Line Stats

[el-ahrairah]

Hey guys.. I've just moved into my new house which is down 'Newstead street' (Just off chants ave) and was wondering if anyone in the same kinda area could post there line stats..

Just connected to the Karoo Mid package and unfortunately looks like the attenuation here is worse then where i've just come from (parents house).. Pretty sure its due to the fact that Newland ave is closest exchange and parents house is closer to Newland then my new house..

Heres my stats

ADSL Link     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    8191 kbps    1023 kbps
Line Attenuation    44.5 db    27.9 db
Noise Margin    5.1 db    11.0 db

This is at 8.44pm so probably have a better SNR tomorrow morning..

Shame karoo have automatically restricted my line to 8191kbps as i'd like the opportunity to eek out a little extra knowing that ADSL2+ can perform just fine on 3db profile..

Please, if you live anywhere near me (HU5 3NQ) post your line stats, just want to make sure things check out fine and verify i have no line faults.

Regards
El


Edit:

Stats from this morning

ADSL Link     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    8191 kbps    1023 kbps
Line Attenuation    45.0 db    27.9 db
Noise Margin    9.5 db    10.9 db

Emailed karoo to see if they will uncap my line so i can play around with my own speeds and adjust things myself. Hoping i can achieve 9mbps.

Merry Xmas everyone.

El

[el-ahrairah]

Just to add a little more info.

Just been round to my sisters house, she lives down the same street as me, only 10 doors away.. She has same router as me, and same internet package.. Yet for some reason my line attenuation is 44.5db and my snr is 9.8db in a morning and about 5db on an evening..

My sisters attenuation on the other hand is 37.5db with the same sync speed yet her snr is 16-18db... So all in all she has a lower attenuation and better SNR to play with yet only lives a few house away from me..

I'm not sure whats wrong here but surely that points to something being wrong?

Regards
El

[Adrian]

Could be a few things really, such as the route the cable takes, cable quality, extensions, dodgy filter?

Are you running any extensions or additional sockets?

[el-ahrairah]

hmmm, well i cant answer for the cable quality and the cable taking another route (although i cant imagine it'll be much diff to another house just a few doors away?).

My router is connected directly to the master socket and plugged into the test socket to maximize performance.. Also tried several filters and a couple netgear routers and doesnt seem like thats the issue.

Weird huh?

Regards
El

[Adrian]

Ahh so you've done your bit - could be the quality of the cable outside which is beyond your control

What package you on? - ahh just realised one of the new ones

[el-ahrairah]

Hmmm thats a shame then. I have moved into a new house and as such the master socket loks a bit worse for wear and knocked about.. But not sure that'd be the problem in this instance..

I'm on the Karoo Mid package yeah. Exactly the same setup as my sister several doors away, with exactly the same filter, same router, and both are connected at the master socket..

Almost tempted to get karoo to take a look at things because there is obviously something a miss somewhere... I know that i would probably only gain a couple of mb at best so its probably not worth bothering with i guess..

Thanks for your time and effort to help Adrian.

Regards
El

[el-ahrairah]

Karoo have given me a possible explanation to the difference in line stats between my sister and myself.

Thank you for your email to the Internet Helpdesk.

The attentuation would only be identical if your entire set up, including the telephone line back to the Exchange via the underground cabling and/or overhead wires was exactly the same length and quality.
Unfortunately it would appear that your line is either longer, or slightly lower quality than your sister's line.
This could be due to any of a massive number of factors, including the weathering of the line outside your house, your master socket connections, etc.

Should you require any further technical assistance, please don't hesitate to get back in touch.

They have also given me a price guide on having several things changed if i require it.

Thank you for your email regarding your service with us. The charges for having a master socket replaced are £78.00 Inc VAT.
The charge for an extension socket is £111.00 Inc VAT; to have a complete new line fitted is £114.92 Inc VAT.

So my question to any of you guys who may have had any similar experience as i have, or may have purchased any of the above to help with there connection is this, Which change if any would you go for to hopefully give the best chance at lowering my attenuation or even just giving me a little more SNR to play with..

