Crappy wiring = Crappy DSL upload speeds?

[TidusZ]

My friend has dsl, his download is about 1 megabit while his upload is about 100kilobit. His isp blames the shitty wiring in his house. My thoughts are, if he can download at 1 megabit shouldn't his wiring be capable of uploading at 1 megabit? Is his ISP screwing him or what? He downgraded his ISP's plan to save money and his download went down to about 700kilobit but his upload went from 108-> 104 kilobit, mostly unchanged.

Is it possible for his crappy upload speed proportionate to his download speed to be explained by his house wiring? How much does this typically cost to replace?

 

[spidey07]

Yes, absolutely. Price - depends.

 

[TidusZ]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Yes, absolutely. Price - depends.

So the transmit pipe and receive pipe are separate and different so to speak. My friend is pretty cheap, also lazy and kinda poor, so I think he's screwed. Our main goal was to play Demigod which requires about 256kilobit upload for 5v5 and he can't even do 2v2 right now.

 

[spidey07]

I will freely admit I don't know much about how DSL works, so hopefully an expert in that area will chime in. Cabling plays so much of a role in all of this.

 

[ScottMac]

It's probably not the DSL connection, it's likely to be his Ethernet.

Home-made cables?

Duplex Mismatch?

 

[drebo]

If he has a 1.5mbit DSL plan and he is only getting 1mbit down, that's the result of poor cabling or too much cabling between the MPOE and his modem. This would be rectified by paying the phone company or a third party to come in and run a new cable. Cost depends on the house and how much cable needs to be run.

The upstream speed he is getting is likely a result of the plan he is paying for. AT&T's 1.5mbit plan is only a 128k upstream connection. DSL is generally not sold to home users as symmetric. His speed also could be caused by him being too far away from the CO or closest repeater. Nothing can be done about that.

 

[Modelworks]

DSL can be affected by a lot of things. First thing I would do is buy a phone line extension cable long enough to go from the NID (the box that the phone line uses at the home) to the modem. Inside the NID , open that up and there should be a line plugged into a jack, unplug that. Plug your extension cable into the jack and the other end directly into the modem, do not put any filters on the line. See what the speeds are. That bypasses the homes wiring. If you have an older NID, one with just screws, remove the wires that go into the home. Cut the end off the extension cable you bought and connect that to the screws.

If that solves the problem then you need to replace the box on the outside with a box designed for DSL that includes a filter. You then run a dedicated line from that box to the modem. The rest of the home gets connected to the filtered section of the box . This also removes the need to have those dsl filters on all the jacks which also can lower speeds.

I would probably replace the outdoor NID either way . They only cost about $20.
This guy has a bunch of them.
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/worldwidetaz__W0QQ_armrsZ1

 

[imagoon]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I will freely admit I don't know much about how DSL works, so hopefully an expert in that area will chime in. Cabling plays so much of a role in all of this.

Depending on the version of DSL you are using...

Typically your downstream channel is larger than the upload channel because the channels are configured that way:

This is looking at the system from the house not the provider.

Old style DSLL

20khz |-------downstream-------------||--upstream--| The split is semi arbitrary and set my the dsl co.

This type had the issue where the upload was all up top and in bad signal situation could clip the upload channel

So they "fixed it" with:

20khz |--upstream--||-------downstream-------------| This let the download side float based on signal conditions

Then they did:

20khz |u||-down-||u||-down-||u||-down-||u||-down-||-u-||-down-| until the channels degraded and were dropped.

So to answer the question... Typically the upload channel is split smaller than the download, set by the provider. I have had poor signal conditions on the old dsl type (middle one I listed) actually have lower download than upload speed.

Channelized DSL is far more fault tolerant but the channel sizes are still set by the dsl co.

Also as a side note, when you have 15000 feet of copper installed in the 1930's between you and the CO, rarely will the CAT6 cable from the nid to the PC do much if anything. Make sure you have the filters installed properly and that is about the best you can do.

outside|---------Filter------DSL Modem
|
In house splitter to the rest of the phones

^ this is generally the best.

 

[imagoon]

Originally posted by: TidusZ
My friend has dsl, his download is about 1 megabit while his upload is about 100kilobit. His isp blames the shitty wiring in his house. My thoughts are, if he can download at 1 megabit shouldn't his wiring be capable of uploading at 1 megabit? Is his ISP screwing him or what? He downgraded his ISP's plan to save money and his download went down to about 700kilobit but his upload went from 108-> 104 kilobit, mostly unchanged.

Is it possible for his crappy upload speed proportionate to his download speed to be explained by his house wiring? How much does this typically cost to replace?

Home DSL is typically not a synchronous connection. Because of the way DSL works and the way the channels are divided, you will rarely get a synced connection and you still may be limited by what the ISP sets on the account. 1.5Mb/128kbit is a pretty common DSL "plan." You will never actually hit the max rate due to errors, line conditions and transfer overhead. PPPOE etc if in use will further lower the apparent connection speed.

1.5/1.5 is a SDSL speed which is basically an unconditioned T1, those are costly..., typically $200 a month +

Most T1's now come in to the NID as a conditioned SDSL line that is converted to 'T1' at the NID box via the little controller board in the NID box.

 

[vailr]

My friend is pretty cheap, also lazy and kinda poor, so I think he's screwed. Our main goal was to play Demigod which requires about 256kilobit upload for 5v5 and he can't even do 2v2 right now.

For under $30, there should be a way to "self install" by purchasing & installing a new NID with a dedicated DSL line. Should allow for better DSL speeds, and the line filters on the POTS lines become unnecessary.