Slowed to a crawl

[D-Dan]

OK - bank holiday weekend (of course - it only hits the fan at the worst time).

Anyway - Friday night I was getting frequent DSL disconnects - and given that regular support was closed - I called BT and had them test the line - which was fine.

Things settled down yesterday - and I put it down to a glitch.

This afternoon, I started getting the disconnects again. After ruling out all the local issues (connect to the main socket, change the filter, change though router etc) I finally managed to connect at an acceptable speed (though nothing like my previous sync - about half)

BUT - my throughput is atrocious - about 26Kbs - compared with 580Kbs that I used to have until Friday.

The real problem for me (and I realise a lot of people won't appreciate this) - but I own a club in SecondLife - and have a show today. My bandwidth will let me inworld - but kills me pretty fast. Luckily I have a fallback via MSN and WinAmp - but I want my bandwidth back.

Any ideas?

Steve

[Rik]

It sounds like your profile has been hit, Steve. Can you get a BT speed test. You can call the out of hours number for IDNet, 01462 476556, or email support@idnet.net, but disconnections have to be a BT-side issue (unless they're purely PPP)..

[plugwash]

have you tried turning off all the electrical equipment in your house except the PC (and tried more than one PC so you can rule them out too), power supplies gone bad can put out shitloads of noise?

what are the other stats on your router like?

have you tried a BT speedtest?

are those figures you gave in your first post kilobits or kilobytes (I would guess kilobytes)

[Danni]

Ouch, D-Dan. (Out of interest, what sort of club? I spend far too much time in Second Life )

[D-Dan]

OK - to try and answer everything:

i. Yes - two PCs - one Vista, one dual boot XP and Ubuntu- same result.

ii. What other electrical equipment - apart from the fridge - this is it.

iii. 50's Rock & Roll Club - search Rumble in Brighton - look for Roken Price (that's me - but you won;t find me there right now)

And re the BT speedtest - let me see if I can get it to run. I'll get back to you on that

[D-Dan]

No - not a prayer on the BT speedtester tonight.

My big worry now is I have two problems - the disconnects - and a drop in profile from 6000 to, I'm guessing, 500.

So:

Can I get the profile reset - bearing in mind it's bank holiday weekend and I'm back at work Tuesday without telephone except lunchtime.

What the hell is causing the disconnects - since BT say there's no problem ( and from what he told me - he ran a DSL check, too)

Oh - and if you really want to know about the club - http://roken.www.idnet.com/

[Simon]

Sorry I can't help, Steve, except to reiterate what Rik suggested about calling IDNet tomorrow on 01462 476556, or email support@idnet.net.  They may well pick up messages before Tuesday, and I'm sure they will help if they can, unless anyone else has any other suggestions.

[D-Dan]

Well - I emailed IDNet yesterday - but I'll try calling. Finally got into the BT speedtester, and while the test wouldn't finish, I did get my IP profile.

It was 6000 - now it's 250 

This is crippling me.

[Rik]

Disconnections, Steve, are a BT-side problem (as distinct from iDNet), so all that IDNet will be able to do is to run your through the standard tests, eg connect using the test socket to eliminate your wiring, test the line themselves, then get a BT engineer out to you. The risk is, of course, that if the engineer finds the fault to be on your side of the master socket, you will find yourself with a hefty bill.

IDNet will not be able to get your profile altered. Unless there is an acknowledged fault by BT, which has been repaired, they will not manually reset a profile. Sorry.

[D-Dan]

So it looks as though I'll have to wait for up to a fortnight for it to climb again

Wah! Does that mean I'll have to rediscover real life again?

[Rik]

It should only take a maximum of five days to recover once you've solved the problem of the disconnections though, if your noise margin has been pushed up, that may need a helping hand.

What checks have you made so far?

[D-Dan]

I've changed the filter, the router, plugged directly into the master socket (at great difficultly given that it's in the hallway with no plug socket nearby), disconnected all other devices from the phone line. Haven't gone into the test socket, because that extra half an inch of cabling required is just out of reach, though I could try the test socket on the extension, since I seem to have ruled that out.

