Speeds greater than 1mb ???

I have a DG834G router and am currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier account. My
router shows downstream attenuation of 51db and snr of 24db
I suppose with those figures I was lucky to get 1Mb but I've had this now
for 6months or so and it works ok - hardly ever get router disconnections
etc.

Now with all this BT upgrading exchanges business, I am wondering if I will
get the 2mb speeds that others are getting for free (obviously I know its
exchange dependent and distance related though)

Just rang a relative who has recently signed up for AOL broadband and bought
a DG834GT and is having problems getting connected. While talking them
through various options on the router interface (which is very similar to my
DG834G) I asked them what the downstream speed was showing. They told me
2xxx (can't remember exact figure but I know they meant 2mb) - why is this
significant I hear you ask !!! They are on the same exchange as me but live
much closer to it. They also signed up for 512kb with AOL. So I know from
these things that my exchange has been "visited" by BT already so I'm
wondering now why my own router only syncs at 1mb, not 2. Is it purely the
fact that I am too far away to get 2mb, even though BT are supposed to be
relaxing the limits (or at least allowing the user to try faster speeds out
for themselves) or is there something else they need to do for each user to
get the faster speeds??? I am told that others are noticing their routers
syncing at the faster speeds and in some cases just powering them off an on
again after 30mins to get the whole connection via their ISP's running at
the faster speeds. I have tried this and no change.

Andy

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 22:20, "Andy Pandy" wrote:

>2xxx (can't remember exact figure but I know they meant 2mb) - why is this

2272 (?)


>They also signed up for 512kb with AOL. So I know from these things that my
>exchange has been "visited" by BT already so I'm wondering now why my own
>router only syncs at 1mb, not 2.

The exchange has probably been capable of 500, 1000 and 2000 kbps since it
was first enabled, but for IPstream you would normally be on the speed that
your ISP had ordered for you, since BT has separate paths for the different
types of service (20:1 and 50:1 are separate products). Some ISPs have not
used IPstream, but DataStream, but control the traffic back at the ISP emd.

My service is from an ISP which gets the network access from Tiscali (like
Plus.Net did for the 150 and 250 kbps services ~18 months ago). In my case
the service I pay for is 1000 kbps, but the line to the exchange is reported
as 2272, which might be similar in the case of AOL (sorry, don't know if it
is IPstream or DataStream they use).

>or is there something else they need to do for each user

In <http://www.plus.net/support/adsl/speed_upgrade_scheme.shtml> there is
a link to a PDF showing the proposed plan of work, and should give some
idea of when the free upgrade to your line may be done (*warning* if
your exchange is shown several times, it could be any one of those
months when BT gets round to doing your line!) HTH. Peter M.

"Andy Pandy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:426d5ef6$0$576$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have a DG834G router and am currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier account. My
> router shows downstream attenuation of 51db and snr of 24db
> I suppose with those figures I was lucky to get 1Mb but I've had this now
> for 6months or so and it works ok - hardly ever get router disconnections
> etc.
>
> Now with all this BT upgrading exchanges business, I am wondering if I
will
> get the 2mb speeds that others are getting for free (obviously I know its
> exchange dependent and distance related though)
>

The BT Speed upgrades you might be talking about are for customers of BT ISP
ie BT Broadband and BT Yahoo Broadband users. You will need to contact
Plusnet about a change to your connection speed, how much they charge for
this you will have to ask.

