Possible Speed Improvement?

theeliminator

Hi There,

I've generally never had problems with my broadband, and have been happy with the service. However, when helping my neighbour set up their broadband a couple of days ago, I noticed that their speed was significantly higher than mine despite living literally a 10 second walk away from me (4.35mb vs 7.35). 

My house is the one that is closer to the exchange by that few meters, so I'm stumped as to why I don't have the same speeds. I've tried 3 different modems with the same result so I don't think that's the issue.

Is there anything you can do in this regard? I'm guessing there is headroom as my broadband never drops connection, even when on for months at a time. 

Thanks

sedric

If you are with them Eircom can test your line centrally including speed test, and may be able to give advice.
House wiring can affect speed as can connection between you and the local main Distribution case.

The reliability is good so I would be wary of changes, unfortunately

theeliminator

Thanks for the response. I am hoping something can be done though. It is a rural area so I'm on the exact same physical line as my neighbour.

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi There,

I've generally never had problems with my broadband, and have been happy with the service. However, when helping my neighbour set up their broadband a couple of days ago, I noticed that their speed was significantly higher than mine despite living literally a 10 second walk away from me (4.35mb vs 7.35). 

My house is the one that is closer to the exchange by that few meters, so I'm stumped as to why I don't have the same speeds. I've tried 3 different modems with the same result so I don't think that's the issue.

Is there anything you can do in this regard? I'm guessing there is headroom as my broadband never drops connection, even when on for months at a time. 

Thanks

Hi theeliminator

Feel free to PM me your landline number and I'll run some tests to check for possible improvements.

Thanks
Al

theeliminator

Thanks Alan, Ill do that now. I was checking my line vs theirs in terms of attenuation and mine is indeed lower, so fingers crossed!

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Thanks Alan, Ill do that now. I was checking my line vs theirs in terms of attenuation and mine is indeed lower, so fingers crossed!

Hi theeliminator

Thanks for your PM.

While your attenuation is indeed lower the noise margin is also unfortunately much lower leaving no room for improvement. Noise margin refers to the difference in strength between the ADSL signal and the background noise on the line and of course distance from the exchange (although you may seem to be closer to the exchange than your friends lines are not laid in direct sight of the exchange or in other words not as the crow flies). The higher the dB, the better for this measurement. Your dB is 10dB and unfortunately leaves no room for improvement as increasing the speeds will also reduce the noise margin causing very regular loss of connection. 6dB is bad and will experience no sync or intermittent sync problems, 7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions.

Low noise margin can be caused by missing, defective or incorrectly connected splitters/filters, faulty telephone equipment in the premises, a defective modem, or noise caused by outside sources such as cheap halogen lamps and stereo equipment - I must say that this does not seem to be the case for you as my tests are showing no signs of interference. In most cases it's based on the existing infrastructure which at present is showing no issues which eircom can log a case for investigation.

Thanks
Al

theeliminator

Hi Alan, I really appreciate the detailed response. Is this line test based on the currently connected modem because when I had the eircom modem attached, I was getting a "DSL Noise Margin" of 16.5 dB/ 20dB, but that stat is lower with the modem i'm currently using (Around 10 like you said). Do you want me to reattach the modem I was using to test again?

Also another quick question unrelated, I seen that my area has been recently added to the Fibre rollout for sometime next year. According to the NGN website, Ill be (according to google maps) 1.4km away from the cabinet, would that be sufficient to receive Fibre when it becomes available?

Thanks a mil.

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi Alan, I really appreciate the detailed response. Is this line test based on the currently connected modem because when I had the eircom modem attached, I was getting a "DSL Noise Margin" of 16.5 dB/ 20dB up/down, but that stat is lower with the modem i'm currently using (Around 10 like you said). Do you want me to reattach the modem I was using to test again?

Hi theeliminator

If you could do that tomorrow morning I will then escalate back to technical support to run tests on again and increase speeds if possible. It would be important to know that the modem you are using (with the 10db) may experience issues if used again after any possible increase.

Please let me know when you have attached the alternative modem.

Thanks
Al

theeliminator

Hi Al,

Appreciate the quick response. The modem I'm using is a TP-Link TD-8817 which is bridged onto an Asus ac68u router. The setting on the modem are very granular, so there is probably better settings than the default which is probably why the Noise Ratio is lower with it than it should be. The eircom modem is borrowed so I wont be able to get my hands on it till tomorrow. So it would be tomorrow evening before I have it re installed in my house.

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi Al,

Appreciate the quick response. The modem I'm using is a TP-Link TD-8817 which is bridged onto an Asus ac68u router. The setting on the modem are very granular, so there is probably better settings than the default which is probably why the Noise Ratio is lower with it than it should be. The eircom modem is borrowed so I wont be able to get my hands on it till tomorrow. So it would be tomorrow evening before I have it re installed in my house.

No worries theeliminator

When you have it attached let me know & I'll look in to this further.

