O2 Line Attenuation

Seaniboy · 26 Aug 2009 at 11:06

So moved in to a new place recently. Thought I would get O2 broadband as I knew I had a long line length and thought £7 a month for broadband would do lovely. Before activation day did all the normal things - checked cabling, removed all bell wires etc...

On activation day get 3mb down and 1mb up, line attenuation is 63db. Happy with that to be honest, was only expecting to get around 2mb. Things are fine for a few days then all of a sudden the web becomes very slow. I checked the router stats and notice that the upstream has dropped to 50kbps and the downstream to 1mb.

After a few days speaking to O2 and with my internet completely unstable things had seemed to have settled down with my line back to 3mb down and around 1mb up. Now today the internet AGAIN starts crawling, I check the router stats and now have the following
-

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 96 / 1,860
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 11.0 / 17.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 36.0 / 73.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5.5 / 8.0

Anyone had anything similar? I have never heard of attenuation increasing so much! 10db!!!

tolien · 26 Aug 2009 at 12:39

Could have been loads of things. Lots of routers don't like reporting >63.5dB, you could have switched between ADSL and ADSL2+ (and be using more of the >1.1Mhz tones), something manual might have happened (either a fault or something else).

marmalade · 26 Aug 2009 at 12:51

Check that your wirting is getting the best signal:

http://www.beforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8152
http://www.beforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=49

Connect router direct to soicket

Your Power could be up a bit

My connection using a thomson 780WL with voip
DSL Connection

Link Information

Uptime: 4 days, 12:55:22
Modulation: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,226 / 7,387
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [GB/GB]: 1.74 / 1.35
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 23.0 / 43.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 7.0 / 10.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM

Seaniboy · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:28

Wiring is fine and router is in the test socket, so really rules out any internal issues. Thought it might be some interference like TV, microwave etc.. But all turned off.

Router was on G.992.5 before and still is - Also tried another router which actually reported 62db. It's normal to see a fluctuations 1db either way but 10db is mad. Even switching between G.992.1 & G.992.5 will normally only see an increase of 3-5db.

Seaniboy · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:29

Lol, just checked stats again. This is crazy -

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 922 / 3,500
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 18.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 38.0 / 63.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5.5 / 6.0

tolien · 26 Aug 2009 at 17:05

Interference would make some sense. A bunch of lower bins get blown out by interference, router manages to put a few bits in the upper bins it wasn't using before, attenuation jumps up.

marmalade · 26 Aug 2009 at 17:23

Does time of day /or night have any bearing?
Could just be a poor connection on rout to exchange. How is the voice side of the telphone check this carefully throughout the day - it would be good if something was found here as this is easier to get actionable by a BT engineer

Locky · 26 Aug 2009 at 19:03

I have never seen anyone post stats of 73 down attenuation before :O

Seaniboy · 27 Aug 2009 at 12:44

To be honest it does not seem to be at any set time. Just some days the internet is pretty much unusable and by the time someone from 2nd line support at O2 rings you back a day or 2 later the problem has gone.

LEK-89 · 27 Aug 2009 at 14:35

marmalade said:
Check that your wirting is getting the best signal:

http://www.beforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8152
http://www.beforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=49

Connect router direct to soicket

Your Power could be up a bit

My connection using a thomson 780WL with voip
DSL Connection

Link Information

Uptime: 4 days, 12:55:22
Modulation: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,226 / 7,387
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [GB/GB]: 1.74 / 1.35
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 23.0 / 43.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 7.0 / 10.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM

My O2 line attenuation is usually between 42-44db and the SNR is usually around 7 but the highest I've ever connected at is only 6800 but most of the time it connects at 6500, how come you can connect nearly a meg higher than me?

Thanks - Liam

Artest · 27 Aug 2009 at 19:54

I keep getting disconnected today. Stats seems normal, but sometimes the noise margin goes up to 100db :eek:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 12299 kbps 1118 kbps
Line Attenuation 33.5 db 17.2 db
Noise Margin 6.1 db 6.1 db

marmalade · 27 Aug 2009 at 21:14

LEK-89 said:
My O2 line attenuation is usually between 42-44db and the SNR is usually around 7 but the highest I've ever connected at is only 6800 but most of the time it connects at 6500, how come you can connect nearly a meg higher than me?

Thanks - Liam

I use an competitor Master Faceplate and connect directly to this with a single sheiled cable. This faceplate is in my hallway and the cable goes straight up the stairs to my study -10 meters long - and that is it!?

Locky · 28 Aug 2009 at 11:10

LEK-89 said:
My O2 line attenuation is usually between 42-44db and the SNR is usually around 7 but the highest I've ever connected at is only 6800 but most of the time it connects at 6500, how come you can connect nearly a meg higher than me?

Thanks - Liam

My attenuation is 42/45 db and I connect at just over 10mb, its depends on how goos the line is, what it's made of, ballance of the pair etc.

LEK-89 · 28 Aug 2009 at 12:24

Locky said:
My attenuation is 42/45 db and I connect at just over 10mb, its depends on how goos the line is, what it's made of, ballance of the pair etc.

Yeah I've only got standard equipment here at the moment i.e. all the cables originally came with the router and the BT socket is just a standard master socket. I am seriously thinking about investing in a BT iPlate, I cannot get one of those ADSL XT 2005 plate things as the phone & router is in the main computer room and the phone socket is in the living room so its all running off a 8m phone extension cable. Also I will be getting one of those Belkin RJ11 single sheilded cables to go to the router to the splitter. Hopefully then my speed will then increase from 6500 to around 8000kbps+ but it all depends as well as I am 1.45km from our local exchange.

Does anyone if it would be a good idea to upgrade to a better ADSL splitter too & which one?

Thanks - Liam