ADSL2+ Upgrade Issues...

[graham666]

Hi All,

I'm not sure if anyone out there can help, but here goes.

Like a lot of you out there I've been holding on for an upgrade to ADSL2+ for a while.

Due to all of the confusion, I had assumed that this would happen on my 'next billing date' after the 30th March, when the New Packages went into force. OK, it didn't happen automatically, but no worries. I logged a ticket with the guys at ADSL24 on the 11th April to request the upgrade.

They kindly placed to order on the 14th, letting me know that it should take 48 hours to complete.

OK, as we're working with Entanet here, it didn't happen within the 48 hours, so I've been working through the issue with the support guys.

On the 24th April I was told that the upgrade had been completed. So, I happily re-booted my router (Cisco 877), just to make sure it would re-sync with the Exchange... But no luck... It's still showing that the connection is an ADSL 1 line (ITU G.992.1 (G.DMT) Annex A ).

Going back to ASL24, I let them know this, and for the first time in the 3 years that I've been with them, I was pretty disappointed with the response:

"I would recommend trying a different router as Cisco routers don't give you the benefit of ADSL2+"

OK, without getting into the details, I can happily confirm that the Cisco 877 does support ADSL2+, as I work as in this field and know 'a lot' of people who are using them with an ADSL2+ service. I'll be the first to admit that they are overkill or a bit picky, but they work.

So now I'm a bit stuck...

ASDL24 are saying that my line is enabled for ADSL2+, but I'm 99% sure that it isn't. I'm not blaming the support guys here, they're doing a good job in the middle of an Entanet created nightmare.

- What I'm trying to find out is what else can I do?
- Can I / someone talk to BT to confirm exactly what my line is enabled for?
- Can I / someone ask BT to 'reset' the line?

James - Is this something that you can look into (See Ticket # 11857)?

I've been a long time customer and supporter of ADSL24 and want to stick by them though this tricky time that they're having. I've spent enough of my life dealing with BT to know how difficult they can be.

But, I'd like to get to the bottom of the problem and get the best service that available to me.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

Graham

[dgharwood]

I hope you get your problems sorted Graham.

I expected my ADSL2 upgrade to go through on my billing cycle on the 17th April.

Unlike you, ADSl24 were aware of it and proceeded to place the order - I am now just waiting as BT have a backlog and nothing can be done until BT sort it out. This is now a week overdue!

I am not sure who is luckiest, you with ADSL2 and not able to get it working or me without it, but sitting here expectantly.

Good luck.

[21cn]

I've been waiting over 5 weeks for the upgrade http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt108/21cn_2009/attachment-190.gif

[silverblack]

I was changed over on the 17th sync speed increased but no change to d/load or upload.However i now seem to locked onto a 2mb connection when i normally get 2.9mb its been like this since yesterday.Currently synced at 4.9mb down 0.44mb up.

[James]

Graham, according to BT, the ADSL2+ upgrade completed on 24/04/2009. The install reports also seem to back this up, showing the downstream at up to 24Mb and upstream as uncapped. If it was still on 8Mb it would say so at this screen.

We have been advised by BT themselves that the Cisco routers will not syncronise at ADSL2+ on their 21CN equipment, hence why you are still only connecting at ADSL1 rates. I can only suspect this is true as it's exactly what is happening to you. It's not that the Cisco does not support ADSL2+, but more towards it will not interoperate with the BT 21CN equipment for ADSL2+. If you try the same router on a non-BT (e.g. LLU) platform it would probably be fine at ADSL2+

[James]

21cn, your line has not yet even been moved to 21CN by BT so we can't do anything about that until they do. It all depends on exchange availability and engineering time required. As soon as it's being upgraded you will be informed via e-mail.

[graham666]

Hi James,

Thanks for your reply.

Good news first. My router is now see my line as ADSL2+ enable and sync'ing up as such. It seems that my line / exchange kit was reset this morning (I can only assume by BT):

000160: .Apr 26 08:21:17.274 BST: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface ATM0, changed state to down
000161: .Apr 26 08:21:18.274 BST: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface ATM0, changed state to down
000162: .Apr 26 08:22:02.663 BST: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface ATM0, changed state to up
000163: .Apr 26 08:22:03.663 BST: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface ATM0, changed state to up

Now when I run the standard Cisco command to check I get the following:

router#show dsl int atm0
ATM0
Alcatel 20190 chipset information
ATU-R (DS) ATU-C (US)
Modem Status: Showtime (DMTDSL_SHOWTIME)
DSL Mode: ITU G.992.5 (ADSL2+) Annex A
ITU STD NUM: 0x03 0x2
Chip Vendor ID: 'STMI' 'IFTN'
Chip Vendor Specific: 0x0000 0x71B9
Chip Vendor Country: 0x0F 0xB5
Modem Vendor ID: 'CSCO' ' '
Modem Vendor Specific: 0x0000 0x0000
Modem Vendor Country: 0xB5 0x00
Serial Number Near: FCZ114361JY
Serial Number Far:
Modem VerChip ID: C196 (0)
DFE BOM: DFE3.0 Annex A (1)
Capacity Used: 49% 100%
Noise Margin: 20.5 dB 6.0 dB
Output Power: 20.0 dBm 12.5 dBm
Attenuation: 37.0 dB 19.0 dB
[output truncated...]
DS Channel1 DS Channel0 US Channel1 US Channel0
Speed (kbps): 0 6656 0 1051

This might not format correctly in the post, but the key here is:

DSL Mode: ITU G.992.5 (ADSL2+) Annex A

And that the upstream sync speed has jumped to 1051 - Which isn't possible on ADSL 1.

Yes the downstream is a bit low at the moment, but there's the inevitable training period to go though. But as the upload is more important to me, I'm not too fussed.

So the conclusion...

- Maybe there's another step in the process that BT aren't letting on about, even after the work order is flagged by them as 'complete'.
- I'm not entirely convinced about BT's comments regarding sync issues with Cisco, as I've not come across it before on all the other BT 21CN ADSL2+ links that I've worked on. But I'll certainly keep an eye on it... It's not like BT have ever been wrong before...

Anyway, thanks again for your reply. I know that everyone at ADSL24 is suffering from the circus that the UK call 'Broadband'...

I think the comment may have been made by others on the forum, but I would suggest that the quoted time for ADSL2+ migrations is changed to at least 7 working days. Even if that's not always the case, it should give you and your support teams a bit more breathing space.

Regards,

Graham.

[21cn]

21cn, your line has not yet even been moved to 21CN by BT
That's the issue :(
so we can't do anything about that until they do How about http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt108/21cn_2009/bottom.gif........ :D

[Jules]

It took over a week from when BT & ADSL24 said my move to ADSL2+ had been completed for my router to show that it'd gone to DSL Mode = ITU G.992.5 (ADSL2+) Annex A. A couple of days after the supposed completion of the upgrade I even turned the router off for over an hour to force a resync from my end - and nothing changed. But didn't James say that Enta had boobed and had a whole lot of ADSL2+ upgrades regraded back to bog standard ADSL? I wonder if we got caught up in that and it's taken a while for Enta and BT to correct their mistake?