BT ADSL MAX oddness

tomwalker · 23 May 2006 at 18:56

Ive been on Max for about a month now and it was constantly syncing between 4-5Mb. It took a while (roughly 3 weeks and lots of call) for my actualy spped to be the same as my sync speed. So since then ive been happily downloading at 450Kb which was great.

Now today I come home to find my Router (Netgear DG834) to be syncing at 2240Kb. I ring up BT and they blame it on my skybox being connected (has been for over 2 years) and eventually they tell me to call back tomorrow if the problem still occurs.

After lots of web brwosing I manage to find a way of getting my line stats off my router and these are as follows:-

AR7 DSL Modem Statistics:
--------------------------------
[DSL Modem Stats]
US Connection Rate: 448 DS Connection Rate: 2240
DS Line Attenuation: 53 DS Margin: 4
US Line Attenuation: 63 US Margin: 6
US Payload : 4374480 DS Payload: 22466352
US Superframe Cnt : 657052 DS Superframe Cnt: 657052
US Transmit Power : 11 DS Transmit Power: 17
LOS errors: 0 SEF errors: 0
Frame mode: 3 Max Frame mode: 0
Trained Path: 1 US Peak Cell Rate: 1056
Trained Mode: 3 Selected Mode: 1
ATUC Vendor ID: 1414747203 ATUC Revision: 1
Hybrid Selected: 1

[Upstream (TX) Interleave path]
CRC: 32 FEC: 29716 NCD: 0
LCD: 0 HEC: 0

[Downstream (RX) Interleave path]
CRC: 2688 FEC: 994159 NCD: 0
LCD: 0 HEC: 0

[Upstream (TX) Fast path]
CRC: 0 FEC: 0 NCD: 1
LCD: 0 HEC: 0

[Downstream (RX) Fast path]
CRC: 0 FEC: 0 NCD: 0
LCD: 0 HEC: 0

[ATM Stats]
[Upstream/TX]
Good Cell Cnt: 91135
Idle Cell Cnt: 11711007

[Downstream/RX)]
Good Cell Cnt: 468049
Idle Cell Cnt: 58464937
Bad Hec Cell Cnt: 30284
Overflow Dropped Cell Cnt: 0

[SAR AAL5 Stats]
Tx PDU's: 40390
Rx PDU's: 56140
Tx Total Bytes: 4849233
Rx Total Bytes: 60438111
Tx Total Error Counts: 0
Rx Total Error Counts: 54

[OAM Stats]
Near End F5 Loop Back Count: 0
Near End F4 Loop Back Count: 0
Far End F5 Loop Back Count: 0
Far End F4 Loop Back Count: 0
#
#

Now Ive been on BT Broadband 2Mb since it was available and was also on 512Kb before that and have never had any issues. Also my Max connection has never dropped whilst ive been connected even between 6-9pm.

So what could be the cause of my sudden pants connection?

Thanks

tolien · 23 May 2006 at 20:35

Your SNR margin is crap, so evidently lost sync and then resynced at that speed - it's quite possible it is your Sky box, but it might not be.

tomwalker · 23 May 2006 at 20:52

Thanks for the reply

As you mention my SNR is crap but why has it gone so low all of a sudden to caus it to sync so low

Anyway Ive just got back and switched my router back on and have some updated stats:

AR7 DSL Modem Statistics:
--------------------------------
[DSL Modem Stats]
US Connection Rate: 416 DS Connection Rate: 2656
DS Line Attenuation: 53 DS Margin: 2147483647
US Line Attenuation: 63 US Margin: 6
US Payload : 360720 DS Payload: 1825872
US Superframe Cnt : 20357 DS Superframe Cnt: 20357
US Transmit Power : 10 DS Transmit Power: 17
LOS errors: 0 SEF errors: 0
Frame mode: 3 Max Frame mode: 0
Trained Path: 1 US Peak Cell Rate: 981
Trained Mode: 3 Selected Mode: 1
ATUC Vendor ID: 1414747203 ATUC Revision: 1
Hybrid Selected: 1

[Upstream (TX) Interleave path]
CRC: 2 FEC: 102 NCD: 0
LCD: 0 HEC: 68

Now I have no idea on whats going on with that margin.....Also what used to be the set limit on attenuation for BT 2MB because im sure it was lower than what it says on my stats

Any help appreciated

tolien · 23 May 2006 at 21:01

tomwalker said:
As you mention my SNR is crap but why has it gone so low all of a sudden to caus it to sync so low

It could be lots of things.

Now I have no idea on whats going on with that margin

Your router's reporting crap (which is nothing new for a DG834). Install the latest firmware version (if you aren't already).

Also what used to be the set limit on attenuation for BT 2MB because im sure it was lower than what it says on my stats

43dB, but it's not relevant to Max.

tomwalker · 23 May 2006 at 21:07

Thanks for the help!

I know that the Attenuatuon limit isnt relevant but surely for me to have had 2Mb in the past it must have been lower than what it is reporting these days

I just havent got a clue on whats going on.....I just want my 4Mb back tbh

Oh and doesnt having a low sync rate for a while caus my profile to be set to a lower limit which means i will be stuck at 2Mb download speeds...that is if my connection decides to sync normally again

Usher · 23 May 2006 at 21:11

Can't be sure but has interleaving been turned on ?

tolien · 23 May 2006 at 21:15

tomwalker said:
I know that the Attenuatuon limit isnt relevant but surely for me to have had 2Mb in the past it must have been lower than what it is reporting these days

Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. Your attenuation isn't fixed forever more.

Oh and doesnt having a low sync rate for a while caus my profile to be set to a lower limit which means i will be stuck at 2Mb download speeds...that is if my connection decides to sync normally again

Yup.

Can't be sure but has interleaving been turned on ?

Indeed, so the line's really struggling.

tomwalker · 23 May 2006 at 21:24

Ta for the input,

Yah interleaving has been on ever since Max upgrade (ping in B2 went from 18 to 35-40). The only thing I can think off for the sudden drop is all the rain and bad weather we had yesterday in the area..

Now I logged a problem with Bt several weeks ago and they performed tests on my line which did report there was a problem (dont know if this is to do with it but I always get really bad hissing/background noise on the phone line whenever router is on, this was also the case pre Max days) and they had logged it with the Line Faults team..

My only hope is when I ring back tomorrow is to see what they have said and to see if there is a real problem with my line

tomwalker · 28 May 2006 at 21:38

Right so after 5 days of perfect connection (8128) my line has just decided to bugger up again :mad:

The stats have gone from 28 Attenuation and 10 SNR to 48 Attenuation and 6 SNR which now means a fantastic sync rate of 1344 kbps......

Nothing has been changed to the wiring etc so what has happened, anyone got any ideas?

Gaverick · 28 May 2006 at 22:25

Could be what happened to me a while back, the junction box at the end of the garden was cracked by a tree root, and was then flooded with water causing dropouts every 1-10 minutes, they were very frustrating times for me, trying to rank up on halo whilst being kicked out of almost every game cause of internet dropping. The obvious indictor to me that my line had taken a drive for the worse was crackling on the phone line, see if yours is crackling.