Router Noise Margin too low?

[Freakbro]

I've recently (well, over a month ago) upgraded my line to ADSL2+ for the 'up to 20mb' service with Plusnet.

I was getting ~6mb speeds on the up to 8 service, so was expecting ~16-17 on the new upgrade. Depending on what service I use, Speedtest consistently reports around 11-12mb download speed, but while d/l a game off steam I have seen 1.8mbps (briefly ) while 1.6mbps is common off steam.

But the more annoying thing is while working and streaming internet radio, I seem to get a lot of micro drop outs, where it loses the connection and thus music for a few secs before it comes back on. Well, it never did that with the old up to 8, it was as solid as a rock.

So I have been looking at the Router stats (the ubiquitous netgear DG834) and :
Sync speed is 18027kbps down / 444kbps up
Line Attenuation is 21.0db down / 10.2db up
Noise Margin is 3.2db down / 30.4db up

Thats a hell of a difference in Noise margin between down and up!

Is the down SNR at 3.2db too low? I read that ~6.00db is normal and too low can cause errors, would this be what is causing the internet radio to drop?

Is it worth me ringing plusnet and trying to get that increased and while I'm at it does the up SNR need reducing?

 

[Freakbro]

I don't think I'm plugged into the test socket, that's the one inside the socket you access by taking the front off?

I'm just plugged into the front of the main socket. I haven't heard of a faceplate filter, will look into that as well.

I'm luckily not very far away from the exchange, under 300m iirc

 

[Freakbro]

Just tried the test socket, exactly the same speed and router statistics as when plugged in the front.

I do get very different speeds depending the the test site I use though
Speedtest.net is saying ~9.5 atm (usually ~10-11)
Broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk is saying ~12.5 atm (first time I've used it)

I'll try a different Dongle now but will order one of those faceplates anyway, only seemed a couple of quid from the rainforest.



Edit: Different dongle same speeds - which I'm not that unhappy with, but you know we all want as fast as possible!

Will try the faceplate then chat to ISP if I still get the micro drop outs.

Thanks for the help