New IDNetter, Advice on speed?.

[Rik]

Hey, sorry to hijack your thread but it put me to thinking about my possible speed and I didn't want to flood the forum with another thread on the same topic (although different target).

I'm fairly happy with my current sync and speed but from the attenuation and noise margin I have I'm wondering if I can get the full 8Mbps profile.

Details (copied straight from my DG834v3):

Connection Speed	7264 kbps	672 kbps
Line Attenuation	4 db	2 db
Noise Margin	11 db	7 db

I'd suggest a new router. Your u/s speed says you are on ADSL2+, and the DG834 v3 is a bit long in the tooth for that.

[Rik]

Updates.

The sync dropped around 10 minutes ago and I've resynced at 6112kbps. The noise margin is dangerously low at 1-2db!. What's up with this?. Anyway to make this more stable. I'd be quite happy with a 5-6sync. Surely this is achieveable, really dont understand whats causing the instability. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?.

Ways to make the line more stable... Find the source of the noise in the house if it is there. Use a battery-powered MW radio, de-tune it so you can only hear a hiss. Follow the phone wiring from where it enters the house to the router. If the noise increased, that's your interference. In you case, I think that asking for a target 9db noise margin might be a wise move if the radio reveals nothing local.

[TomSG]

Monitored everything in the night using router stats. My connection didn't drop, but the noise margin was between -2db and 2db the whole night, mostly at about 0db!?. Woke up this morning to find it must of resync'd at a still decent 6208. The noise margin is now between 6-9db, which is perfect right?. It's only in the evening and during the night the noise margin seems to drop to ridiculous levels. There's really not much electronic equipment in the house, except the phone, router, computer and a TV plus the usual stuff in the living room on the other side of the house. I'll check tonight with the radio, but I'm getting the feeling its really nothing on my end.

[Rik]

Is your line overhead or underground, Tom?

[TomSG]

Couldnt say for sure Rik, it runs from my house across my front yard, then to a pole, which seems to go underground, where it goes from there im not entirely sure, but I think it resurfaces about 3/4 of a mile up the road toward the village and runs directly from there into the village and to the exchange.

[Rik]

Increased noise at night is more of a problem with overhead lines, which is why I asked. Other potential sources include TVs, Sky boxes, low energy light bulbs, fluorescent lights. More 'sudden' disconnections tend to indicate equipment switching, eg heating, hot water etc. One other issue we've seen before is a neighbour using a treadmill which was poorly suppressed, but again (unless they are very energetic) that tends to produce periodic noise.

[sof2er]

On my old line my router would re-synch everytime someone used our threadmill at a high speed (and it would keep resynching every 2-3 minutes until the threadmill went off) this would happen with all the routers I had. The problem disappeared though after we swapped to VDSL2, it never lost synch anymore even when the threadmill is on.

[TomSG]

Ok, I phoned BT to get a line fault check, they said it was fine, however my internet was still connected, so not sure if the test was accurate. When i used the phone, my internet resynced at 6068, and the noise margin was very erratic, between 3 and 9DB. Poor filtering one would think?. I tried using each of my different filters to no avail. This isnt normal behaviour for a line, I think there is a fault somewhere.

[TomSG]

Ok, I've lost sync twice when the phoned was dialed now, just tested it. When I dial out on the phone, sync is lost. Just did it again, 10db noise margin went down to 2DB, the problem is clearly the phone.

So, do we have a case of interference, Phone is a wireless BT Synergy phone, or do we have a fault in my internal wiring?.

[Glenn]

Disconnect your phone, then call your number via a mobile, watch the router to see if it disconnects when the line rings, ideally do all the above, with the router in the test socket.

[Rik]

If it's OK without the phone, try use a wired phone and see what happens. Is the DECT base station near the router?

[TomSG]

Ok, the station was indeed right next to the router, 30cm or so. Moved the phone to the secondary socket upstairs well away from the phone, same disconnect when i rang out. Just unplugged the phone. Rang in, and no disconnect. Plugged the phone in rang in, no disconnect, BUT.. when i answered the phone, boom! disconnected. This is progress!. 100% the phone is at fault.

[Rik]

Go for a wired phone, Tom. If that is OK, then it looks like you've got to think about a new DECT unit. I've never had a problem with Panasonic, and you can get good deals on them at Costco if you have a local store.

[TomSG]

Ok, I've used the wired phone. No disconnect, the DB however did drop from 9 to around 6, so still minor intereference. There may be a small problem with the internal wiring, going to use the master socket and see what results it produces.

[Rik]

 

[Glenn]

John Lewis have a phone sale at the moment too http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/john-lewis-digital-telephone-and-an/756532

[TomSG]

Oh dear... Master socket. Ringingout produces lower noise margin, looks like its not quite enough to drop the sync, but answering the phone causes the sync to be lost and the router to display an erratic noise margin, which I believe is a common bug with DG834's when the NM goes negative. Phone is causing the disconnects, but this has to be internal wiring or?.

EDIT: I should say test socket, sorry.

[Rik]

Possibly a rare type of line fault. Let support know what you've done to eliminate the issue and have them test the line.

[TomSG]

Before I do this, I opened up this little box thingy just where the line leaves the house. It just seems to be a joiner from outside line to inside. Low and behold, there was a spider and base camp inside! stealing my bandwidthz!. The little bugger had webs all inside it and what appeared to be previous lunches, mystified how hes managed this, but I promptly evicted him and proceeded to clean up the wires. But sadly to no avail. Still the same when dialing out and answering. Going to give support a ring now and see what they can come up with.

[Rik]

Don't mention the box, Tom, what you did was technically illegal. If you want to phone them on your mobile, so the line is freed up - 01462 480092.

[TomSG]

Gave them a brief over without mentioning the box of course. The chap seemed to be on the ball, said they were gonna get BT on the line and look into some more.

Just for information. I live rurally, as in, no neighbours. The front door of the house has a little window at the top, the phone line comes in at the top right, meets a little box on the wall, runs over the door frame to the living room and to the master socket, its basically about 6 feet of cable from outside to inside. The little box is in my house, and was very grubby, can't see what cleaning it up would do, all that was inside was some wire joiners and thats it. Do BT lay claim to everything past the master socket?.

[Glenn]

Yes, everything back from the test socket is BT's domain.

[tKe]

I'd suggest a new router. Your u/s speed says you are on ADSL2+, and the DG834 v3 is a bit long in the tooth for that.

I'm on ADSL+ (BT seem to ignore my exchange LSNUT and still don't have a date for ADSL2+ rollout) but have the Premium package, so should be able to reach (and have normally synced at) 832kbps up.

The router I have is borrowed from my dad, so I have no issue with forking out for my own - what would be recommended?

[Rik]

If you have an upstream speed of 672,  your line is noisy or you have an issue with internal wiring and/or the router. If your dad's router performs better then I'd suggest you consider a Speedtouch, or if you feel like splashing out a bit, a Draytek. With your proximity to the exchange, you really should be syncing at full speed.

[tKe]

I've manage to purloin a 2700hgv which has connected with the following:
Protocol:   G.DMT Annex A
Downstream Rate:   7616 kbps
Upstream Rate:   832 kbps
Channel:   Interleaved
Current Noise Margin:   14.0 dB (Downstream) 12.0 dB (Upstream)
Current Attenuation:   4.4 dB (Downstream) 3.0 dB (Upstream)
Current Output Power:   9.7 dBm (Downstream) 11.9 dBm (Upstream)

Do I really need Interleaving for a line with my attenuation?