Another speed thingamybob

[djkarlos]

Hi all

I have just joined ADSL24 (24 hours ago) having left behind a fast connection with Freedom2Surf. I only changed because the prospect of more offpeak hours and larger allowance for the same price seemed like a good idea, that and Tiscali are gradually taking over and making things bad!

I know about the whole IP profile business and it may be what's giving me a less than stellar speed on my line.

Here's the situ, prior to the weekend I synched at 8128 and normally managed to achieve 830KB/s at quiet times. The winds came and caused problems, suddenly I'm synching at 4500 with downloads at around 380KB/s. Rebooted a lot of times but no change on Sync. Realised then that the phone in the house wasn't working even though the broadband was. BT came and fixed the phone yesterday which turned out to be a broken wire just outside the house. Yesterday was also the day I migrated across to ADSL24.

This morning I did some tests but even though my sync rate is back up to 8128 my speed is not back up to 830KB/s, more like 670KB/s. I am hoping that it is a profile issue and that 2 or so more days time I will get my 830KB/s back... According to BT seedtest:
Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 4869 kbps

Says that the profile is 7150...

here's my router stats

Downstream Rate: 8128 Kbps
Upstream Rate: 448 Kbps
Downstream Margin: 12 db
Upstream Margin: 21 db
Downstream Line Attenuation: 9
Upstream Line Attenuation: 6
Downstream Transmit Power: 17
Upstream Transmit Power: 11

I guess I just want some re-assurance that my 830KB/s will return otherwise I might have to consider going back to F2S... :eek:

[catcha]

Hi ,
Are you saying that youve just migrated from F2s 24 hours ago ..?? if so...

Im in exactly the same boat also having left F2S on a constant over 6meg download expecting at least equal service but here I go into second weeken with poor streaming and general speed.
I have just had an update from Enta who are insisting that EVERYONE including migrations goes through a 10 day retesting and that during that time the connection maybe capped at 2meg.

They are also insisting that despite ADSL24 raising issues they will not raise a fault until the 10 days are up.

Seems to be a lot of confusion still about the speed issue regarding retraining and a 2meg cap but as far as Enta are concerned its usual - thats what Ive been told by them.

Pretty miffed as this isnt made clear before migrating and my speed is still no better.

The details I got from Entanet after fault was logged with them is as follows....

I can see that your line is synced at over 7mbps. I have checked
on our side and you are definitely not being restricted by our equipment.
When connection migrate to us, the training period for the line is reset
by BT. This retrains your maximum stable and fault threshold rates.
However, in past experience migrations often are capped at 2mbps until
the training period completes. This is due to the fact that there isn’t
enough data for the exchange equipment to set your IP profile.
Once the training has completed you will find that you are assigned the
correct IP profile for your line and as such throughput will increase.

So it may be that you to will be capped at 2 meg for first 10 days sorry to be the bearer of bad news , I hope it all works out well soon but perhaps if it was made clear about the 10 day cap and retraining for migrations on the sign up page I could have made the decision to migrate at a better time or at least included that in my decision.

I see that some are still saying that faults can be reported on migrations after 72 hours this needs to be made clear because Enta say that is not the case.!!

[djkarlos]

I am connecting at more than 2 meg, so maybe the above isn't what is happening to me... As I said above I am getting 670KB/s which is well above the 2 meg line speeds.... hmmm....

[catcha]

I am connecting at more than 2 meg, so maybe the above isn't what is happening to me... As I said above I am getting 670KB/s which is well above the 2 meg line speeds.... hmmm....


Well yeah but apparently the 2meg cap depends on exchange and BT according to Enta but the retraining still happens either way .

How long since you migrated?

[djkarlos]

Well yeah but apparently the 2meg cap depends on exchange and BT according to Enta but the retraining still happens either way .

How long since you migrated?

Only yesterday so I suppose I'll just grin and bare it for another 9 days...

[PhunkeyMonkeh]

I've also migrated from F2S to Enta a couple of weeks ago.

I used to get 820-850KB with them via newsgroups.

I think Enta is slower, i rarely get over 800..normally more like 600. And then at peak time it can go down to 200-300KB.

I realise that there is contention to deal with at peak times, and this will invariably affect download speeds...but i think the centrals are spread a bit to thin right now.

