Minimum latency doubled since Ilford node card replacement

[Reya]

Holy guacamole, I thought the internetz had slowed right the heck down over the past few days, but when I checked my BBQM today I realised my minimum latency had doubled from 15ms to 30ms sometime on Dec 29th. I checked on the Zen Broadband site, and it came up with the info that a change of hardware (a new card, by the looks of it) had been carried out at the Ilford node, which had affected my area code.

Here's my BBQM for the 29th:



My ping at pingtest.net has been in the 13ms area practically all year, but I just ran another test and it's now 32ms. My actual download speeds haven't been affected (BT test just came up with 6.38Mbps, which is about right for my line, and my profile is 7.15Mbps) but web pages are taking a lot longer to load. That's not too much of an issue (heck, we're all so used to waiting milliseconds for stuff to load; finger-drumming during a wait of four or five seconds is just me being impatient!) but it's making gaming rather difficult, especially as one of the main gameservers I connect to is already across the Atlantic and I have to weather a higher ping to it anyway (just tested it, and the ping to that server is 153ms ).

Is there anything that can be done? I've tested to the master socket, and I'm using all-new cabling, as suggested to me in a post earlier this year.

[Steve]

I wonder if Interleave has been dumped on you! Only support can sort that out. I suggest leave well alone in the meantime.

[Reya]

Yeah, I wondered that myself, Steve (after a quick google, because I was flummoxed!). Oh well, I can't call support until next year now

[pctech]

And you can't say that very often 

[Reya]

Um, has the Support number been changed? I just tried the old 0800 331 700 number I've got, and BT is not recognising it.

D'oh. Never mind. I'll just add the extra 0 onto the end, shall I? 

[Steve]

You could!

[Reya]

*cough* Well, that worked. *shifty look*

Turns out that interleave had been switched on, so I've been put into a new training period to get that taken off.

Also, on checking the website, it turns out that FTTC has just been/is now being enabled in my area  so I had a nice chat about how long that will take to set up. It'll have to wait a couple of months (new router to buy, and I have to wait for a month when nobody's got holiday booked at work, so I can book any day at the last minute) but wheeeee!

OK, on recommendation of the lovely Support guy I spoke to, I'm going to get the NetGear Wireless N 300 Router, but apparently I need an ethernet cable for it. My setup is that the router will be situated downstairs (about 2m away from the socket) and the PC is upstairs (requiring about 10-15m of cable). I'm now ordering the router from Dabs, but I have no idea what cabling I'll need, both from socket to router and router to PC. Halp?

[Steve]

The choice is either Cat5e or Cat6. The latter for Gigabit speeds if all components in the network support that speed, I think ?? the modem to router is 100mbps so 5e will do there, 5e will work from router to PC fine, but cat 6 is future proofing I suppose. I can't recall the ethernet port spec of the 300N.

[Reya]

Thanks, Steve 

I'll order the router now (hopefully it'll get here before I have to go back to work on Mon 7th), but I'll leave the cabling until nearer the time (that can usually be poked through the letterbox!).

I wouldn't have a clue which bit to paste, but the router specs are here. I'll probably go for Cat6 cables, as I know the computer can more than handle it (I splurged on a custom-built gaming rig earlier this year; it's the size of a small suitcase!).

In fact, knowing the problem I tend to have with All Things Connection, I'd probably be best off buying Cat5e and Cat6, because if I get only one, sod's law it'd be the wrong one! 

[Reya]

Well, that phone call did the trick! Not only has my minimum latency gone back to what it was, after a short while it went even lower!

[Steve]