technical checks before signing up?

[swt1963]

Hi

I'm thinking of joining IDnet, as I'm having significant issues with my current ISP.  Apart from some severe slowdowns at peak times, and at times problems with DNS timeouts, today's silly was routing my home (Kent) to office VPN traffic from Sheffield to London via Holland and Belgium in the morning, and New York and Washington in the afternoon!   A somewhat roundabout route which resulted in rather extended response times. Both ISP's involved denied that they were having routing issues and that their peering through Telehouse was OK, but the issue "magically" resolved itself shortly after I spoke to my ISP.

My ADSL sync is very stable,  and the error rates are very low (Netgear DGTeam custom firmware with the target SNR margin set to about 12dB - I prefer a stable connection to raw speed!), so I'm convinced the problem is with either BTW or more likely the ISP.  Needless to say, their tech support department really can't get beyond the standard script based issue fixing.

I'm on a small rural exchange with only BTW as the network provider.

I've already checked the VP for the exchange (Brenchley) in Samknows and it's showing green. 

I'm pretty sure that it's not exchange contention causing the problems, but should I be checking anything else before I make the move?  I don't want to end up paying more and just having more of the same because it's actually a BTW problem.

Any and all suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers

Steve

[Simon]

Hi Steve, and   

If you want us to check your connection basics, can you post your full router stats (obscuring your IP address), and run a BT Speedtest, posting the results?

IDNet guarantee no contention within their networks, but obviously have no control over BTs network.  They are, however, very good at sorting out problems, they answer the phone usually within a couple of rings, and there isn't a script in sight.  You do pay a little more, but we think it's worth it, for the excellent customer service offered.

[kinmel]

  Steve

You seem to have considered the usual causes of these problems.

The first thing to consider is the Tech Support: with Idnet it is a 0800 number and the support will be tailored to your own expertise, no scripts that you must follow before anything gets done.  All the staff are known by their first name and genuinely there is none that we try to avoid.  Idnet staff get to grips with the problem and will use their contacts in BTs hierarchy to get results.


Your Idnet contract gives you a monthly download allowance, to use as and when you will, no congestion on their network and no port throttling of any kind. Additional bandwidth is £1 per Gb.

All Idnet contracts are for 30 days, so you know Idnet have confidence in the service they provide.  Most of us have been here years.

Don't forget this forum, it is run entirely by enthusiastic Idnet customers and the level of support available here is second to none.

Take the opportunity to join Idnet, you certainly won't regret it.

[swt1963]

Hi

Here are my router stats, let me know if you need anything else. 

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason:   1
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 448 Kbps, Downstream rate = 3328 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode:         G.DMT
Channel:      Interleave
Trellis:      ON
Line Status:      No Defect
Training Status:   Showtime
      Down      Up
SNR (dB):   14.5      21.0
Attn(dB):   53.0      28.5
Pwr(dBm):   19.6      12.1
Max(Kbps):   3648      1092
Rate (Kbps):   3328      448
         G.dmt framing
K:      105(0)      15
R:      16      16
S:      2      8
D:      16      4
         ADSL2 framing
MSGc:      1      1
B:      102      15
M:      2      8
T:      1      1
R:      16      16
S:      2.1553      9.0000
L:      824      128
D:      16      4
         Counters
SF:      13624220      13624550
SFErr:      3608      44
RS:      463223492      115807961
RSCorr:      122733416      77
RSUnCorr:   32865      0

HEC:      3300      28
OCD:      106      0
LCD:      0      0
Total Cells:   1817891338      0
Data Cells:   11706736      0
Drop Cells:   0
Bit Errors:   0      0

ES:      1827      0
SES:      36      0
UAS:      129      0
AS:      231617

INP:      1.24      2.00
PER:      1.88      1.96
delay:      8.62      9.00
OR:      29.69      28.44

Bitswap:   0      0

Total time = 1 days 11 hours 59 min 13 sec
SF  = 63512138
CRC = 7928
LOS = 5
LOF = 31
ES  = 1827
Latest 1 day time = 11 hours 59 min 13 sec
SF  = 2538357
CRC = 31
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 22
Latest 15 minutes time = 14 min 13 sec
SF  = 50150
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF  = 52923
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
Previous 1 day time = 24 hours 0 sec
SF  = 5082260
CRC = 62
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 48
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF  = 52982
CRC = 4
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 2
15 minutes interval [-45 min to -30 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF  = 52923
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
15 minutes interval [-60 min to -45 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF  = 52982
CRC = 2
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 2
Showtime Drop Reason:   1
Last Retrain Reason:   1

