Connection Speed Dropped

[sparky]

I'm having trouble refreshing my memory, it must be the time of life !

Something happened to my phone line early hours of Sunday morning, approx 03:00. Looked like about 12 re-synchs on my router with a connection speed showing of 2272. I haven't manged to get BT Speedtester to work yet, it failed about halfway through but did get as far as showing my throughput speed as 1750. Prior to this happening, my router was showing a connection speed of something like 5088 and I had an IP profile of 4000.

I powered off my router this morning and left it for 45mins, but on powering back up I still only get a connection speed of 2272.


Link Information
   
Uptime: 0 days, 1:25:31
Modulation: G.992.1 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 2,272
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 7.17 / 78.56
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 16.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 31.5 / 51.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 21.0 / 6.0


Do I have to wait for the line to have been stable for a while before the router will re-synch at a higher speed?  BTW Quiet line test is fine.

[Steve]

Looks like an adsl2+ banded profile to me which has been imposed by the MSAN, you must have had a period of high noise or high errors. Support can reset via BT the reason why needs to be looked for.

[sparky]

No adsl2+ on my exchange........... (Lytchett Minster)

[Rik]

I would say DLM has kicked in, but your target noise margin is still at 6db, so I think you need to do some testing to eliminate your own equipment and wiring. If you have a test socket, move the router to that and see what figures you get there. If they are markedly better, you have an issue with your internal wiring, or equipment connected to it. Try a new filter and, if possible, a different router. If none of that helps, have a word with support, but do try to get a BT test first.

Steve's point is worth considering, but the 6db NM makes me think it's not as simple as a banded profile (unless, of course, you have a lot of noise on the line - run a quiet line test, 17070 option 2. You should only hear a background hiss or hum.)

[sparky]

Sorry Rik,

Wiring doesn't fail at 03:00 in the middle of the night when nowt is happening in the house and it has been fine ever since I had broadband.

I've hardly got any wiring anyway, just a short extension to my router.

BTW Quiet line test is fine, I think I'll give it a while to see if the line stays stable before I start ripping things out.

[Rik]

Oh yes it does - it's happened to me, though I can't guarantee it was exactly 3am.

If you don't want to take my advice, that's fine, call support - they will run you through the same routine. The idea is to eliminate any possible local cause before involving BT, which could see you paying £200 or so for an engineer visit.

[sparky]

Sorry Rik, bad day in the office..............

I do understand the routine and if necessary I will go down that road, I think that I just really wanted to know if my connection speed can be held down by BT equipment, if there has been a period of instability or noise on the line and whether my connection speed would improve if I left my router for a period of time and then powered off/on.

[Rik]

It can be, but the NM suggests to me that it isn't being. Therefore, I'd be looking for noise on the line or an equipment failure.

[sparky]

OK. Thanks.

Well, there doesn't appear to be any noise on the line, so I may have to plug my spare router into the test socket and see what I get. I'll try that later.

[Rik]

 

[Steve]

Sorry Sparky I misread the stats (can't multitask) I read the downstream margin as 21 which when fitted with  a known profile banding limit of 2272. My apologies.

[sparky]

OK.  Home at lunchtime.  Quiet line test shows nothing, ie. it's quiet.

Have taken another router, this time a Netgear DG834G  (the other one is a Speedtouch 585), plugged it into a different splitter, using different cable, then straight into the test socket on the BT Master socket.

Connection speed  2336 kbps.  So basically no change.

[Rik]

Call support then, tell them the steps you have taken. If it's any consolation my connection has dropped from 4.2M to 2.4M this morning, it seems to happen when OR are working in the area.

[sparky]

Well I have proved it's not my equipment.

Trouble is, no one else around here that I know of gets anything like 4 Meg, so my guess is that BT will just say tough luck, you are getting an acceptable speed.  I am guessing Rik, that you haven't done anything about yours just yet.  I think I will leave mine a few days and see if anything changes. It's not too important at the moment.

[Rik]

I haven't done anything, Sparky, as I know BT will simply say it's a best efforts service and, on a 61db line, I can expect no more. They have us by the short and curlies I'm afraid.

[sparky]

I can't remember whether these were as bad before or not, but are the errors a bad sign, seeing the router has only been up for just under 5hrs?

Uptime: 0 days, 4:53:34
Modulation: G.992.1 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 2,368
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 3.62 / 14.25
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 17.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 31.5 / 51.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 21.0 / 5.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / TSTC
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 2 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 9,417,823
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 116
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 72

[.Griff.]

Looking at those stats my guess is you're using a Thomson Speedtouch router?!?

If so then they are well known for inaccurately reporting FEC errors such as the high number you're seeing.

[sparky]

Yes Griff, your right, a Speedtouch 585, V6.

Ok. Thanks, I'll ignore them then   

If there is no improvement with my connection speed over the next week or so (i'll try a power off/on if the link stays up for a while), I might try swapping back to my Netgear and see if anything happens.

[Steve]

The FEC just show that interleave is on and working.The Error seconds should be a small proportion of the total uptime i.e less than 2%