Another thing that is annoying (but down to BT i think) is the load balancing on the centrals...or lack thereof. But i dont think Enta can do anything about that.

Last night for example my central was down to 2.4mb whereas two other centrals were still at 7.2mb.

Still, its not the end of the world and I apprecaite Enta being so forthcoming regarding their bandwidth etc.

[djkarlos]

I'm starting to think I should've stayed where I was and taken their £15/month offer to stay along with all usage restrictions lifted and 3 months free. Only catch being that I enter in to a new 12 month contract.

[Gargoyle]

Certainly the '2mb ap' on migration isn't standard, as I've migrated 3 times on ADSL and it's never happened to me.

Re the Centrals, Surely the same balancing thing happens to all ISP's (well those using the BT Wholesale ADSL system), but most just never tell you anything about it.

[catcha]

I'm starting to think I should've stayed where I was and taken their £15/month offer to stay along with all usage restrictions lifted and 3 months free. Only catch being that I enter in to a new 12 month contract.

Me too , Ive been stuck at under 2meg with a sync of 7616 for 8 days now :mad:

I was sync 7616 and always over 6meg speed with f2surf appart from rare occasions but NEVER below 2 meg , sometimes now Im on lower than a meg!!!

I can see the exchange from my window , its pretty annoying after 2 great years at over 6meg with previous ISP .

Hope it changes and its just a blip in otherwise good isp otherwise Im confused at why so much good reports in past , although few changes recently .

I have to wait a while now and suffer then if no better we will have to migrate again and go through it all again but on a less than 2 meg connection for 2 weeks isnt great and wasnt told of that , may as well be on a 2meg no limits elsewhere if thats the case and got to jump through hoops to get it increased . :rolleyes:

[GhostRider]

i sympatize with you mate....:(

[James]

Hi guys :)

I really do sympathise and if only I had a button to press that would untick the profile for you :)

BT are an absolute nightmare with stuck profiles.

The official word (regardless of what Enta tell me) is that migration do NOT go through another training period (except LLU ones or ones from Datastream). The problem is not what Enta think so, its with BT's way of dealing with these stuck profiles.

a) They have no automated system in place to unstick profiles
b) There is no fault category we can use when logging a stuck profile with them
c) Getting through to someone at BT who understands what a stuck profile is is like looking a needle in a haystack.

As always, we continue to pressure them every day hoping that someone at BT will pick up the real issue!

[FedupWithBroadband]

Its funny how its always bts fault regarding stuck profiles etc. People are complaining because of poor speeds which is obviously caused by insufficient central capacity. you only have to look at the staus of the centrals at off peak times to realise that.

Something needs to be done fast because I for one, wont be here much longer if this is the standard of service that I am expected to accept. If I wanted between a 1.7mb & 3mb connection speed then I would have gone somewhere else and payed a hell of a lot less than £20 a month.

[djkarlos]

Arghhh. To add salt to the wound, the problem I had on the day of migration regarding connecting to broadband and BT coming to fix the phone happened again on Saturday morning, which has now been fixed but my profile has been gilted down from 7150 to 3500!! All because my router kept trying to reconnect while there was an issue... So now have to wait 2 more days and hope my profile returns to 7150...

Ihave been reading more on this forum and see that there is a lot of complaint on the speed issues everyone is facing. I have to say, F2S (even though they are now owned by the big 'T') provided me with a much more stable fast connection, even at during the off peak 1am to 6am period - I would maintain at least 700KB/s - 800KB/s. So far, even during the peak times, i.e. after 8am, my connection (last Friday) was downloading at maximum 650KB/s...

I am hoping that this fabled Central 7 will provide a bump in speeds... James, do you think this will be the case?

[Gargoyle]

I am hoping that this fabled Central 7 will provide a bump in speeds... James, do you think this will be the case?

I suspect that there won't be any great change, I've been with ADSL24 now for about 7 months, I've seen Enta gradually add capacity on the centrals, but it doesn't really impact on the peak performance for long. I imagine that the speeds we see at busy off peak times will continue to be a 'feature' of entanet

I suspect that the reality is that the way the products from Entanet are placed (high download limits, esp. given the competitive price) attracts a lot of people who upload/download a lot of stuff - hence the impact on speeds in those 'problem' times. Most of the time the system is running below capacity, Entanet are going to hold off as long as possible on adding further capacity that is only required at the busy off peak times. I don't know how customer growth is with Entanet resellers, but seeing as they generally have a good rep at the moment, I imagine most new capacity goes to serve new customers, or new demands from existing ones.

