Exchange Only line petition for Fibre

mrbazmondo · 20 Mar 2018 at 11:02

Is anyone else stuck on an exchange only line?
I just filled out this to see if I can get fibre and found I'm on an exchange only line:
https://www.homeandbusiness.openreach.co.uk/fibre-broadband/when-can-i-get-fibre

Then I found a petition to get openreach to do something about it. Its a bit old but doesn't need may more signatures to push it to its goal.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petiti...ice-to-the-nation-s-exchange-only-connections

Personally my line rate is OK at 24Mbs, but its a bit flaky and drops packets every now and then which plays havoc with my work VPN connection.

bremen1874 · 20 Mar 2018 at 13:20

To do anything about it they need space to locate the cabinet. Unless things have changed I believe that it can't be installed within the actual exchange building so there needs to be space outside.

It's not many years since people on exchange only lines were bragging about how fast their connections were compared to most.

mrbazmondo · 20 Mar 2018 at 15:48

I've not been one of those people. I moved here after people started getting fibre. My old house started at 256mbs and over a few years slowly got up to 2Mbs.

killsta · 28 Mar 2018 at 15:09

Luckily I'm not on an exchange only line. I do have a different problem though....my FTTC is full so I'm stuck on 0.5Mb ADSL, so you're lucky

mrbazmondo · 28 Mar 2018 at 16:00

killsta said:
Luckily I'm not on an exchange only line. I do have a different problem though....my FTTC is full so I'm stuck on 0.5Mb ADSL, so you're lucky

Yes and no. The interruption from it periodically dropping my VPN connection to work is infuriating.

bremen1874 · 28 Mar 2018 at 16:03

If you had a router that allowed the SNR margin to be adjusted you could sacrifice some speed for increased stability.

mrbazmondo · 28 Mar 2018 at 16:25

bremen1874 said:
If you had a router that allowed the SNR margin to be adjusted you could sacrifice some speed for increased stability.

Its a Sky Hub. A lot of setting are either missing or very hard to find, e.g. its well known you can't set your own DNS server on it if you use its DHCP server. I'll dig about a bit and see if there is anything about SNR.

mrbazmondo · 28 Mar 2018 at 16:39

Broadband Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 23999 kbps 1265 kbps
Line Attenuation 16.0 dB 9.7 dB
Noise Margin 3.6 dB 8.8 dB

Do the dB values look OK?

bremen1874 · 28 Mar 2018 at 18:23

They're about as you'd expect for your connection speed.

A less optimistic downstream margin (6dB-ish) could help in getting the line stable. Billion routers used to support margin tweaking (not sure if they still do, or if they're compatible with Sky).

What happens to the connection when the problem crops up? You say it drops packets but how did you come up with that diagnosis?

mrbazmondo · 28 Mar 2018 at 22:35

bremen1874 said:
What happens to the connection when the problem crops up? You say it drops packets but how did you come up with that diagnosis?

Active TCP/IP connections drop. Several pings go missing. Remote desktop over VPN connections stall for 30s. Skype calls go silent for a bit.
I've tried from several computers, including a laptop plugged straight into the router. No wifi involved. All experience issues at the same time.
I'm not entirely sure its the ADSL as that doesn't disconnect. Theres little to no debug in the sky hub. It could be a router/switch in the exchange.
I admit I haven't resorting to wiresharking it yet.

Caged · 28 Mar 2018 at 23:04

See if the LAN interface of your router stops responding at the same time. If it does, get it replaced.

mrbazmondo · 28 Mar 2018 at 23:12

Caged said:
See if the LAN interface of your router stops responding at the same time. If it does, get it replaced.

It only goes down briefly, it'd be difficult to look at it in time. Its downstairs and I'm upstairs. I'd have to set something up to record for hours. Its fine for a while, then it might have a spell of doing it every 10 minutes or so. I only tend to notice it while I'm on the VPN working which isn't exactly when I have time to look into it.
The sky sub does have 2 LAN ports, and I've had the laptop plugged in downstairs doing a ping and the rest of the house on the other one. When I have issues computers attached to both LAN ports on the sky hub lose pings at the same time.

mrbazmondo · 28 Mar 2018 at 23:15

Actually, I could test for connectivity between my desktop and the laptop at the time I have issues and that should let me know if the LAN ports on the sky hub are having issues.

bremen1874 · 28 Mar 2018 at 23:20

The usual thing is to have a ping going against the router's LAN IP and another against somewhere on the WAN side (e.g. bbc.co.uk).