Broadband line 'noise'

[0098386]

About 2 years back we signed up to BT Broadband. At first we got 2Mb download speeds but this has dropped to a pretty terrible 600-800Kb. Rang up BT today because I'm kinda fed up with it. They ran some tests on the line and said there was noise on the line (other than me shouting down it to be faster ).
They're going to fix it in a couple of days but I'm just wondering if noise is really responsible for such a drop in download speeds and overall quality, sometimes the internet will be fast but cut off every few seconds for a second?

 

[ct2k7]

Yes, I assume they are talking about line attentuation.

Do you have a new style network in your house with a master box? NTE5 face-plate is what you are looking for. Plug your modem directly into the test socket behind the faceplate and check the stats, and see if it keeps dropping out.
Do you use ADSL filters?

 

[0098386]

Yea we have ADSL microfilters. As for everything else the house is about 14 years old and still using the original phone/outlet setup. Which probably isn't doing the connection much good (the internet connection cuts off for 20 seconds if the phone rings, we have DECT phones).

 

[yg17]

About 2 years back we signed up to BT Broadband. At first we got 2Mb download speeds but this has dropped to a pretty terrible 600-800Kb. Rang up BT today because I'm kinda fed up with it. They ran some tests on the line and said there was noise on the line (other than me shouting down it to be faster ).
They're going to fix it in a couple of days but I'm just wondering if noise is really responsible for such a drop in download speeds and overall quality, sometimes the internet will be fast but cut off every few seconds for a second?

Enough noise could make the connection crap out completely, so yeah, it's feasible that some noise could cause a drop like that.

 

[xUKHCx]

Yea we have ADSL microfilters. As for everything else the house is about 14 years old and still using the original phone/outlet setup. Which probably isn't doing the connection much good (the internet connection cuts off for 20 seconds if the phone rings, we have DECT phones).

If your internet cuts of when a phone call comes in you need to check your filters as this is a common sympton of poor filtering, basically a call comes in bumps up the noise on the line and drops the internet.

You can do a quiet line test, dial 17070 from preferably a corded phone and I think it is option 2.

You can test all the connection points and microfilters, I have done this previously and found a slightly dodgy microfilter which was causing the internet to sometimes fluff out and since replacing it the connection syncs at about 800kb faster than before.

Line noise can be a real problem.

 

[Counterfit]

You need to drop the electrons and get with the photons!

 

[neiltc13]

I see you live in Manchester, which means you're likely in range of a much better ISP's service.

Type your phone number into www.SamKnows.com and it will show a list of LLU providers who can give you better service for less money. Many of these providers use ADSL2+ technology, which is far superior to BT's standard ADSL.

 

[trule]

They're going to fix it in a couple of days but I'm just wondering if noise is really responsible for such a drop in download speeds and overall quality?

Yes, probably a cable is loose or damaged somewhere in the exchange or street cabinet, in the worst case water may have entered an underground cable.

 

[0098386]

Unfortunately we can't get fibreoptic cable here, they just never installed it on this road. All we can get is ADSL. Been through a couple of providers too, they all start off fast but after 6-12 months they (seemingly) knock the speed down. We're stuck until BT add them fancy new 40-50mbps lines in the next 6 months.

Just found a super secret diagnostics page on my router, Jimmy boy here has a noise margin of 15.2-17db (download and upload) and a line attenuation of 63.5-31.5db. They seem extraordinarily high compared to others I've seen online.