Slowed to a crawl

D-Dan · Mar 23, 2008, 19:20:52

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 · Mar 23, 2008, 19:23:08

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 · Mar 23, 2008, 19:26:07

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 · Mar 23, 2008, 19:26:46

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

)

D-Dan · Mar 23, 2008, 19:44:55

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 · Mar 23, 2008, 19:59:43

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 · Mar 23, 2008, 21:45:09

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 07:52:23

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 08:10:21

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 08:27:27

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 08:29:05

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 08:47:48

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 08:51:18

Quote from: D-Dan on Mar 24, 2008, 08:27:27
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 · Mar 24, 2008, 08:54:03

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 08:56:04

Quote from: D-Dan on Mar 24, 2008, 08:47:48
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 · Mar 24, 2008, 09:35:44

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 09:37:10

Sebby · Mar 24, 2008, 11:11:35

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 15:24:52

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 15:26:59

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 15:28:29

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 19:30:04

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 · Mar 24, 2008, 19:42:02

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

plugwash · Mar 25, 2008, 00:04:09

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 · Mar 25, 2008, 00:06:03

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.