The slowest Sky MAX!

[finchleyjohn]

I signed up to Sky Broadband Max and was activated on 22nd May. I have had a slow connection ever since. I live just over a mile from the Exchange and have been told by someone at sky that I should be capable of achieving speeds up to 14Mbps, given the data available to them. All I really want is something more significant than Dial-up!

I've spoken to Sky, including three people in Tier 3. Their current thinking is that it is my Router, so they have sent me a new one, but I used an old router of mine that I know has no problems and the issue remains. I am plugged in to the test socket (ie the one behind the wall plate) on the only phone point in my flat. I have no extensions - just the Microfilter and the lead to the Router. I have tried alternative leads and Microfilters with no effect. Sky asked BT to carry out a fault check on the line, which they did and that came back with no problems. Any ideas? My stats are as below......

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 704 Kbps, Downstream rate = 416 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.0 8.0
Attn(dB): 38.0 24.0
Pwr(dBm): 15.4 12.5
Max(Kbps): 512 800
Rate (Kbps): 416 704
G.dmt framing
K: 14(0) 23
R: 16 16
S: 16 8
D: 8 8
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 14 23
M: 16 8
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 17.0666 8.6666
L: 120 192
D: 8 8
Counters
SF: 260179 260177
SFErr: 7 0
RS: 1105766 2211504
RSCorr: 666 4
RSUnCorr: 17 0

HEC: 5 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 4339521 0
Data Cells: 4113567 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 27 0
SES: 26 0
UAS: 44 0
Total time = 1 hours 14 min 52 sec
SF = 260179
CRC = 7
LOS = 52
LOF = 0
ES = 27
Latest 1 day time = 1 hours 14 min 52 sec
SF = 260179
CRC = 7
LOS = 52
LOF = 0
ES = 27
Latest 15 minutes time = 14 min 52 sec
SF = 52519
CRC = 0
LOS = 27
LOF = 0
ES = 8
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52989
CRC = 0
LOS = 3
LOF = 0
ES = 3
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 13
LOF = 0
ES = 10
15 minutes interval [-45 min to -30 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52931
CRC = 5
LOS = 7
LOF = 0
ES = 3
15 minutes interval [-60 min to -45 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 48810
CRC = 2
LOS = 2
LOF = 0
ES = 3

[Saturday]

Welcome to the forum

Unfortunately it looks as though you have a terrible line. If that's the best sync you can achieve with the test socket (you're not capped) then I'm amazed your voice calls aren't suffering too.

Can you hear hissing/crackling when using the phone? Rather than asking Sky to get onto BT I'd suggest going direct. Note however that they will only be interested in voice problems.

[finchleyjohn]

I don't use the land line much, but I've not noticed any poor quality when making calls.

How have you determined that I have a terrible line? What specific figures - I can use them when I speak to Sky/BT. Last Tier 3 I spoke to said that if the new router doesn't solve the problem - there are 2 things that can be done - either Sky engineers check the line from the Exchange to my router or they ask BT to check the connection between sky and BT at the exchange. What I struggle to believe in either of these cases is that I am the only person affected. I live in a complex with about 40 flats - surely my connection wouldn't be the only one affcted?

[Saturday]

How have you determined that I have a terrible line? What specific figures - I can use them when I speak to Sky/BT.

"Determined" is maybe a little strong - more a "balance of probability"

As I said before, BT won't entertain dealing with your ADSL problems only voice and the router stats are not voice stats.

However, in answer to your question:

• your attenuation is low (good) and would normally support a connection speed of ~8000-12000kbps depending on ADSL mode
• your noise margin is "normal" indicating you are not capped
• your max rate is only marginally higher than your actual rate, also indicating you are not capped
• if you're connecting at less than the potential speed and you're not capped then some physical problem is causing this
• 99+% of the time this is a line noise problem (the 1% is router/exchange equipment, microfilters etc problems)
• you get the same result with the test socket so the problem is remote i.e. your line
• your sync speed is <10% of the potential which is terrible
• therefore your line is (probably) terrible