F2S was mentioned above, for £20 you get 20 GB monthly bandwidth (I assume that is overall I can't see details) , with ADSL24 you get 30/300GB - assuming all else is equal, and even if only part of the off peak bandwidth is used - that's a big difference - so on the speed/bandwidth balance something has got to give. i wouldn't be surprised to find that F2S can provide better speeds at those busy times.

I don't think that makes either of these approaches 'wrong' , just different product placement. People need to choose the ISP/product that best fits their needs/pocket - TBH I probably wouldn't be with ADSL24 if I didn't want to download so much or wanted to use the net so much in daytime, or if busy time speeds were mosre of an issue for me - but it fits my needs at a competitive price.

[djkarlos]

F2S was mentioned above, for £20 you get 20 GB monthly bandwidth (I assume that is overall I can't see details) , with ADSL24 you get 30/300GB - assuming all else is equal, and even if only part of the off peak bandwidth is used - that's a big difference - so on the speed/bandwidth balance something has got to give. i wouldn't be surprised to find that F2S can provide better speeds at those busy times.

Their product is £19.99 / month with 20GB allowance during peak times and unlimited allowance during offpeak. The difference being that their offpeak is 1am to 6am. Weekends are seen as a normal week day so only the 1am to 6am period is unlimited.

Before I left, I was offered a deal, if I stayed I would get cost per month reduced to £14.99, with no usage limits 24/7 and 3 months completely free. The catch was to enter in to a new 12 month contract. Wishing I'd taken them up on it now.

[Gargoyle]

ok, thanks for clarifying that, I couldn't find the info on their website (well not in the 20 seconds I was willing to give the task)

I think you illustrate rather well the whole thing there. The off peak time is 1 am to 6 am which will force anyone who wants to download much into doing it during those times - which will of course reduce the pressure put on the system in the busy times. It also limits the amount of peak bandwidth used I guess, hence it can be unlimited - I assume there is no FUP). You also have to spread the peak amount over a lot more hours in the week (20 GB over 133 hours as opposed to 30Gb over 70 hours) This probably both reduces their overall bandwidth useage compared to Entanet and keeps the downloading in busy evening and weekend times down - hopefully meaning their speeds should maybe holdup a bit better, - all other things being equal.

Now I think this is a perfectly reasonable way to approach the issue, as I do Entanets, they are just subtly different ways. Which one is better for any particular user depends on their priorities

[djkarlos]

I agree that there is enough of a difference in their target market to make a difference in performance. Also, even though F2S limit their customers to a smaller offpeak duration they don't really monitor your usage. I have been over my 20GB limit many, many times (as much as double) and never had any charges incured. But that is not the discussion here.

The bottom line is that I was expecting to come to over to a provider that offered lesser limits, but I did not expect that to be at the expense of speed. I suppose in hind site I should've done more research on this forum before going ahead with the switch over.

[lobster1]

it would be far worse to be tied into a long contract, at least here you have the chance to suck it and see

[Gargoyle]

The bottom line is that I was expecting to come to over to a provider that offered lesser limits, but I did not expect that to be at the expense of speed. I suppose in hind site I should've done more research on this forum before going ahead with the switch over.

The way I see it, all the ISP's using the BT Wholesale product are effectively repackaging the same product. They can adjust the packages they sell in different ways, they can provide better customer service, the can run their businesses more efficiently, they can manage the capacity they buy in from BTw in different ways etc. but given what they have to pay BTw there is only so much room for movement.

I think the key question when comparing ISP's is why is X cheaper/more expensive than Y, what are they doing differently, how might I expect things to be given what I use the connection for

[djkarlos]

Looks like I may have been too hasty with my harsh words. My profile finally corrected itself after about 3 days and 8 hours back up to 7150. This morning my speedtest results show
Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: http://speedtester.bt.com/images/help.jpg -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6315 kbps

which is pretty acurate. On Usenet I managed to acheive an average over a 5 minute period of 789KB/s which is much more like it. That is an acceptable drop in speed over my previous ISP.