Slow speed or just average?

[plasmapuff]

Hi everyone,

I've just connected to Exetel's ADSL2+ plan this month after finally upgrading from 56k. Here's the result of my speedtest according to the members facilities.

Your current bandwidth reading is:

2.32 Mbps

which means you can download at 297.55 KB/sec. from our servers.

Just wondering whether this was a tad slow? I thought the average was 8mbps? Is there anything I can do to improve my speed?

Sorry for the newbie questions- first time with broadband.
cheers

[CoreyPlover]

Just wondering whether this was a tad slow? I thought the average was 8mbps? Is there anything I can do to improve my speed?

Can you post your modem's sync stats (i.e. the Data rate / Downstream sync, the line attenuation and the SNR/Noise margin). You can find this inside your modem's web interface under a status section. If you can't find them, reply with your modem model number and I'll direct you.

[plasmapuff]

Hi Corey,

Many thanks for the reply. I'm using the Billion 5200G at the moment over a wireless network. Here's what I could find on the status interface.

ADSL Firmware Version:
FwVer:3.10.5.0_TC3085 HwVer:T14.F7_3.0 (latest according to the Aus Billion Website)
First value is Downstream, second is Upstream

SNR Margin:
11.3, 12.1 db

Line Attenuation:
54.0 , 32.2 db

Data Rate:
3862, 550 kbps

cheers mate

[CoreyPlover]

Line Attenuation: 54.0 , 32.2 db
Data Rate: 3862, 550 kbps

These two items are not very healthy. A high attenuation indicates noise on your line and this lowers your sync speed, and therefore your transfer speeds. Based on http://www.internode.on.net/residential ... l/extreme/ a 54dB attenuation gives a maximum sync of just under 4Mbps which is what you are experiencing and hence your poor speeds.

The natural question is therefore: what is causing this high attenuation. The main cause is your distance to the exchange. This can be estimated (and I stress *estimated*) by inputting your address into http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/detail ... ystart.php. If it indicates a high distance (i.e. about 3.5-4km) then I'm afraid you are out of luck as your slow speeds are most likely caused by being too far from the exchange. Otherwise, you may either have a below average quality line, or the line may have a physical fault with it.

You can pursue a line fault via residentialsupport@exetel.com.au (they have more accurate tool to determine your actual distance just to double check your estimate) and may be able to look into it further. Post your distance estimates and I will provide some further comments

[plasmapuff]

Thanks Corey.

The distance is ~2.6km from the exchange. Is that considered far? Is it possibly due to filters? I've minimised the number of connected devices (just 1 phone) and have a filter on it.

So where to from here?

Cheers mate.

[Dazzled]

Your speed and attenuation suggest a line reach from the exchange of about 4 km. Is that likely, considering your direct distance? It exceeds what might be expected if you have a grid street layout. If you are in a hilly or outer area with irregular streets it might be the case.

[CoreyPlover]

The distance is ~2.6km from the exchange. Is that considered far?

So where to from here?

As Dazzled asks, is that the direct distance or cable length distance?

If that is your cable length distance measurement then there is a substantial difference between this measurement and your implied line attenuation. It is probably significant enough to warrant an email to residentialsupport@exetel.com.au. Quote your service number and these line stats and ask them to perform some line tests to determine whether your line sync is unusually low.

If that is a direct distance measurement, then your cable length will be higher, maybe 3-3.5km or so. This means the difference to your implied line attenuation is probably not significant enough to warrant a examination of your line and the more reasonable explanation is simply that you have a poor quality phone line connection to the exchange which is causing slower than usual speeds.

[plasmapuff]

As Dazzled asks, is that the direct distance or cable length distance?

Sorry, my original response was the direct line of sight distance (which in hindsight is probably not very useful).

Here's the statistics from the site:

Line of Sight: 2612 m
Estimated Cable: 3265 m
Estimated Attenuation: 46
Estimated Maximum Speed: 5000

So is there anything I can do about it then? I tried another test from the members website and only got 1.98mbps before (which is only marginally better than 1500k?)

Thanks for the help guys!

[CoreyPlover]

So is there anything I can do about it then?

Probably not.

As you can see from that estimator, the maximum speed on a connection of your distance is 5 Mbps. An average speed would be lower than this and you could easily have a phone line that is of below average quality, reducing your speeds even further. You are currently syncing at 3.8Mbps and I would say that this is a fairly typical sync speed for your distance.

With a 3.8Mbps sync speed, your actual throughput speeds will normally vary between 2.5Mbps and 3.5Mbps (simply due to congestion, transmission overhead that consume, say, 10% of each data packet sent, etc) and the odd speed test as low as 2Mbps is not unusual. Just keep an eye on it (possibly double check these speeds with http://speedtest.net) and if the tests continue to drop and end up consistently being around 1.5Mbps or lower, then you can log a slow speed fault via residentialsupport@exetel.com.au and ask for your line to be investigated. But otherwise there doesn't seem much you can do about it because it is just an unfortunate characteristic of your phone line and distance.

[plasmapuff]

Dang. Many thanks anyways mate

The speed is worst during the day (After 12pm). I was consistently getting speeds <2mbps (down to 1.01). I've logged a ticket with Exetel as you suggested to see what they can do about it at their end.

So ultimately it sounds like a telstra phone line quality issue? (which we can't do anything about?) Is there anyway to change exchanges as I think my neighbour 2 houses up from me is on a different exchange and gets speeds of ~7mbps (from a different ISP).

cheers

[CoreyPlover]

Is there anyway to change exchanges as I think my neighbour 2 houses up from me is on a different exchange and gets speeds of ~7mbps (from a different ISP).

No. Your physical phone line determines your exchange. You could try putting your neighbour's address into http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au and see if it indicates a different exchange or cable distance.