated by BT.

Anyway I migrated to Zen. Again things seemed pretty settled, but during the recent
spells of stormy weather things were again poor. I've waited for the weather to pass
locally, but I still had problems. I contacted Zen support tonight (a real pleasure
to deal with by the way). My line was now syncing at over 3300 kbps - way too fast
for it to hold. My router seemed to be holding sync, but Zen have told me that I was
losing and connecting every few seconds (I didn't get a PPP session).

Fortunately Zen are more um, "on the ball?" than Plusnet and they've referred this to
BT, as I'm syncing at too high a speed and the auto software at the exchange doesn't
seem to be slowing me down to a usable level. They've now referred this to BT for a
manual adjustment.

Kraftee will be able to give more detail from the BT side I expect, but I thought I'd
post this as a warning. If you've got a stable line speed at a fixed rate - be wary
of MaxDSL

--

Andrew Sayers

"Andrew Sayers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
>
> I've been through the MAXdsl hoop - and I'd advise anyone who is
> considering
> volunteering to wait a while until it settles down.
>
> My line is a long one, I had a very stable 1 meg connection, but 1 meg
> seemed to be
> the limit my line would hold. I went for MaxDSL to see what would happen.
>
> Hmmm

Well you have answered your own question! I would agree that you will not
get the speed adverised and certainly not being miles from the local
exchange.
I am very happy with my connection, during training it went from 5.2 to 8.2,
then went on and off in the early hours and in the daytime twice. After the
10 days it was connecting at 8.2 all the time and the downloads are really
fast from official sites. It is a hell of a difference from a 512k
connection.
Fortunately its only a minority in your position, so your advice would be
worthless unless someone had exactly the same conditions as yourself. You
would have been made aware of maximum expected speeds before agreeing to the
contract and most companies will allow you to downgrade.
You knew it wouldn't work but tried it against all advice.

"NEWS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:44c9473d$(E-Mail Removed)...

> Fortunately its only a minority in your position, so your advice would be
> worthless unless someone had exactly the same conditions as yourself. You
> would have been made aware of maximum expected speeds before agreeing to
the
> contract and most companies will allow you to downgrade.
> You knew it wouldn't work but tried it against all advice.

From my experience with a lot of customers, its the 8.2 megabit brigade who
are a 'minority' I'd suggest that a high percentage of ADSL Max customers
will get no more than around 4 megabit.

"NEWS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>"Andrew Sayers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>> Hi
>>
>> I've been through the MAXdsl hoop - and I'd advise anyone who is
>> considering
>> volunteering to wait a while until it settles down.
>>
>> My line is a long one, I had a very stable 1 meg connection, but 1 meg
>> seemed to be
>> the limit my line would hold. I went for MaxDSL to see what would happen.
>>
>> Hmmm
>
>Well you have answered your own question! I would agree that you will not
>get the speed adverised and certainly not being miles from the local
>exchange.
>I am very happy with my connection, during training it went from 5.2 to 8.2,
>then went on and off in the early hours and in the daytime twice. After the
>10 days it was connecting at 8.2 all the time and the downloads are really
>fast from official sites. It is a hell of a difference from a 512k
>connection.
>Fortunately its only a minority in your position, so your advice would be
>worthless unless someone had exactly the same conditions as yourself. You
>would have been made aware of maximum expected speeds before agreeing to the
>contract and most companies will allow you to downgrade.
>You knew it wouldn't work but tried it against all advice.

Actually I was advised to try it by my ISP, but that is beside the point.

The point here is that the training software in the exchange is causing the problems.
I only expected a small increase in speed, due to my line length, which did occur.
Unfortunately the exchange is wildly over-estimating the speeds my line can handle,
hence the problems. I looks like this occurs more with longer lines, and so I posted
as a warning for those who are further from the exchange.

Not everyone lives in the middle of a town, next to or near an exchange. If you're
near enough an exchange to get 8 meg then great, but I suspect the majority of people
are not.


