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Thanks Mark, I think I am only about 8months into my contract. DD is popping down tonight to see if he can suss anything out. Cheers

Broadband seems to be slow mainly from the length of the line, apart from that (and after clearing the usual junk from the PC), the speeds seem about right. I'm highly suspicious about the router's downstream attenuation figures, they are much better than possible for the line length. I should have hooked up another router for those figures.

Distance of line: 1.7km

Estimated speed: 6Mbs (BT), 5.5 - 7 (Plusnet)

Measured speed: 5.8, 6.1, 6.2, 6.7 Mbs (four readings), originally 3.8Mbs at PC until junk removed.

Router's Measurements (two readings).....

Upstream
Attenuation: 25.2, 25.1 db
Noise 6.8. 7.1 db

Downstream
Attenuation: 12.3, 11.3 db
Noise 6.4, 6.1

Unfortunately I know very little about Android Tablets so was unable to clean any junk and perform updates on that (if indeed Android does updates?).

Line attenuation is a measure of how much the signal has degraded between the DSLAM and the modem. This is largely a function of the distance from the exchange. The lower the dB, the better for this measurement. Attenuation is logarithmic and each 3dB of attenuation halves the strength of the signal power received.

20dB and below is outstanding
20dB-30dB is excellent
30dB-40dB is very good
40dB-50dB is good
50dB-60dB is poor and may experience connectivity issues
60dB or above is bad and will experience connectivity issues

The standard signal attenuation spread for a given speed is somewhere in the region of 15-20dB for ADSL2/2+ speeds and 25-30dB for ADSL1 speeds. The following is a "guesstimate" of the line attenuation and maximum attainable speed based on distance:

Less than 1km = 24Mbit
1.0km = 13.81dB = 23Mbit
1.5km = 20.7dB = 21Mbit
2.0km = 27.6dB = 18Mbit
2.5km = 34.5dB = 13Mbit
3.0km = 41.4dB = 8Mbit
3.5km = 48.3dB = 6Mbit
4.0km = 56dB = 4Mbit
4.5km = 62.1dB = 3Mbit
5.0km = 69dB = 2Mbit

source

As you say something isn't right ?

The downstream is out of this world Attenuation: 12.3, 11.3 db
The upstream is excellent Attenuation: 25.2, 25.1 db

Not sure i need to check but i think those numbers should be closer to being the same (Attenuation)


After a bit of reading your SNR may be your problem for the drop outs.

Downstream Noise 6.4, 6.1

Higher SNR/SNR margin numbers repesent cleaner/stronger signals, with less background noise. The higher the SNR margin the more stable the connection. In some instances interleaving can help raise the noise margin to an acceptable level.

6dB or below noise margin is bad, it will experience no synch or intermittent synch problems
7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions
11dB-20dB is good with little or no synch problems (if no large variation)
20dB-28dB is excellent
29dB or above is outstanding

Note that there may be short term bursts of noise that may drop the margin, but due to the sampling time of the management utility in your modem, will not necessarily show up in its interface.

source

Note: For DSL, the further you are from the exchange, the lower your SNR and the higher your attenuation will be.

I need sleep now lol

I must have the upstream and downstream back to front.

Noise figure should be ok, I get 6.1db downstream and I virtually live in the basement of a telephone exchange (atten = 2.7db).

Both BT and Plusnet estimates of bandwidth for Dilly's location say 6Mbs and that was what he was getting, all downloads looked smooth and one of the bandwidth test showed a graph which was pretty smooth.

There was some junk on the computer which may have been doing whatever, you can spend your life trying to analyse what junk does - I just delete/remove/obliterate it.

There were a few pups, A0026795.dll had some infection and there was a weirdo, something like wavymoon (that's deffo not exact name). Kaspersky and Malewarebytes were both happy after I did all I could see and they did their bit.

Machine is XP, windows update had an update for sound card but I had to roll driver back again. Youtube (in firefox) came up with an error, bit of a head scratch as other flash things were working, then I spotted a sound card error in device manager - not normally my first port of call for a flash problem, I just hit lucky.

Many thanks to DD who spent hours sorting my computer out. I only wish I had half a clue what you guys are talking about . Sadly the internet didn't fail once while he was here which is very unusual for the time he spent here. Thanks again to DD, Mark and eeverybody on here, what a great bunch of people to have to call on. Thank you.

With out checking the log files

When you loose connection Next time !

1. Check the lights on your Router.
2. Has the Phone just rang ?
3. Have you used the microwave ?
4. Is it windy or Raining Outside ?

1. Confirms its a disconnection as the lights may be red.
2 -3 . Things around the home can disconnect WIFI giving the impression that its a router disconnecting.
4. The OutSide Environment.

Write your own log. As you can use this against the company when arguing the connection is unstable. And gives you the confidence to be sure of your answers and not fobbed off.

Hi Mark, the house phone is never used nor does anyone have the number so never rings. Disconnection happens whatever the weather and as for the microwave,well that rarely gets used as my cooking skills are as bad as my computer skills . Yes I will now start to log it whenever it fails. Just can't believe it never happened last night when DD was there but that's sod's law. Thanks Mark