Thought I would 'merge' my info regarding Freeola Central Pipes here.

Central Pipe Status
Here's a page that displays the status of all the Centrals and also shows you which one you are currently using: View Centrals (This will only work for Freeola broadband users)

Just to add a couple of updates to this.

My line started suffering from disconnections in the evening due to low SNRM (Signal to Noise Ratio Margin) - as the days were getting shorter this was becoming a problem earlier and earlier!

After much reading(!) I decided to try two different routers - a 2Wire 2700 and a Speedtouch 585v6. both routers performed better than my original Netgear with the Speedtouch looking as if it's resolved my problems :¬)

I monitored and graphed the SNR and put my experiences here: www.hmmm.ip3.co.uk/adsl-snr



For one of my neighbours their internet connection had also started to become unstable. They are on a non-max Freeola package. The non-max packages should in theory be more stable on long rural (noisy) lines! It was fine last winter for them but something somewhere must have changed. For them I found that upgrading their current Netgear router to the latest firmware and also removing wire 3 (the ringwire) stabilised things. From having hundreds of disconnections a day to NONE!


Well that's put the kiss of death on things ;¬)
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Very good thanks for that.
There are a few more bRAS profiles that went online at the end of July. These are
350 up to 0.35Mbps
750 up to 0.75Mbps
1250 up to 1.25Mbps and
1750 up to 1.75Mbps

Can I also add a note about Interleaving as this may be of interest for those of you who use low latency applications, such as online games and VOIP (Voice Over IP - Applications such as Skype).

Interleaving is a mode that is used with ADSL on lines that suffer from noise (usually longer lines).
Interleaving takes data packets, chops them up into smaller bits and then rearranges them so that once contiguous data is now spaced further apart into a non continuous stream. Data packets are re-assembled by your modem.
When ADSL data packets are transmitted they contain additional control bits that enable your modem/router to check and correct a certain amount of erroneous bits. This type of error checking is known as FEC or Forward Error Correction. You have may have seen this quoted in your Modem/Router settings.

The advantage of this process is that noise on the line doesn't have as big an effect on the data stream as packets can be 'recovered'.
If you were using 'Fast' mode and there was noise on you line then you may experience connection drops as data is missing from data packets received by your modem or router.
The main disadvantage of interleaving is that the process takes time to complete and so latency increases (you may hear people complaining because their ping times have increased - the length of time it takes a packet of data to be send and then received back from a location). This is not desirable for people who like to use online games and VOIP for obvious reasons!

So how do you know what mode your ADSL connection is in and can you change it?

You can normally see the mode your connection is using by looking at the statistics page of your router or the statistics shown in your modem software. It will either say something similar to Mode: Interleaved or Mode: Fast-path.

You cannot change this mode yourself, it is controlled by BT using the equipment at your exchange. Standard connections are normally activated with Interleaving set to 'auto' (this means off, but it may be adjusted if your line has a funny turn).

If your connection is showing as Interleaved and you want this to be turned off then contact our support department and we can pass the request on to BT. It may take some time for BT to action the request and once it has been done the stability of your line may get worse, so if you have to raise a fault be warned, BT may enable interleaving again to resolve the problem!
Once Interleaving has been disabled you may also notice a decrease in speed, this is normal as many routers and modems are forced to connect at a lower rate due to noise on the line.

Yes, ADSLMax is confusing!

To try and help Freeola ADSL customers understand and get the most out of their broadband connection, I thought I would try to explain the key facts behind ADSL MAX and offer some tips.


If you try a 'speed test' from any of the many sites offering this service and get poor results, please keep reading...

This is quite a complex subject - but to start with if you can get to grips with 4 things Sync / Attenuation / SNR / BRAS, you should be able to understand most things!


Freeola's ADSL MAX product allows you to have an internet connection that connects 'up to' 8MBits/s. How close your line connects or 'syncs' to the highest available 8Mbits (8128kbps) all depends on your lines length and quality(noise).

As BT state: "The rate adaptive Line Rate (both Upstream and Downstream) is a “best efforts” service and depends primarily on line length and noise conditions."
So the further you live from your exchange the worse things are likely to be!

The three most important aspects of your telephone line are, Sync, Attenuation and Noise Margin.
Even though Freeola are your ISP, as with all ADSL MAX providers the network is mostly maintained by BT Wholesale.

Sync (The higher the better!):
To find out what your line is connecting at, you need to look at your Router or Modem Statistics. Different manufacturers will describe this in slightly different ways - my Netgear Router shows this as my 'Connection Speed' - Downstream and Upstream. For now I'll concentrate on the downstream side of things. I'm currently connected at 4032kbps.

Attenuation (The lower the better!):
This figure in an indication of your lines length. Attenuation is all to do with quality of the signal passing through a conductor - copper or aluminium. The higher the lines attenuation the worse the sync speed will be. Attenuation is measured in db's (decibels).

Noise Margin (The target is 6db):
Noise Margin or Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) or Signal to Noise Ratio Margin (SNRM) initially has a 'target' of 6db. i.e. The BT kit will attempt to give you your best connection speed (sync) using 6db of SNR. Now, depending on your line's Attenuation this could be anywhere 'up to' 8128kbps (if you are lucky!).

Apart from the 'health' of your phone line you need to know about -
BRAS Profile:
BT Wholesale give each line a speed profile depending on the line's speed and stability. So even is you are lucky to connect at the maximum 8128kbps the most you can actually 'use' is 7150kbps!
See table below so that you can see what profile you can expect depending on your connection speed.
Your BRAS profile (also known as IP Profile) is often the reason people 'complain' about a sudden slow-down in their connection!

