Here you go:
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 4096 kbps 384 kbps
Line Attenuation 53.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 12.9 db 12.0 db
Unfortunately those are not good stats...
Attenuation - rough guide:
Measure of how much the signal has degraded between the DSLAM and the modem. This is largely a function of the distance from the exchange. The lower the dB the better for this measurement.
20dB and below is outstanding
20dB-30dB is excellent
30dB-40dB is very good
40dB-50dB is good
50dB-60dB is poor and may experience connectivity issues
60dB or above is bad and will experience connectivity issues
According to the fremnet distance calculator you're about 3,8km away from your telephone exchange. That's far.
The max you should get on that line is still a theoretical 4153kbps.
(by the way, if we ever get 8Mbps etc in future... with that distance from the exchange you'll still hover at 4Mbps)
SNR - rough guide:
The better the margin (the difference between the signal and the noise) the easier it is for your modem to pick out the DSL signal from the background noise.
6dB or below is bad and will experience no synch or intermittent synch problems
7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions
11dB-20dB is good with little or no synch problems
20dB-28dB is excellent
29dB or above is outstanding
Factors that influence line attenuation:
* The quality of the cable (outside the house)
* The true length of the cable which can differ substantially from what we have been told
* The age of the cable
* The dryness of the cable
* Is any part of the cable Aluminium
* the number of internal wired extensions you have in the house
* the number of items connected to those sockets
* the number of microfilters you have
* the quality of your internal cabling
* are you using a telephone extension lead.
Another problem can be electrical noise from items like the following:
* dimmer switches
* Christmas tree lights
* faulty street lights near the premises or the distribution point to the premises
* fridges
* whirlpool baths
* railway lines close by
* fish tank pumps
* touch sensitive switches
* power supply units for TV's, laptops, PCs
* security lights going on and off
The list just goes on and on and depending on the amount of electrical noise these generate this will in turn affect your sync speed.
If you're constantly getting 55kB/s downloads then that means you're basically getting (roughly) a 512Kbps connection, even if you are synching at 4096. Maybe request Telkom to put you on a 2048Kbps profile to force a 2048Kbps sync and then see if your download speeds increase. Your connection should then be more stable (because of the bad 53db, you may find that your router tends to sync at different speeds all the time).
The bottom line is there are a number of factors that can influence this but you're quite far from the exchange and your downstream line attenuation is really bad so I don't expect miracles, but you should get more than 55kB/s download speeds.
