Sky to perform a spot of ADSL line management on some 300,000 lines

[mrplant]

True.. I was on ADSL2+ before.. Is it likely this mode can be restored again, do you think?

Just curious.. Happy it is much higher anyway..

>>No worries - Glad its finally sorted for you. (thanks also to you know who are at Sky)

Yes thanks to whoever was involved there... ;-)

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

yeah, if CST do it!! 30 second job tbh...

[mrplant]

Thanks - I'll mention it to him when he phones tomorrow. I'll leave it be for now though .. If it ain't broken and all that.. ;-)

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

indeed!!

IF you're happy being in control of the line completely then just ask for the line to be set to the default Max profile...at least then you can see what's going on a lot more...

[Stumpy]

Originally Posted by IAmNotTheEnemy

the staff aren't the problem - it's the system written to process the DLM that's screwed!! still, all's well that ends well

I have to say that the chap I spoke to was very friendly - to the point where we had a good old laugh about it all. I don't have any problems AT ALL with the staff in the UK (other than one guy a while ago who simply told me porkies - but I guess there's always one ) - my main grouch is with the Tier 1 guys outside the UK. In my experience they are ALWAYS less knowledgeable, more difficult to hear (possibly down to telephone quality their end?) and more difficult to understand.

He did seem to suggest that he was almost as much in the dark about this DLM thing as the rest of us - kind of learning on the job. He had asked for more information about it from someone in the know, but it hadn't been forthcoming as yet.

One of the things that worried me was, when my DLM finished (apparently yesterday), the software at their end kind of just leaves it where it was - in my case under 0.4Mb. If I hadn't had this guy looking into it for me, he intimated that it would probably have just been left there. There doesn't appear to be any system in place that checks before and after speeds, and flags potential problems.

I did suggest to him that was needed, and he agreed, but whether it will be implemented or not is another matter.

He also said that DLM was a "one time per line" thing, it would last the 10-20 days (he suggested length of time depended on how often the router was switched off, but as mine was on 24/7 throughout, and yet went well over the 10 days, this obviously isn't the only factor) and once that training period was over, it would not happen again to that line. (I think I saw someone previously ask on here if DLM would be an "always on" thing).

Originally Posted by mrplant

I just had a phone call from a very helpfull engineer who wanted to know all about the problems DLM had caused, my equipment, online habits, sync rates, stability etc etc.

Probably the same guy ... he gave the impression there were only one or two of them working on the current DLM problems.

Originally Posted by IAmNotTheEnemy

you're on gdmt which would suggest why you won't go higher BUT at least you're working again though...

Mine has gone back to that also.

What is the difference between this and ADSL2, and why can some lines not manage ADSL2?

We have a date of Q2 2010 for 21CN switchover on our exchange ... would this make a difference?

[mrplant]

I was definately on ADSL2+ mode before.. (Musselburgh exchange , SKY LLU).
It supports higher speeds than ADSL 1 - but does depend on your exchange equipment being upgraded to it.. and of course your line being able to handle the speed.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

the 21CN is purely for BT to offer an ADSL2+ service, as Sky have LLU'd your exchange it's irrelevent (unless you wanna move to BT)...

ADSL2+ uses more of the frequency range than gdmt and is a lot more susceptible to distance/poor lines which is why only lines with an attenuation of around 30db and below will benefit...

[dmorrison]

Ah rats, I've been DLM'd!

Phoned Sky last night and was informed by their tier-1 support that my account was not one being subject to DLM (which seemed strange as my router has all the symptoms). Didn't want them to do any further diags on the line as my wife needed the internet connection last night and couldn't afford to lose it.

Just phoned them back tonight (tier 1 support again) they ran a check and informed me that DLM was in fact running on my line (started 5th June), and gave me a guestimate that it would finish (probably) tomorrow.

Of course until I stumbled upon this thread yesterday I was restarting my router regularly to clear what I thought was a local problem. Not what DLM needs to produce accurate results!

Just wish they'd informed me by email that this was going to happen.

Boo hoo! From over >2Mb to 1Mb to 768k to 512 in a few days. :-(

Anyway my stats below...

Uptime 130175.03 129308.55
Wan up 41211.70 40963.37
adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 1
Channel: FAST, Upstream rate = 412 Kbps, Downstream rate = 512 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: ADSL2+
Channel: Fast
Trellis: U:ON /D:ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 4.8 23.0
Attn(dB): 30.0 16.7
Pwr(dBm): 0.0 12.6
Max(Kbps): 4040 516
Rate (Kbps): 512 412


Cheers

512k Dave!

[Saturday]

Originally Posted by dmorrison

Ah rats, I've been DLM'd!

You may well have been but that's not the issue. Your stats clearly show that you have a line/wiring problem (ref. attenuation 30db, noise margin 4.8db but a sync of only 512kbps).

Were your line/wiring OK you'd have a sync of 8meg (on Mid) and a noise margin of 10db+. DLM could possibly reduce your sync to 512kbps but then the noise margin would rise massively to something well over 20db.

[john13729]

Thought you may like to hear of my experience of DLM. I joined Sky in Jan 2008, my line was capped at 7488kbps because of errors. I was more than happy with this, as it was far better than BT provided me with.

I fitted a ADSL Nation Master Faceplate and tidied the internal wiring with the intention of calling Sky to remove the cap, but this proved unnecessary, as DLM started on my line on 15 June.

Below are the results of DLM so far.

From January 2008 capped at 7488kbps Line Att 32.0dB SNR 12.5dB.

DLM kicked in 15 June

15 Jun 2008, Synch 8191 SNR 15.0dB.
21 Jun 2008, Synch 10239 SNR 12.5dB.
23 Jun 2008, Synch 12287 SNR 8.5dB. dropping to 4.8dB in the evening.
25 Jun 2008, Synch 10239 SNR 12.1dB.

I have now removed the bell wire from the master socket (pin3) and hope this may make an improvement to the evening SNR, with luck DLM may see a better SNR and put the speed back to 12287kbps.

I'm on the Dover exchange and it would appear that DLM is working properly.

--
John in sunny Dover