Unable to receive 8mb - problems with line in House

da4i's

Hi guys,

Have been trying to get my full 8mb speed that I am paying for .

But everytime I ring them and complain that I am only receiving 3.1 down speed most of the time, they tell me that there's a problem with the line in my house.

I am with UTV Next Generation, which is just a leased line from Eircom.

I really have had enough of it. I have attached some information that I am getting from my router, I was hoping someone would be able to tell me if the data represented below shows any signs of this 'damaged line' that I supposedly have in my house.

ADSL Link

---

Downstream

---

Upstream
Connection Speed

---

3104 kbps

---

512 kbps
Line Attenuation

---

43.0 db

---

9.0 db
Noise Margin

---

6.5 db

---

19.0 db

None of this means anything to me, hoping someone can help.

Thanks for all input,
Dave

Greylor

Apparently the quality of the exchange and the line speed into your house are two different things.

I'm on a non-NextGen exchange, so I should theoretically be able to get the 7mb speed with their best offereing, but apparently the house can only take 2mb, so they're forcing me to use the 3mb offering (they don't have a 2mb one).

It's all very fubar

Simi

da4i's wrote: »

Hi guys,

Have been trying to get my full 8mb speed that I am paying for .

But everytime I ring them and complain that I am only receiving 3.1 down speed most of the time, they tell me that there's a problem with the line in my house.

I am with UTV Next Generation, which is just a leased line from Eircom.

I really have had enough of it. I have attached some information that I am getting from my router, I was hoping someone would be able to tell me if the data represented below shows any signs of this 'damaged line' that I supposedly have in my house.

ADSL Link

---

Downstream

---

Upstream
Connection Speed

---

3104 kbps

---

512 kbps
Line Attenuation

---

43.0 db

---

9.0 db
Noise Margin

---

6.5 db

---

19.0 db

None of this means anything to me, hoping someone can help.

Thanks for all input,
Dave

The line stats you have posted indicate you are syncing at the max speed your line can support, in this case 3mbs.

The speed you can sync at is determined by your distance from the exchange, the quality of the line between you and the exchange and the quality of your internal wiring.

If the reason for your sync speed is either of the first two, put simply there is nothing you can do to improve it and 3mbs is the best speed you will ever receive on that line.

If you "should" be receiving 7/8mbs then i.e. UTV determined that your line should be short enough to support this speed, then there are a number of steps you can take to try to improve your speed.

First try disconnecting all phones, sky boxes etc. except for the dsl. Then recheck your line stats. If they improve, you may be able to get a bit more speed out of your line.

All phones, sky boxes, everything except for the dsl modem must have a dsl filter attached. Sky boxes are usually the main culprit in unexplained poor line stats.

jasper1

Dave,

Based on your upstream attenuation you would appear to be on a copper loop of around 2kms. Your downstream attenuation as a rule of thumb should be about twice your upstream attenuation. Downstream attenuation is measured at a higher frequency. As you can see this is not the case. The most likely cause of your high downstream attenuation, low download speed and tight downstream noise margin is that there is an issue in your wiring within the building. This could be an absence of splitters/filters or poor wiring.
Along with the earlier advice alsobear in mind if you have an alarm system with a dialler it could also be contributing to the issue.

The advice is to check at the first socket with all the in house telephone wiring disconnected and record your stats then

lucernarian

jasper1 wrote: »

Dave,

Based on your upstream attenuation you would appear to be on a copper loop of around 2kms. Your downstream attenuation as a rule of thumb should be about twice your upstream attenuation. Downstream attenuation is measured at a higher frequency. As you can see this is not the case. The most likely cause of your high downstream attenuation, low download speed and tight downstream noise margin is that there is an issue in your wiring within the building. This could be an absence of splitters/filters or poor wiring.
Along with the earlier advice alsobear in mind if you have an alarm system with a dialler it could also be contributing to the issue.

