BT and/or Orange Lying about Broadband Speeds!

MikeO_2

I am on the only socket. there is no separate faceplate.

ADSL Values
Description Thomson Livebox 2 Mini uk v7.1-h323
Manufacturer Thomson
SerialNumber 0821GH1E9DD01CP
HardwareVersion T-E.1.0
SoftwareVersion 6.3.9.6
DestinationAddress PVC: 0/38
ModulationType ADSL_G.dmt
ATMEncapsulation VCMUX
ModemFirmwareVersion bcm96358_ADSL_PHY_A2pBT009c1.d17d

Status Up
LinkStatus Up
LinkType PPPoA
DataPath Fast
UpstreamAttenuation 305
DownstreamAttenuation 540
UpstreamNoiseMargin 310
DownstreamNoiseMargin 286
UpstreamMaxRate 1144000
DownstreamMaxRate 4224
UpstreamCurrRate 64
DownstreamCurrRate 512
UpstreamPower 100
DownstreamPower 159
UpTime 84985

Stats.Total. Values
LinkRetrain 6
FECErrors 0
ATUCFECErrors 0
HECErrors 0
ATUCHECErrors 0
CRCErrors 1
ATUCCRCErrors 0

slenderkitten

put it this way if the line couldn't support 4/5/6 it wouldn't have come up on the engineers computer and it wouldn't have come up on mine, BT and Orange has indeed fiddled with it.

I'm taking this as far as i can i got a reply from bt open reach today to contact my isp which i already done i sent them a message through their website again so i'll wait for that reply i need the name o the engineer, he will remember that i had a good speed because i kept saying to him i dont believe that i will get that kind of speed on my computer but hey presto i was getting just over 4 and on the speedtest.net as well confirmed it.

macman

You still haven't posted the results of the tests that were suggested earlier in this thread, without those no-one can really advise you further.
As I said, OR will simply refer you to your ISP, which is what they have done. Orange will not have the name of an engineer from a 3rd party contractor.

MikeO_2

Macman

You said
"Your speed of 0.5Mbps is still well above the official definition of broadband, so an official complaint will be pointless. "
I've never seen an official definition of broadband. Orange heavily promote the "up to 8M" offer. But nowhere in the contract is there a definition or a quoted minimum speed. What's the point of a contract if there isn't a minimum?

I posted the router stats above. Any thoughts? Your input is much appreciated.

macman

MikeO wrote: »

Macman

You said
"Your speed of 0.5Mbps is still well above the official definition of broadband, so an official complaint will be pointless. "
I've never seen an official definition of broadband. Orange heavily promote the "up to 8M" offer. But nowhere in the contract is there a definition or a quoted minimum speed. What's the point of a contract if there isn't a minimum?

I posted the router stats above. Any thoughts? Your input is much appreciated.

I believe the ofcom definition is that 128kbps and above is considered to be broadband (this dates from 2004 and is clearly ludicrous by today's standards). No ISP will quote an actual minimum, as it is dependent on several variables, the most important being distance from the exchange, as that is beyond the influence of either the ISP or the user.
Most ISP's still use the 'up to 8Mbps' standard as there is currently no agreed better way of expressing a variable like this.
No doubt someone will be along shortly to advise on your router stats, but you mind find this tool useful (you can calculate your exchange distance with another tool on the same site).
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

CrabPaste

Is slenderkitten for real.....or an elaborate joke....honest question.

slenderkitten

crab there is no need for your comment.

in actual fact i had another conversation today now they have reverted back to their original 5mbps as of 4th September 2009, they were indeed LYING! i am going to complain about this.

kwikbreaks

Status Up
LinkStatus Up
LinkType PPPoA
DataPath Fast
UpstreamAttenuation 305
DownstreamAttenuation 540
UpstreamNoiseMargin 310
DownstreamNoiseMargin 286
UpstreamMaxRate 1144000
DownstreamMaxRate 4224
UpstreamCurrRate 64
DownstreamCurrRate 512
UpstreamPower 100
DownstreamPower 159
UpTime 84985

Your stats show quite clearly the Orange must have artificially pegged your speed to 512kpbs.

The router itself is reporting that the max speed possible is 4224kbps (DownstreamMaxRate 4224)

Your line is quite long as the attenuation is shown as 54dB so the router indicated ~4Mbps maximum possible is probably fairly accurate.

=====

The reason I'm poining my finger at Orange and not BT is because this must be LLU as a fixed BTw 512kbps service would have an upstream of 256kbps and yours is a miserable 64kbps (also artificially pegged). These lower than possible speeds are because the Orange equipment at the exchange has had a profile specified for your line either by Orange DLM software or manually by an Orange tech setting those sync rates.

pitkin2020

you got to love orange tehy have to be the worst providers in the UK,
few points to consider as my dilema was virtually the same.
You may find you are getting lower speeds due to the amount of power they are putting down the line, basically they up the power as much as possible to give you a better speed but the higher it is the less stable it becomes, now this is where BTs outdated lines come into the equation, as most of the cabling BT laid down back in 1807 are not capable of supporting the power required to achieve a high speed, so it becomes less stable so ornage wind the power down until it becomes a stable connection.
When Open reach tested your line orange were aware of a fault so whacked the power right up giving you the high speed you saw when OR was there but its likely that it started to report back to orange a lot of errors so they reduced the power again to make it stable.

My advice would be to throw away your live box and go buy a proper router for a start as the live box is there own firmware and data that reports back to orange and IMO the livebox is such an unstable router to begin with, just from changing from my livebox to a netgear router i got back 1mb of speed instantly.
Secondly visit speedtest.net 3 times a day if you can and log the speeds for 4-5 days, ideally 10am, 4pm and 8pm as that shows a broad time range and inc a weekend. Once you have all those readign logged phone orange with the findings, ideally they will be a varied bunch of results with atleast 1 good day or 1 good reading to show that your high speed is achievable.
thirdly dont give up it took me 3 months to get this resolved and 3 visits from OR in the end they switched my line over as they reckoned (or atleast OR) did that my line was at the end of its working life.
Oh when you phone orange your far better going off through the number they give out for new customers wanting to join as you usually get the english call centre instead of the indian one

kwikbreaks

The only impact of a different router will be to lower the bank balance or increase the credit card outstanding because Orange have capped the connection at 512kbps.

The comments about power are pure tripe (although output power can be varied that isn't the problem here).