Poor sync speed - advice needed please.

[danbee]

Hi All

Hopefully someone has more of a clue on this than I do....

I used to be with o2 broadband (about a year ago). When i was I synced to the exchange at over 16Mb. All was well with the world.

Finally (don't laugh, I've had a busy year!) got round to having a look at my sky connection over the last couple of days. Here are my router stats:

2 days ago, 9pm ish (note that the noise margin edged up and stayed at about 4.5dB after I recorded this). The connection is not dropping and is very stable, as you can see:
System Up Time: 1451:45:24

Port	Status	TxPkts	RxPkts	Collisions	Tx B/s	Rx B/s	Up Time
WAN	MER	9373652	20142926	0	1475984200	2147483647	933:01:53
LAN	Up	8119184	3269705	0	1286519146	228347708	1451:45:24
WLAN	Up	21525330	15471150	0	2147483647	568867085	1451:45:07

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	10237 kbps	945 kbps
Line Attenuation	29.0 dB	7.9 dB
Noise Margin	2.4 dB	12.9 dB

Yesterday evening following router reset (note the increase in noise margin):
System Up Time: 0:01:14

Port	Status	TxPkts	RxPkts	Collisions	Tx B/s	Rx B/s	Up Time
WAN	MER	212	215	0	30117	29692	0:00:28
LAN	Up	432	32	0	89322	3180	0:01:14
WLAN	Up	861	928	0	313980	131113	0:00:58

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	10236 kbps	945 kbps
Line Attenuation	28.5 dB	16.8 dB
Noise Margin	7.4 dB	14.8 dB

Now looking at this I'd say 16Mb would not be unreasonable, and I know my line is capable of it since it was happy at this with o2. Checking the Sky website, it claims my line testing completed in July last year, 6 months after it was activated.

Could something have happened last July to make them hold back my sync rate?

Will my sync automatically increase now my noise margin is well over 6dB?

Do I need to phone Sky and ask them to fiddle with something?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

Going by those stats you're not getting 16Mbps - are these taken from the test socket?

[danbee]

Thanks for the fast reply!

I know it's not 16Mbps, that's my problem, I think it should be

The stats above are via the normal socket through miocrofilters (the house also has an internally wired extension). There is no difference in the test socket, or via an NTE2000 faceplate.

This is via the NTE2000:
System Up Time: 0:03:33

Port	Status	TxPkts	RxPkts	Collisions	Tx B/s	Rx B/s	Up Time
WAN	MER	4782	6866	0	1772097	8978334	0:02:16
LAN	Up	910	32	0	139851	3141	0:03:33
WLAN	Up	9149	7384	0	10448271	2065727	0:03:16

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	10239 kbps	945 kbps
Line Attenuation	28.5 dB	16.6 dB
Noise Margin	7.4 dB	14.7 dB

I didn't record results from the test socket, but they were pretty much identical.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

Looks like that's your lot then, bar a bit more on the upstream

[danbee]

So the line can support higher speed but I'm not going to get it.....

Presumably it's a down to poor quality router, poor equipment in the exchange, or a combination of the two...

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

It can theoretically support higher, the reality would say not

If the noise margin increases in the test socket then it's something your end. If not, then iffy router/exchange gear/both is to blame

[Scubbie]

Sky aims for stability with as little intervention from their staff as possible.

The ISP that supplies your connection at work will have other targets.

Since there are over 3 million customers on Sky's broadband I guess it works. It is true that there are some customers on good lines that would get faster connections with other ISPs such as ADSL24 or O2.

[danbee]

So, sky may have over 3 million customers, but here's the difference a phone call made. I have magically gained a 40% increase in speed. Nothing to do with which ISP I am with, more that Sky are now actually doing what they should have in the first instance...

ROUTER STATISTICS

System Up Time: 681:24:38

Port	Status	TxPkts	RxPkts	Collisions	Tx B/s	Rx B/s	Up Time
WAN	MER	7558451	10105251	0	2147483647	2147483647	383:45:51
LAN	Up	1031195	1563803	0	248267476	721694929	681:24:38
WLAN	Up	14968655	12751867	0	1430181198	1872633156	681:24:21

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	14013 kbps	1101 kbps
Line Attenuation	29.0 dB	17.2 dB
Noise Margin	6.8 dB	8.5 dB

Apologies for dragging up an old thread, thought someone might find it useful....

[Scubbie]

That is a nice improvement over your last set of figures.

P.S. Sky now have over 4 million BB customers. This was recently announced (end of July) but was achieved on 30th June.