Village broadband and high-speed optic fibre

[steevey]

I am with BT and find the service very good However im informed by BT that ( BT infinity ) which is high speed broadband is coming to Brookmans Park in December 2011 look on BT website   

[slimgym]

- I certainly wouldn't pay a big premium for 16 or 20 meg because I'd so rarely benefit from it.

It's a shame for the customers the sync speed isn't taken into account when it comes to charging. I pay the same for my package as someone who is actually getting 20 meg!

[slimgym]

I rang BT this afternoon and they say March 2011 or there about!!?

I just rechecked (I do it every now and again when the internet world seems very slow!) and it's now put back to 31st March 2012. I have found a few planning applications on the Hertsmere web site for the remote DSLAM cabinets in Bushey but nothing up this way.

[awill]

Hi all,

I finally had had enough of download speeds of 250kb at the top of Peplins Way and, after working with Sky (who ran tests, sent me a new router etc), they finally sent an Openreach (BT) engineer to investigate. My internal phone point was very old so he replaced it with a whizzy socket that separates the phone from the broadband without need of a splitter and much to my amazement he tested the line at 1.8mb. Now once I hooked up my wireless router I could only get 1.5mb, but still 6 times faster than before. Now sadly the speed has settled back to a consistent 0.6mb which is still much better than it used to be, but I will rattle Sky's cage once more on this. However, the engineer did impart some useful information. He did some work at the junction box which I think involved upgrading some cable. The speed at the junction box - which I understand is somewhere up near the top of Moffats, is 4mb and therefore the best anyone in the village can hope for is this speed, but presumably only if you are (metaphorically) on top of the box. Because the top of Peplins is at least 2km from the box then 1.8mb is likely to the best we far flung BP residents can hope for.

I did wonder if anyone else on Peplins benefitted from the work he did at the box - I know my neighbour is now getting better speeds (similar to my 0.6mb) - I am intrigued why I  had a glorious 24 hours at 1.5mb - perhaps if we all pushed our respective service providers then things may keep improving. I use the speed test on Thinkbroadband.com - if you set up an account you can track your speeds over time and you can send the link to your service provider if needed.

[slimgym]

I moved into a rented place Essendon and put the BT router where the other chap had his, it took hours to sync up and then only at 448kbps, it was truly awful and dropped in and out (said to be the reason he moved out!). I left it the three days they suggested and it had got no better.

Investigated internal wiring and found this socket (even though it was a BT Ppenreach master) was the last in line - the first was in a bedroom (also an Openreach master). Plugged into the first socket it synced at 2MBPS. I added a central splitter and a router you can tweak the noise margin ratio on and can now sync at 2.2 meg

Check on http://speedtester.bt.com which reveals your sync rate and your IP profile rate. BT's DLM will manage speeds up and down to increase stability. Some routers with some chipsets can over-ride this setting. I'd put up with an unstable line every now and again to get a bit more speed. Sadly this is all automated. Each line has a target SNRM usually around 6dB (you can see this in the stats on the router). Each time you power cycle it, you get a power cut or it drops out, the exchange can instruct the router to connect with 3dB more margin which impacts the connect rate (I find by about 300kbps). You can end up losing half your speed this way if you only sync at 2MBPS!

It should recover after ten days of stability. That for me would have been sunday, but we had a power cut

I see you're on Sky, they might be different and not use the same DLM as BT do but it always seems stability is the answer to better speed, just a shame there isn't a way you can disconnect the router cleanly so the exchange knows it's a planned disconnect.

[BrookyP]

Hi all

Just had the BT engineer round to sort my broadband and hes increased my speed from 1mb to 3.5 mb download speed which is great. Mimms drive area. He did this by switching the line pair that we use to another pair and this fixed the issue.

He also issued a new hub which will auto switch wireless channels if there is interference on the current channel

If anyone else has slow speed on bt this may be the way to sort it.

He said BT infinity will be available Mar 2012 and we should expect up to 30mb download in BP area.

ta BP

[Alex]

 

Good news, and thanks for the update

[Tailspin]

BrookyP, how easy was it for you to get a BT technician?  Could you contact someone directly in the UK or did you go through the hastle of calling their call centre, which I belive is in India?  I have had to go through the call centre, and all they try to do is fix it remotely.

[BrookyP]

Pretty easy I just stood firm with the call center in India.

 I let them go through the usual gumpf.

