Billion UK Forum

Hi. I've just upgraded my Orange (EE) internet package from G.DMT G992.1 package to WBC 21CN (ADSL2/2+) in order to take advantage of the faster download speeds. Unfortunately there is very little difference ( 2.5 to 3mbps ) which is about the same as with the G.DMT package. I've contacted Orange who say that I've got to wait for the 10 days stabilisation period during which the speed should increase to their assessed speed of 4 to 8 mbps and they assured me that I would end up with about 5mbps which is why I agreed to the upgrade which involves another 12 month contract. I'm new to all this so please forgive my ignorance. The Brightbox has now been connected for over a week, with no disconnections but my downstream noise margin has remained at 15.7db ( upstream 6.2db) and I believe this is what is restricting my download speed. IP Profile is showing 3.41mbps on BT speedtester. No extensions in the house, directly into master test socket etc. I asked Orange to reset the profile as I'm sure I've inherited it from my old Livebox which suffered from disconnections but they've refused to do it saying that it will reduce over time and speed will increase. I don't have any faith in that explanation and hence my post question ( at last ! ). I've ordered a 7800N which is being delivered by Amazon tomorrow as I believe I can tweak the SNR without having to wait weeks of being fobbed off by Orange. Is this a good idea to do the tweak before the end of the 10 day stab. period or should I wait and then do it. ( I'm thinking of trying to reduce it down to about 6db if possible ).

Noise Margin Down / UP 15.2 8.6
Line attenuation Down / Up 40.5 23.2

Appreciate any advice or suggestions
Many thanks .... Giz

I would suggest waiting for the line to finish the training period, as if you keep tweaking the SNR, the exchange will pick this up as ADSL drop outs, and may even higher your SNR to improve stability.

With your attenuation you should have been getting a connection sync of nearer to 7meg , even before the upgrade. I wouldn't have expected any downstream increase with the upgrade , although a significant increase in upstream speed could be expected.

Such a low sync would suggest problems with the line , like noise. Try the BT quite line test - dial 17070 & option 2. No noise should be heard, if you have an old analogue phone that would be best for the test.

The other point is that the BT profiling system can be very slow to react to line improvements and that tweaking the SNR will not necessarily hold any increase anyway.

The default SRNM for BT systems is 6dB btw.

Leaving things alone as billion_fan suggests is the thing to do as your poor profile has probably been caused by the Livebox disconnects. This was an issue with Liveboxs , the solution was often to turn off uPNP I believe.

Many thanks guys.

My 7800N was delivered a couple of hours ago so I've just got to resist the temptation to get it out of the box for a few more days!

If the high profile has been caused by the Livebox disconnects over a period of time, if the SNR margin has not changed from 15db
at the end of the training period do you suggest I ask Orange for a reset ( presumably to 6db ), or connect my 7800 and do it myself.

I have the option to migrate to Sky as they have LLU at my rural exchange but I'd be happy to remain with Orange if I could get
6mbps or more download. I've got my MAC code from Orange but I'm worried that they might try and hold me to the new contract
if this speed problem is not sorted out quickly. I only agreed to the upgrade on the understanding that I would get the higher speed and they
sent me the Brightbox as part of the upgrade package. Originally they told me I would see a significant increase in speed within 24 hours of
the upgrade but I realise now this was a ploy by their retention team to stop me from leaving them. I've been a customer of theirs since the days of Freeserve.

Between a rock and a hard place at the moment which is why I purchased the 7800 with a view to hopefully forcing up my IP Profile by gradually
decreasing the SNR. If the line was now good and the 7800 was used in that way, does the BT system learn from the faster sync speed and increase
the profile quickly or does it ultimately have to be reset from their end.

Again, apologies for my ignorance and any help or suggestions are really appreciated.

I forgot to add that my upstream speed has indeed doubled since the ADSL2 upgrade.

Do not use the 7800 to adjust your SNR at this stage, you need the BT profile resolved first.

I don't think that anyone can intervene and manually adjust your speeds as these are controlled by the DLM system which I think is a major failing with the way BT runs things.

I'm with Sky having had a couple of years with Orange. The Orange service was very good until they farmed out all their network to BT and that was before 21CN was available at my exchange. So I went from 14meg down ,1.3meg up (with no drop in speed at peak times) to 8meg down, 448k up & appalling speeds at peak.

Sky has been very good in the past year and they can jump in & set the line speeds which is helpful but now you must take line rental from them as well. They do get a thumbs up from me.

As for your contract with Orange I'd guess that if they can't up your speeds then they would allow you to leave with no penalty.