What versions of the Home Hub are compatible with ...

Question

I've heard verbally from a variety of people (all paid by BT) that v1 Hubs won't work properly with 21CN and I have certainly just had a "user 21CN upgrade experience" that confirms that - exchange got upgraded, my profile  which used to be over 5000 using a previously satisfactory v1 Hub immediately dropped to half that, and as soon as I connected with a new v2.0 hub, the profile shot up to 21CN levels which were more than double the pre-upgrade levels.
It would be great to see a formal response from BT about this and some published documentation about which hubs are compatible, and also a clear statement of what BTs formal policy is on how v1 Hub owners are dealt with when exchanges are upgraded to 21CN.Possibly also updating the online help files and FAQs about 21CN?
It would also be good if the overseas support staff were briefed on the matter and given an appropriately updated script.
I would like to thank the excellent UK based support team, accessed via the online contact route, and the BTOpenreach engineers who were all excellent. At the moment I am very satisfied with the result - but would like reassurance that OTHER customers who might be struggling with poor speeds after a 21CN upgrade, purely because of having a v1 Hub, (or even a 1.5 hub?) are not subjected to a lot of frustration, wasted engineer visits etc. when just sending them a new 2.0 or 2.1 hub might solve their problem.
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Answer 1

RogerB wrote:
Linda_Smith wrote: 
I tested before and after the engineering work on my line, using the old hub and saw very little change - and virtually NO change in the key noise stats. I tested both on the test socket and on the normal setup. And the profile would not shift from its low level.
I tested before and after connecting the new hub today, and saw a huge and immediate change, in both synch rates and profile, and noise levels - instantly the hub synched. And the profile came up dramatically within about two to three hours - this is the only thing that had moved it over the last week. And I tested the new hub immediately via both the test socket and the normal connection. So I don't agree with the last comment about CCSNR because I KNOW what the engineering work did to the CCSNR (and so did the engineer who checked it before he left and commented on it still being so high).
Linda are you saying that after the new hub synched and gave you a better synch and profile ....  the noise margin was still running at a high level? ..... or did it reduce from previous levels ..... or stay the same??
Trying to get an angle as to what's coming off with the 21cn upgrades, as clearly this is a common event all of a sudden.
Before the line work/engineer visit,the engineer who phoned me (while we did various remote tests with hub in test societ) said, after we had done remote tests with the hub in the test socket - tell your visiting engineer this information from remote tests - "Loop Loss Line attenuation 23dB,  Profile from Exchange - 3dB downstream, SNR is high even using test socket."
the v1 hub - prior to the line work - was giving these sort of stats
(test socket)
DSL Connection    Link Information - Uptime:    0 days, 0:02:01 - Modulation:    G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:    735 / 4,091
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [KB/KB]:    23.00 / 25.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]:    9.5 / 19.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]:    11.0 / 23.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:    8.0 / 17.5
Here are the stats AFTER the engineer line work and using the v1 hub (test socket) - and I'm sure nothing was done at the exchange whatsoever cos the engineers didn't go there. Everything stayed the same over the next day or so till I received the new hub and connected it. the up/down bandwidth has gone down - there is an "odd" result for output power of 0
v1 hub again - test socket.
DSL Connection    Link Information - Uptime:    0 days, 0:01:03 - Modulation:    G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:    691 / 2,979
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [KB/KB]:    61.00 / 44.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]:    9.5 / 0.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]:    11.0 / 23.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:    10.0 / 21.5
As you can see the synch and noise are not very different to what they were before the line work. This is still the v1 hub, but with everything from the cable connecting overhead cable to the NTE5 replaced with spanking new kit - new down cable, new NTE5, removed old GPO junction box. But as the visiting engineeer said - you still have a lot of noise.
then my 2.0 hub arrived
today I got this - v2 hub in test socket as soon as I unpacked it and once I had the wireless link sorted and could run a speed test on my desktop - everything else the same as the test above. Prior to fitting the hub there had been no dramatic rise in profile or synch on the old hub but I haven't recorded the results. This is the first 2.0 test.
ADSL line status
Connection information
Line state    Connected
Connection time    0 days, 0:35:23
Downstream    13,399 Kbps
Upstream    1,107 Kbps
ADSL settings
VPI/VCI    0/38
Type    PPPoA
Modulation    ITU-T G.992.5
Latency type    Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up)    3.0 dB / 5.8 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up)    25.0 dB / 11.5 dB
Output power (Down/Up)    0.0 dBm / 12.5 dBm
The profile at that point was still as it had been before, but then adjusted after about two hours and shot up from 2500 to 11000
NB - remember that just to confuse us - the v1 stats and the v2 stats give up/down figures the opposite way round.
I noticed that doing tests in the test socket with the v1 hub, very often it would fail to login to the internet (no internet light, no internet connection) even after synching and being left. A GUI restart didn't fix it, but a cold reboot seemed to make it login and the internet would connect again.
I'm not arguing the techie explanations for all of this - but I was very careful recording all the stats and circumstances and exactly when they were done, and what had and hadn't been fixed. I'm not technically minded and know nothing about SNRs and attenuation - I will leave the discussions to the rest of you.
All I can see is that the change of hub was what made the BIG difference and it was instant.
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