adsl - my noise margin seems to be all over the place...

tolien · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:54

Long network cable isn't an issue - it's eliminating extension cables on the side between the master socket and modem that's the issue. An old 56k modem cable would work fine.

You can't connect a network cable directly to the master socket - you need a modem in between.

snow patrol · 3 Jan 2008 at 20:22

well, ran a cable from my pc all the way down the hall and connected the modem at the master socket. Things seem a little better, more stable and slightly faster. However, i'm now seriously considering getting my mac code next month and moving to be.

Also, on the samknows site, how do i check my distance from the exchange?

$anch3z · 3 Jan 2008 at 20:32

go to dsl zone and theres a link there on the left hand side - just requires your post code

Nathan · 3 Jan 2008 at 20:36

I have had this on plusnet - after investigation I conclude its the line from the pole to my house as my neighbours is fine and its worse in the rain. I am considering reporting a noise fault with my telephone so BT come out and replace the line.

mrbios · 3 Jan 2008 at 21:38

while we're on this topic, ive just looked at my line stats and surely this cant be right:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 16699 kbps 1191 kbps
Line Attenuation 26 db 6 db
Noise Margin 1 db 5 db

noise margin of 1db!?! im not having any connection problems or instability, its lovely and quick etc, what the hells going on there?

SkeeterUK · 3 Jan 2008 at 22:00

Couple of days ive had bad noise fluctuations and bad speeds. Im with Twang.net tho. Was fine up untill say 2 or 3 days ago. I blame the weather...

tolien · 3 Jan 2008 at 22:14

mrbios said:
noise margin of 1db!?! im not having any connection problems or instability, its lovely and quick etc, what the hells going on there?

It's not necessarily wrong (if it doesn't fluctuate much, your connection won't drop), but it might be a reporting error.

snow patrol · 4 Jan 2008 at 04:00

sigh...

just phoned up customer support and got through to some slightly odd sounding lady. Any way...after a few questions about my setup / master socket etc i was asked if i'd checked for spyware recently. I said no, because i haven't in the past few weeks.

She said it was 'highly likely' i had spyware 'eating into my bandwidth' and that i should run a spyware program.

I protested slightly, saying that i didn't think that even if i did have spyware, that it would affect my SNR margin thus causing drop outs. She then gave me a ticket number and told me that if i called back during the day someone would be able to increase my snr.

I'm worried though - presumably 'increasing my snr' is just a euphamism for lowering my connection speed? The thing is though, even when i'm syncing at 1 or 2meg i'm still getting drop outs!

Bah..frustrating stuff.

neil_g · 4 Jan 2008 at 11:10

if i called back during the day someone would be able to increase my snr.

oh. my. god.

you gotta love ISP call center non technical support..

snow patrol · 4 Jan 2008 at 11:18

little update. I phoned up again, got transfered to a specialist guy who said that the fault seemed to be at my end and that there were no problems they could see apart from errors.

Any way, after a bit of discussion i said that i had another identical router that i could try (i'd actually forgotten about it until now, it's one with a broken wireless). Any way, i've plugged that in and synced at almost 6 megs straight away. SNR staying above 6 so far and downloading nice and fast.

So is it possible that it could be the router that was causing all those problems?? Overheating perhaps??

however, here are my stats:

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 70897 93311 0 10829 127222 00:13:15
LAN 100M/Full 105093 78824 0 120873 12497 00:14:44

does that mean i'm getting lots of errors on the line?

box · 4 Jan 2008 at 11:29

Try resetting the problem router to factory default settings. Might be worth checking for an updated firmware as well.

neil_g · 4 Jan 2008 at 11:35

i should leave this other router plugged in for 24 hours and see if the connection drops.

it could just be the other router is knackered. nothings built to last these days especially at a home consumer level. we used to use "home" routers in the stores but we kept nuking them (maybe with constant VPN traffic??). we've since replaced them with cisco units and had no issues touch wood.

snow patrol · 4 Jan 2008 at 11:40

interesting stuff neil. I bit disappointing, but at least i have this backup router. The connection SEEMS fairly solid.

I did flash the other router last night, but i guess i could try completely resetting it and then restoring my settings afterwards. I must admit, i'd rather use my original one because it has wireless, which whilst i don't need at the moment, would come in handy if i ever got a laptop (if the mrs ever let me, that is

)

edit: so what exactly are rxpktss / collisions etc?

snow patrol · 4 Jan 2008 at 15:48

Well things seem good now. Plugged into the master test socket, tucked the cables away nicely under the carpet. Speeds over 6meg constant and even though the snr is only between 6 and 7 the connection is staying up.

And now the connection stays fine even when i'm on the phone!

The only problem though...is that now my other phone socket in the living room doesn't work at all - i get no dial tone. I've had to plug my phone in at the test socket as well. I'm not too bothered about that, although it is a bit annoying.

Any way, nice to be downloading on bit torrent at a constant fast speed again. So i guess after all that, it was just that my router isn't working properly any more!