--

Andrew Sayers

"Andrew Sayers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "NEWS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Andrew Sayers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>news:(E-Mail Removed). ..
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I've been through the MAXdsl hoop - and I'd advise anyone who is
>>> considering
>>> volunteering to wait a while until it settles down.
>>>
>>> My line is a long one, I had a very stable 1 meg connection, but 1 meg
>>> seemed to be
>>> the limit my line would hold. I went for MaxDSL to see what would
>>> happen.
>>>
>>> Hmmm
>>
>>Well you have answered your own question! I would agree that you will not
>>get the speed adverised and certainly not being miles from the local
>>exchange.
>>I am very happy with my connection, during training it went from 5.2 to
>>8.2,
>>then went on and off in the early hours and in the daytime twice. After
>>the
>>10 days it was connecting at 8.2 all the time and the downloads are really
>>fast from official sites. It is a hell of a difference from a 512k
>>connection.
>>Fortunately its only a minority in your position, so your advice would be
>>worthless unless someone had exactly the same conditions as yourself. You
>>would have been made aware of maximum expected speeds before agreeing to
>>the
>>contract and most companies will allow you to downgrade.
>>You knew it wouldn't work but tried it against all advice.
>
> Actually I was advised to try it by my ISP, but that is beside the point.
>
> The point here is that the training software in the exchange is causing
> the problems.
> I only expected a small increase in speed, due to my line length, which
> did occur.
> Unfortunately the exchange is wildly over-estimating the speeds my line
> can handle,
> hence the problems. I looks like this occurs more with longer lines, and
> so I posted
> as a warning for those who are further from the exchange.
>
> Not everyone lives in the middle of a town, next to or near an exchange.
> If you're
> near enough an exchange to get 8 meg then great, but I suspect the
> majority of people
> are not.
>
>
> --
>
> Andrew Sayers

Best to check the BT Wholesale site first for a "realistic" estimate of your
possible Max speed.
I too am on a long line, working at 512K.
BT Wholesale estimates that I should get 1.5 Meg if Maxed.
However, I have a stable IPStream connection at the moment and have made the
decision to stay with what I've got until all the horror stories about Max
subside.
I might then just dip my toe in the water...
George

Andrew Sayers wrote:
> Hi
>
> I've been through the MAXdsl hoop - and I'd advise anyone who is considering
> volunteering to wait a while until it settles down.
>
> My line is a long one, I had a very stable 1 meg connection, but 1 meg seemed to be
> the limit my line would hold. I went for MaxDSL to see what would happen.
>
> Hmmm
>
> After the training period my line settled down and I got around 1.4 -1.5 d/l speeds
> at syncs of between 2000 -2200. All seemed okayish, but from time to time I would
> lose the IP address from my ISP (loss of PPP I believe). Things were reasonably okay
> for periods of time, then I would have periods of poor connectivity. At the time I
> was with Plusnet, and I never got their customer services to investigate - there were
> always excuses so I never got as far as getting my line investigated by BT.
>
> Anyway I migrated to Zen. Again things seemed pretty settled, but during the recent
> spells of stormy weather things were again poor. I've waited for the weather to pass
> locally, but I still had problems. I contacted Zen support tonight (a real pleasure
> to deal with by the way). My line was now syncing at over 3300 kbps - way too fast
> for it to hold. My router seemed to be holding sync, but Zen have told me that I was
> losing and connecting every few seconds (I didn't get a PPP session).
>
> Fortunately Zen are more um, "on the ball?" than Plusnet and they've referred this to
> BT, as I'm syncing at too high a speed and the auto software at the exchange doesn't
> seem to be slowing me down to a usable level. They've now referred this to BT for a
> manual adjustment.
>
> Kraftee will be able to give more detail from the BT side I expect, but I thought I'd
> post this as a warning. If you've got a stable line speed at a fixed rate - be wary
> of MaxDSL
>

You could google/look at settings for your modem in the hope that you
can specify downrate/target margin - that's what I had to do. See my
post in the thread adsl max - no changes in sync rate.

Andy.

