Leaving Nildram

[Sebby]

But now you say 6500. I could be wrong, though.

[Rik]

Looking at one thing, thinking another... You know how it goes.

[Sebby]

I most certainly do.

[GarryF]

This gets confusing

Anyways, here's the stats after router restart this morning

So noise is 15dB, and drops over time to 6dB-10dB, I don't quite understand that, your saying that shows there is noise on the line?

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[Rik]

That means your target noise margin has been increased to 15db, Garry, in an attempt to stabilise the line. You almost certainly would have had a period where you were getting frequent disconnections for that to happen. It also explains the interleaving.

When you re-boot the router, it will connect at the highest speed it can with that margin. If you re-boot in the morning (when noise is at its lowest) that will produce the highest speed, but you will see that margin drop in the evening and overnight. If you are picking up enough noise, that may well force a disconnection, and a re-sync in the evening will produce a lower sync speed but, during the day, you are likely to see the noise margin go higher, above 15db.

Just to complicate the issue, Netgears are notorious for having reporting a declining noise margin, but they tend to hold sync down to about -2db (which is theoretically impossible).

One option might be to try another band of router. I moved from a Netgear to a 2-wire 2700, and haven't lost sync since, and my noise margin only varies by a couple of db, compared to the 7db swing I saw on the Netgear. As a result, I gained 1000k on my profile.

[GarryF]

I'm currently using an old 3com, I replaced it 3 years ago with a draytek 2800, then when I went max it was a disaster until I tried the 3com again, then for abotu a year everythign was fine with high speeds etc, then I bought a new netgear about a year ago and speed dropped straight away on giganews etc by 25% but I needed other features at the time.

Then it started playing up about 6 months ago, it was flashing red icon on front which I think meant it was faulty, I tried the 3com back in and everything was fine again.

I'm almost inclined to blame any historical instability on the cr*ppy routers

[Sebby]

What Rik said.

Basically, your router will connect with the exchange at a rate that means the noise margin is equal to the target, in your case 15dB. After having connected, the noise will change, so although you usually see a noise margin of 15dB soon after the router has sync'd, this figure will begin to fluctuate.

To me, it looks like youi have a very good line, and I'm not sure what would've caused instability in the past.

As Rik says, a new router (something not based around the AR7 chipset) may help. Ultimately, the target margin needs to lower, which is supposed to be an automatic process, but if things remain stable, you might want to see if IDNet can get it manually reset, and perhaps get interleaving switched off as it doesn't seem you need it.

[GarryF]

All sounds sensible, you think it makes sense to just leave it for a week or two first? It's pretty good now as is 

[Rik]

Your call, Garry. I'd be inclined to make sure things are stable before changing anything, so waiting a couple of weeks and keeping an eye on the router for any disconnections would be my way.

[Sebby]

Same here.

[GarryF]

bt speedtester finally worked 

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    IP profile for your line is - 6500 kbps
    DSL connection rate: 832 kbps(UP-STREAM)  7584 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6034 kbps


and another test at the same time
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/120791641525060625676.html

Router has been up since I restarted it 2 1/2 days ago, all quite stable

[Sebby]

Looking good, Garry.

[Rik]

That's about as good as it gets, Garry.

[GarryF]

So after 5 stable days I like to mess with things and tried the Negear DB834N that was acting up a while back, it's still under warranty so if it fails soon I'll get it RMA'd (was being lazy 6 months ago )

Attached are the stats with it, not so good but still acceptable, funny how a 5 year old router out performs the latest ones. The old 3com is a real pain with VPN though

Isit really just a lottery getting fast reliable routers to work? I'm sorely tempted to try a draytek again, maybe if I get this netgear working I'll install it at work over a weekend and take the draytek 2800 from there home to see what happens

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[LesD]

Isit really just a lottery getting fast reliable routers to work?

Take a look here:
IDNetters Forums » IDNetters Forum Index » IDNet Help » 2-Wire 2700 Router issues

I followed the example of a number of others on this forum and found the 2Wire 2700HGV out performs my Netgear DG384 hands down during the noisy evening peak periods. 

[Sebby]

The reason routers vary so much is due to the chipset they use. Netgears (except the very new ones, e.g. the DG834Gv4) use the AR7 chipset, which is known for not being great with ADSL max in a lot of setups. They're not bad for everyone - I suspect the make of DSLAM plays a big part. The 3Com probably uses a Broadcom chipset, which tend to perform much better.

By the way, I agree with Les about the 2Wire 2700HGV. It does seem to outperform any other router, and it's a bargain! Still, if the 3Com works well, there's not necessarily a need to change.

[GarryF]

ok, I've bought a 2700 off of ebay, seller claims it's unlocked via dns method, time will tell

The 3com works really well at the basics, I spents endless hours arguing with it's firewall to allow vista vpn to work, can only get port forwarded to one pc at a time and I have server at home that syncs along with my laptop on dhcp, so it's lots of hassle

[Sebby]

Good stuff, Garry, the 2Wire should do you proud.