Thanks
Al

theeliminator

Hi Al

I got the router again and doing some testing found what was causing the degradation of my line stats. We have a splitter on the phone point going into the living room to the phone there. Once i removed that and plugged the eircom filter in directly, my  DSL Noise Margin went ranging from 7db to 10db (down) to around 17.5 to 18.5db (down) also attenuation (down) dropped from around 45db to 37db.

I now have the modem (Eircom D1000) installed for any testing you need to do.

Many Thanks.

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi Al

I got the router again and doing some testing found what was causing the degradation of my line stats. We have a splitter on the phone point going into the living room to the phone there. Once i removed that and plugged the eircom filter in directly, my  noise ratio went from around 7-10db (down) to 16.5-18db (down) also attenuation (down) dropped from around 45db to 35-37db.

I now have the modem (Eircom D1000) installed for any testing you need to do.

Many Thanks.

Thanks for letting me know theeliminator

I'll make sure this is looked in to again today and get back to you as soon as I have more information

Al

theeliminator

Hi Al,

Any update on if I can avail of better speeds?

Thanks.

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi Al,

Any update on if I can avail of better speeds?

Thanks.

[font=Times New Roman","serif]Hi theeliminator[/font]
[font=Times New Roman","serif] [/font]
[font=Times New Roman","serif]I did not receive further response from technical support so I have chased up on this again and I've just managed to arrange for technical support to up the speeds to 7MB. They have expressed concerns that this may caused connection loss so if you start to notice this please contact support to request lowering back to 5MB. The change should happen within the next 15 minutes

Hopefully this works out seamlessly [/font]J[font=Times New Roman","serif]

Thanks
Al[/font]

theeliminator

Hi Al,

Just checked that and now getting 7mb. Thats fantastic, thanks a million!

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi Al,

Just checked that and now getting 7mb. Thats fantastic, thanks a million!

Really happy to hear this theeliminator

Thanks
Al

theeliminator

Hi Alan, just letting you know that had zero connection issues over the weekend.

I'm just wondering if it would be possible to try testing my connection at 8mb? I'm asking this as my noise ratio is still better than it was originally (7-10db) before I discovered the splitter that was causing the issue on my connection (now 11-13db) and the extra 1mb bump would drop that down to what is was originally 7-10db, where I never had any connection issues. Im guessing each mb increase causes a 3db drop.

I also discovered why my neighbour was getting better speeds, their noise ratio is very poor ~5db @9mb.

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi Alan, just letting you know that had zero connection issues over the weekend.

I'm just wondering if it would be possible to try testing my connection at 8mb? I'm asking this as my noise ratio is still better than it was originally (7-10db) before I discovered the splitter that was causing the issue on my connection (now 11-13db) and the extra 1mb bump would drop that down to what is was originally 7-10db, where I never had any connection issues. Im guessing each mb increase causes a 3db drop.

I also discovered why my neighbour was getting better speeds, their noise ratio is very poor ~5db @9mb.

Hi theeliminator

I'll put this forward to technical support and see what can be done.

Al

theeliminator

Thanks Al, very much appreciate it.

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Thanks Al, very much appreciate it.

Hi theeliminator

Technical support have got back to me advising that they will be unable to increase the speeds any further as the max profile speed assigned to your line has been obtained. Sorry about this but you're welcome to contact support on 1890260260 or via webchat ([font=Calibri","sans-serif]http://www.eircom.net/about/contact/)[/font] to discus further.

Thanks
Al

theeliminator

Hi Alan,

Thanks for checking. I contacted webchat and they were very helpful. They bumped my line to 8mb and seems fine so far.

Just one last question and i'll leave you alone! Efibre is meant to be coming to my area july-september next year but from what I can see I'll be 2.1-2.2km away from the cabinet. Is there any chance Ill be able to avail of it, or it simply too far way, short of the unlikely even of a new cabinet being added?

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

Hi Alan,

Thanks for checking. I contacted webchat and they were very helpful. They bumped my line to 8mb and seems fine so far.

Just one last question and i'll leave you alone! Efibre is meant to be coming to my area july-september next year but from what I can see I'll be 2.1-2.2km away from the cabinet. Is there any chance Ill be able to avail of it, or it simply too far way, short of the unlikely even of a new cabinet being added?

[font=Times New Roman","serif]Delighted to hear that theeliminator :)I was hoping webchat would agree to this - Hows the connection holding up?

I'm sorry to say that the max distance a line can be from a cabinet is up to 2KM. Basically the further you are from the cabinet the slow efibre speeds you can expect e.g. 2km is up to 7MB and anything further is unsustainable.

I'm unable to see if a new cabinet will be delivered to your area in the future  - there's not one planned at present I'm afraid. Best advice Is to get back to me in mid 2015 and I'll check updated plans.

Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with

Thanks
Al[/font]

theeliminator

The connection seems so far so good, no issues. 

Thats fine Al, thanks for the info, I'll drop a message then!

eircom: Alan

theeliminator wrote: »

The connection seems so far so good, no issues. 

Thats fine Al, thanks for the info, I'll drop a message then!

That's good

Hope all goes well

Al