IDnet noob

[ou7shined]

Hi guys. Now that I've officially switched over, I have a couple of quick questions.
Can I select appropriate gateways as I could with my previous (POS) ISP?
Normally I leave my router on for weeks on end. Should I switch it off every day for a few hours during my "burn in" period? Is 10 days the min or max?
I have my MTU at 1500. Leave it or recalibrate?
What else can I do to optimise my connection?

[ou7shined]

Just found the Tweaks and Tips page.

[stevelondon]

Hi and welcome ou7shined 

[ou7shined]

Why thanky kindly sir! Mmmmm Horlicks!

[Rik]

Hi guys. Now that I've officially switched over, I have a couple of quick questions.
Can I select appropriate gateways as I could with my previous (POS) ISP?
Normally I leave my router on for weeks on end. Should I switch it off every day for a few hours during my "burn in" period? Is 10 days the min or max?
I have my MTU at 1500. Leave it or recalibrate?
What else can I do to optimise my connection?

Welcome aboard, I'm sure you'll like it here once you get through the 10-day burn. Expect lots of instability during that period (unless you have a really good line) as the BT equipment tries to get the fastest speed out of the line. If you can monitor your noise margin, it will give you an idea of how well your line is doing. I didn't switch my router off at all and things went fine.

It's a bit of an urban myth that your line speed is fixed after 10 days, though. BT continue to monitor for as long as you're on Max and will adjust your BRAS (or IP) profile according to what is happening on your line. If the system sees a rapid sequence of re-synchs, it will drop the BRAS profile to fit the lowest sync speed, that level will be kept until you have had a 3 day period at a higher rate.

What you can do to optimise your connection falls into two groups:

1) Wiring. If you have a number of extensions, and an NTE5 master socket, the sort with the detachable face plate, then try plugging your router in there and note the line stats as compared to your normal connection point. Noise margin shouldn't change much, initially, you should have a target of 6db. However, if your sync speed goes up significantly, then your internal wiring is not working as well as it might. If that's the case, disconnecting the ring-wire (terminal 3, often orange/white) at the master socket and all extensions may help. Good filters are always worthwhile, and I recommend these:

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xf-1e.php

Make sure that everything is filtered, particularly any Sky boxes.

2)  The second part of optimisation is to get maximum flow through the network. For this, you want optimal MTU and RWIN settings. Get gold of a program like DrTCP to make the changes. Miriam recommends an MTU of 1458, and I did get better results, albeit marginal, with that figure compared to 1500 (though I tend to leave the router at 1500 and tweak Windows. RWIN should be a multiple of MSS, which is MTU - 40. Go here:

http://www.speedguide.net/

and select TCP/IP Analyzer on the left.Plug in one of the numbers they suggest and check your speeds again.

Other than that, just wait out the 10 days, see where you settle and if you need to do anymore.

[ou7shined]

That XF-1e is quite pricey. How would this compare? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280049417057&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D280049417057%26fvi%3D1

[Nerval]

The Excelsus are often quoted as an alternative.  They should be just as good, but actually  they're not much cheaper.

The ones to avoid are the one-piece jobs without the wire in the middle.

[Rik]

That XF-1e is quite pricey. How would this compare? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280049417057&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D280049417057%26fvi%3D1

I've no experience of those, but I do know the XF-1e did improve performance for me. They're backed by a 30-day moneyback guarantee if you buy direct, and ADSL Nation are a good company to do business with.

Maybe get one XF-1e and then get the ebay ones for the rest. You can then test and draw your own conclusions. It always pays, imo, to have at least one spare filter around so that, if you start to get problems, you can use it to swap out the other filters to check their state.

[thetrevone]

I too use an XF-1e, I replaced it for the one that came with my original router prior to moving to maxdsl back in April. Just as a matter of interest I looked at the routers stats prior to the change and then after and there was a 1.5db increase in signal to noise margin after inserting the XF-1e. It could just be coincidence, but that was my experience.
Regards
Doug

[BassoProfundo]

Of course, an even better alternative would be to go straight for the faceplate filter, the XTE-2005 from ADSLNation. Then you could get rid of the nasty dangly things from all over the house.

The XTE-2005 offers superior filtering to any dangly and helped my SNR by a good 2dB. I guess this is because the ADSL signal goes only as far as my master socket now and not all over the house.

[B52]

Ive been using the Excelcus filters for about 3 months now as has a colleague. They did improve our connection stability.

They are available for under £3 each, in singles, packs of 5 or 100. By return postage.

http://www.ssiltd.co.uk/products/microfilters/