Is my broadband capped at 128k do you think?

[Sebby]

Well the sync is an improvement, especially given that the router has connected at night when there is more noise around. You'd probably get 6Mb or over in the day at the test socket.

But, the actual level of sync is not really the issue; it's what is causing the disconnects and variability in sync, which is no doubt noise.

Let us know what IDNet say.

[LesD]

                Down            Up
SNR (dB):       14.8            12.0
Attn(dB):       37.5            21.5
Pwr(dBm):       19.8            12.5
Max(Kbps):      6464            1180
Rate (Kbps):    5920            832

This looks much as you posted back post at Reply 38 the SNR is slightly lower at 14 8 dB instead of 15.3 dB.

All that I can think of is that at some time or times of the day the noise increases in some sort of burst that causes your line to disconnect. Tracking down and eliminating the noise is one possibility but may not prove easy to do. Another is to take some measure to improve the noise immunity of your line maybe with the use of twisted pairs to carry your ADSL signal. Do you use good quality ADSL filters? These devices are know to vary in performance considerably. There are sure to be more ideas forthcoming from those better able to provide them than me but that's my penny worth for starters. 

[Lance]

Maybe using routerstats would help identify if there is currently undetected noise bursts?

[gyruss]

James from IDNET sent me a mail, saying:

"Thorough testing of the line suggests that the connection is stable and noise level on the line are as they should be. The IP profile is also at a good setting, this indicates that the stability of the line is fine."

Connection speed at time of test was 5888k.


Got a few fairly quick questions if anyone can answer them.

Q1:
In the Linksys router the DSL Modulation is set to Multimode.  Choices in its drop down are (Multimode, T1 413, G.Dmt, G lite, ADSL2 and ADSL2+), is multimode the correct choice?  The settings i was provided for the setup of my router by idnet didn't specify this modulation , so thought i'd best ask.

Q2:  MTU size.   Currently my router is set to 1500.  Is this the recommended setting for IDNET connections? or should it be one of those lower settings around 1458 etc.

[Lance]

A1) I'm guessing that Multimode is another way of saying automatic! If you really want to choose one of the others you need G.Dmt.

A2) This one isn't so easy to answer, as such. Definitely leave the router 'wide open' at 1500, but make any desired changes in Windows. I use 1500 as do some others, but then some people have gound 1458 to give better results. The best way of deciding is using TCP Optimiser to find it for you! Have a read of our FAQ here.

Hope this helps!

[Steve]

As Lanced says, however if using vista MTU is supposed to be set intelligently and also a tcp optimizer is said not to be required.It has set mine at 1500 believe it or not

[Sebby]

I also agree. Leave the router set to 1500 and make the change on Windows once you've found the optimal value.

[gyruss]

With my router connected direct to the test socket it shown no sync connection improvement (not the ip profile), there was 'minor' improvement by changing the cable between the router and the socket to a fully shielded twisted pair version of the same (high speed broadband version)

My house is 1.34km from the exchange as the crow flies, and 1.6km by roads.

as the noise level was commented on a few times due to it being 14.8db - 15.2db, and this didn't change even from the bt test socket, and even with the twisted pair cable in place..

will a filtered faceplate such as that from ADSLnation even improve things?    If you think it definitely will, i'll order on tonight when i get home.

[Dangerjunkie]

The ADSLNation faceplate is made from premium filters. I can't guarantee an improvement but it certainly won't make it any worse

Your noise level is important the system changes settings to get this value to a "target value". In your case this target is 15dB. This is the highest the target can be (lower is better) so 15 isn't good. It says that your line was unstable at lower values. The system sets this value at the lowest one that keeps your line up and stable. The possible values are 6,9,12 or 15dB and the lower the value the faster your line will go as the weakest tones get dropped until the target level is achieved so the higher the level, the more tones get dropped and the less speed you get. The measured value is a result of this process not an absolute.

The noise target gets adjusted downwards very slowly (not every time the modem is powered on.) Once your profile has maxed out if it stays stable for 2 weeks the the noise level will get reduced by 3dB. This will usually cause a speed increase, then the profile catches up and if the line is still stable the process repeats every 2 weeks until the lowest stable value is found. If you get huge numbers of disconnections then the target value can rise very fast.

Your line is at 15dB (3 steps up) so if it was to finally stabilise at 6dB it could take over 6 weeks for you to hit your maximum speed. I can't comment on how mush speed increase you might get if you went all the way down from 15 to 6 but I'm sure someone can make an informed comment.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Sebby]

The problem is that your target SNRM has been raised to 15dB to stabilise the line, so nothing is going to make this figure drop in order for you to sync higher apart from 14 days without losing sync.

If the test socket showed no improvement in the sync @ 15dB, your wiring must be okay. That said, a filtered faceplate may make you less susceptible to noise surges - perhaps this is what has caused instability in the past.

[Ann]

The possible values are 6,9,12 or 15dB

Mine is 11dB.  How come?

[Dangerjunkie]

Your target is probably 12 and the final value it settled on whilst trying to hit the target was 11 You can't see what the target is, only what the actual value is right now.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Rik]

That probably means you have a 12db target and are dropping a bit or a 9db target and are re-syncing at night, so figures during the day are better, Ann. The only way to find your target is to check immediately after a re-sync (or ask support).

Or what Paul said...

