Upgrading 512kb to 1mb - BT say no Sir

We had 512kb ADSL installed in August this year when it became
availble on our exchange. Earlier this month our ISP (Force 9) said
we could upgrade to 1mb for a lot less than they use to offer it for
as BT were doing home 1mb connections (as I'm sure you're all aware).

Anyway, we went ahead and BT have come back and said that on testing
the line they found the line loss was over the limit for a 1mb
connection.

Fair enough, you may think, but no one ever came to our house to test
it, so how do they do it? Also we have an ADSL router so it's always
connected - would this make a difference to the line loss reading BT
get?

TIA.
---
Tom
(anti-spam measures: remove brain before replying)

<tom.west (E-Mail Removed) (Tom West)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> We had 512kb ADSL installed in August this year when it became
> availble on our exchange. Earlier this month our ISP (Force 9) said
> we could upgrade to 1mb for a lot less than they use to offer it for
> as BT were doing home 1mb connections (as I'm sure you're all aware).
>
> Anyway, we went ahead and BT have come back and said that on testing
> the line they found the line loss was over the limit for a 1mb
> connection.
>
> Fair enough, you may think, but no one ever came to our house to test
> it, so how do they do it?

Remotely from the exchange..

>Also we have an ADSL router so it's always
> connected - would this make a difference to the line loss reading BT
> get?

No - however if your router produces line stats - have a look at the line db
level - for the 1MB service it currently needs to be <45 (keep in mind that
some routers do not give the same/accurate result as BT's test equipment)

Also, its possible that sometime in the future BT may relax the limits for
the 1MB service - though I woudn't expect this until the middle of next year
if at all.

Regards
Sunil

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 17:41:51 GMT, tom.west (E-Mail Removed) (Tom West)
wrote:

>We had 512kb ADSL installed in August this year when it became
>availble on our exchange. Earlier this month our ISP (Force 9) said
>we could upgrade to 1mb for a lot less than they use to offer it for
>as BT were doing home 1mb connections (as I'm sure you're all aware).
>
>Anyway, we went ahead and BT have come back and said that on testing
>the line they found the line loss was over the limit for a 1mb
>connection.
>
>Fair enough, you may think, but no one ever came to our house to test
>it, so how do they do it? Also we have an ADSL router so it's always
>connected - would this make a difference to the line loss reading BT
>get?
>
>TIA.
>---
>Tom
>(anti-spam measures: remove brain before replying)

All testing is done remotely using high technology and a modicum of
guesswork

Jasper

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 17:41:51 GMT, tom.west (E-Mail Removed) (Tom West)
wrote:

>We had 512kb ADSL installed in August this year when it became
>availble on our exchange. Earlier this month our ISP (Force 9) said
>we could upgrade to 1mb for a lot less than they use to offer it for
>as BT were doing home 1mb connections (as I'm sure you're all aware).
>
>Anyway, we went ahead and BT have come back and said that on testing
>the line they found the line loss was over the limit for a 1mb
>connection.
>
>Fair enough, you may think, but no one ever came to our house to test
>it, so how do they do it? Also we have an ADSL router so it's always
>connected - would this make a difference to the line loss reading BT
>get?
>
>TIA.


Aplogise for replying to my own post, but I've just thought of
something else. When we were using 56k modems, we got BT to turn the
gain up on our line in an attempt to increase speed - would this make
a difference? (I'm clutching at straws now, I know)

---
Tom
(anti-spam measures: remove brain before replying)

"Sunil Sood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bmmm30$okkmf$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
<snip>>
> No - however if your router produces line stats - have a look at the line
db
> level - for the 1MB service it currently needs to be <45 (keep in mind
that
> some routers do not give the same/accurate result as BT's test equipment)
>
> Also, its possible that sometime in the future BT may relax the limits for
> the 1MB service - though I woudn't expect this until the middle of next
year
> if at all.
>
> Regards
> Sunil
>
>

Sunil

These are the figures from my SAR715.
Do I take it you are referring to Downstream Attenuation needing to be <45 ?
Therefore my line is currently incompatible with 1M.

