[HLUG] Offtopic - How to get faster ADSL speeds

[Steve Bushell]

Hi all,

Interesting off-topic thread, perhaps it's time I added my
six-pennyworth.

I live quite a way from the exchange too (2.79km according to
www.samknows.com, a great site for getting a prediction of what might be
achieved).   But BEWARE, enter your postcode only first, and see what
'availability' predicts, then try just the phone number... you may get
somewhat different results! - for interest my POSTCODE here says
3.5Mbits available, yet my phone number says 2Mbits only - which is
where I came in......

I first moved here (Wellington Heath) from central Ledbury about 9
months ago, and could only get a paltry 2Mbits, dipping to 1.5 or so,
rather disappointing!  It was Christmas before I had time to look at the
whole situation, and the following results obtained:

1) change Belkin router to Zyxel - specified for RADSL, and use in low
signal areas - increase to 2.5Mbits
2) Replace the crummy little box filter to a faceplate one eg:
ADSL-NTEFACE from Solwise - that got me connecting at 3.5 - 4Mbits, but
only a 3Mbit data rate.

At that point I gave up for a while..... I have since re-visited the
issue, and by removing the bell wire, and eliminating all the internal
extensions other than where the line comes in (we're using DECT cordless
phones anyway!) I now get a 6Mbit connection, but only a 'reliable'
4Mbit data rate - DOUBLE the BT expectation for my phone line, but of
course that's a cooked figure as the postcode says 3.5Mbits!... 

Anyway, I was still unsatisfied, that 6Mbit connection looks too good!
So, I figured out that I would try connecting and disconnecting at
different times of day, and see what happened.  It seems that my adsl
connection dies every night, and reconnects at a paltry 4.5Mbits, yet if
I reconnect first thing in the morning I get 6Mbits once again..... So,
a cunning plan was hatched, I now drop and reconnect the connection
every morning, and Lo and behold, I now get a 5.5Mbit download profile.

Hope this helps, and it IS worth playing with everything, especially the
router and filter, then just keep looking for ways of decreasing noise
in general.

Good luck!

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: herefordshire-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk
[mailto:herefordshire-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of dusty
Sent: 02 August 2008 12:41
To: Herefordshire Linux Users Group.
Subject: Re: [HLUG] Offtopic - How to get faster ADSL speeds

Julian Robbins wrote:
> Hi
>
> These days with faster internet, and ADSL for much of the county (not
> all though), the times of 56k modems seem a long way off.
>
> But, living where I do, 3 miles from the exchange, I get at most 3.1
> MB/s out of mt 8MB/s ADSL Max.
>
> Recently, I noticed this had dropped to only about 1.5 - 1.6 MB/s and
> couldn't work out why.
>
> But then, I started working it out. Quite recently, I had to neatly
> bundle the modem cable together with the other nearby cables to to
> avoid a trip hazard, (My wife is becoming a child minder, so we have
> to be careful ...).
>
> I remembered that when my ADSL worked best, the cable was just lying
> loose.
>
> So this time, I unbundled the wiring ties, and bingo, the speed shot
> up to 2.7 MB/s , much better.
>
> The reason this worked better is i believe that having the modem cable
> tightly bundled in with other power cables increased the crosstalk and
> introduces mains hum from the other cables. This degrades the Signal
> to Noise Ratio on the ADSL line, and thus slows down the speed that
> the modem negotiation reaches.
>
> By testing the highest reported connection speed on the modem, I could
> test exactly where it was best to have the modem. As you may expect,
> about 6 inches away from any other live cable is best.
>
> Interestingly, I tried the modem direct into the BT Master socket
> instead. Since the line is a bit shorter, from where I normally have
> it you'd expect better speed again ? Well, i would, but instead it
> plummeted it to only about 0.85MB/s ! Wow, what happened ? I run each
> test a few times to make sure its accurate. We have a suspected quiet
> phone problem anyway, so I think the socket is dodgy, I can't think
> what else it could be.
>
> Either way, this shows the difference that your phone wiring can make
> with ADSL speeds, anywhere from 0.8 MB/s to 3MB/s for me. The
> theoretical max 3 miles from the exchange according to BT's website is
> about 3MB/s so i'm quite pleased with what i get anyway.
>
> So, have a go at rearranging or shortening your modem cables, and move
> them out of the way of mains cables and see what happens .....
>
> BTW I have a few Ubuntu 8.04, OpenSUSE 11, and Fedora 9 CD's in nice
> cases that I picked up from the LUGRadioLive event if anyone wants one
> .....
>
> Julian
>
Hey Julian,

I would be interested in a cd of each (Ubuntu, OpenSuSE and Fedora) if
you still have them going?

Kind Regards,

Dusty.

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