Have you re booted the router

have you checked the master socket

blah blah...just said yes in all the right places then they did a line check and insisted i could only get 2mb.

I said I had had 4mb before (sort of true!) they disagreed. I said i was going to leave and then they caved and  this guy turned up to sort it about a week later

He really was a gem and did loads of stuff above and beyond.

We could only get 2 mb in the house and I said to switch the line pairs over in the house and at the exchange. They did this and bosh-4.5mb at the master socket.

Once its got to my pc via main line networking its about 3.5.

 (ie the signal is carried to my pc via the electric circuit in the house-special plugs needed- then cat 5 from the socket) .

He was suprised as we are a fair distance from the road cabinet-which is at the end of mimms drive but proof was in the pudding.

I gleaned from the whole experience that the problem was due to the line quality i was on-ie the copper cable had an issue-we switched pairs and it was sorted.

He said the transmitter causes big probs for pine grove area-up there its 1mb!!

good luck

bp

[slimgym]

You did better than I did - I tried to explain that power cuts kept taking my line down and up, which drops the speed each time. They then did a line test which took it down and made is slower still, and to try and make it quicker, they wanted to change my wifi channel!!

Someone at work implied calling in the late evening here would get someone in Scotland rather than India, not tried that myself but I think it could be worth a go.

I'm sure though, from a business perspective, the Indian call centre solves and satisfies a high proportion of people but it's the more complex faults that take them away from their idiot sheet which will leave people dissatisfied.

[NMLHS]

Is March 2012 the time that the much publicised service reaches Potters Bar or when they have laid the cables to the pole outside my house (and everybody else in BP)? Or.... do we still have to wait another couple of years until we join what BT would have us believe, a majority of the rest of the country?

[BrookyP]

mar 2012 is when its online and available-cable laying starts dec 11-according to the bt man

ta bp

[fredkw]

Something seems to be happening to improve speeds.  I am on Bradmore Way and was living with between 1 & 2Mb.  Today I got a peak of 3.9Mb using my speed test.  Consistently over 3.4Mb.

3rd August 2011 17:24:26    673 Kbps    3913 Kbps
3rd August 2011 17:22:41    666 Kbps    3451 Kbps
29th June 2011 16:43:19    557 Kbps    2635 Kbps
26th June 2011 09:41:45    689 Kbps    1248 Kbps

Recent results listed above, trend is towards higher speeds.  I have done nothing to my installation over this period. Lets hope it lasts

[slimgym]

What speed do you synchronise at and what's your SNR margin? I'm south side of Essendon and I normally sync about 1.9MBPS with an IP profile (max rate) of 1.693MBPS (http://www.speedtester.bt.com will give you this).

If your sync speed is the same but your throughput has gone up suggests maybe you've been shifted to a different pipe within the exchange with less load on it or something like that. If your sync speed has gone up perhaps the weather has dried out some cables somewhere.

I saw planning apps for 12 telecommunications cabinets, no details on locations - it might be for Hatfield exchange though - but it might be the long awaited FTTC

[fredkw]

ADSL             
   Type    Interleave Path          
   Status    SHOWTIME          
       
                         Downstream           Upstream
         
   Data rate(Kbps)             3167Kb               937Kb
         
   Noise Margin             3                       8
         
   Output power(dBm)   126                       177
         
   Attenuation(dB)           60                       29

Figures from my router.

Speeds today nearer 2.9Mb

[slimgym]

Is that with BT? Nice to have a 3dB connect margin (which gives you a higher sync speed). These are my stats and I'm jealous of yours

ADSL Link   Downstream   Upstream
Connection Speed   1824 kbps   448 kbps
Line Attenuation   63.5 db   31.5 db
Noise Margin   4.0 db   7.0 db

My biggest problem is each power cut is assumed by the exchange to be a line fault and it increases the sync margin by 3dB and takes 300kbps off my already slow speed! I did ten days uptime at 1920kbps then a power cut and I was down to 1600. With a few commands into the Netgear I brought it up to 1824. Every little helps ... My quickest is 2.2 meg. Only ADSL1 though, too far for ADSL2+.

If you go onto http://speedtester.bt.com/ it will do a BT speed test but also it reports your BRAS or IP profile which is the maximum throughput you can get.

[Alex]

When BT get round to installing "Infinity" in our area does any one know if other providers will be able to use this as well, or is it exclusive to BT?