Downstream :
Noise Margin : 35.0 dB
Attenuation : 48.5 dB
Output Power : 17
Upstream :
Noise Margin : 10.5 dB
Attenuation : 29.0 dB
Output Power : 9

eric

--
Remove the dross to contact me directly

"Eric Parker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:TZOjb.4543$(E-Mail Removed)
> "Sunil Sood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bmmm30$okkmf$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
> <snip>>
>> No - however if your router produces line stats - have a look at the
>> line db level - for the 1MB service it currently needs to be <45
>> (keep in mind that some routers do not give the same/accurate result
>> as BT's test equipment)
>>
>> Also, its possible that sometime in the future BT may relax the
>> limits for the 1MB service - though I woudn't expect this until the
>> middle of next year if at all.
>>
>> Regards
>> Sunil
>>
>>
>
> Sunil
>
> These are the figures from my SAR715.
> Do I take it you are referring to Downstream Attenuation needing to
> be <45 ? Therefore my line is currently incompatible with 1M.
>
> Downstream :
> Noise Margin : 35.0 dB
> Attenuation : 48.5 dB
> Output Power : 17
> Upstream :
> Noise Margin : 10.5 dB
> Attenuation : 29.0 dB
> Output Power : 9
>
> eric

Try Datastream, some ISP's are good at persuading BT to connect these
marginal customers as long as their other tests are stable, my connection is
steady at Attenuation of 48, I am on Nildram 2 MB home connection.

S. Althaf

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 12:13:41 +0100, "Clueless"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

<snip>
>
>Try Datastream, some ISP's are good at persuading BT to connect these
>marginal customers as long as their other tests are stable, my connection is
>steady at Attenuation of 48, I am on Nildram 2 MB home connection.
>

Isn't that the business version? Force 9 does that but it's £44.99 a
month instead of £34.99 for the home one even though the contention
ratios are 50:1 for both.


---
Tom

"Eric Parker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:TZOjb.4543$(E-Mail Removed)...

> These are the figures from my SAR715.
> Do I take it you are referring to Downstream Attenuation needing to be <45
?
> Therefore my line is currently incompatible with 1M.
>
> Downstream :
> Noise Margin : 35.0 dB
> Attenuation : 48.5 dB
> Output Power : 17

Yes - the only thing to keep in mind is that many routers readings do not
agree with the BT test equipment - I have heard of some routers being up to
+/- 10dB different from BT's readings, which is obviously what they work
too.

Unfortunately, I don't know what routers are good or bad for this - so if
you want a 1MB service it is still worth applying and seeing what BT say.

Regards
Sunil

"Clueless" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Try Datastream, some ISP's are good at persuading BT to connect these
> marginal customers as long as their other tests are stable, my connection
is
> steady at Attenuation of 48, I am on Nildram 2 MB home connection.

I was under the impression, that BT are even less likely to enable marginal
DataStream lines than IPStream lines - can't quite remember where I got it
from though

Your attenuation of 48dB - can you say what router you use? It is likely to
just be a case of your router overestimating the figure compared to BT's own
test equipment.

Regards
Sunil

"Sunil Sood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bmp1r9$pijlq$(E-Mail Removed)
> "Clueless" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Try Datastream, some ISP's are good at persuading BT to connect these
>> marginal customers as long as their other tests are stable, my
>> connection is steady at Attenuation of 48, I am on Nildram 2 MB home
>> connection.
>
> I was under the impression, that BT are even less likely to enable
> marginal DataStream lines than IPStream lines - can't quite remember
> where I got it from though
>
> Your attenuation of 48dB - can you say what router you use? It is
> likely to just be a case of your router overestimating the figure
> compared to BT's own test equipment.

Nope, Efficient 5681 & 5660 both show the same as did the BT engineers
Alcatel frog and test kit when they had to fix a fault recently.
My current router is the 5660. It shows
ATU-R SNR 19 Attenuation 48 Output Power 12
ATU-C SNR 24 Attenuation 30 Output Power 19.5
Uptime 14 days.

S. Althaf