I upgraded to the "upto 8Mb" service in October once I learned my exchange had been upgraded and being told i could double my speed from 1Mb to 2Mb, with the so called free upgrades in future when they become available.
Within a couple of days I has a 2Mb conection and speed tests confirmed this.
However, talking to my brother-in-law who lives less than half a mile away, he claimed he was getting a 6.5Mb connection which dropped to 4Mb when he had 2 PC's on line.
I thought that was strange as the BT web site was showing me that 2Mb was the fasted speed available for my phone number, so I checked again and it still said 2Mb.
So I typed his phone number in and it said he could get 6.5Mb !!!!!!!
I then spent the next few minutes typing in friends and neighbours phone numbers and it showed speeds ranging from 2 Mb to 8Mb.
All the houses are within half a mile of each other.
I know they say the speed is affected by distance from the exchange, but these houses are all in the same area.
One of the strangest was a couple of friends living next door to each showed speeds of 2.5Mb and 5Mb !!!
It mainly comes down to the length and quality of your physical phone line. It's possible for your line to go a different route from your neighbours, potentially a much longer route meaning a much lower speed. Similar with the actual cable quality, if yours is for some reason poorer than your neighbours, maybe it's very old or has been upgraded for some reason then that too will mean less speed available.
There's not a huge amount you can really do about it. BT or any ISP won't really look at it because it's working at the stated maximum speed for the line. For the same reason BT are unlikely to upgrade the cable or reroute it when it works fine.
Out of interest could you paste in the line stats you're getting as they can help give an idea of things. Using a livebox they're on the system info page when you've logged into it.
ADSL firmware version : A2pBT009c1.d17d
Connection mode : G.DMT
Type : Fast
Noise margin (dB) : 7.1
Attenuation (dB) : 52.0
Attainable download rate (kbps) : 2912
ADSL status : Connected [0]
Downstream Upstream
Rate (kbps) 2272 288
I've also done some other research, which might give some clues to the wide range in speeds available, which raise some questions which those with more knowledge will be able to answer.
With regard to Elhana's questions, I am 1.74 Km from the exchange, (which is about 1 mile), according to www.dslzoneuk.net. My house is new built about 4 years ago, so I assume my line along with neighbours joins the main BT trunk at the same point, as it is a small development of 30 houses, not a massive estate.
My questions are :-
1. When checking my line against those with faster speeds, I find that my number in the exchange is ADSL enabled, but those with the faster speeds are ADSLmax enabled. Why the diference in the same exchange ?
2. When checking the exchange (Pontypool), it is flagged as red with work completed but testing going on with completion scheduled for 30-3-07. Could this be the answer to (1) above ?
3. The exchange is not LLU enabled for Orange, but is for other ISP's. What is LLU and does this make a difference?
4. Finally my Livebox stats above quote an attainable dowload rate of 2912 kbps. Does this mean the box is speed limted as this is faster than the speed i can currently get from the exchange ?
With regard to Elhana's questions, I am 1.74 Km from the exchange, (which is about 1 mile), according to www.dslzoneuk.net. My house is new built about 4 years ago, so I assume my line along with neighbours joins the main BT trunk at the same point, as it is a small development of 30 houses, not a massive estate.
That distance will be as the crow flys, the actual distance will be longer than that, take that only as a very rough guide. I once saw BT's own system get the length of a line wrong by 3 miles.
Quote:
1. When checking my line against those with faster speeds, I find that my number in the exchange is ADSL enabled, but those with the faster speeds are ADSLmax enabled. Why the diference in the same exchange ?
ADSL Max is just a different type of line, can provide faster speeds compared to the standard fixed rate services.
Quote:
2. When checking the exchange (Pontypool), it is flagged as red with work completed but testing going on with completion scheduled for 30-3-07. Could this be the answer to (1) above ?
Potentially but unlikely.
Quote:
3. The exchange is not LLU enabled for Orange, but is for other ISP's. What is LLU and does this make a difference?
LLU is where the ISP or another company on their behalf runs the equipment that deals with the broadband on your line. Can allow faster speeds or other specialised services on the line, primarily though it works out cheaper for the ISP to run it.
Please note LLU data can be sketchy and not always correct. As ISP's like to keep things to themselves a lot some don't have public data on all their currently LLU'd exchanges.
Quote:
4. Finally my Livebox stats...
Type : Fast
Noise margin (dB) : 7.1
Attenuation (dB) : 52.0
Attainable download rate (kbps) : 2912
Downstream Upstream
Rate (kbps) 2272 288
...quote an attainable dowload rate of 2912 kbps. Does this mean the box is speed limted as this is faster than the speed i can currently get from the exchange ?
Attainable is an estimate of the best speed available with the stats it has. You're either on LLU or an IPStream (non-Max) connection. IPStream (non-Max) is a fixed rate service running at 1/4, 1/2, 1 or 2 meg speeds, looks like you're likely on 2 meg IPStream at the moment.
The stats show your attenuation is fairly high, also the margin doesn't have much over the 6db normal limit that Max connections go for. This comes down to meaning you won't get much more from the line in it's current state. Wiring and connections within your house can majorly effect these stats but from the sound of it it looks like your and maybe some other neighbours lines go down either a different route or poor cabling to the exchange.
Also a note on max, providing that attainable was stable then you'd get a 2.5 meg data profile, not that much higher than you're on right now. Could get higher but there is the potential for it to be no higher and less stable.
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