Poor VDSL speeds and poor chat experience

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Poor VDSL speeds and poor chat experience

MidnightRider

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#265475 23-Jan-2020 11:53

I just moved into my first home and was excited to see I could get VDSL despite it being semi-rural and even more excited to see that fibre is scheduled to be installed by 2022.

Unfortunately since its installation I've been getting anywhere between 6 and 10 mbps.

So I headed out to the chat experience and it hasn't been too pleasant.

The property was built in the 70s so internal wiring is a concern, and eventually after enquiring about it myself it was offered to get a technician to look into it.

Both my neighbours are getting between 14 - 20 mbps so I was fairly certain there was an issue but I really had to strongly suggest this course of action to even get it done, both chat operators I spoke too were perfectly willing to let me go as my speeds "fell within acceptable ranges" and then even sent me this gold

"The minimum download speeds required to carry out the following tasks on the internet: -Browsing websites and emailing: less than 1 Megabits per second (Mbps) -Skype: Voice: 30 Kbps - 1.2 Mbps Video: 1.2 Mbps - 1.5 Mbps -Standard Definition (SD) video streaming: 3 Mbps -High Definition (HD) video streaming: 6 Mbps

Speeds can vary during the day. Download and upload speeds are divided amongst all the devices currently in use. You may want to limit the number of devices downloading or uploading content to the internet at the same time."

Has anyone else experienced this? It really hasn't been very impressive.

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Lizard Networks

#2405216 23-Jan-2020 11:58

hi there,

Very much depends on how your testing etc. i wont comment on what the agent has stated as it could very well be correct to your actual line rate (and be WiFi issues)

Please DM me your details and i'll have a quick look.

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Linux

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#2405222 23-Jan-2020 12:16

@MidnightRider Review this thread loads of information to help you

https://www.geekzone.co.nz//forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=105744

hio77

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#2405311 23-Jan-2020 15:35

Right,

so the agent you spoke to has actually done everything quite too the book.

They checked the speed Chorus indicate they should be supplying to you (0-10mbit downstream) and actually took it a step further and raised it through to chorus to validate too.

Chorus have come back indicating the speeds are within historical speeds for the address and matches neighboring address.

Your 1.5KM(Per chorus) from the Exchange. Being Exchange fed, it's not uncommon for DSL to be extra bad.

Now on my own checks, i would tend to agree that it could be a bit better. Errors are showing on the line. It looks like in-home side services though....

Installation of a Master Filter i'd recommend.

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MidnightRider

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#2405313 23-Jan-2020 15:46

hio77:

Installation of a Master Filter i'd recommend.

Is that something the technician can do? Or any recommendations for someone in North Canterbury?

hio77

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#2405317 23-Jan-2020 15:56

MidnightRider:

hio77:

Installation of a Master Filter i'd recommend.

Is that something the technician can do? Or any recommendations for someone in North Canterbury?

Spark can order it to be done for $199 from memory (i don't have the price book open right now)

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#2405349 23-Jan-2020 16:10

@coffeebaron

wratterus

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#2405357 23-Jan-2020 16:18

Linux: @coffeebaron

North Canterbury might be a stretch? Haha

OP - if you have basic knowledge and a few gel splices you can do it yourself. Otherwise your sparky should be able to, but chances are the cost will be similar if not more than calling Spark and requesting an install through Chorus.

Edit - The 'Yay, I can get VDSL!' thing is not always really positive unfortuantley. Because you just sneak inside the coverage area on the map doesn't automatically mean you can suddenly get great speeds. I'm around 1.5km from exchange in an urban environment, and technically inside the VDSL coverage area, but the performance I got on VDSL was actually worse than ADSL.

Being exchange fed doesn't help either as typically (I think this is correct) you won't be on newer vectoring capable line cards. In rural areas (vectoring, less crosstalk) there are some really impressive VDSL speeds to be had at over 1.5km.

The Chorus site is great because the average person can punch in an address, and the neighbour's, and get an idea what the real speeds are in the area. It can also be a good troubleshooting tool. If all your neighbours are getting significantly better speeds than you, you probably have an internal wiring fault.

I guess all that to say a master splitter will improve things, but don't expect to suddenly get 40mbps. It sounds like you'd do well to get a solid 20/1.5 or thereabouts.

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hio77

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#2405358 23-Jan-2020 16:21

eh, put on some coffee and he will come flying ;)

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Jase2985

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#2405359 23-Jan-2020 16:23

@Linux: @coffeebaron

someone didnt read where it is :)

hio77

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#2405369 23-Jan-2020 16:35

Jase2985:

@Linux: @coffeebaron

someone didnt read where it is :)

John is just offering to use the exVF Helicopter ;)

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MidnightRider

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#2405377 23-Jan-2020 16:44

Yeah, my surrounding neighbours range between 14mbps and 20mbps so I'm somewhat confident that its possible and even a jump to 14mbps is a huge improvement from the 8mbps I'm currently sitting at.

I'm pretty sure it is internal wiring and that was why I was pushing to get a technician out to look at it because while I'm handy enough, the scale of this is a little overwhelming.

This is basically what I'm dealing with:

https://i.imgur.com/xKRliyL.png

The red x is where my pc/modem etc is and is the main house, the red line is where the line enters from the road, goes through the workshop and then disappears into the ground. Unfortunately its out of my grasp haha.

wratterus

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#2405379 23-Jan-2020 16:49

I see.

The 8Mbps is the line speed you are seeing in the modem right, not a speedtest result? Can you post a screenshot of the modem line stats? Are you able to connect the modem in the shed and see what the line speed is, if it's majorly different from the house?

That setup would probably be a bit too fiddly to tidy up for the average handy man, especially if the landline phone needs to be retained.

If that was me, as a starting point I'd be finding the first phone point in the shed, disconnecting all the wiring going to the rest of the property and connecting the modem there and seeing what the line speed is.

If it's the standard 2 pair phone cable going from the shed to the house, that's not going to help anything either over that distance, at a guess it would be 80m or so?

MidnightRider

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#2405462 23-Jan-2020 18:30

DSL Information

DSL synchronization status:

Connection status:

Showtime

Upstream line rate (kbit/s):

709

Downstream line rate (kbit/s):

9506

Maximum upstream rate (kbit/s):

709

Maximum downstream rate (kbit/s):

9506

Upstream noise safety coefficient (dB):

9.2

Downstream noise safety coefficient (dB):

9.1

Upstream interleave depth:

Downstream interleave depth:

Line standard:

VDSL

Upstream line attenuation (dB):

24.7

Downstream line attenuation (dB):

37.8

Upstream output power (dBmV):

10.5

Downstream output power (dBmV):

18.6

Downstream interleave depth:

None

DSL up time:

0 days 0 hours 4 minutes 47 seconds

hio77

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#2405508 23-Jan-2020 20:14

See physically looking at where your leadin goes and your modem I'd highly suspect you have multiple Ts in the garage and then it splitting off to the house and possibly another building or two.

That's not even the sort of setup having chorus do it might fix. Generally they just patch it on another pair.

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coffeebaron

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#2405512 23-Jan-2020 20:28

hio77:

Jase2985:

@Linux: @coffeebaron

someone didnt read where it is :)

John is just offering to use the exVF Helicopter ;)

They kicked us out because @Linux tried boarding with a blue phone from that network starting with the number 2.

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