stats

[Tina]

OK i don't know all the technical jargon, but my stats have gone way down. This has been going on for a week or so now. I rebooted the router, nothing changed. I went away on wed - to last night. unplugged the router and phone line.. still no better on my return.. so i dunno.

[Rik]

Not enough info there, Tina. Can you do a BT test please:

http://test.speedtester.bt.com:50301/

And also let us know your router's downstream noise margin and attenuation.

[Tina]

Thanks Rik - don't understand the last bit.. but here are the results for the first bit

Download speedachieved during the test was - 2164 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 1000-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :3020 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 760 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 2500 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 11.15:24.25:64.6 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

[Rik]

Your speed is fine for your profile. What router do you have.

[Tina]

I thought it might be the router tbh It's a netgear DG834G

[Rik]

Check the instructions about halfway down the page, Tina:

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Do you know the version number?

[Tina]

it's V5 I think. i did it all to the last bit but got this /bin/sh: adsl: not found. I'm on a Mac so opened terminal and did it that way

[Rik]

Did you get the figures?

[Tina]

nope just that line

[Rik]

OK, best guess I can give you is that your router has been resyncing frequently due to noise bursts, so the profile has been forced down. As you can't run routerstats, I'd suggest giving support a call/email and ask them what they can see from their end.

[Tina]

That would make sense as the conection has been dropping

[Rik]

Anything change at your end, eg new electrical equipment, change to using an immersion heater etc?

[Tina]

nope nothing

[Rik]

Talk to support, then, it's going to be hard to diagnose from here without access to our normal tools. If you have an NTE5 master socket, can you take off the faceplate and connect directly to the test socket?

[Steve]

Does this not work for version 5 ?

From the web interface http://192.168.0.1/
> Router Status
> "Show Statistics" Button

[Wooloff]

Sorry for hijacking the thread but I thought it would be better than making my own one.

I've also been suffering from very slow speeds for the last week or so


Download speedachieved during the test was - 306 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 1000-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :8128 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 7843 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 26.98:31.99:41.03 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.


ADSL Link                     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    8128 kbps            448 kbps
Line Attenuation            23 db            7 db
Noise Margin            9 db                    25 db

Nothing has been changed hardware wise or anything new brought into the house. I had similar speed issues roughly this time last year and it took a few weeks to be resolved. I still don't know who fixed it back then.

Any suggestions?

[Steve]

I think I'd check with support tomorrow and give them your BT speedtest results. Only other suggestions are  perhaps a failing router or a very poor wifi connection.

[Wooloff]

I think I'd check with support tomorrow and give them your BT speedtest results. Only other suggestions are  perhaps a failing router or a very poor wifi connection.

Tried a spare router with no improvement. I'll give support a bell tomorrow. Thanks for the help

[MisterW]

IP Profile for your line is - 7843 Kbps

That's VERY strange, somethings not right there!. Its not a valid IP profile, 7150 is the profile for a sync of 8128 and the next one up ( if you're on ADSL2+ is 8000.

[Tina]

Does this not work for version 5 ?

From the web interface http://192.168.0.1/
> Router Status
> "Show Statistics" Button

Yes it does .. here you are

   
System Up Time 03:02:06
Port    Status    TxPkts    RxPkts    Collisions    Tx B/s    Rx B/s    Up Time
WAN    PPPoA    53431    69801    0    1333    6521    03:00:52
LAN    10M/100M    665    0    0    12    0    03:01:59
WLAN    11M/54M    70783    54956    0    6718    1413    03:01:51

ADSL Link    Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed    3023 kbps    762 kbps
Line Attenuation    36.5 db    18.0 db
Noise Margin    27.4 db    5.1 db

[Steve]

I think you need to check with support Tina to find out why BT have hamstrung your connection, they'll need your BT speedtest result.

[Tina]

I've e-mailed them and included the results. Thanks guys

[Rik]

I agree with Steve, Tina. BT have bumped your noise margin sky high, it's costing you about 3.5M or more as it stands.

[Rik]

Tried a spare router with no improvement. I'll give support a bell tomorrow. Thanks for the help

The good news is that it's outside BT's acceptable speed range, so they are obliged to investigate.

[Tina]

sorry what is noise margin? Why would BT set it up high?

[Rik]

ADSL Link    Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed    3023 kbps    762 kbps
Line Attenuation    36.5 db    18.0 db
Noise Margin    27.4 db    5.1 db

Noise margin is, effectively, the amount of ADSL signal that reaches the router, Tina, above the amount of noise. In theory, a router needs some margin in order to differentiate the signal from the background, but I've seen routers still working at -2db, ie when the noise is 2b higher than the signal. Almost certainly, this is mis-reporting by the router.

The nominal 'target' NM s 6db, and BTwill try to run your line at this level. If it can't manage to do so stably, it then increases the target NM in steps of 3db, each one of which costs you 5-700kbps of sync speed. The highest official target with BT is 15db, though, so your 27.4 suggests to me that the router resynced at a noisy time, and as the noise level has dropped, the NM has increased. The only time you can get a real idea of the target is immediately after a resync, so you might want to try this some time.

[Tina]

is a resync the same as a reboot through the router? sorry I'm thick

[Rik]

A resync can be caused by external noise, or manually triggered by re-booting the router, Tina.

[Tina]

Had this from support

The speed has been reduced to stabilise the connection as it has been dropping out. Please try connecting your router and filter to the test socket behind the faceplate of the master BT socket and monitor the connection for stability from this point.

This should reduce any interference caused by internal extensin wiring so if the line is ok from this point you may need to investigate the issue with your wiring. If the connection is still unstable from this point, please try testing with a different filter and if possible a different router connected to the line or try updating the firmware for your router and monitoring the connection.

Once the connection is stable for a period of around 48 - 72 hours then the speed should start to increase again automatically

I can't take plates off - wouldn't know how and have no tools lol. I don't have another router. Could try a different filter and update my router

[Rik]

Worth a crack Tina, as those are the first things support will ask you to do.

[Tina]

I can't upgrade my router as it won't reconise  the .chk extension on my Mac

[Rik]

Ah. Not come across that before. Anyone else with a Netgear/Mac combination?

[Steve]

Didn't think it would matter as you're just using the browser to upload the file to the router



PS we've also seen these high downstream margins on adsl2+ before usually associated with a banded profile

[Tina]

says invalid file name

[Steve]

I think Tina I'm not on the same track as I thought a router firmware file was .img

[Tina]

it says it sould be.. but it's dowloaded it as a .chk

[Steve]

I think the .chk is the firmware file for the v5? I can download it with the correct file name using opera but I think I would use firefox to upload. I'll try to find out more.

[pctech]

Rename the file with the .img extension and you should be ok.

[Steve]

That was my first thoughts Mitch,then I found .chk files mentioned on the netgear forum. What is the v5 firmware update file extension using windows?

[pctech]

Dont know I'll just try and download it.

[pctech]

yep, its a .chk

They must have changed it for the v5 to try to prevent you accidentally loading v4 firmware.

[Tina]

I changed the extension and got this

Upgrade file is not the correct type or version for this device.

Upgrade failed.

Please obtain the correct file and try again.

my head is banging so off to eat will be back

[Steve]

I think Tina I wouldn't risk it on the Mac, It's possibly not a router issue you've got either

[Tina]

well I've changed the filter, but dunno what else to do ;(

[pctech]

Sorry Tina it should indeed be a .chk file.

[Steve]

well I've changed the filter, but dunno what else to do ;(

Wait to  see what support say!