BT speed 'stuck' on 1mb

airmyx

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I signed up for a "fixed" 2mb line in 2004. From day one I received around 1mb.

Sometime in 2006/2007 I was auto-migrated over to BT Total Broadband Option 3 "up to 8mb" but to this day STILL only receive 1mb.

BT's "line estimator" on their website says I should be able to receive up to 5mb on my line (BE say up to 7mb with their ADSL Max)... A couple of years ago, BT reported a capability of 3mb.


Speedtester.bt.com told me this just now:





Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:
help.jpg




-provides background information.
Your DSL connection rate: 1152 kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 288 kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP profile for your line is - 1000 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 906 kbps

Which seems pretty accurate. I get a constant 115KB/s when downloading from http.

Apart from P2P/Torrent use, I do not experience any traffic shaping, I get 1mb any time, day-or-night.


What is going on? I've heard about "stuck line profiles" but I've also heard that getting a call centre to understand or entertain the idea is like getting blood from a stone.








Things I have done so far which have had absolutely NO effect:
  • Used a Homehub and Netgear Router
  • Switched all my Microfilters for new ones
  • Plugged straight into my 'master' socket.
  • Removed the "bell wire" from my 'master' socket.
What should I do now?

And if I were to simply change ISP, would it likely be any better with someone else?
 
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That sounds like a setting at the exchange, they can control the rate (usually to compensate for poor lines).
 
(BE say up to 7mb with their ADSL Max)

That's ADSL2+, ADSL Max is the Up to 8Mbps packages.

With your IP Profile download being exactly 1000kbps and your upload being exactly 288kbps, I'd say it's certain that you're set to the wrong package.

I'd contact your ISP and explain the situation, they should be able to get you sorted out.
 
You're syncing at 1152 so either your on a fixed one meg connection (ie DSL max is not enabled) or your unlucky and you have a lot of noise on your line.

It doesn't look like your BRAS profile is stuck as your profile is right for your sync rate. Normally if you have a stuck BRAS profile you sync at a higher rate but have a profile at a lower incorrect rate for your sync speeds.

I had a stuck profile on my line when I first tried to switch from a fixed 2MB connection to ADSL Max with Tiscali. I was getting 8MB sync but only 2MB throughput and my line profile was 2MB. The only way I got it unstuck in the end was to leave Tiscali which is easier said than done.

Try unplugging all your phone extensions and plug the router / modem into the master socket on its own and repeat the speed test. If your connection speed increases you need to look at your internal extension wiring. Note your line profile and throughput won't increase with your connection speed as you need to reliably connect at the higher speed over a period of time before these get automatically upgraded by the exchange.
 
I agree with post #4 except you need to connect to the TEST Socket of the Master Socket in order to eliminate the effects of internal wiring.

Reboot your router, if the Line Rate immediately increases you have problem with your internal wiring; if it does not call BT.

An IP (BRAS) Profile takes three days to rise in line with the Line Rate
 
Thanks for the advice so far, guys

When I removed the bell-wire from my master (test) socket - I tested my router there and the stats were the same.

Will do it again today just to be sure but I guess I'll be contacting BT...

Will it be less hassel to use the email contact form for technical support rather than trying to explain to Indian Telecom over the phone?
 
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Can you have a look at someting for me and report your findings back on here, it won't fix your issue but it will give me a clue to where the problem lies.

Can you plug in your home hub into the broadband connection and boot it up and wait until the broadband light goes blue.

Can you then connect up to its web page using IE the address is: http://192.168.1.254/

Please then go to the settings tab and enter your admin password and press OK. If you haven't logged in before the password is on a sticker on the back of the hub and you will be prompted to change it after you log in.

Can you then select Advanced Settings on the far right located below troubleshooting.

A warning screen will come up, click continue to advanced settings.

Now select broadband which is located below services.

This will display a screen with some connection data and IP settings.

Now select the ADSL tab and post everything you see under ADSL settings onto this forum. I'm particularly interested in the Noise margin as this will give us a clue as to whether you have a noisy line or whether there is still spare capacity. If your noise margin (down) is high ( > 10 ) then you have spare capacity on your line, the higher the number the better your line will run when its fixed.

If it is around 6 - 10 then it is likely that your line is poor quality and 1MB is as fast as it can go. ADSL max always connects at the highest speed it can achieve with a noise margin close to 6 but never less than 6.

This is what mine says:

Line state Connected
Connection time 0 days, 20:00:49
Downstream 7,808 Kbps
Upstream 448 Kbps


ADSL settings
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation ITU-T G.992.1
Latency type Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up) 7.3 dB / 21.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 34.0 dB / 20.0 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 19.8 dBm / 12.1 dBm
 
Hi, had a look but apparently those details are not available on my Home Hub 1.0.