[Ann]

Thanks guys.  What Paul said makes sense.  It used to be 15 and now it's 12 but actually doing 11 or sometimes 10.  Shame it won't go down to 9 or I reckon I'd get full synch again.

[Dangerjunkie]

Hi,

Sounds like it's going in the right direction...

Since it oly sounds like you need a couple of dB if you don't already have them you could try fitting an XTE2005 filtered faceplate and a pro modem cable and, you never know, in less than a month you may get full sync again

Cheers,
Paul.

[Sebby]

Thanks guys.  What Paul said makes sense.  It used to be 15 and now it's 12 but actually doing 11 or sometimes 10.  Shame it won't go down to 9 or I reckon I'd get full synch again.

It the target has moved from 15 to 12dB, there's no reason it won't drop further (unless your line can't hold sync for 14 days at 12dB, in which case you're stuck there).

[Ann]

It doesn't work like that for me.  The line holds synch for ever but there must be something wrong with it.  I've already done the filtered faceplate and good cable and I don't have any extensions or Sky and there's never been a ring wire in sight so I can't do any more.  I've got a synch speed of 7616 which I ought to be happy with but you know what it's like.. just want perfection.. 

Off to Silverstone tomorrow and supposed to be ironing and packing.. 

[Rik]

It sounds like you have interleaving on, Ann.

[Ann]

I do Rik, but I've still had better in the distant past with interleaving on.  Anyway it doesn't bother me until I read here and then I get niggled by it.

[Rik]

Imagine how I feel.

Wave as you go by on your way to Silverstone.

[Sebby]

In that case, Ann, you're stuck as BT will have to adjust the target manually. It might be worth having a word with IDNet as they may be able to help.

I think 8,096k is possible with interleaving on.

[gyruss]

Just an update ...

Finally but the ADSLNation XTE-2005 Master Faceplate and a 15m run of RJ-11 Twisted Pair (Pro+ ADSL 2+ certified) from same company.

Done a 'speedtest' @ bt and while my current ip profile is low due to the issues i have been having, i'm going to see if this new faceplate and cabling helps at all.  Should be about 5 days I expect, but 7200 is at least encouraging for now as a connection rate.

Your DSL connection rate: 7200 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  832 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 3500 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 3228 kbps

Strangely, my previous 'soap-on-a-rope' filters were all quite problematic in that even when having phone and the adsl cable connected through it, was still getting drops of the internet whenever voice-calls were present on the line.  Had 3 filters and yet all 3 seemed to sync at really low speed whenever i would put both the extention cable and the phone in then plug the filter into the master socket.  Actually makes you wonder if the phone is an issue at all

On another note:  got this from the plusnet site:

Results: Chester Central
   
Code:    WNCSC
County:    Cheshire
Enabled:    31 May 2001

Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) is BT's next generation broadband product for ISPs. BT are currently upgrading each exchange to be able to offer WBC which will also bring ADSL2+ speeds of up to 24Mbps. We will post updates to the upgrade schedule as and when we receive them and also provide further details on WBC in the coming weeks.

WBC Rollout Status

BT have announced a ready for service date for this exchange. The estimated go live date of 31st March 2009 and was last updated 20th August 2008.

[Rik]

Sounds like the extension was picking up noise which got past the filter somehow. Hopefully, you'll now see your profile rise to 6000k, with throughput to match.

[gyruss]

And of course the check for SNR... from 14.8 => down to 11.8.   BONUS!!!!!!!!! 

Status: Showtime  Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 832 Kbps, Downstream rate = 7200 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode:                   G.DMT
Channel:                Interleave
Trellis:                ON
Line Status:            No Defect
Training Status:        Showtime
                Down            Up
SNR (dB):       11.8            12.0
Attn(dB):       38.0            22.0
Pwr(dBm):       19.8            12.5
Max(Kbps):      7744            1180
Rate (Kbps):    7200            832
                        G.dmt framing
K:              226(0)          27
R:              16              16
S:              1               8
D:              32              4
                        ADSL2 framing
MSGc:           1               1
B:              226             27
M:              1               8
T:              1               1
R:              16              16
S:              1.0704          8.5714
L:              1816            224
D:              32              4
                        Counters
SF:             140382          140380
SFErr:          0               0
RS:             9546030         1193230
RSCorr:         427             0
RSUnCorr:       0               0

HEC:            0               0
OCD:            0               0
LCD:            0               0
Total Cells:    40536629                0
Data Cells:     2975            0
Drop Cells:     0
Bit Errors:     0               0

ES:             0               0
SES:            0               0
UAS:            9               0
Total time = 35 min 3 sec
SF  = 140382
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
Latest 1 day time = 35 min 3 sec
SF  = 140382
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 5 min 3 sec
SF  = 17820
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF  = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF  = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF  = 69632
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES  = 0

[gyruss]

So all that now done, the cabling fully channelled.. AM Radio test DONE (as per another post i saw you guys reply to), i'm confident certainly from my side at least that i've done as much as I can do for now

So thanks very much for your time, patience and inspiration to tame this darn internet connection I have.

I work in desktop support as my day job, and its been an absolute pleasure to think-tank this problem out with you guys.   In your own way, you guys make a big difference, and while not being employed by IDNET, I am pretty sure your efforts go a long way to not only keeping them customers, but also winning them custom too.

Top job guys    I'll certainly try to help out on these forums in between bouts of MMO gaming