Not sure if the total time figures above are correct since the figures from the router web interface are different and are certainly more like what I'd expect to see:

System Up Time 300:04:47
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 1566726 1878993 0 270 1626 219:43:45
LAN 10M/100M 2174350 1870946 0 1240 262 300:04:38
WLAN 11M/54M 327356 269252 0 220 55 300:02:23

Predictably, the BT Speedtester is busy at the moment. I'll post the stats when I can get on it.

Cheers

Steve



ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3328 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 53.0 db 28.5 db
Noise Margin 14.4 db 21.0 db

[swt1963]

Ok - did get on the BT tester.  Are these the results you are looking for? Seems a bit lacking in detail!

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    Your DSL connection rate: 3328 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 2500 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 2175 kbps

I assume that the BT tester bypasses the ISP and connects directly to the BT systems?

Thanks once again.

Steve

[Simon]

Thanks, Steve.  Someone more qualified than me will look at those for you.  You seem to have quite a high attenuation and noise margin.

[Lance]

Yep, as Simon had said your noise margin is high. It looks to me to be set at15 rather than 12. Have you tried disconnecting the ring wire from all sockets?

The only other thing I can add is that quite often the information BT release regarding exchange contention aren't accurate or is out of date. We've had quite a few cases on here in the past where the public data says all is ok but support have found the vp is congested.

[Ted]

Steve, You may not be aware that IDNet operate with a 1 month contract, so if things don't work out (unlikely) you can move on quickly and with limited hassle.

[Gary]

The Slowdowns and DNS timeouts could be related to your ISP, I moved back to IDnet for similar reasons when I moved home and an LLU service was no longer available to me, my exchange is BT only. Your attenuation is about the same as I had at my old address but your snr is much higher, as Lance says check the ringwires, see the faq which will explain that. On long lines like you have tbh a HGV 2700 router may be better, they hold long lines very well and if you have had any loss of sync events that pushed your line snr up one might help. If you could get back to about 6db you would see an improvement. Environmental factors and of course line condition all factor in, but in the end IDNet are a good isp, technically very knowledgeable and their DNS servers are good, pings are low. I would say if you are with one of the bigger ISP's you may be better off with IDNet, smaller is better when it comes to broadband I feel. The decision is yours, but since its only a 30 day contract and no downtime with a mac code transfer you can only but try.

[Sebby]

Your sync is actually not bad considering the attentuation and high target SNRM. Are you planning on going for ADSL2+ or ADSL2 (Max)? I think Max may be the better option. You may not have a choice anyway if your exchange isn't enabled.

By the way...

[swt1963]

Many thanks for all of your replies.  I too prefer smaller ISP's where there's some chance of getting things done, and of speaking to someone that knows more than I do.

I only moved from Freedom2Surf to Plusnet because Freedom2Surf had been taken over by Pipex/Tiscali and speed, reliability and service had been thrown out in the persuit of bigger profits at any price.  Seems like Plusnet have now been forced to take more or less the same line by their BT lords and masters.

Once I've moved I'll tweak the target SNR margin down a little using the router settings, as IDnet seem to have a tech support department that knows what it's doing.  I know from experience that being at 6dB causes a fair amount of instability because the line is long (2.95km straight line, and more like 4km by road), so I'll probably go for somewhere around 9dB.

The ring wire is already disconnected throughout the house, as all the sockets are filtered in the socket, not by using a plug in filter.  Unfortunately the router is connected to almost the last socket in the chain (4th out of 5 sockets in the house), but plugging it into the test socket doesn't actually make a lot of difference to the attenuation or the noise figures.

I don't have the option for ADSL2+, as the exchange insn't due to be WBC enabled until March 2011.  It won't make a lot of difference and BT might have fixed all the teething problems by then 

Given the generally positive opinion on these boards, looks like it's time to make the move.  Now to extract a MAC from my current provider.....

[Sebby]

Good luck with that.