You can find out your BRAS (Broadband Remote Access Server) profile by visiting www.speedtester.bt.com (you will need your Freeola adsl login details).
If you have a 'low sync event' - which means for whatever reason you connect lower than normal (Bad weather, Damaged line, Router on the blink, BT up your pole!) then your BRAS profile will be reduced accordingly. Now if you manage to re-connect at a higher or normal rate, your BRAS profile will take between 3 hours and 5 days (it's normally 3 days) to return to normal!

So if something has caused you to have a low connection, you should check that your connection speed (Sync) is back to normal and then all you can do is wait for around 3 days for your BRAS profile to increase and give you your normal speed back. If you can't manage to get your normal sync back there may be a line problem - see below.

Yet another thing to be aware of is it's possible your local exchange or ISP is suffering from congestion - so even if everything looks fine but using any of the many speed tests available shows poor results, there may not be a problem. When Freeola's off-peak period (10pm) starts it would be normal to see some reduction in speed as people start scheduled  downloads etc. So the thing to do is try a speed test at another time of day to see if you still have a problem.

I was trying to keep this simple - but once you start it's hard to know what to miss out!

Test Socket:
If you report a problem to Freeola (you can only report adsl problems to your ISP even though BT Wholesale maintain the main network) you will invariably be asked to connect to the Test Socket in the BT Master Socket (NTE5).
If you have a modern BT Master Socket it will have a removable face plate on the bottom half. You can remove this plate which will reveal the Test Socket behind. As you remove the plate it will disconnect all your internal phone extensions - this is so that you can see if your problem is due to something in your house (phone gone potty, faulty micro filter, cat chewed a phone cable!).

Plugging your router/modem directly in to this means you can test your adsl connection, proving that any phone line problems are BT's and not yours.

But remember - even if you connect to the Test Socket and see your normal Sync, your actual speed won't improve until your BRAS profile increases (around 3 days).


Some other 'Rules':
SNR:
If your line becomes unstable, the BT kit can increase your 'target SNR' (in 3db jumps) to 9/12/15db. Each time the target SNR increases your Sync speed will fall in an attempt to stabilise your connection. Getting your
target SNR to reduce if it's over 6db should happen automatically after 14 days of stable connection and depending on the amount of errors that are being seen on your line. But in reality this is sometimes hard to achieve.
If your SNR falls to low then you will loose your connection and when the router reconnects the sync speed will have reduced in an attempt to stabilise the line.

Blip logic:
If you have managed to have a stable line for 14 days and then have a low connection, but manage to reconnect at your normal speed almost straight away - then within an hour or two, your BRAS Profile should return to normal rather than the normal 3 days'ish'.

Re-connecting:
As you are hopefully seeing by now - there are quite a lot of factors affecting the state of your adsl connection! You should be aware that re-booting your router or disconnecting and reconnecting the phone line, or working on any of your phone extensions etc. can all 'upset' the BT kit which could in turn cause you to get a lower BRAS profile! So don't do any of the above too often.

Ring Wire tweak:
If you find that connecting directly into your Test Socket improves your connection speed - as many people do, then this shows that your internal wiring is affecting things. I'm assuming all your phones etc. are already correctly filtered by this stage. If you find your connection speed is better in the test socket then removing your 'ring wire' (connection 3) could be worth doing. The theory being that the ring wire is acting like an aerial picking up RF (radio frequency) 'noise' which will affect your connection.
Removing the ring wire in all your sockets won't stop modern phones from ringing as with adsl the micro filter provides this functionality. NB. You aren't legally allowed to mess with anything on BT's side of the Master Socket. i.e. You can remove the face plate and change that wiring, but you can't change the wiring within the main Master Socket where the outside wires come in. If in doubt don't do it!

Some people have seen their connection speed improve by 2 or 3MBits/s - so it's worth looking at!

Micro Filters:
When your phone line has been 'adsl enabled' then you have to have micro-filters on all your phones/fax/alarm/sky phone connections. The filter 'splits' voice and data using different frequencies so that they can share the same line.
Another option to improve your connection is to fit a 'filtered face plate' - this replaces the normal BT face plate (which can be removed) and means all your internal phone wiring is filtered at source - so you won't need any other filters.


BRAS Profile table:
Sync speed
From            TO           BRAS PROFILE
576 kbps       832 kbps   500
864 kbps       1120 kbps  750
1152 kbps    1408 kbps  1000
1440 kbps    1696 kbps  1250
1728 kbps    1984 kbps  1500
2016 kbps    2240 kbps  1750
2272 kbps    2816 kbps  2000
2848 kbps    3392 kbps  2500
3424 kbps    3968 kbps  3000
4000 kbps    4512 kbps  3500
4544 kbps    5088 kbps  4000
5120 kbps    5664 kbps  4500
5696 kbps    6208 kbps  5000
6240 kbps    6784 kbps  5500
6816 kbps    7360 kbps  6000
7392 kbps    7936 kbps  6500
7968 kbps    8096 kbps  7000
8128 kbps                         7150

For example:
You normally connect around 3,200kbps.
This will give you a BRAS Profile of 2,500.
So 2,500kbps will be the best download speed you can expect.


There's more but that's enough for now ;¬)


^{Search Freeola Chat}