Hello all.

    I have an Archer VR600 modem and I can happily say that it has been a very good modem. 

    I am living in the UK and my broadband provider is BT which is the only one available in my area. My broadband speed is very low, between 1 and 3Mbps advertised, and I have tried my best to improve it as much as I could. At the beginning when I first got my broadband set up, I was getting speeds of no more than 1.4Mbps as reported by Windows Task Manager. Over the course of a couple of months, I did some reaserch on how to improve it and I ended up changing the faceplate of the ADSL master socket to a new, filtered one (the Openreach™ G.Fast Faceplate & NTE5C Master Socket), I changed the cabling to a CAT5e patch lead and a CAT8 ethernet cable from the modem to the PC.
    All these changes have seen my broadband speed go from the 1.4Mbps up to 2.6Mbps as reported by Windows Task Manager and 2.42Mbps as reported by speedtest.net. I bought the TP-Link Archer VR600, AC1600 modem as my last try to further improve my broadband speed and I am happy to say that I was able to bring it up to 3.1Mbps as reported by Windows Task Manager and 2.77Mbps as reported by speedtest.net and I have enjoyed that little bump from the 12th of February until the 22nd of February when my speed has misteriously dropped to 2.1Mbps as reported by Windows Task Manager and 1.88Mbps as reported by speedtest.net. I contacted my broadband provider and after doing some tests on my line, they decided to send an engineer as they couldn't find a fault. The Openreach engineer arrived and after doing some tests and concluding that everything was fine with my line, he made a phonecall and after the call my speed went up to 2.6Mbps task manager and 2.44Mbps speedtest.net. He then told me that my SNR Margin was "misteriously" increased from 6db which is the standard to 14db which resulted in my lower than usual speed. After he left I saw the SNR margin increasing again to 6.5db, later 9db and today I even saw 12db. The engineer also showed me a chart on his phone of how I was able to get my speed up to the 3Mbps advertised in my packet and congratulated me on that before leaving. I am now wondering if maybe my broadband provider has been increasing my SNR artificially since no fault with the line was found in order to bring my speed down. Afterall, they advertise a 1Mbps "stayfast guarantee" which I was well above.
    I would also like to mention that during the period in which I was enjoying between 3.0 and 3.1Mbps constant, I was not getting any dropouts and no intrerruptions during gaming sessions. Only after my SNR margin was increased did my dropouts start and my online games kicking me out due to connection issues or high ping start.

    I would just like to know if there is a way for me to reduce the SNR margin myself down to 6 or even lower. I am aware that reducing it could cause problems but I would like to try as I really have nothing to lose with an internet speed this low. Thank you.