Netgear DG834G V4, possibly dying?

[Athanis]

I've changed the channel down to 6, to see if this will help avoid interference. 

Seriously considering either the Netgear DGN2200 (Which IDNet seems to be issuing to new ADSL Max customers, ie: my brother) or the Belkin N300 as a longterm upgrade- Stronger signal, faster file transfers and, hopefully, greater LAN stability. 

Roughly the same price too- Any recommendations for either device? 

[Steve]

Sorry I don't use either, I'm surrounded by neighbours WiFi and my investment in the 5Ghz network (although more limited range wise) keeps the interference at present away.


Indeed if you do find it a WiFi issue 'homeplugs' are a possible solution if you can't directly cable.

[Athanis]

They both seem fairly similar- just a difference of style essentially.

Update on the ThinkBroadband tool: Latency is hanging around the 25-40 range, tiny amount of packet-loss. 

Will continue to trundle on, gathering data.

[Lance]

I've got a DGN2200 and have been using it for about a year I think. Not had any issues with it. However, I think you need to find out if it is your wifi dropping or your broadband connection. If the latter, a new router won't necessarily help.

If you find you have more disconnections in the evening, that could well be a sign of increased noise on the line.

[Rik]

Phew.

[Athanis]

After approx 8 hours of ping and db tracking, the db is down to an average of 8 and the ping has kept steady- absolutely minimal packet-loss (though line attenuation is around 44db), ping around 30ms.  One small drop-out during ME3 multiplayer but not a complete disconnect. 

Must-snoop-more-tomorrow.

[Rik]

Packet loss shouldn't happen often, no matter how long your line is. I have a 57db and a 63db line, neither shows packet loss very often. The drop in noise margin is almost certainly the 'after dark' effect, more crosstalk, more interference from MW radio signals.

[Athanis]

Whilst I couldn't run the Routerstats tool overnight, (Gaming Desktop is too noisy and deters sleep,) the T.Broadband Ping tool continued on regardless and recorded the same ping as when in use, approx. 20-40 range but still, tiny amounts of packet-loss every hour or so.  Rare but happening.

Leaving the Desktop on all day, will see what happens.

In terms of the packet-loss, what sort of problems could I be facing?

[Rik]

They probably will affect gaming, but you wouldn't notice a small amount in normal browsing, email etc. Curing packet loss is more difficult, the problem being identifying the cause. For diagnostic purposes, disconnect the phone from the line and shut down all computers bar one, which must have a wired connection to the router. See if that improves things. If it does, bring the computers back on line one at a time until they are all running or the problem starts again. If you make that stage OK, then try a different filter for the phone. Do you have access to a battery-powered MW radio? If so, de-tune it, so all you hear is white noise, then move around the house running it along power cables, phone line and computers. If the noise increases, you have found a source of RF interference. Check especially carefully around monitors and 'power bricks' including the router's.

[Athanis]

Thanks for the suggestions- the battery-powered MW Radio trick is the most interesting tip I've heard for anything in ages.  Will rummage about, see what I have.

Noticed a fairly big spike in packet-loss during a heavy session of ME3 earlier.  Deliberately played maps with as much action, highest difficulty etc, etc to see what would happen.  One disconnect, less that usual but much more stuttering and lag.  Resorted to standing still at the worst of it, hoping it would ease off. 

Will give your suggestions a go, see what comes up.

[pctech]

Just a litle word of warning about using the thinkbroadband monitor to judge packet loss.

1. It's not hosted on IDNet's network and so the packets have to travel across a shared peering link to LoNAP where the traffic is handed off to Netconnex who host Thinkbrobadband, depending on the time of night, if a lot of downloads are occurring this connection may have a certain amount of load on it and routers treat ICMP Echo requests and replies as low priority packets, so if a router's CPU is taxed at any point in the chain, it will drop these packets or queue them for delivery later in preference to dropping actual data.
2. If your connection is being used for a download or streaming, the activity will use up the available bandwidth, which will depend on your sync and IP profile which may mean that the device at TBB won't get a response which it will mark as packet loss.

If you are concerned about packet loss, talk to support who can probably set up a ping graph which means that the packets only have to pass over the BT hostlink and network before reaching your router which will then respond if you've set it to respond to pings, this is a far more reliable test than the quality monitor.

I think it has to drop 5% of packets per 24 hours before it can be escalated to BT as a circuit fault

[Athanis]

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the TBroadband Ping Checker- I'll give it a go alongside Riks suggestion concerning checking for interference when work lets up. 

[pctech]

Ask support to set up a ping graph on the network and explain your concerns, I'm sure they'll be delighted to help.