Poor Download Speeds....

[LD9289]

So for the past few months we have had some really poor download speeds, I was recently trying to download a file, and it was doing so @ circa 50 kB/sec...


Our router has been connected to a phone point which isn't the main socket, since we got Sky in Sep 2011. The connection was brilliant for around 5-7 months and since then we were unable to get any sort of decent download speed, this coupled with the download randomly "crapping out" and cancelling..

On Saturday (27/10) I moved the router from the socket which all our routers have been in to the main phone point downstairs, I downloaded a large file ~700mb and the download speeds were brilliant! The max I saw was around 700kB/sec, which is 14x better...

Now today I tried to download another file which is downloading at 50kB/sec again! So I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter which phone socket the router is plugged into, they are all giving us crap download speeds!

I think we were quoted 7mb on our line, and as far as I know we are on an unlimited service.

Could anyone give me any tips/advice on where to go with this as it is so frustrating!




System Up Time: 13:28:59

Port	Status	TxPkts	RxPkts	Collisions	Tx B/s	Rx B/s	Up Time
WAN	MER	395666	604660	0	1039	16598	13:27:47
LAN		0	0	0	0	0	00:00:00
WLAN		497522	318302	0	14058	716	13:27:37

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	6554 kbps	797 kbps
Line Attenuation	43.5db	25.6db
Noise Margin	8.2db	9.7db

[Scubbie]

The stats in the post above indicate that there may well be some room for improvement. Could you please confirm which socket that they were taken from please?

Could you also post the stats taken from the other socket so that we may see if there is any important difference?

As for which socket is which, can you confirm which type of socket is in which place? Do you have an NTE5 socket, much like the picture below (note the split faceplate)?:



Also, if the downstairs socket is solid, could you have a look behind the faceplate on the socket downstairs please? Are there any visible capacitors about the size of a AAA battery? (Do this for the upstairs socket as well if the faceplate is solid)

If you are unsure, please post a photo of both sockets, with and without the faceplate removed.

[Isitme]

From your stats it appears you are only using wireless, which could be the root of the problem. Have you tried speed tests with a wired connection?

[LD9289]

We've not tried a wired connection on my PC, it isn't really possible as we don't have a long enough Ethernet cable, my dad has got his PC connected via a wire, so I'll try and get the stats off of his PC now.

The router is plugged into a blank phone point, which is where the stats have been taken from, on my PC using wireless, I will move the router downstairs into the master socket and get the stats for that. Would it be worthwhile trying it in the test socket also?

Thanks guys!

[Scubbie]

Please do get the stats from both the Master Socket and the Test Socket. When you post them, please make each set clear as there can be subtle differences with each.

The router's stats will be the same whether you use your own computer or your Dad's. The only difference would be when doing an on-line speed test, which we haven't asked for.

[LD9289]

These are the results from the master socket, on my PC via wireless..

System Up Time: 00:01:49

Port	Status	TxPkts	RxPkts	Collisions	Tx B/s	Rx B/s	Up Time
WAN	MER	1603	2192	0	5597	37049	00:01:03
LAN		0	0	0	0	0	00:00:00
WLAN		3399	2645	0	54251	9889	00:00:54

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	7003 kbps	797 kbps
Line Attenuation	40.0db	23.4db
Noise Margin	6.3db	16.9db

I will go and get them from the test socket now.

[LD9289]

Here as the results from the test socket;

System Up Time: 00:01:06

Port	Status	TxPkts	RxPkts	Collisions	Tx B/s	Rx B/s	Up Time
WAN	MER	174	156	0	1849	3968	00:00:20
LAN		0	0	0	0	0	00:00:00
WLAN		1259	1157	0	62635	20418	00:00:10

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	7006 kbps	797 kbps
Line Attenuation	39.0db	22.8db
Noise Margin	6.2db	15.6db

When I took the faceplate off it looked like this....

[Scubbie]

They have confirmed what was suspected.

You would be better off connecting the router to the Master socket, but with the use of a filtered faceplate.

Looking at the figures, note first that the Line Attenuation on the Downstream side has dropped from 43.5dB to 40 then 39dB. This has a direct impact on your potential connection speed.

If you were to fit a filtered faceplate, this would isolate the internal wiring from the ADSL signal, but it would mean that only the Master socket could be used to connect the router as the ADSL signal will not reach the extension socket.

The difficulty now is how you are going to connect the computers to the router. There are several options available here. The more popular choices include HomePlugs and WiFi. One possible option would be to run an Ethernet cable behind the wall and through the loft. There are faceplates to help with this option.

So which faceplate to go for? There are currently two type to consider. The first replaces the existing faceplate and also requires an IDC tool so that you can rewire the internal extensions to it.

XTE-2005 Clone NTE5 ADSL Faceplate

IDC Tool , Simple tool to allow termination to IDC blocks

This is the cheapest option.

The second option is simpler but a little more expensive. The filtered faceplate fits in between the existing faceplate and the test socket.

BT/Openreach VDSL/ADSL Premium Faceplate - VDSL I Plate

This same faceplate is fitted as standard by BTO Engineers when they install Fibre connections.

[Shonk]

You gained 7db of upstream margin once you do what scubbie says
ask sky to either start dlm again or uncap the line