Regards
El

[Adrian]

Have you tried connecting via the test socket? By unscrewing the front of the master socket and plugging the filter into the test socket?

See here:
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/troubleshooting.htm

http://beusergroup.co.uk/technotes/images/b/b4/Testsocket2.jpg

[el-ahrairah]

Hey Adrian..

Yeah i'm pretty well versed in all things like that.. I'm using test socket, Using the best of the 5 filters i've got and tried.. Using Netgear DG834GT with latest DGTeam Firmware and MTU at 1500 and using a Belkin 2.1m High speed phone cable..

So basically i've done everything possible to give me an advantage yet still, a few doors away is my sister with a 37.5db attenuation and thus, giving her a better speed and more SNR to play around with.. Leaving me with my 44.5db attenuation and not able to really better my speed right now..

As i said before my sister has exactly the same setup as me (apart from the new belkin high speed phone cable)..

Weird huh?

Regards
El

[Adrian]

Just one of those things Must be down to the quality of the line at some point, whether thats your drop lead from the pole or nearest joint, or the cable from the joint to the next joint/DP or cab. Even if you were to have a new line fitted you may have the same stats unless they ensured you were on the same cabling as your sister. Similar thing happened to me, my line was stable and reliable at 18Mbit, one day it disconnected and would not sync back up at 18Mbit - now I have the same line stats etc... but connects at 17Mbit.

Hopefully KC are looking into line bonding - looks like it will be cheapest way forward cause it can be done with existing equipment (customers will need a compatible router though) and won't need any major changes or installations.

[commandergc]

but wouldn't bonding make their dedicated lines obsolete?

[Adrian]

No because bonding ADSL lines doesn't offer all of the benefits that come with having a leased line, such as uncontended, guaranteed bandwidth, very high reliability and higher security etc...
All bonding does is allow speeds higher than what is currently available now without rolling out fibre to cabs or premises and without significant investment.

[el-ahrairah]

I know you guys have changed onto another topic of discussion now, But just to let you know Adrian, I've managed to get my KC friend to source me a brand new Master socket free of charge, Obviously i can fit it so that saves me £78.

When i recieve it from him i'll post stats and let you guys know if it has helped at all..

Also just emailed karoo and requested that they check what DSLAM i'm on, (if its outdated) and asked them to purhaps change to a new DSLAM, If in fact the one i'm plugged into is an older one.. Also asked them to get the engineers to plug me into another port..

Not sure if karoo will follow my instructions but i've told them i dont want to be forking out money my end if i dont have to, but have also made them fully aware that i'm determined to try and improve things if possible..

I know they'll think i'm a pain in the arse but its worth me trying anything right now.


Regards
Michael

[el-ahrairah]

hmmm, Despite living only 10 houses away from my sister, It would appear my Attenuation being far greater to hers, Is due to the significant difference in line length to hers.. Karoo have told me i'm 2530 meters from the exchange, which they say is far greater then my sisters line length.. They cant tell me due to data protection act any further details..

Just seems odd that someone living down the same street and only a few houses away has a much shorter line and a 37.5db att compared to my 44.5db.. Seems unfair to be paying the same rate and yet totally unable to get anywhere near the same performance as my sister..

She can achieve 11-12mb whilst i struggle to get 8mb.. And can only achieve this or slightly better using DGteam firmware and dropping my SNR to 2db or less..

God i'm in a mood now.. But i guess i know that changing things my end (line from pole to house and master socket) wont have much affect at all.. So i guess if i'm to find a positive from all of this, its that i can save money by not having KC come and change either of those things..

Regards
Michael

[Adrian]

Ask her to give tech support a call and find out the line length. It must be that the cable route goes a different way then...
If you are on Pro then you will already be on newer kit, so the only thing you can do really is change the master socket and see what happens.

Unfortunately thats the limitation of copper and ADSL and without any tweaks to the kit to allow higher speeds, or line bonding we not gonna get faster speeds for a long time.