|
Having Broadband Problems?
I am Internet expert with over 10 years experience,
specialising in network engineering and communications (Internet
Protocol, Broadband, etc, etc). I would like to add to the comments
posted about "Broadband in Kingsmead & Davenham", (see below) as I live
on Kingsmead also.
Firstly, with the introduction of the "MaxDSL"
product launched by BT where the Broadband service is rate adaptive.
I would strongly recommend against obtaining "Up to 8MB" type products
on Kingsmead as these do not generally work very well with long
telephone circuits (those like on Kingsmead, with lines exceeding 5km+)
Instability of the line will more often than not be experienced
particularly in the evenings due to very nature of our high attenuation
lines and the way broadband signals are affected, but also cross-talk
occuring (caused by other busy adjacent ADSL lines in the cable
bundles.) All these symptoms can lead to poor service. If telephone
subscribers on Kingsmead wish to opt for "Up to 8MB" services then they
should ensure that their modem/router is plugged directly into the BT
master socket (bypassing any possible extension that can cause
interference.) Use high quality ADSL filters and good vendor of ADSL
modem/router. This will maximise the chance of achieving highest
possible line syncronisation speeds. MaxDSL speeds on Kingsmead tend to
range from around 3MB (at best) and 1MB (at worse), assuming your
telephone line, connections and modem/router are in top condition.
Higher speeds are favoured if you live closer to the Clock Tower. For
example, if your broadband line gains a connection speed of 2.2MB you
can expect an actual throughput data rate of 2MB (This is called your IP
Profile. IP Profile determine the actual throughput speed you will
experience and the connection speed figure becomes irrelevant.) So, if
your line connects at 1.7MB you will expect to see 1.5MB as your actual
throughput speed, similarly, 1.4MB will mean a 1MB throughput and so on.
The way MaxDSL works is very much different from traditional fixed
broadband speed services and your actual throughput speed is determined
by many technical factors while the line is in service. Your IP Profile
is monitored and set every 3 days, so it's important to ensure your
line stays connected to your broadband service 24/7
Given my analysis of Kingsmead telephone lines,
everyone here *SHOULD* be able to obtain fixed speed services of 1MB.
Those wishing to obtain just 512k, should have no problem what so ever
and experience a very best stable service although with much slower
speeds.
I would strongly recommend for users to opt for
fixed 1MB service for maximum efficiency in terms of speed and
stability.
Unfortunately, for many years to come it is HIGHLY
UNLIKELY that this situation concerning broadband speeds on Kingsmead,
will change in the medium to long term. So we have more or less reached
the best possible service with current broadband technologies on the
Kingsmead Estate.
What is needed is deployment of FTTC
(Fibre-To-The-Cabinet), which means BT investing heavily in rolling-out
Optical Fibre cables together with placing smaller broadband hardware (DSLAMs)
in BT (green) cabinets out on the A556 dual carriageway. This is
required in order to reduce the overall copper loop distance of our
telephone lines from 5.5km to somewhere in the region of 1 to 1.5km.
Once this is done, this will vastly improve the physical properties of
our (last mile) copper telephone lines to our homes, quite considerably
through reducing the (long) length of them at present.
Speeds of 8MB will then be possible for Kingsmead at
such time. In terms of ADSL2+ broadband technologies, speeds in excess
of 8MB can be achieved then (10MB, 12MB, etc)
It is extremely unlikely that BT will invest in
rolling out FTTH (Fibre-To-The-Home), as this is extremely costly and
not viable for BT.
Therefore we can only hope for FTTC in the next 5
years (maybe more.) if BT see it as a viable option.
Hope this helps. Though, again, I recommend 1MB
fixed line speeds for Kingsmead residents for overall reliability.
ELECTIONS - May 3rd
Special Note: Due
to the tragic death of the Mayor of Vale Royal, Joan Kerruish-Jones the
Borough Council election for Moulton & Davenham Ward where she was a
candidate has been postponed to June 21st. The Parish Council election
in Davenham Ward goes ahead on May 3rd. The Parish Council elections in
Kingsmead Ward are uncontested.
In a few days time
you’ll have the opportunity to vote for your Borough (and in some cases)
Parish Councillors. Here are a few things to consider – first and
foremost the way that you vote in these local elections has absolutely
no influence or bearing on the actions of national government. At local
level borough and parish councillors have very little influence on the
local MPs and to be brutally honest, we don’t get a great deal of help
from most of them either – so please don’t use your local election vote
to ‘protest’ against Tony Blair’s policy in Iraq or Gordon Brown’s
economic policies or to ‘express support’ for David Cameron or Ming
Campbell – it will just be a waste of your votes’.
The important thing in
local elections is to look at the record of the people who are standing
locally. What have they done for Davenham and Kingsmead over the last
four years? Has it been positive or negative? Have they actually done
anything at all? Look at what they say they intend to do and don’t fall
for ‘pie in the sky’ promises of “we will do this” or “we will do that”.
Some of the things that candidates ‘promise’ in elections are almost
impossible to achieve, sometimes in conflict with their own party
policy, and sometimes on the edge of legality. Look for candidates that
promise to do the best they can to represent the views of the people
living in Davenham and Kingsmead and for candidates who will listen to
what you want done rather than try to persuade you to go along
with what they want done.
Remember also, and this
is very important, that you are not electing ‘The Council’. Unlike the
USA where the people elect the Chief of Police, the head of the Fire
Department, The Planning Officer, The Head of Environmental Services
etc. etc. here in the UK these are permanent career officials, paid to
do a job according to the rules set down by central government. You are
electing Councillors whose role is to represent your views
and opinions to the ‘officials’. They have a minor role in influencing
the policy and strategy of the Council but have very little influence
over how things are actually put into practice. It takes a very long
time for an initiative that comes from a councillor to be realised (two
years on average) and there is usually strong opposition from the
‘Council’ officials – think of how long it took to get the barrier on
the A556 (even then it went in the wrong place!), parking controls in
Davenham (still not happened), road adoption in Kingsmead (delayed again
and again by council officials being pedantic), and so on.
Finally, vote for
someone who will listen to you, whether they may agree with you
or not rather than people who try to foist their opinions on you or even
worse try to tell you what you want!
For details of candidates etc go to the
Davenham Parish Council website
Broadband in Kingsmead & Davenham
Many people are experiencing difficulties
as they attempt to upgrade their broadband service to the higher speeds
offered by the suppliers. Although all suppliers now offer (up to) 8Mb
broadband it is very unlikely that you will be able to get that sort of
speed in Kingsmead or Davenham. Unfortunately we are on a 'long line'
and beyond 5Km from the exchange (in Middlewich Road) the service
rapidly degrades - even more so if your modem or router is connected to
an extension socket in your house rather than the main socket (the one
with BT embossed on it). Our telephone service is fed via a cable that
travels up Middlewich Road, along the A556 and into Kingsmead or
Davenham from Davenham Roundabout and although it seems to work quite
well for services providing 1Mb 'fixed' speed (that means anything from
700 to 900 Kbps) or less, it just seems to fall over as soon as people
switch to the higher speed 'MaxDSL' services - the connection either
becomes intermittent or fails altogether. What we need is a 'booster'
exchange (if such a thing exists) between here and the main exchange in
Middlewich Road - until then don't expect to get the high speeds
advertised by all the suppliers and do expect to get interruptions to
your service if you switch from an existing 512Kb or 1Mb service. |