I want my ‘Annex-M’
By Benny Har-Even in Editorial
Posted in Uncategorized on
My home broadband is with Be Unlimited - I’m on the ‘Pro’ package – which gives you ‘up to 24Mbps’ and 2.5Mbps upload speed. However I noticed that my line was only syncing at 11Mbs downstream and 1Mbps upstream – I’d actually been feeling that the internet tubes were slowing down recently. Hmpph.
Enquiring with Be, I was impressed to quickly receive a message back saying that I was connected to something called ‘Annex A’ and to get the faster upload speeds I needed to be connected to called ‘Annex M’.
Now what on earth is ‘Annex M’?
For those not up with their ITU G.992.5 regulations (shame on you), it’s an optional component of the ADSL2+ specification that delivers faster upload speeds over DSL. For a long time ADSL lines were limited to a rubbish 256Kbps, but I believe that the internet tubes for the great unwashed such as TalkTalk, have recently upgraded to 640Kbps. Annex M obviously gives a tidy speed boost to this.
Be told me that it was trying to reset my router remotely but it wasn’t working so I’d have to do it manually. It wasn’t to know that I’m not using its router – having recently laid Ethernet cable under newly laid floorboards at home I wanted a router that offered Gigabit Ethernet and Wireless N speeds.
For my sins, I’m using Belkin’s N1 Vision, which as it turns out doesn’t support Annex M by default- but there was a ‘hidden page’ that enabled it, which I was pleased about. It’s http://192.168.2.1/wifi.html - in case you’ve got that router.
Turning it on, and I immediately got a line sync boost to 14Mbps and 1.9Mbps upload – and a speed test showed I was actually getting 1.5Mbps – so not bad.
Being greedy, I wanted more, so I picked up a £10 iPlate – a small box that you slot into your BT master sockets, that meant to provide a free speed boost by removing interference from phone wiring extension. Unfortunately, it seems to have had no effect on my line so that’s it looks as though it could be a tenner down the drain. However, as my ertswhile colleague Barry from sister title PC Pro’s explains so well, you need to wait a while for the sync profile to get updated, so patience is in order. I do think though that for it to get duly updated, you need to have your line connected for an uninteruptted period, which hasn’t happenned as since the move to Annex M I also have started having frequent wireless dropouts, requiring me to pull out the power cable to get it working again.
So as it stands, between Annex-M, the wireless and the the iPlate, I’m pretty frustrated right now with it all. And that’s not to mention that my Sky+ box has been randomly shutting down, and the hard disk is making noises that no hard disk should really be making. It’s all doomed.
Technology. It hates me.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
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