Eclipse woes

tolien said:
It will stick if you keep synching at 160kbps. It's not the throughput that's the problem per se (since that's the expected behavior of the BRAS limit setup), but the low sync rates.
Did the BT engineer's modem also show the low sync rates?
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Yes. I only get low sync rates after hours of it trying to sync at 7000. But even for the few mins on 7000 (before it drops) all I get is dead on 56kb/s.

I'm not sure this OpenReach guy could be called an engineer. He seemed to know very little, and could only offer me a "give it three days". He said it was a "tricky one".

Sat here, with router in front of me, all I ever get is "retrainig, up @ 7616kbps, down, retraining, up @ 7616kbps, down..." for the last 10 days. After about 100 or so cycles of this, it will sync to 160kbs, and stay up. No improvement, no difference at all.
 
Looks like my problem is resolved. I'm still disconnecting now and then, but I am now able to download at 650kb/s when synced at 7616.

The problem went as quickly as it came.
 
As you can see in my first post, all this trouble started when my eclipse control panel read:

576 kb/s (updated 15/07/2006)

it used to say "not set".

Today it changed and reads "7,392 kb/s (updated 24/07/2006)" and my problems have gone.

Could this have anything to do with it?
 
The value the control panel's giving you is your BRAS cap. Your sync rate should still float around independent of that.
 
Then I have no idea why it is now OK. :confused:

Moving to ukfsn anyway now that the 2mb cap is in place - it's not worth having giganews.
 
I'm having probs. (been with them almost a month)

When I connect it says I'm Sync'd at 7.6mb but I've never got anywhere close to that.

When downloading I tend to fluctuate between 100kbps and 300kbps.

http://www.speedtouch.co.uk/330highspeed.asp

I've tried this and it kind of doubles my speed for a bit but then I find myself unable to connect until I undo the registry fix :(
 
Having similar problems over the past few weeks with my eclipse adsl connection.

Stable at 8mb for 2 months.. now i cant even get stable at 256... and BT said the line checks out fine.

Tried new cables/new filters/new adsl modems and have had my router directly plugged into the test socket of the master socket for 4 days and still constantly reconnecting .. up to 30 reconnects a hour at varying speeds all over the place.

BT and eclipse did several line checks and cannot find a fault...
 
Update to my problem.

On monday, all was fine, synced high and downloading at 650kbps, problem solved.

For 24 hours.

Tuseday came and I was back to 56k downloads no matter what I sync at. The eclipse control panel confirmed it: my line rate was back at 576k.

Eclipse now say there is a fault on my line.
 
Paa` said:
Having similar problems over the past few weeks with my eclipse adsl connection.

Stable at 8mb for 2 months.. now i cant even get stable at 256... and BT said the line checks out fine.

Tried new cables/new filters/new adsl modems and have had my router directly plugged into the test socket of the master socket for 4 days and still constantly reconnecting .. up to 30 reconnects a hour at varying speeds all over the place.

BT and eclipse did several line checks and cannot find a fault...
Click to expand...

This sounds exactly like my problem a few weeks ago. Good luck getting it resolved - eclipse and the openreach guy were stumped.
 
I have been having low speeds for the past 2 weeks,i have just received my mac code and i am off to nildram to see if they are any better.The guy from eclipse told me to disconnect my router on 3 seperate occasions over 3 days,have done that and it has'nt even solved anything at all.I was getting 605 down now it is the famous 2 meg down,why should i be paying evo 4 £29.99 and getting 2meg speeds but funnily my upload speeds are always the same 48 up.The tech guy from eclipse basically told me that he can do nothing for me.It maybe a BT fault but i have been stung so i am off.
 
Just got off the phone from BT and there is no fault - eclipse were testing another number!

BT said you have to wait 3 days. It takes 15 mins to drop you down and 3 whole days to get you up again.

20 mins ago it went from 576 to 1mb, so can download at 1mb now.

Does this mean I have to wait another 3 days to see it go up again?
 
I have had all sorts of problems since regrading to the Eclipse Max service. I got moved over on the 10th April to their Option 2 package, and I have never had a truly decent speed since, either browsing or downloading, and game pings are much higher (I was on Eclipse 1mb previously).

