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I want my ‘Annex-M’

Posted in Uncategorized on February 11, 2009 at 6:58 pm

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.

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Comments

Comment by Andrew Ferguson - February 12, 2009 on 9:21 am

For those confident to lift a wire from the jaws of the IDC connector removing the wire on pin 3 of the master socket faceplate accomplishes the same as putting an iPlate on, saving a tenner.

The phones still ring since when you have ADSL you need to use microfilters which re-create the ring signal.

To get an idea of whether its worth even bothering the site www.farina1.com/adsl can estimate the possible speed of your connection based on data from the modem.

Comment by Andrew Ferguson - February 12, 2009 on 9:23 am

To add on a seperate note, Be has no concept of waiting for the profile to update, this only applies to IPStream connections from BT Wholesale.

Be allow you to tweak the target noise margins via their customer portal.

No advice on the Sky+ box, except my HD box does similar once a month.

Comment by bennyh - February 12, 2009 on 1:43 pm

Interesting, looks like I’m stuck with those line speeds then..

On plus side .. changing channel to 1 seems to have fixed the wireless and replacement HDD means Sky+ working again.

Comment by John Smith - March 4, 2009 on 4:03 pm

Have you got any home phone extension wiring because the iplate is only effective when you have?

Comment by Jo Broadband - June 28, 2009 on 12:01 am

Rather than fitting an Iplate just remove the bell wire - as I learnt from a comment on one of your other articles, try http://broadband-speedup.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-do-it.html

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