The problem is the intermittent nature of the disconnects. Friday evening (late - 11:00pm onwards) it started, then settled down and was solid as a rock until yesterday afternoon (around 3:30 - 4:00 pm) when it started again. Powered down for 30 minutes (in a bid to stave off the ever reducing profile - failed miserably) and reconnected, and have been connected since.

SNR is high (12) - for the past 8 months the router has hung on to the connection without trouble when SNR was as low as 4.

I've had BT run a line test (Friday evening) which came back clear.

I can't even blame electrical interference from neighbours, since I live in flats where most neighbours are OAPs and mostly tucked up in bed by 11:00pm on a Friday night, so they are unlikely to have had any electrical equipment (except their fridges) going - and I certainly didn't. I just rebooted the router and synced higher yet, though still well short of my previous 7,200.

I'll try the BT Speedtester again later and see if there's any improvement. Even an increase to 1000 would be better as a stop gap. At the moment, my usage is crippled.

[kinmel]

So it looks as though I'll have to wait for up to a fortnight for it to climb again

Wah! Does that mean I'll have to rediscover real life again?

If your Sync genuinely settles down to the old figures then the Adaptive Max Logic will fast track your profile within 4 to 6 hours, only small improvements now take days to be applied.

[D-Dan]

Well - In that case I would have expected to see improvement this morning - since I'd had the connection up for over 14 hours since yesterday. However, maybe the reboot of the router this morning and the higher sync will help. I hope so. 

[Rik]

Haven't gone into the test socket, because that extra half an inch of cabling required is just out of reach, though I could try the test socket on the extension, since I seem to have ruled that out.

That's got to be worth trying. The time of day you're experiencing the noise is classic, I'm just wondering whether there might be a pirate radio station operating in your area?

[D-Dan]

I could always try scanning for a station next time (if there is one - I hope not) it happens and see. Up to now, touch wood, the connection seems stable - just thoroughly crippled.

Oh - and I'm not convinced it's noise. One of my resyncs came in at 384K with downstream SNR of 29 - and still got the disconnect, which I think rules out noise as a problem.

[Rik]

 

[Sebby]

I can't really add a lot to what's already been said. It certainly sounds like noise, and the test socket would confirm this.

It's important to remember that anything sync-related is to do with equipment rather than IDNet, i.e. BT side, so it's important to rule out anything within your property (such as extension wiring) before getting IDNet to raise the issue with BT.

Good luck.

[D-Dan]

Well - touch wood still connected since I rebooted the router this morning (just shy of 7 hours).

I'm really hoping it's down to BT incomepete...ermm....service and that the problem won't recur.

I've pretty much ruled out any local condition which may have caused this, including noise. Sync is stable at  5280 with SNR 11.5 and attenuation 45. I know I could sync higher (and indeed synced at 7200 until Friday) but I'm loathe to mess at the moment until my profile improves again.

[Rik]

I'm with you, Steve, try and keep things stable for a while. Do you run Routerstats? That might be interesting to watch over a 24 hour period.

[Sebby]

It could be anything really, Steve, but hopefully things will remain stable.

I've had similar trouble in the past for no apparent reason, and things have always "corrected" themselves automatically.

[D-Dan]

Hi again

Rik: I routinely monitor my router stats myself - still connected with SNR of 11 so room for improvement - but let's leave well alone for the moment. What I'm starting to worry about now is, with the exception of the single forced reboot this morning (which synced higher), I've had a stable connection for over 24 hours - with no change in profile (as far as I can tell - getting busy messages on the BT tester now). My basis for deciding it's the same is max download speed when updating Ubuntu 10 minutes ago was between 29 - 29.7 Kbs - which still suggest a 256 profile.

Is it too soon to be worrying about a stuck profile? I would have hoped to see some improvement by now.

[Rik]

The profile will probably take the full five days to recover, Steve, due to the repeated disconnections.

[plugwash]

If the disconenction problems happen again then you may want to consider migrating to a LLU isp who don't use this stupid profile system.

The downside of migrating to LLU is that many of the LLU ISPs are terrible and even the good ones have nowhere near the support quality that IDNET does.

[Sebby]

The profile system is a pain, but the underlying problem is stability. It's almost always possible to find the cause and resolve such issues. With a stable connection, profiles aren't such a problem.