Stephen

Andy Pandy wrote:
> I have a DG834G router and am currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier
> account. My router shows downstream attenuation of 51db and snr of
> 24db I suppose with those figures I was lucky to get 1Mb but I've had this
> now for 6months or so and it works ok - hardly ever get router
> disconnections etc.
>
> Now with all this BT upgrading exchanges business, I am wondering if
> I will get the 2mb speeds that others are getting for free (obviously
> I know its exchange dependent and distance related though)
>
> Just rang a relative who has recently signed up for AOL broadband and
> bought a DG834GT and is having problems getting connected. While
> talking them through various options on the router interface (which
> is very similar to my DG834G) I asked them what the downstream speed
> was showing. They told me 2xxx (can't remember exact figure but I
> know they meant 2mb) - why is this significant I hear you ask !!!
> They are on the same exchange as me but live much closer to it. They
> also signed up for 512kb with AOL. So I know from these things that
> my exchange has been "visited" by BT already so I'm wondering now why
> my own router only syncs at 1mb, not 2. Is it purely the fact that I
> am too far away to get 2mb, even though BT are supposed to be
> relaxing the limits (or at least allowing the user to try faster
> speeds out for themselves) or is there something else they need to do
> for each user to get the faster speeds??? I am told that others are
> noticing their routers syncing at the faster speeds and in some cases
> just powering them off an on again after 30mins to get the whole
> connection via their ISP's running at the faster speeds. I have tried
> this and no change.

If your line test results are correct then you are outside the 2Mb limit but
well within the 1Mb limit (60db line loss & as high a SNR as possible) but
your router is not calibrated & so may be well out on those figures....

As for your friend on AOL, he's having difficulties so maybe his line isn't
good enough for 2Mb either. (AOL are now providing 2Mb as a standard now)...

And lastly, but possibly most importantly to get 2Mb there is no requirement
for any mod'ing at the exchange, now if we were talking about the fitting of
RAMBO & MAXDSL now that's another matter

Stephen Wray wrote:
> The BT Speed upgrades you might be talking about are for customers of BT ISP
> ie BT Broadband and BT Yahoo Broadband users. You will need to contact
> Plusnet about a change to your connection speed, how much they charge for
> this you will have to ask.

Erm... PlusNet have asked BT to upgrade all customers. The schedule is
available in a PDF from
http://www.plus.net/support/adsl/spe...e_scheme.shtml - just look
for your exchange name. Note that some exchanges may appear multiple
times. If you don't know the full name of your exchange, you can look it
up at http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

Colin

"Andy Pandy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:426d5ef6$0$576$(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a DG834G router and am currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier account. My
>router shows downstream attenuation of 51db and snr of 24db
> I suppose with those figures I was lucky to get 1Mb but I've had this now
> for 6months or so and it works ok - hardly ever get router disconnections
> etc.
>
> Now with all this BT upgrading exchanges business, I am wondering if I
> will get the 2mb speeds that others are getting for free (obviously I know
> its exchange dependent and distance related though)

As Peter says your exchange will have been capable of 2MB speeds from day 1
and will have been supplied via IPstream so you would be on the speed that
you/Plusnet asked for.

While the SNR reading on your own line shows that it can support 2MB quite
easily (say you were using an LLU ISP) - assuming your figures are accurate,
I'm afraid BT Wholesale will not upgrade it to 2MB.

This is because a downstream attenuation of 51dB is above BT Wholesale's
limit of 43.5dB (the BT limit for 1MB is 60dB) so unless/until BTW change
that limit or you use LLU you won't get faster speeds.

Regards
Sunil

Andy Pandy wrote:
> I have a DG834G router and am currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier account. My
> router shows downstream attenuation of 51db and snr of 24db
> I suppose with those figures I was lucky to get 1Mb but I've had this now
> for 6months or so and it works ok - hardly ever get router disconnections
> etc.
>

Assuming the figure are correct you have a high loss but decent quality
line.

Although your line in theory would handle 3-3.5mbit the BT Wholesale
guesstimator uses a very crude guesss based on attenuation so they wont
upgrade you.

Just like me, you have a line that will go faster but being artifically
limited by BT Wholesale guidelines. You'll just have to wait a few
months to see if they relax the limits.