[Nonloso]

Does anyone have trouble getting a DSL connection? I've successfully used an old Netgear modem/router for several years. I recently bought a new one to upgrade to a faster wireless network, but the DSL light never comes on - it flashes and then goes off so there is no connection to the broadband provider (Virgin). The old router still works fine.
I've had this problem with a Speedtouch modem as well, many years ago, so I don't think it's the new router that's at fault. Has anyone else has come across a similar problem?

[Aidan Winwood]

Does anyone have trouble getting a DSL connection? I've successfully used an old Netgear modem/router for several years. I recently bought a new one to upgrade to a faster wireless network, but the DSL light never comes on - it flashes and then goes off so there is no connection to the broadband provider (Virgin). The old router still works fine.
I've had this problem with a Speedtouch modem as well, many years ago, so I don't think it's the new router that's at fault. Has anyone else has come across a similar problem?

I am also on Virgin and had some problems when swapping to a new router, it turned out there was too much 'hiss' on the line.  Called BT and they sent someone round to sort it out.  Might be worth calling them, if the problem is outside your house, it's free.

Aidan

[BrookyP]

if the problem still exists ask them to swap the pairs at the exchange.

It sounds like the adsl connection is not synching (shaking hands) with your router. most likley a noise issue on the line.

bp

[BrookyP]

when bt came to me he said infinity upgrade due to start 2012...

[Nonloso]

Thanks for your advice.
As is the case for everyone in BP the DSL line is long and noisy - BT have fiddled around with it in the past to no great effect.
After some investigation on the web it seems that some routers can deal with long and noisy lines better than others, and (more by luck than judgement) my old Netgear DG834G router is one of those that can. The new one (Netgear DGN1000) clearly isn't.
I suppose I will just have to stick with the old router for the moment and get BT to sort the line out at some point.

[slimgym]

I see SamKnows now has the RFS date as June, and the BT infinity site just says "2012". The long wait continues!

Also in the news today, USwitch has just released data showing the south of the country has slower speeds than the north. They also have StreetStats showing speeds around you, I think this might be the same data as the previous link here but is interesting nevertheless. When I did my test it added my result to the map.

There are some people right next to the exchange only getting 2MBPS!

[sasquartch]

There are some people right next to the exchange only getting 2MBPS!

You have to be careful not to take these figures completely at face value.

You could have faulty internal wiring or an old modem or some other problem that would have nothing to do with the ISP.

The general trend is clear from the figures on the Broadband StreetStats site, the further away from the exchange the slower the speeds (in general). Interestingly when I click on figures where I live it says I am 1978 metres away from the exchange which can't be right, even as the crow flies it must be 3km or so.

[Aidan Winwood]

Interestingly when I click on figures where I live it says I am 1978 metres away from the exchange which can't be right, even as the crow flies it must be 3km or so.

Perhaps they have instead taken to quoting the year that your broadband last matched the UK average?   

A

[BrookyP]

I have 4mb Down load and nearly 800 Upload in calder avenue area.

I was getting 1mb and 300 until I phoned BT. They said all they could to convince me it was fine but I had read on the internet that faulty phone lines (ie fractured/damp etc) can affect speed.

we had another line in the house anyway and they swapped onto this...4mb consistant ever since.

dont take no for an answer from these guys...if i am getting this and im about 3 mile from PB exchange then others can....bp

[slimgym]

I see SamKnows now has the RFS date as June, and the BT infinity site just says "2012". The long wait continues!

BT Infinity checker now updated to RFS December 2012 although SamKnows says 1/3/2012. Neither will be soon enough!

[Mr Green]

Has anyone elses broadband speed suddenly gone up?

I use http://www.speedtest.net/ to measure my speed now and again. A good day sees just over 3 Mbps and a bad as low as just over 1 Mbps. Last night I ran a check and wow - 5.9 Mbps coming into BP. This morning it was 5.84 Mbps.

[slimgym]

I see SamKnows now has the RFS date as June, and the BT infinity site just says "2012". The long wait continues!

BT Infinity checker now updated to RFS December 2012 although SamKnows says 1/3/2012. Neither will be soon enough!

SamKnows just updated to show RFS 31/12/2012 which mirrors the bt.com/infinity date ... another year will feel like an eternity, a few months didn't seem that bad!

[BrookyP]

jees!!

can live with 4.5 DL but friend pulling 30mb in north london enabling HD streaming etc.

still on the upside it is nice and quiet round here 

bp