In the sticks = awful broadband. Anything I can do?

PapaLazaru

PapaLazaru

PapaLazaru

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Hi chaps.

I have been searching around this forum but cannot find a definite answer. I am currently living in the sticks and my connection is quite frankly awful.



Now the above is a lie, as my maximum download speed I get ANYWHERE is 175Kbps. God knows what my upload speed is but it is not as much of a concern.

When BC2 came out it took 9 hours to download. :mad:

My ISP is Demon, and for reasons I cannot go into that will not be changed. To be honest, I don't think there is anything that will change the rubbish speeds. I have checked with other providers they all say the same.

My exchange - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/THWN = no LLU's :(

My router is a Netgear DG834PN. I have the master phone socket in my office and the router. It is wired up my PC by the standard short cable and to one other PC via a long cable. No wireless.

I am after advice of whether to bother trying one of the broadband accelerators (or just D.I.Y'ing my socket) or whether better cabling will make any noticable difference?

Thanks muchly. :)
 
Apparently it helps if you have microfilters in all the other phone sockets in the house.

Have you asked Demon if there is anything they can do? I believe that they could look at your line (things like signal to noise ratio etc) and possibly make changes to the way they deliver the broadband.

The other thing is, they may be able to recommend a router that is particularly good at dealing with your particular line conditions.

Rgds
 
The only thing I can think of is to remove the bell wire from the socket (which is basically what the accelerator plates will do).
 
you need to check the stats on your router and post them up, used to live in the sticks and my main problems were awful quality line and distance to the exchange.

also if your close to the master socket, unplug anything else connected to the phone lines then undo the faceplate and plug straight into the test socket, see what speeds/router stats you get.
 
PapaLazaru said:


Now the above is a lie, as my maximum download speed I get ANYWHERE is 175Kbps.
Click to expand...

It's not a lie - your speedtest shows 1.47 megabits per second, and your download speed is 175 kilobytes per second. There's eight bits in a byte, so the download speed is about right.

Post up the line statistics from your router (sync rate, attenuation, SNR) and we can have a look.
 
The DG834PN is a good router so we'll stick with that. As others have suggested, remove the (normally) orange ring wire (google it if you're not sure) and post up your line stats.
 
Try living on Dartmoor my friend, the you'll know what "slow" is ;) lol.

Options are to get a bt accelerator which helps out after a few days, and they get more expensive after that.

Are you regulary disconnecting? That will screw your speed up, as it thinks it can't handle the connection speed.

BTW.. messing with the ring wire will mean BT will get mad with you for screwing with the main box, and happily charge you A LOT of you cash to 'fix' it.
 
That's not true, anything connected after the main BT box i.e. connected to the removable customer faceplate on the main socket is customer internal wiring and nothing to do with BT. The ring wire will always be customer side.
 
Perhaps I didn't explain well enough : Depends where you cut the ring wire. If you open the main box then you are in breach of your agreement because BT own upto and including that box.

If you cut it after the box then yes, you are correct it isn't a problem.

BTW... one of my dogs ripped the cable right out the wall so I had to rewire from the main box as an emergency job. I will have to pony up to BT at some point to get it sorted out properly, because the connection box is archaic.
 
I rarely disconnect. In fact, the router never gets turned off. I do reboot it occasionally when I lose service.

As far as statistic go, I am a bit clueless but hopefully this may shed some light -

844c5e15.png


As far as cutting the bell wire goes, I think a punt on the accelerator is my best bet as I do not technically own the telephone line so don't want hassle from the owner.
 
58db atten is pretty bad. The accelerator is worth a go I suppose, as you point out it does the same job as removing the ring wire and I don't see any other options for you.

In all fairness I think the 'accelerator' is a complete waste of money as you'll be removing the customer faceplate to install it, at this point you could simply snip the ring wire.
 
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The dreaded 'market one' exchange eh?, I know how you feel. I see BT are raising line rental 50p though so London can have 100 different types of broadband.

:rolleyes:
 
Papa, plug into the test socket
testsocket.gif
and post up your stats again.
It quite possible to gain a couple of extra Mb/s here.
I can sync at around 3Mb/s on my 58db attenuation line.
 
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My friend gets better than that (lower ping, more upload) on a 63.5db line on BT internet. I used to get 4meg on a 53db line with orange. You should get around 2-2.5 meg I would hope. Try the test socket if you havent already. I saw a 2mb/s increase doing this!
 
Try a a filtered master socket such as the XTE-2005 Master Faceplate other than that there is nothing you can do you have an excellent router and cabled. Get together with your neighbors to install your own arrangements in the area is the only other option - unless the head of BT decides to move to your area then your lafin
 
Agreed with the test socket. Plug it into that and see if the stats on that page show the downstream is improved at all?

Mine went from 1000 kbps to 2500 kbps on the test socket.
 
Some isp's might slighty improve your speed,unless you have tested demon at night (3am) and not saw any improvements in speeds etc, unless demon are really really bad you should see your max speed downloading at a time when no ones on with a fast ftp link or gamershell.com.


second step is internal wiring, get rid of everything and just use the master socket with no extensions.you need the bell wire removed as well or the bt accelerator kit as someone mentioned and then u can start to maybe see some improvements.you can also use a really good microfilter and the best i found was the excelsus Z-420UK-P2J.it actually lowered my attenuation to 4 from 5 lol.yes i have crazy line stats 4db attenuation on the downstream and 1db on the upstream.

after that you cant really do much more as you have a lot of distance going by those stats, what you CAN try is tweaking the SNR margin, the target SNR should be 6 and your isp should be able to tell you , or you can request to have your snr at 6.you actually have an snr margin of almost another 6, which if im right means you have a little to spare, after all margin means how much snr you are from the target snr which as i said is minimum of 6.


im pretty sure you could ask then to try to sync you a little higher as it will take away from the SNR and as you have 6 to sprare you might just get away with it, at worse you will just get a lot of disconnects but again just grab a netgear router as they are the kind of router you need to be using in the sticks as they are well known from hanging onto connections even with really low SNR.


so get a DG834v4 or whatever one has the broadcom chipet, bell wire removed,new microfilter, and ask the isp to sync you higher.


simpless i bet it gets you another 1mb! :)
 
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Well in my experience definitely try the test socket, that is the absolute best speed you will get regardless of asking them to up your sync speed, if your line can't negotiate a faster speed on the test socket you won't be likely to get a quicker speed at all.

If the test socket syncs faster then something can be done. I removed the Bell Wire using this guide today and it's improved my sync speed when not connected to the test socket:

http://www.jarviser.co.uk/jarviser/bellwirenutshell.html
 
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