QUERY: slow non-fibre broadband 4x slower than min. speeds

andwan0

This post isn't about an ISP, but more of broadband speed rights/law.

I live in a house built in the 1970s in the North. We never had a BT engineer touch our phone sockets since the 1980s. However our master socket does look like the single-socket NTE5. We have always had slow internet/broadband.

Speed Test

SNR Graph

BT Speed Table

Currently we are with Origin normal non-fibre broadband. I was told to plug the router directly into the TEST socket (after opening the NTE5 front panel). I've ran the speed tests, 24hr later and now & again from time to time. My download speeds are 4x slower than the minimum speed by BT. I have no other devices, not downloading and ran wired connected.

I've emailed pictures to Origin but they advised to change to Fibre. I said no I prefer to get my non-fibre broadband speeds fixed since it's been like this for 1 year with the ISP. They haven't replied for 2 days.

Knowing Origin is a "virtual ISP" which piggyback/borrow from BT... should I switch to BT? Or should I chase up Origin?

Mister_G

From the data you have supplied, it looks like there is a line fault.

I suggest that you get on to Origin by phone and report it.

I have been with Origin for two years now (albeit on fibre) and have found them to be excellent. I had a line fault a couple of week ago and reported on a Sunday. By Tuesday I had the Openreach engineer at my door and all sorted in a day. We are in a rural area and they (team of 4!) found several faults up the poles.

JJ_Egan

If its a line fault you may well move with the fault .
Change ISP only if you are out of contract to avoid cancel fees.

andwan0

Thanks for your replies.

Here is the reply from support:

Your line's downstream attenuation is 51.1db, roughly calculating to a line length of 3700 meters
https://www.speedguide.net/dsl_speed_calc.php

Your downstream SNR is too high for the profile you are currently on you should be around 6db downstream SNR but you're at 11.7db as I write this. At 6.06pm on the 29th when you sent the image of ADSL2+ you were at 12db. SNR that is too high can cause errored seconds, which I can see at times on the line, these can cause slow sync speeds, slow through put and instability.

Your current incoming speed is at 2.048mbps which is 0.048mbps above the lowest estimate per the DSL checker (the part to the left of the red square image you also sent Monday).

Please revisit the DSL settings within your router, ensure that RX AGC Gain is set to stable then apply this is it is not already. When the current SNR margin restores on this page if it is not closer to 6db please disable Dynamic line adjustment and change the ADSL stability adjustment from -5db to 2db then apply these changes. Again when the current SNR margin restores check that it is closer to 6db.

If this is the case please then go to system logs (second from the bottom on the left) then top right DSL logs and check the data rate for downstream. This will match the incoming sync speed. If the SNR does get closer to 6db as it should be then I suspect the incoming speed will increase and therefore what is seen in the home will increase.

I was surprised since this would totally buffle a layperson.

Changed settings:
DSL Modulation: ADSL2+ (default: some old modulation not named ADSL)
RX AGC Gain: Stable
Dynamic Line Adjustment: Disable
ADSL Stability Adjustment: 2db (default was -5db)

1. Modulation to ADSL2+

2. SNR Graph (for ADSL2+ change)

3. Date Rate (after db change)

4. SNR Graph (after db change)

5. Speeds (after db change)

Retrogamer

Speeds seem fine now. Throughput speed is approx 2mbps, so the sync speed will be even higher and it's the sync speed that is quoted in estimates, not throughput speed.