Very slow ADSL speeds

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Very slow ADSL speeds

samnorr

34 posts

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#96891 6-Feb-2012 17:58

My Telecom ADSL connection is extremely slow, with the download speed currently sitting at 384kbit/s, (often dropping to around 250), and the upload speed at 160. Rebooting the modem (Thomson ST5x6v6) will sometimes bring the down speed up temporarily, but never above 480kb. The modem connection stats are below:

I live in Clarks Beach, and recently typed my address into the Chorus Service Availability Tool and noticed that half the area (including my street), was covered by a new VDSL2 cabinet, only completed last month:

I assume that having a cabinet close by would eliminate any issues caused by distance, and when I contacted Telecom, they said my line speed was good. It now certainly looks like the problem is caused by the house wiring.

This house is fitted with an alarm system (left unplugged and never used), which is apparently wired in to the phone line at one of the jack points, but I’m not sure which wires to pull to disconnect it. All phones and the modem are connected to a filter, and I have tried connecting the modem to other jack points, without any improvement.

Could the alarm be affecting the speed that heavily, even though it is not even plugged into the power? If not, what else could be causing this? Would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

coffeebaron

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#577907 6-Feb-2012 18:12

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=96226

Send me a PM / Email if you would like a price on master filter install. This should fix your issue.

Thanks
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sbiddle

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#577913 6-Feb-2012 18:32

It could also be that DSL hasn't been migrated to the cabinet ISAM yet.

RunningMan

8956 posts

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#577924 6-Feb-2012 19:13

With a downstream attenuation of 63.5dB, your speeds are about right. However, given you are supposedly in the VDSL area, this attenuation is far too high.

It is likely to be a wiring issue - either DSL services are still going back to the exchange (via the new cabinet) because they haven't been migrated yet, hence a really long /noisy line, or you have an internal wiring issue (very likely, given the alarm).

I'd take up coffeebaron's offer to instal a master filter (or do it yourself if you have the skills and time), and that will isolate your internal issues. It's not uncommon for speeds to be all over the place for a couple of weeks either side of a cabinet instal as everything gets cut over and set up, so wait a little while on that front, and see if that side of things sorts itself.

samnorr

34 posts

Geek

#578344 7-Feb-2012 18:43

Okay, so I just received an email from Telecom today, and it doesn't look good:

Further checks on other premises in the area confirm that its simply a case of slow Broadband speeds for your area, installing a splitter is not going to change things. I apologise that this was not looked at on your 1st email contact with us. The speeds you're currently getting are the fastest your line can offer.

Still don't know what the story is with that new cabinet though, they didn't mention anything about future upgrades. If DSL hasn't been migrated to the cabinet yet as suggested, how long should it take for this to happen? Is it worth waiting for this, or should I look at wireless?

plambrechtsen

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#578738 8-Feb-2012 15:36

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I did some investigation internally and it seems that the Chorus broadband map is incorrect and the project to install the WAF/A cabinet was put on hold. Chorus are installing additional fibre between the PHO and WAF exchanges to provide additional capacity for RBI exchange and cabinets fed off the WAF exchange which is supposed to be delivered by June 2012.

If you do a search on the WAF exchange turn on the RBI Exchange / Cabinets you'll see that there is large RBI broadband area that should come online around end of June 2012.

Chorus have said they will get the Chorus Broadband availability map updated in the next few days (can sometimes be a week).

I suggest you check out the Chorus map next week, but this is the information that Chorus has given to us.

samnorr

34 posts

Geek

#579930 10-Feb-2012 19:41

Big thanks to everyone for your help, especially plambrechtsen for providing that info. Looks like the only real option for decent speeds would be to go with Compass wireless.

newbellies

159 posts

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#580109 11-Feb-2012 10:35

plambrechtsen:
Chorus have said they will get the Chorus Broadband availability map updated in the next few days (can sometimes be a week).

I suggest you check out the Chorus map next week, but this is the information that Chorus has given to us.

Cheers for the info. Looking forward to that update, as that map (erroneously) shows that my cabinet upgrade was been completed in Dec, but they haven't even started yet as far as I can tell.

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newbellies

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#583059 18-Feb-2012 07:24

plambrechtsen:

Chorus have said they will get the Chorus Broadband availability map updated in the next few days (can sometimes be a week).

I suggest you check out the Chorus map next week, but this is the information that Chorus has given to us.

Hi Plambrechtsen, do you happen to know if they were just updating/correcting the info for this particular instance, or all cabinets?

I noticed that the info on that website for my cabinet (RAG/B) still says the upgrade has completed. I think that's wrong as my attenuation is still too high for VDSL and the cabinet is the same small sized one that's always been here.

Ta!

plambrechtsen

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#590563 5-Mar-2012 11:58

I've just re-asked the Chorus person to get the site updated. It's still incorrect and showing that WAF/A has been upgraded to VDSL and WAF/B is coming online in March 2012.

The word I had was everything is been delayed until June 2012 as they still had to trench in Fibre to the WAF exchange. But again this is up to Chorus to confirm as they are a completely separate company from Telecom.

samnorr

34 posts

Geek

#596096 16-Mar-2012 13:11

The SAT has now been updated and is saying that the WAF/A cabinet will not be installed until September:

Thanks again plambrechtsen for helping to get this updated.

Not sure if I should bother waiting for it or go with wireless - how likely is it to be delayed again? And because my address is just outside the WAF/B RBI cabinet area, I assume it wont be covered by that when it is installed (apparently) this month?