Computer Related > Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought Miscellaneous
Thread Author: rtj70 Replies: 16

 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - rtj70
This week I got my new BT Infinity broadband installed and it's plenty fast enough. Speed tests to European servers show about 37Mbit/s download and 8Mbit/s upload. So I am happy.

When the BT Openreach engineer was here he chatted about some installs. The old style 'star wiring' of homes for phones points he said can cause major problems with ADSL speeds. This is where wiring into the home is split at the junction box to various phone points around the home. Current best practice is to split at the main BT phone point.

So he installed the new data socket in the office after running the cable. And I got about 300Kbit/s download and a bit better upload! We retreated to the main phone point and it was the same. His diagnostic box said sync speeds for downloads were around 38Mbit/s so something was wrong.

At this point he asked if we had a cellar (which we do) and we found the real first junction box.... and it had a set of wires to the hall socket and another set going somewhere else. The extra pair of wires were disconnected and speed shot up on the next test to what I am now getting. He then asked what I wanted to do with those other wires!!?!? Well connecting them back up would cripple the Internet speeds.


So the previous occupants using ADSL must have had poor broadband speed too. Or maybe VDSL2 is affected more. But the engineer said star wiring is bad for ADSL broadband.

So after my rambling, anyone with poor/low bandwidth on ADSL broadband have star wiring for phone sockets? It would be easy to test the impact.

If this was your normal ADSL install where you stick microfilters in and plug in your own ADSL modem/router then you'd think that was it. But with a BT Openreach engineer doing the install we had his diagnostic equipment on hand. Note the affect of the extra phone socket wiring affected this big time - I now get 37Mbit/s+ not 300Kbit/s. And the VDSL2 modem has to go into the main phone socket whereas ADSL modems are often plugged into sockets elsewhere in the house.

Food for thought and maybe the reason some get such poor Internet speeds over xDSL?
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 10 Jun 10 at 17:50
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Dave_
My Talk Talk ADSL suddenly went from a steady 6.9Mbit/sec to 10.7Mbit/sec a week or so ago, I can only assume they've tweaked something at the exchange.
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Roger.
www.speedtest.net/result/843224253.png

For this I pay, inc line rental, around 64€ per month - rip-off Spain, anyone?
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Bellboy
yes but €64 is really only worth 10 beads
so you dun good landsker
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Zero
you need to beat the donkey harder, its not spinning the wheel fast enough
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - rtj70
I just tried speedtest to the same server but I am in Manchester (so distance is 900 miles). I got a download of 31.36Mbps and an upload of 5.65Mbps. But with ADSL etc. you cannot change the limitations of phone wires. Apart from the short distance to a street cabinet for the VDSL link (less than 200 feet) the rest of my connection is now fibre optic. And costs £25/month.

Picked at random, a speed test to Ghana gave a DL speed of 13.29Mbps and an upload of 4.25Mbps. Distance was 3200 miles (ish).
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 10 Jun 10 at 20:36
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Zero
How many times are you going to rub it in about your ruddy broadband speed!

Any more of this and some careless driver is going to knock your fibre cabinet over.

 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - rtj70
But the reason for this thread was until the 'star wiring' of the phone system was partially disconnected, I got less than 500Kbs. Therefore are there other members with slow ADSL speeds due to the home wiring? The previous occupants here would have probably had low speed on ADSL.

I'm obviously not the only one able to get BT Infinity. And if I went for Virgin Media I could get 50Mbps but the upload speed is capped at around 1.5Mbps.
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - John H
>> But the reason for this thread was until the 'star wiring' of the phone system

:-0 Zero is right, you don't half go on about it, mate, having talked endlessly to yourself here
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?f=6&t=891

BTW the "star wiring" thing is old news and has been doing the rounds on the slow internet for ages. :-)
Last edited by: John H on Thu 10 Jun 10 at 23:00
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Stuartli
>> My Talk Talk ADSL suddenly went from a steady 6.9Mbit/sec to 10.7Mbit/sec a week or so ago, I can only assume they've tweaked something at the exchange.>>

Yes, most likely as TalkTalk is upgrading ALL customers to "Up to 24Mb" speeds on its own LLU equipment.

See:

tinyurl.com/2cz6tmb or the broadband packages info on its website.

Incidentally, if you are on LLU and perhaps still restricted by DLM (Dynamic Line Management) on "Up to 8Mb", go onto the TT Members' Forums>Broadband Speed and Web Browsing and request a profile update. You have to register first.

The OCEs who look after the forums can do the changes for you and will follow up requests to further lower the sync figure (and other configuration if necessary) if you find connections continue to be stable; a slower but more stable profile is normally the Default by TT (and other ISPs).

My SNR is now down to 6dB (originally 15db) and will go as low as 2dB or 3dB in the later part of the evening. You will normally also get more upstream and downstream bandwidth.
Last edited by: Stuartli on Fri 11 Jun 10 at 15:13
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Zero
>> Yes, most likely as TalkTalk is upgrading ALL customers to "Up to 24Mb" speeds on
>> its own LLU equipment.

Not ALL, only ex tiscali customers who signed up to the new TalkTalk contract at an increased price AND agreed to a download cap.
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Stuartli
Well I've been a TalkTalk subscriber since April 2006 on the AnyTime International3 package (renewed three times now) and each new speed increase has been made available to me and friends and family who are also with TT.

I'm on the "Up to 24Mb" service and maximum connection possible is around 16.6Mb; this is helped by TT providing a free wireless router when I renewed my contract two or three weeks ago.

If you look on the TT websi9te, you'll see that both Essentials packages feature "Up to 24Mb" connections if available.

However, you have to be using an exchange that features TT's LLU equipment to benefit.
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Zero
NOT if you are an ex Tiscali customer, who has been taken over by TalkTalk.
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Stuartli
>> NOT if you are an ex-Tiscali customer, who has been taken over by TalkTalk.>>

Different circumstances I presume (I left Tiscali to join TT in 2006). Normally, if you go to My Account>Manage My Services, you can tick the Turbo Boost which is now Free, to boost your connection speed (IIRC it lifts the 8Mb cap).
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - lancara
Cough...and how about your connection speed to a certain motoring journalist's website - I bet 37Mbits/s doesn't help
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - Tooslow
ooh! Handbags at dawn :-)

JH
 Broadband over phone line speeds - A thought - rtj70
Takes just under 1s to load the HJ pages. So maybe 37Mbps does help. I assume there was no scripts running when I just tested it because scripts slow down all sites.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 11 Jun 10 at 20:05
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