Andrew Sayers wrote:
> Hi
>
> I've been through the MAXdsl hoop - and I'd advise anyone who is
> considering volunteering to wait a while until it settles down.
>
> My line is a long one, I had a very stable 1 meg connection, but 1
> meg seemed to be the limit my line would hold. I went for MaxDSL to
> see what would happen.
>
> Hmmm
>
> After the training period my line settled down and I got around 1.4
> -1.5 d/l speeds at syncs of between 2000 -2200. All seemed okayish,
> but from time to time I would lose the IP address from my ISP (loss
> of PPP I believe). Things were reasonably okay for periods of time,
> then I would have periods of poor connectivity. At the time I was
> with Plusnet, and I never got their customer services to investigate
> - there were always excuses so I never got as far as getting my line
> investigated by BT.
>
> Anyway I migrated to Zen. Again things seemed pretty settled, but
> during the recent spells of stormy weather things were again poor.
> I've waited for the weather to pass locally, but I still had
> problems. I contacted Zen support tonight (a real pleasure to deal
> with by the way). My line was now syncing at over 3300 kbps - way
> too
> fast for it to hold. My router seemed to be holding sync, but Zen
> have told me that I was losing and connecting every few seconds (I
> didn't get a PPP session).
>
> Fortunately Zen are more um, "on the ball?" than Plusnet and they've
> referred this to BT, as I'm syncing at too high a speed and the auto
> software at the exchange doesn't seem to be slowing me down to a
> usable level. They've now referred this to BT for a manual
> adjustment.
>
> Kraftee will be able to give more detail from the BT side I expect,
> but I thought I'd post this as a warning. If you've got a stable
> line
> speed at a fixed rate - be wary of MaxDSL

Exactly what I got PN to do for me.

I think it's a case of knowing what to say & when with PN sometimes as
it only took them a week to do it & I'm now sitting pretty with a
stable synch off 3.35Mb instead of the 4Mb + rates which I was
getting...

NEWS wrote:
> "Andrew Sayers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi
>>
>> I've been through the MAXdsl hoop - and I'd advise anyone who is
>> considering
>> volunteering to wait a while until it settles down.
>>
>> My line is a long one, I had a very stable 1 meg connection, but 1
>> meg seemed to be
>> the limit my line would hold. I went for MaxDSL to see what would
>> happen. Hmmm
>
> Well you have answered your own question! I would agree that you
> will not get the speed adverised and certainly not being miles from
> the local exchange.
> I am very happy with my connection, during training it went from 5.2
> to 8.2, then went on and off in the early hours and in the daytime
> twice. After the 10 days it was connecting at 8.2 all the time and
> the downloads are really fast from official sites. It is a hell of
> a
> difference from a 512k connection.
> Fortunately its only a minority in your position, so your advice
> would be worthless unless someone had exactly the same conditions as
> yourself.

You will be suprised how many users do get auto allocated
unsubstainable synch speeds. Some put up with it as they want to
screw every last byte out of their connection but mumble disatisfied
about it whilst others just want the 24 hour service & do..

>You would have been made aware of maximum expected speeds
> before agreeing to the contract and most companies will allow you to
> downgrade.

Well PN don't they just state upto 8Mb & unless you jumped up & down &
ranted they attempted to charge for a reversal if the experience was
not up to the end users expectation. Can't say what other ISPs are
like & now PN have effectively stopped 'upgrading' their customers
until the bugs are smoothed out (if ever).

George Weston wrote:

> Best to check the BT Wholesale site first for a "realistic" estimate of your
> possible Max speed.
> I too am on a long line, working at 512K.
> BT Wholesale estimates that I should get 1.5 Meg if Maxed.
> However, I have a stable IPStream connection at the moment and have made the
> decision to stay with what I've got until all the horror stories about Max
> subside.
> I might then just dip my toe in the water...

I'm in exactly the same boat as you. Currently on a rock solid 512k connection
(with 63dB attenuation and 19 dB noise margin)

BT Wholesale also quotes 1.5 Megs for me, but I'm sitting tight at the moment.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

kráftéé wrote:
I'm now sitting pretty with a
> stable synch off 3.35Mb instead of the 4Mb + rates which I was
> getting...

I guess if your kit lets you specify rate then it's slightly preferable
to DIY.

If the table at the bottom of this page

http://www.aaisp.net.uk/maxatm.html

is right, 3350kbit (Hmm - thats not a real sync rate) is pointlessly
high, and you would get the same rate from a sync of 2848kbit.

Andy.