Topic: UK broadband use reaches new high

[Clive]

Almost nine out of 10 UK net users are connecting via broadband services, official figures reveal. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7105242.stm

[Rik]

And some of them actually get above dial-up speeds! 

[Clive]

Mine rarely does these days!  Today is an exception as I'm getting 3 meg but 0.2 meg has been the norm these past few weeks.   
Good old BT. It was fine until I locked myself in for another 18 months. 

[Simon]

Surely it's only the first 18 months that counts as the minimum term, Clive?  You've been with then forever, so I can't see how you're still tied to them, unless you have entered into a new contract for another service.

[Clive]

Yes, I did when I signed up for Home Hub and a cut of 2 quid on my extortionate monthly charge.  At this point in time it's no big deal because Mrs Clive's employers pay the bill.  But I wasn't prepared for the debilitating drop in speed that has frequently taken place since I signed up.

[Clive]

Thought so... it's dropped to 0.234 meg.

[Rik]

Line stats?

[Clive]

Good heavens it's now leapt up to 6.208 Meg! Upstream is 0.448 meg. Data transmitted 68.78 Received 274.32 meg. 

[Simon]

 

[Sandra]

Must admit I am a little disappointed in my speeds since I moved to BeThere.co.uk
I was expecting around 14 to 18mbs but seems to be only around 11 to 12mb down and 1.2mb up.

Its a lot better and cheaper than I was getting off Pipex and I have had some torrents coming in at over 550kbps and a few downloads off MS sites at 1.2mbps, I had never seen the download window show anything in mbps before and thought it was slow until I noticed it was in mbps and not kbps 

I dont really understand the router stats, apart from the bandwith ones Rik but if you can make any sense of them here are mine :

Link Information
   
 
Uptime: 2 days, 7:04:35
 
Modulation: G.992.5 Annex A
 
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,152 / 12,328
 
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 613.58 / 757.66
 
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.0
 
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 15.0 / 31.0
 
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 8.5 / 5.5
 
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / µ
 
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 4 / 0
 
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 1 / 0
 
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
 
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
 
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 3,135 / 0
 
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 860,321,556
 
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 7,570 / 6,557
 
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 3,738 / 2,283

Apparently they have DLAM running or something like that for the first 15 days to try and get the best speed and most stable connection.
I think I am past that so may ask them to remove it as some people have noticed an increases in speed after they have removed their monitoring thing.

[Rik]

Hi Sandra

The DSLAM is the bit of kit you connect to, the monitoring is usually done by separate software - though I'm not that strong on LLU products.

For the attenuation you have, 31db, a sync speed of 12,328k at a noise margin of 5.5db seems pretty fair. LLU operators don't use the BT profile system, so your line is running as fast as it can.

The one thing that would concern me is the FEC error count. At 860M in 2.3 days, it's a bit high, and suggests you are probably losing some packets to noise, thus reducing your overall throughput.

How is your router connected, eg to the master socket, or at the end of an extension? It may be that a few internal wiring tweaks would help.

[Rik]

Good heavens it's now leapt up to 6.208 Meg! Upstream is 0.448 meg. Data transmitted 68.78 Received 274.32 meg. 

How about attenuation and noise margin, Clive?

[Sandra]

Its a router direct into the BT master socket via a splitter Rik.
The Be forums have suggested that some people try removing the face plate and connecting directly into the socket behind it so as to elimiminate any extensions to see if that improves things but I only have one extension so I dont think that would affect it.
Some have suggested disconnecting the bell wire can improve things as well.
A few people have mentioned getting high FEC errors but the Be people dont seem to be too worried about them for some reason ?
To be honest I am quite happy with the speeds I get but you know us gals, we always like a bit more than we can usually get 

[Reno]

Seems detached compared with the old school methods for keeping busy during a snow in. 

[Clive]

How about attenuation and noise margin, Clive?

Sorry Rik.  Computer says "no".