BT Speedtest

[Tute]

How do I fix this?

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 256 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 150 kbps

It's terribly slow, is it my router or do I have to phone them?

It's supposed to be their "unlimited" service.

 

[Tute]

Lonz, You have a rubbish speed because your profile is very low. Call BT up and ask them to reset it.

Tute, your speed is rubbish, because your sync is very low. Raise a fault with BT. In the mean time, try using the test socket, change your filters and make sure there is a filter on every line in your house (Incl. sky box.)

There is a filter on every line in the house.

What's the test socket?

I thought i'd ask on here as if I ring BT up, i'm not sure what to ask for. I don't want them fobbing me off with "you have a virus" crap like they tend to do to their customers.

[Edit] Do these stats help? I got them off my router.

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 736 448
Noise Margin 13.9 dB 12.0 dB
Line Attenuation 11.5 dB 7.5 dB
Output Power 12.5 dBm 16.4 dBm
K (number of bytes in DMT frame) 24 15
R (number of check bytes in RS code word) 16 16
S (RS code word size in DMT frame) 8 8
D (interleaver depth) 4 4
Super Frames 653396 653394
Super Frame Errors 6668 27
RS Words 5553870 5553849
RS Correctable Errors 569308 32385
RS Uncorrectable Errors 14474 0
HEC Errors 4557 0
OCD Errors 0 1
LCD Errors 0 1
ES Errors 0 0

Line Mode G.dmt Line State Show Time
Latency Type Interleave Line Up Time 00:03:05:34
Line Coding Trellis On Line Up Count 4

 

[Tute]

Your attenuation is better then mine and I get the full 8meg. Not under 1meg.

I'm not an expert on the errors thing, but they look high someone can confirm if they are or not.

Do you have a spare router you can test your connection with? Maybe borrow a friends one?


What you need to do when you call them is say, "I wish to log a fault on my line" they will reply with something like "whats the problem..." say you have a low attenuation with a high noise margin yet your syncing at a low speed. You have changed your filters, tried a different router (when you have done so) and the problem is not to do with software. After a bit they will send a BT engineer out to test your line.

Cool.

I have a BT HomeHub here somewhere, i'll give that a whirl. I'll also see if I can find the original modem and check it with that just to be sure.

I assume BT don't charge me to send out an engineer to fix their line?

 

[Tute]

UPDATE

After firing several emails back and forth, BT arranged a time to call me. They then went through the usual, resetting the router, clearing the internet cache, etc.

Then the original guy elevated me to another person, who went through the process with me of taking the front off the BT box, and plugging the router into the test socket, and running tests. No change in speed.

So now he's going to put me through to an engineer, they've arranged to call me back in a couple of hours.

Is this a good sign?

 

[Tute]

Heh. Woke up this morning, and CHA-CHING!

It seems if you harass them enough, BT do listen.

 

[Tute]

Sure. I knew all ISPs use BT hardware but i didnt know exactly where the IP Profile gets set.

Great. So i can blame BT for fiddling with my connection then?

Well given that BT Wholesale are responsible for some of the equipment in many ISP cases, any fault you report has to be investigated by both your ISP and BTW.

Whilst I had success with harassing BT to sort out my connection, given the amount of problems seen on these forums, I hope none of you ever have a connection fault somewhere in BTW's equipment. They're not exactly "quick".

 

[Tute]

Actually you went about it the wrong way.

If you ring up BT Faults and report a voice fault they usually send an engineer out straight away (they'll do a line test first but if you're firm and insist that there is still a problem they'll send someone out - although they'll mention if no fault is found then they'll charge you).

When the engineer comes be nice and you'd be suprised how helpful they can be (offering Tea can help too )

In fact I had a funny dial tone the other day which I suspected was linked to an inconsistent broadband connection.. rung up Friday evening, Saturday morning the engineer arrived.. checked the line card at the exchange (no fault) and eventually tracked and found the problem was a bad length of cable up the road.

Ringing BT Broadband technical support (if they aren't your ISP) is no good as you will get told to ring your ISP, and if they are your ISP you'll get passed from one Indian-script-monkey to another.