The advice is to check at the first socket with all the in house telephone wiring disconnected and record your stats then

Great post and well explained. Internal wiring is likely to be the problem here looking at the massive discrepancy between downstream and upstream values. Even with the high downstream value, the line should be performing better. Downstream signals are sent over a "bandwidth" going from 150KHz to 1100 KHz and the attenuation values suggest a fauty wire somewhere is excessively weakening these higher frequencies.


The modem attenuation only is a measure the strength of the signal at 300 or 400KHz and normally the signal gradually weakens as the frequency increases. The low speed suggests that the signal weakens dramatically as the frequency increases and that's often caused by corroded wiring, sockets or a cable with a really bad kink in it that's partially snapped or deformed the copper cores inside. Alarm diallers can have that effect on DSL but they tend to cause frequent dropouts and instability as opposed to an abnormally low speed.

I don't agree with what Simi said, in that I think this is a very fixable problem and also it's more likely that the problem is with the phone sockets themselves or the wiring between the sockets and the outside line. Also long extension leads are not good for the higher frequencies DSL uses. Grand for ordinary telephones though.

lmimmfn

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Great post and well explained. Internal wiring is likely to be the problem here looking at the massive discrepancy between downstream and upstream values. Even with the high downstream value, the line should be performing better. Downstream signals are sent over a "bandwidth" going from 150KHz to 1100 KHz and the attenuation values suggest a fauty wire somewhere is excessively weakening these higher frequencies.


The modem attenuation only is a measure the strength of the signal at 300 or 400KHz and normally the signal gradually weakens as the frequency increases. The low speed suggests that the signal weakens dramatically as the frequency increases and that's often caused by corroded wiring, sockets or a cable with a really bad kink in it that's partially snapped or deformed the copper cores inside. Alarm diallers can have that effect on DSL but they tend to cause frequent dropouts and instability as opposed to an abnormally low speed.

I don't agree with what Simi said, in that I think this is a very fixable problem and also it's more likely that the problem is with the phone sockets themselves or the wiring between the sockets and the outside line. Also long extension leads are not good for the higher frequencies DSL uses. Grand for ordinary telephones though.

go to the master socket, as a test disconnect the ring network and filter directly off the master socket( might want to try another filter also just its case the one you have is faulty ). Post your results then.

lucernarian

lmimmfn wrote: »

go to the master socket, as a test disconnect the ring network and filter directly off the master socket( might want to try another filter also just its case the one you have is faulty ). Post your results then.

Why would I do that?! The OP is having the problem.

Solair

In this day and age, you really don't need extension wiring at all in your house.

Just get yourself a good DECT cordless phone system with a few handsets.
Plug it in at the master socket to a DSL splitter and plug your modem into the other side.

Open the socket, and disconnect the extension wiring.
If you've new (post 2000) phone wiring, this will be connected to the back of the faceplate on the master socket.

If you've older wiring, with the Telecom Eireann beige sockets, you might need to trace the wiring back to where the phone line comes in and figure out how it's wired.

Irish phone wiring doesn't always follow the daisy chained master socket to other sockets methodology as we do not use 3rd wire ringing. You might find that all your sockets wire back to a junction in the hall or in the attic.

In general, it's not very complicated. The phone line comes in on 2 wires, these are connected to L1 and L2 on your eircom socket. Two wires go out to all the other sockets. They can be daisy chained, or connected in a star, it really makes no difference.

If you are re-doing your phone wiring and adding extension at any stage, just make sure you use good quality cable, also use decent quality sockets and other fittings. Do not use electrical wiring accessories that are suitable for 230V as junctions. I have seen these used in phone wiring here and they totally screw up the signal for DSL as they are not designed for signalling.

Solid core copper CAT5 (twisted pair) is recommended and will give you the best results. You can buy junction boxes etc in places like Maplins or some hardware stores.

If you need phone sockets, I would highly recommend the Legrand range. They're really easy to wire and are available in most electrical wholesalers.

da4i's

Thanks all for your help on this, appreciated.

Am going to attempt taking the master socket and removing all other sockets that are connected to it, and then try test my speeds again.

Will let you all know how I get on.

Regards,
Dave