If you are churning from one DSL supplier to another with a line speed change make sure you are getting the new line speed.

I failed to check that I had indeed gotten the requested line speed change and only discovered it due to complaints of slowness.

Shows you what can happen when you assume. 128Kbps is simply not enough to allow for several users using fat web applications and someone trying to check email remotely.

Checking your ADSL Line Speed on a Cisco 877
Log into the console or via PuTTY to your router and get enable mode:

You can use a combination of show dsl atm 0 and show int atm 0

The 0 value can change depending on how the router is configured you will know pretty quick you have it right because it will return stuff.

The show dsl command seems to be a bit more informative giving your download and upload speeds

Following is the output of show dsl atm 0. Take note of the Attenuation figure. The lower the better. I reduced the figure from 64dB to ~50dB simply by unplugging a phone and shortening the cabling. Seeing as I’m a 4.3km drive (thanks Google Maps) from the Exchange every metre of cable adds to the signal loss.

After Line Speed Upgrade:

                ATU-R (DS)                      ATU-C (US)
Modem Status:    Showtime (DMTDSL_SHOWTIME)
DSL Mode:        ITU G.992.1 (G.DMT) Annex A
ITU STD NUM:     0x03                            0x1
Vendor ID:       'STMI'                          'ALCB'
Vendor Specific: 0x0000                          0x0000
Vendor Country:  0x0F                            0x0F
Chip ID:         C196 (0)
DFE BOM:         DFE3.0 Annex A (1)
Capacity Used:   22%                             53%
Noise Margin:    24.5 dB                         24.0 dB
Output Power:    15.0 dBm                        11.5 dBm
Attenuation:     50.0 dB                         27.0 dB
Defect Status:   None                            None
Last Fail Code:  None
Watchdog Counter: 0x82
Watchdog Resets: 0
Selftest Result: 0x00
Subfunction:     0x00
Interrupts:      8289 (0 spurious)
PHY Access Err:  0
Activations:     2
LED Status:      ON
LED On Time:     100
LED Off Time:    100
Init FW:         init_AMR-3.0.014_no_bist.bin
Operation FW:    AMR-3.0.014.bin
FW Source:       embedded
FW Version:      3.0.14

                 Interleave             Fast    Interleave              Fast
Speed (kbps):             0             1536             0               512
Cells:                    0           683964             0           5278984
Reed-Solomon EC:          0                0             0                 0
CRC Errors:               0               27             0                 0
Header Errors:            0               10             0                 0
Total BER:                0E-0           1573E-10
Leakage Average BER:      0E-0           1527E-10
                        ATU-R (DS)      ATU-C (US)
Bitswap:               enabled            enabled
Bitswap success:          0                   0
Bitswap failure:          0                   0

LOM Monitoring : Disabled

Before Line Speed Upgrade:

show dsl interface atm 0
 
               ATU-R (DS)                      ATU-C (US)
Modem Status:    Showtime (DMTDSL_SHOWTIME)
DSL Mode:        ITU G.992.1 (G.DMT) Annex A
ITU STD NUM:     0x03                            0x1
Vendor ID:       'STMI'                          'ALCB'
Vendor Specific: 0x0000                          0x0000
Vendor Country:  0x0F                            0x0F
Chip ID:         C196 (0)
DFE BOM:         DFE3.0 Annex A (1)
Capacity Used:   39%                             20%
Noise Margin:    18.5 dB                         25.0 dB
Output Power:    18.0 dBm                         0.5 dBm
Attenuation:     64.0 dB                         29.0 dB
Defect Status:   None                            None
Last Fail Code:  None
Watchdog Counter: 0xA4
Watchdog Resets: 0
Selftest Result: 0x00
Subfunction:     0x00
Interrupts:      8311 (0 spurious)
PHY Access Err:  0
Activations:     6
LED Status:      ON
LED On Time:     100
LED Off Time:    100
Init FW:         init_AMR-3.0.014_no_bist.bin
Operation FW:    AMR-3.0.014.bin
FW Source:       embedded
FW Version:      3.0.14

                 Interleave             Fast    Interleave              Fast
Speed (kbps):             0             1536             0               128
Cells:                    0          2473961             0           3625087
Reed-Solomon EC:          0                0             3                 4
CRC Errors:               0              260             3                 2
Header Errors:            0              105             1                 3
Total BER:                0E-0           5332E-10
Leakage Average BER:      0E-0           6510E-10
                        ATU-R (DS)      ATU-C (US)
Bitswap:               enabled            enabled
Bitswap success:          0                   0
Bitswap failure:          0                   0

LOM Monitoring : Disabled


DMT Bits Per Bin
000: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 2 3 3 4
010: 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 0 2 0 0 0
020: 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
030: 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5
040: 6 6 6 6 2 5 4 4 5 6 5 5 5 5 5 4
050: 4 4 3 4 4 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 5 4
060: 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 2
070: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
080: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0
090: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
0A0: 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
0B0: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0
0C0: 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 2 0 0
0D0: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0E0: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0F0: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

DSL: Training log buffer capability is not enabled 

Show int atm0 after Line Speed Upgrade

show int atm 0

ATM0 is up, line protocol is up
  Hardware is MPC ATMSAR (with Alcatel ADSL Module)
  Description: External Interface
  MTU 4470 bytes, sub MTU 4470, BW 512 Kbit/sec, DLY 720 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 3/255, rxload 32/255
  Encapsulation ATM, loopback not set
  Encapsulation(s): AAL5  AAL2, PVC mode
  10 maximum active VCs, 1024 VCs per VP, 1 current VCCs
  VC Auto Creation Disabled.
  VC idle disconnect time: 300 seconds
  Last input never, output 00:00:00, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 537
  Queueing strategy: Per VC Queueing
  5 minute input rate 65000 bits/sec, 8 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 7000 bits/sec, 8 packets/sec
     421391 packets input, 174033742 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 3 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort
     389890 packets output, 53139084 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

Show int atm0 Before Line Speed Upgrade

ATM0 is up, line protocol is up
 Hardware is MPC ATMSAR (with Alcatel ADSL Module)
 Description: External Interface
 MTU 4470 bytes, sub MTU 4470, BW 128 Kbit/sec, DLY 2880 usec,
    reliability 255/255, txload 111/255, rxload 157/255
 Encapsulation ATM, loopback not set
 Encapsulation(s): AAL5  AAL2, PVC mode
 10 maximum active VCs, 1024 VCs per VP, 1 current VCCs
 VC Auto Creation Disabled.
 VC idle disconnect time: 300 seconds
 Last input never, output 00:00:00, output hang never
 Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
 Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 67299
 Queueing strategy: Per VC Queueing
 5 minute input rate 79000 bits/sec, 49 packets/sec
 5 minute output rate 56000 bits/sec, 42 packets/sec
    41965003 packets input, 894655487 bytes, 0 no buffer
    Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
    0 input errors, 15712 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 1 abort
    39164878 packets output, 3119337429 bytes, 0 underruns
    0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
    0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out