Broadband speed problem

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  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 11,961
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    edited 12 July 2017 at 2:58PM
    kwikbreaks wrote: »
    I think you must be typing the speed units in yourself from those router stats as what you have typed in is slower than dialup.
    .

    Not sure what you mean here? All figures I've posted, apart from the decimal point mistake, are what I'm getting.

    For three minutes ago - speedheck%2012%20July.jpg
  • dosh37
    dosh37 Posts: 345
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    I can sympathise. I've been through all these issues and suffered the pain.
    The problems are down to the service provider promising nore that they can deliver.
    For me, those problems were only resolved after I switched from copper to fibre.
    Using copper technology for high speed ditital is fundamentally flawed.
    Since switching to fibre, I have had no problems at all.
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 11,961
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    dosh37 wrote: »
    I can sympathise. I've been through all these issues and suffered the pain.
    The problems are down to the service provider promising nore that they can deliver.
    For me, those problems were only resolved after I switched from copper to fibre.
    Using copper technology for high speed ditital is fundamentally flawed.
    Since switching to fibre, I have had no problems at all.


    Yes, but I can't get fibre until at least 2020.

    All I want (for now) is my 1.9mbps that I was getting last month.
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 11,961
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    kwikbreaks wrote: »
    I think you must be typing the speed units in yourself from those router stats as what you have typed in is slower than dialup.

    I'm assuming your current sync tates are 448kbps up and 2.78Mbps down which should be good for the 1.9Mbps downoad you say you had originally. I see your speed test results are on an iPad. Can you check with a wired device? At speeds that low I can't see how it could be a WiFi issue but you never know.


    Are you suggesting that I'm making up the figures? :eek:

    If it's not a wifi issue what is it?
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    edited 12 July 2017 at 7:54PM
    The HH must be reporting either complete BS or has a decimal point problem. It's not that unusual to see errors in router GUIs but I haven't seen that one before.

    Dialup modems would typically deliver 40kbps.so it's completely infeasible that your sync is 2.78kbps - especially as the speedtest you've used is showing 1.45Mbps.

    http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/IPprofile.htm shows that a 2780kbps sync would give a 2Mbps maximum download speed which stacks up perfectly with your original 1.9Mbps as there are some overheads involved and the throughput measured will be lower than the actual download speed.

    Your stats suggest that you are back to where you were. I'm not sure why you had the noise margin raise to (probably) 9dB but if there was a really serious issue it would almost certainly have gone to 15dB and you'd have a truly terrible sync rate.

    Why not try the BTw tester I posted a link to before - it's the only one an ISP will take any notice of anyway and if you take it through both tests it will tell you how well you are doing against what the line is supposed to be giving. http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/


    ====

    I forgot to say why I doubted it's a WiFi issue.
    Even the old G Wifi could deliver 20Mbps. With distance and interference that could easily be reduced but you'd need something really radical for it to fall to the fractions of a Mbps you said you were getting.

    In places like blocks of flats or other really dense housing then other WiFi units abound and they will interfere but you said you're out in the sticks so I doubt you'd see more that one or maybe a couple of other WiFi signals and that may make a minor difference but nothing major.

    The only other way WiFi speeds would drop to such a low rate would be if you's decided to do your tests from your mate's place at the other end of the village.
  • GunJack
    GunJack Posts: 11,669
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    edited 12 July 2017 at 10:03PM
    This thread is getting painful... some points:-

    1. Your BT router is VERY OBVIOUSLY reporting the wrong units for the sync speed, as well explained by kwikbreaks above, the people who coded the GUI have cocked up, but in the scheme of things it's not really a biggie, we knew what it was really saying ;)

    2. When you say you can't see much difference in your line stats, you're not seeing the fact that 3dB SNRM downstream IS a big difference. BT's DLM works mainly on 3dB steps so yes, it's a full step up, significant because....(also see point 4)

    3. On a long line (yours is very long, with at least 63dB attenuation downstream - it could be more, but some routers/firmware just don't report more than 63dB, others do), a 3dB raise of SNRM will have much more of a profound effect as the signal is already so small when it reaches your router, that having to have a much bigger signal will cut down the number of data-carrying cycles "seen" by your router, which in turn reduces your throughput (i.e. your speedtest results)

    4. remember that dB is a logarithmic scale, not a linear one, makes a big difference, e.g -3dB from peak power is half power

    5. Your line stats will be the same on ethernet or wifi, as that's showing the router to phone exchange and is the same whichever way you connect a device to the router. The speedtest results to your device (i.e. the actual data transfer rate) would very possibly be lower on wifi than wired as wifi has more losses than a wired connection, so ethernet usually transfers data between router and device at 100Mbps, 801.11g wifi at between 15-30Mbps, plus if the signal is suffering from RF interference, it will lose data packets which have to be re-transmitted so giving an overall lower speed. (This is very simplistic way of putting it, but the principle is sound)

    Have I forgotten anything??
    ......Gettin' There, Wherever There is......

    I have a dodgy "i" key, so ignore spelling errors due to "i" issues, ...I blame Apple :D
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 11,961
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    Thanks GunJack, your comments are useful even if 'remember' is wasted on me cos I never have known! And I don't understand the slight difference in figures so thanks for explaining; seems that increments are more in line with seismic calculations rather than straight linear progressive numbers.

    So, all that faffing with wired / wireless / bt wholesale testing was just that.

    The whole point wasn't about the current woeful speed it was about the drop from 1.9mbps to what it is now. And the speed is fluctuating wildly but never above 1.4mbps since the SNR, which did something.

    The BT agent did call back yesterday and now an engineer is booked for Monday morning. Hopefully I can report back some good'ish news.
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    Maybe maybe not. Your reported sync rate should easily support the 1.9Mbps you said you were getting originally. Assuming that the noise margin hasn't been increased again then the speed fluctuations you say you see now are unlikely to be caused by a line fault.

    Worth rechecking the stats and did you ever try the BT speedtest I linked to?
  • GunJack
    GunJack Posts: 11,669
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    kwikbreaks wrote: »
    Maybe maybe not. Your reported sync rate should easily support the 1.9Mbps you said you were getting originally. Assuming that the noise margin hasn't been increased again then the speed fluctuations you say you see now are unlikely to be caused by a line fault.

    Worth rechecking the stats and did you ever try the BT speedtest I linked to?

    ...as if they've reset the DLM (which controls the SNRM) it could just be the initial settling period, which is often around 10 days on BT's system....it could mean that the speed is variable whilst DLM finds the right SNRM for your line...
    ......Gettin' There, Wherever There is......

    I have a dodgy "i" key, so ignore spelling errors due to "i" issues, ...I blame Apple :D
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 11,961
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    Yes, did all the recommendations - and am painfully aware of the side effects of frequent rebooting of the router.

    Now away from home and thoroughly enjoying fibre broadband! Perhaps when I get back home on Saturday my speed will be back to normal.

    I'll report back after the engineers visit on Monday.
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