After a tiny bit of Google-ing I found something called "RouterStats-Lite" which is currently reporting my connection speed as 1152kbps with a Noise Margin of 25.5dB

Is that of any use?




Also - I recently plugged Hub into my Master (Test) Socket and all connection information was identical. (Bar a change in the 'actual' throughput on BT Speedchecker from 906k to 911k - although I imagine that's just a natural fluctuation?

Strangely, "BT Broadband Line Checker" estimates my TELEPHONE NUMBER as 'capable' of 5.5mb whilst my POSTCODE only says 3mb....
 
The noise margin figure of 25db is good news, it means that your line can run at a much higher rate, probably somewhere near the 5MB their line estimator gives you.

I think your line must still be configured for a fixed speed 1MB service, time for some phone calls to India I think. The good news is that it should be relatively easy to for them to fix the issue once you've got them to understand what the problem is (easier said than done).

My experience with the BT India call centre is some people there are OK and listen, and some don't especially when you phone up to complain about a speed issue. Don't be fobbed off with the stock answers about 8MB only being a theoretical max etc... and if you get nowhere, politely hang up and redial, hopefully you'll get someone more helpful, push for them to do a line test if you can.

Good Luck
 
Strangely, "BT Broadband Line Checker" estimates my TELEPHONE NUMBER as 'capable' of 5.5mb whilst my POSTCODE only says 3mb....
It isn't really strange at all. Post Codes are for delivering letters not estimating ADSL Line Rates. BT's database uses the middle of the Post Code, and I know some really big ones, and so it isn't surprising that it is not very accurate.

In fact BT counsel against using the Post Code if you have telephone number. It is for use in last resort only.

Additionally, both estimates are based on 'as the crow flies' distances and tend to be pessimistic as the system does not know the actual line length nor the state of the cabling.
 
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It isn't really strange at all. Post Codes are for delivering letters not estimating ADSL Line Rates. BT's database uses the middle of the Post Code, and I know some really big ones, and so it isn't surprising that it is not very accurate.

Ah, I thought it would be looking at the whole code. I know the full postcode refers to my estate (57 houses) only...

Interestingly, I tried a few of my neighbours numbers in the estimator and one came back 3mb, one as 1mb and one said "Broadband is not available on your line" ! :eek:


@Mikel543 - thanks for your help. Now I can speak to BT armed with the line-noise data too :)
 
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Don't bother with the overseas call centres, best way to solve is to use the "contact us" part of the BT website but use the "I want to complain" subject at the bottom of the list on the right hand side BT.com | Contact BT this puts your email through to a higher customer services level and things actually get done with little pain :smashin:
 
Spoke to BT India last week. Got a few script-robots at first but eventually got someone willing to listen and put through to the Technical Faults Dept They then achnoledged it wasn't a problem on my end and sent 2 Openreach engineers out.

Once they were here, they discovered my line was enabled for DSL Max but was being capped at the 'old' 1mb connection rate.

After a few calls to their base (and then there base complaining to BT India who apparently should have seen this information on their screens every time they pulled the information up for my account!) - the line was opened up within about 10 minutes.

Took about 12 hours for my IP profile to update but this is what i'm getting now:

Your DSL connection rate: 5568 kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP profile for your line is - 4500 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 4082 kbps



Should I be concerned that my actual IP throughput is half a meg under the IP Profile, or that the IP Profile is a full meg behind the sync rate? Are these differences typical of DSL max connections? The Openreach technicians told me the cable length to my exchange is 3400m...


Eiither way - I'm getting around 530kB/s download speed now (compared to 115kB/s before!) so well chuffed.


Anyway, thanks to Beerhunter & Mikel for your knowledge and advice!

 
I agree with the Openreach people. That gang of muppets in India seem to be getting worse - if that is humanly possible.

Your IP Profile is spot on for that Line Rate. You only need to go little faster (c.100 Mb/s) to get to the next level (5000 kb/s). So try the Test Socket again to see if you can get that line rate up a little.

The Throughput number will alway vary a little but will always be just under the IP Profile. So try that Test Socket.
 
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Glad your up an running at the proper speed. :D

As beerhunter has already commented your IP profile is correct. They always set your IP profile lower than the line sync to prevent bottlenecks from forming on their network.

Actual throughput depends on several factors including how busy their network is at the time you run the test. IMHO 4 meg is a reasonable transfer rate for your IP profile.

Enjoy your ADSL at its uncapped rate. :) Just a shame it took a visit from the Openreach guys to get it sorted when the call centre lot should have fixed it remotely in 10 minutes.
 

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