Sunil Sood wrote:
> "Andy Pandy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:426d5ef6$0$576$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>I have a DG834G router and am currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier account. My
>>router shows downstream attenuation of 51db and snr of 24db
>>I suppose with those figures I was lucky to get 1Mb but I've had this now
>>for 6months or so and it works ok - hardly ever get router disconnections
>>etc.
>>
>>Now with all this BT upgrading exchanges business, I am wondering if I
>>will get the 2mb speeds that others are getting for free (obviously I know
>>its exchange dependent and distance related though)
>
>
> As Peter says your exchange will have been capable of 2MB speeds from day 1
> and will have been supplied via IPstream so you would be on the speed that
> you/Plusnet asked for.
>
> While the SNR reading on your own line shows that it can support 2MB quite
> easily (say you were using an LLU ISP) - assuming your figures are accurate,
> I'm afraid BT Wholesale will not upgrade it to 2MB.
>
> This is because a downstream attenuation of 51dB is above BT Wholesale's
> limit of 43.5dB (the BT limit for 1MB is 60dB) so unless/until BTW change
> that limit or you use LLU you won't get faster speeds.
>
> Regards
> Sunil
>
>

Even after reading as much as I can I'm still not totally clear on what
PlusNet (and BT) are doing as part of their free speed upgrades. So two
questions;

Firstly, if I am currently outside of the 2Mb BT criteria, will my line
be "enabled" for upto 2Mb but the speed restricted by PlusNet's "user
chooser" speed configurator to 1Mb (so that I can try 2Mb if I want to
see how reliable it is) or will there be a physical BT imposed
restriction at the exchange to only 1Mb?

Secondly, if the line is physically restricted by BT to 1Mb (exchange is
due for work in June) using the current BT limits and then BT do relax
the 2Mb limits later, will this require a second visit by BT to the
exchange (ie. does it look like I would then have to pay to regrade to a
higher speed rather than it becoming available automatically via
PlusNet's speed configurator)?

(I appreciate that no-one may know whether PlusNet will actually charge
in the later case or not - so I'm really asking if BT engineer work will
be required again......as this is more likely to result in a cost to me)

Thanks, David

"David" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:426decf7$0$558$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Even after reading as much as I can I'm still not totally clear on what
> PlusNet (and BT) are doing as part of their free speed upgrades. So two
> questions;
>
> Firstly, if I am currently outside of the 2Mb BT criteria, will my line be
> "enabled" for upto 2Mb but the speed restricted by PlusNet's "user
> chooser" speed configurator to 1Mb (so that I can try 2Mb if I want to see
> how reliable it is) or will there be a physical BT imposed restriction at
> the exchange to only 1Mb?

BT Wholesale will not upgrade your line to 2MB in this case. Plusnet/You
would not have a choice.

> Secondly, if the line is physically restricted by BT to 1Mb (exchange is
> due for work in June) using the current BT limits and then BT do relax the
> 2Mb limits later, will this require a second visit by BT to the exchange
> (ie. does it look like I would then have to pay to regrade to a higher
> speed rather than it becoming available automatically via PlusNet's speed
> configurator)?

BT generally don't have to visit exchanges to do upgrades - they are done
remotely but yes, you would probably have to pay a regrade fee in future,
unless BTW run another special offer.

At the moment, BT Wholesale are charging £5+vat/user if all an ISP's users
on a particular gateway upgrade. (this is the option Plusnet is doing)

The normal charge is £11 +VAT.

Regards
Sunil

"Colin S. Ogilvie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:426d6f55$0$579$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Stephen Wray wrote:
>> The BT Speed upgrades you might be talking about are for customers of BT
>> ISP
>> ie BT Broadband and BT Yahoo Broadband users. You will need to contact
>> Plusnet about a change to your connection speed, how much they charge for
>> this you will have to ask.
>
> Erm... PlusNet have asked BT to upgrade all customers. The schedule is
> available in a PDF from
> http://www.plus.net/support/adsl/spe...e_scheme.shtml - just look
> for your exchange name. Note that some exchanges may appear multiple
> times. If you don't know the full name of your exchange, you can look it
> up at http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/
>
> Colin

Yep, I;ve seen the Plusnet schedule. It shows my exchange (only once) as a
"trial" exchange. I don't know if this means it should have been upgraded by
now or if its being done during April, May or whatever. I would have assumed
the "trial" exchanges at the top of that list would have been done before
any of the others but then I wouldn't know. Plusnet can't help me either -
I've asked them. Seem I just have to sit back and wait.

Andy