Well I didn't "harass" in that I yelled, more I kept on at them, kept sending emails and didn't let them forget about me until they sorted it out.

Whatever it was, they didn't send an engineer round.

 

[Tute]

Remember me?

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 250 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 512 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 199 kbps

It's a good thing you can't swear, because i'd fill this post if you could.

I am so angry at this bunch of ******* spanners, i'm back where I was.

BT had better sort this out within the next 48 hours or i'm going to ring up and give them what for.

 

[Tute]

Well I have a HomeHub here but I think plugging that in would make things worse.

Also, if it's not BT who are at fault here, how come last time when I was getting a bad sync, they were the ones who fixed it?

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 512 448
Noise Margin 17.0 dB 14.0 dB
Line Attenuation 11.5 dB 7.5 dB
Output Power 12.4 dBm 15.1 dBm

I've just run around the house and replaced all the filters (luckily I have a big box of them) but it's still syncing at a low speed. Connection isn't dropping at all, but there's a fair delay when loading webpages.

 

[Tute]

Did an engineer come out to fix it? Because sync is to do with the link between you and the exchange and not ISP based.

No engineer came to the house, no. Should they have?

 

[Tute]

Can I get a B-U-M-P?

I'm not having much luck getting BT to play ball.

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8096 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 449 kbps

This suggests a stuck profile.

Last I heard an engineer was going to call me back within 48 hours. Didn't happen. I chased it, and was made to do all the "reset router, clear cache, check cables" thing again, and then told an enginner would call me back within 48 hours.

Well it's been 4 days now and no call. Is there some way I can just tell them to reset my goddamn profile, without having to talk to some non-existant engineer about it, and having to test all my equipment multiple times?

I wish there was a BT phone number where you could ring up, get your profile reset, and be on your way.

 

[Tute]

For the FOURTH time in about 7 weeks, i've been stuffed back on 512K.

Whenever I ring BT and get it sorted out (after an hour on the phone with them blaming my equipment) it will stay at about 7MBit for 1-2 weeks, then it simply goes back to 512K again.

Like tonight, was surfing, router crashed totally. Rebooted it, wouldn't sync. Checked connections all over the house. All fine. So I waited. After about 20 minutes, the router synced and all was back up.

Speedtest reveals i'm back on 512K.

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 608 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 412 kbps

Why does this happen to me? No LLU, no option to switch. I really don't want to have to go through all the **** with another Indian call-centre monkey.

Please someone help me before I go mad.

 

[Tute]

Because of the rate you're connect at:


The nearest profile step to 608kbps is 512kbps.

The way to fix it is to stop whatever's causing your connection to screw up.

And er... how do I find that out?

Any idea as to what it could be?

And why do I get 7MBit sometimes if something's screwing my connection up?

 

[Tute]

Do you have a filter on everything in the house including the sky box?

Tried the test socket? http://www.dslzoneuk.co.uk/socket.php?type=html

Tried swapping filters around?

Yeah, checked and changed all filters the last time this happened.

It's always plugged into the test socket as the front plate on the BT box is broken and if screwed in, won't sync at all.

Would posting my noise ratios help?

 

[Tute]

Crystal ball?

I seem to have misplaced mine. You got one spare?

 

[Tute]

I don't have any before stats.

This is now:

Line Mode G.dmt Line State Show Time
Latency Type Interleave Line Up Time 00:00:57:21
Line Coding Trellis On Line Up Count 7

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 608 448
Noise Margin 18.7 dB 15.0 dB
Line Attenuation 11.5 dB 7.5 dB
Output Power 12.4 dBm 15.8 dBm

I have wondered if there's a fault somewhere, would getting an engineer round help at all?

Oh, and I think I have a magic 8-ball somewhere for emergencies.

 

[Tute]

Not unless you want to risk having to pay for his time with out doing what I said above.

I've disconnected everything except the connection to the router. I've swapped the filter between the master socket and the router for a brand new one (was in sealed box).

Now connecting at 1.5MBit with 500K profile.

 

[Tute]

Not here, just very heavy rain.