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"Broadband Speed Question"

A few of my neighbours reckon that their broadband speed has noticeably increased since some recent work was apparently carried out on our exchange. I am not experiencing any increase at all although when I do the 'what speed should I get' tests on other ISP's sites I'm getting results such as:

''The speed prediction we have provided is an estimate, however download speeds can vary and the actual download speed will fall between a range. This is generally within 1-2 Mb higher or lower than your estimated speed quoted.

Between 10.0Mb and 19.5Mb
(Estimated speed: 17.0Mb) ''

Mine is currently around 5.5-6.5 Mbs

I am connected to this exchange.

Are these estimated figures wide of the mark? If not will I be able to access these proposed speeds on the 2 Freeola connections I have on this exchange anytime soon?

Thanks.

Just tried my Imageshack hosted clip and it wouldn't work for me either, don't worry it wasn't very interesting! :)

Your line would appear to be in healthier shape than mine by comparison of the ping tests. My connection seems alright again this evening (still no sign of the hanging problem) will let you know if it rears its ugly head again.

pete_21 wrote:
@DL, As mentioned I haven't experienced the dreaded connection hanging problem for around a day and half now, has your connection been OK during this period as well?

Hi pete, not been able to view your video! Tried VLC Player and then ImageShack decided not to be 'available'!

However, connection has been 'stable' today but router needed the 'boot' yesterday to solve page loading/waiting/I cannot be bothered with this etc etc.

Another 'however' ... your recent speedtest results seem to be 'odd' considering your distance from the exchange. I think that our connection must be just as near as yours and these results were achieved 5 mins ago:

SpeedTest

PingTest

What I cannot understand is the difference in the ping times within these two results ;¬) But they certainly look better than yours!

EDIT: The displayed time on the images is an hour out!!!!

It was the other line which had the 16+Mbs IP profile, my home's IP profile is about 11 Mbs. The 16Mbs profile connection is located literally a few hundred yards away from the exchange, my home is still under a mile away from the exchange. My house was actually rewired from the road last year and I now only have one BT socket, will try it in the test socket now.

EDIT: Just tried, attenuation readings no different.

Again, no further sign of the web page hanging/refusing to load problem I mentioned the other day, which I'm taking as a positive sign!

Strange thing is I am getting damn near identical speed test results on both properties (regardless of the differing IP profiles and distance from the exchange) and both have experienced the aforementioned web page hanging problem? The connection which was experiencing the 2Mbs connection speed was actually at the one I could literally connect a few Poundland extensions together and reach the exchange from!

What is really confusing me that is I connected (from my home using WiFi) the other day to my (very friendly!) neighbours connection at a time I was experiencing the crippled speed/web page hanging problem and his connection was fine and noticeably faster than mine (at that time).

Again, no real issues this morning. Just got these (from my home connection):

Speedtest

Pingtest

Suppose the thing to do is wait and see if these issues reappear when the network is busy again?

Thanks again for you help Hmmm :)

@DL, As mentioned I haven't experienced the dreaded connection hanging problem for around a day and half now, has your connection been OK during this period as well?

It might be worth getting the same stats for your other line as well.

47db for the downstream attenuation is much higher than I thought you would have - that shows quite a long line (or poor quality). From your previous ADSL results I was expecting to see it much lower?! Perhaps your second line is better quality?

I would also check you get the same stats in the TEST socket if you have one.

11.5 sync on a 47db line is higher than you would expect to see!
I would have thought around 10 would be the top speed - and that's using the 'new' ADSL2+ Target SNR Margin of 3db which it looks like you may be on (dropping to 2db in the evening which is normal but getting near the limit and will only work on a very stable line).

Earlier you mentioned having an IP Profile of 16+ mb?
You shouldn't/won't see that on this line as it's not connecting that high? Again if you find the stats for the other line perhaps that will make sense and it has a higher sync/connection rate with a lower line attenuation? Do you remember which line had the 16mb IP Profile?

So it's a bit confusing making sense of the figures but for the line stats you've just posted things can't be any better and the actual throughput when the nodes (usage) is quiet seems to be about right. Perhaps check the current IP Profiles for both lines and record the line stats for each.

[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Thanks again for your kind help Hmmm, did your speedtest 3 times got between 7 - 9 Mbs (7.6Mbs on BT Speedtester). Over the last 24hrs or so I haven't experienced any connection hanging, pages refusing to load etc. nor have I had anymore of the very slow speeds I was getting earlier in the week.

Readings from my router:

''Type Interleave Path
Status SHOWTIME

Downstream Upstream

Data rate(Kbps)
11513Kb 1107Kb

Noise Margin
2 4

Output power(dBm)
125 204

Attenuation(dB)
47 19''

To me that speedtest looked normal for when the network is busy.

All the nodes are quiet now (as they normally are over the weekend) try another speedtest now.

Are your getting anywhere near your current IP Profile?
The notes on my own speedtest page try to explain how you can see if you are getting your normal throughput for your given IP Profile.
Note to self - must get round to updating that page as it's a few years old

Did you ever manage to find your line's 'attenuation'?

[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Cheers DL, I have VLC Player enabled in Firefox and it plays it without needing to download. Things seems a bit better since yesterday evening and all seems fine at the moment. Speed is alright (certainly perfectly usable) and there's currently no sign of the phantom erratic connection problem. Perhaps it was a contention issue?

Be interested to see what you thought of the clip as I had this issue on both of my connections, just seems strange other ISP's connected to my exchange did not seem to be affected.

Only just seen this post pete but can't view it!
Firefox wants to save the file and I haven't got an MP4 player. So I'll try and stick it on my phone to watch it. I'll let you know :¬)

DL, do you see anything like this when your connection is playing up? Apologies for the appalling quality and background noise. My old ADSL connection was fast and constantly stable so I'm a little bit surprised to be getting these issues on ADSL2+. Hopefully these problems will subside after next week?

I've no idea pete, but my connection tests just fine. However, after a few hours use this morning with no problems, the wireless pc began suffering page hangs, slow connection etc etc and then the wired pc followed suit. A router software disconnect and connect got the two back up to normal!