[D-Dan]

I'm not about to migrate anywhere. Been with IDNet over 12 months, and apart from one glitch several months ago (BT's fault) and this I have no complaints whatsoever, either with stability or speed.

I did have one more disconnect last night - but only one - so that's an improvement. I'll see how things go.

[D-Dan]

Well - DSL has been stable since Sunday. IP Profile is still firmly wedged at 250

I just emailed support, but I'm sure I read somewhere that stuck profiles were supposed to be a thing of the past. 

[Rik]

Stuck profiles still happen, Steve, but you will probably have to wait five days for the profile to lift in the light of your instability.

[J!ll]

  a little like my speed, before it was fixed!

[Rik]

Indeed, though without a BT visit at this point...

[D-Dan]

Well - just gotta say - dunno if it was coincidence, or IDNet responding to my mail - but - Woohoo 

Juts ran a speedtest - and whilst not in the same league as before last weekends troubles, clocked over 3.5meg D/L speed.

Tried to view my profile - and of course the BT speedtester is busy.

But -

Whoop whoop whoop

I'm starting to feel happier

by comparison.

[Sebby]

It seems that your profile has been reset, and it could well be IDNet that initiated it. They're good like that.

[D-Dan]

I agree - I've never had a problem with IDNet that is down to IDNet (the problems were always BT in one guise or another).

But I have to say - if it was IDNet that got things moving (quite literally) - thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, I feel like the space baby at the end of 2001 - A Space Odyssey, I have all this power - what should I do with it first.

Do I revisit my secondlife - or reboot to Ubuntu and update it?

I don't care - just knowing that I can is all I need

Wow - I feel so happy - like a kid at Christmas.

Edit:

Just thought of something weird. On Friday - I got an engine electrics warning light on my car that wouldn't go out. Then my net problems started.

This morning, the light in the car went out (to be replaced by the persistent but familiar other warning light that has been illuminated for three years) - and tonight - my net recovers.

Is there a chance my car sabotaged my internet?

[Simon]

Good news, Steve!   

[Sebby]

Just thought of something weird. On Friday - I got an engine electrics warning light on my car that wouldn't go out. Then my net problems started.

This morning, the light in the car went out (to be replaced by the persistent but familiar other warning light that has been illuminated for three years) - and tonight - my net recovers.

Is there a chance my car sabotaged my internet?

Anything is possible with ADSL.

What I would say, though, is that the recovery of your speed is down to the profile updating. Your sync may have suffered from this initially, but it certainly wouldn't have been the light on the car going out today that caused your speed to improve.

[D-Dan]

Well - my sync is still suffering - but I can live with it.

What I can't afford to do right now is buy a new car - and so if "Christine" is to blame - I'm stuffed.

Steve

[Sebby]

Hopefully Christine isn't to blame, then.

If your sync is still suffering, something isn't right, be it internal wiring, filters, router, or an external line problem. Whatever it is, we need to get to the bottom of it.

[Mytheroo]

you're looking at this all wrong, the light in the car is the Stuck Profile Warning Light 

[D-Dan]

I think my Sync is suffering because I need to stable longer. Rebooted the router this morning and synced higher - from 5088 to 5268, which should raise my profile to 4500 within the next few days. When it does, I'll give it a couple of days and re-sync again.

As for the stuck profile warning light - I hope not - because it came on again today and hasn't gone out since

[Rik]

Is this the one in the car, Steve? I have heard of cases where car electronics have given out strong RFI, bad enough to affect ADSL. Might be worth walking around with the MW radio...

[D-Dan]

It's not likely to be dodgy electronics in my car - I'm in a 2nd floor flat - and the car, ermmm, isn't. It must be 30 - 40 metres away.

[Rik]

It was worth a thought.

[D-Dan]

Now - I hope no-one is gonna blame my car for today's problems 

[Rik]

As it happens... 

[MoHux]

It's not likely to be dodgy electronics in my car - I'm in a 2nd floor flat - and the car, ermmm, isn't. It must be 30 - 40 metres away.

Low flying aircraft?? ..................   

[Rik]