And disconnections. So many disconnections. My router was part of the problem here, so I bought a new Zyxel one, and it has been better since. But the disconnects have slowly started to creep back, I had over 10 in one hour last night :mad: It's made gaming a joke, and download speeds in the evening are ridiculous - worse than on a 512 connection (the router connects at just under 3mb now). Browsing is much slower than our old 512 connection was.

I have spent hours on the phone to Eclipse, I've done everything they asked but still no joy. I have changed microfilters, cables, made sure it's all in the master socket. They tell me I can't be moved back on to the old 1mb service even though people still use it, which is annoying. Even more annoying is that they say the speeds I'm getting are acceptable to them. Well they aren't acceptable to me, so i'm now looking for a new ISP that still does a decent fixed speed service. Recommendations welcome!
 
Disconnections are down to the quality of the ADSL link between you and the telephone exchange, hence a BT issue. Having said that you shouldn't have to put up with an unstable internet connection after the 10 day training period, here's a few things to try.

Remove any un-nessesary cabling between the router and the phone socket.
Remove any surge protectors on the ADSL line.
Use a new, high quality, Microfilter/splitter to plug the router in.

You've alreaqdy tried a new router and that didn't completely solve the issue. The main problem with Max-ADSL is that during the evening the Noise margin on the line can drop to unstable levels, so a connection that is perfectly stable during the day sometimes becomes un-usable during the evening due to multiple disconnections.

If you've tried all the above then the only other thing you could try is to ask Eclipse to get BT to increase the target SNR (signal to noise ratio) on the line. This will force the modem to connect at a lower speed, but the upside of this will be, hopefully, a more stable connection.
 
Thanks for the advice and info hominid :)

I will give what you have suggested a try, although there is no excess cabling between the router and phone socket, and I have tried two different brand new microfilters as it is. I am using a surge protected extension lead however, perhaps that makes a difference?

It still doesn't explain why browsing is so slow in the daytime though. Download speeds may be better in the daytime but browsing is still horrendously slow. And to be honest, if I can move back to a fixed speed of 2mb then I'm not losing out on much, considering the router only connects at 2.6-2.8ish mb now. I'd be more than happy to do so for a stable and reliable connection again.

It's a shame this has happened as in 3 years I had never had an issue with Eclipse, but I guess things change! Someone has suggested IDnet as an ISP to try, anyone know if they are any good?
 
What is your SNR, or SNR margin on your adsl line? Below 6db and you might get problems.

Two things are probably happening with your connection, I might be wrong but here goes.

Your modem is trying to connect at the fastest speed posible, which is good, but at that speed might be getting CRC errors on the line. These errors are then causing your connection to be slow/lagg spikes, because the web page/server that you are connected to has to constantly resend data packets. If the SNR goes too low then yit'll force the router to reconnect.

Also, because you have had a few dodgy connections this would have lowered the MSR(maximum stable rate) on your line. Eclipse uses the MSR supplied to them by BT to restrict the amount of data that gets to you. There is no point in having a 8Mb profile if your connection speed to the exchange is only 3Mb.

So the mixture of these issues, both caused by the un-stability of the ADSL line, are what I think are causing your issues.

A new ISP might be able to help but I don't know about that. I'd try and get Eclipse to raise the target SNR for your line first, if that fails then why not see if another ISP can get it sorted.

Just my thinking, but it might be wrong..

I'm with eclipse on the Max-ADSL and, apart from the shapping of NNTP, I have no issues.

//edit, BTW - I got rid of my ADSL surge protector from the line. With it I connected @ 7.2Mb(or there abouts) during the day but had a few disconnections in the evening. I took it off in the 10 day training period and I've had a solid 8Mb connection ever since.
 
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Thanks for the reply.

I won't pretend to know much about all this stuff, but I get the gist of what you're saying. The router is a ZyXEL Prestige 660H, not sure where the stats are in it but can have a look when I get home in about half hour.

Would Eclipse not have suggested raising the target SNR themselves if that was a possible cause? Or would they not do that unless I asked?

Not sure about the profile etc, as in my 10-day testing period it never went over 4mb, but as I said I know nothing!

Will post back with the SNR value if I can find it :)

Cheers


EDIT: Just curious, what is 'shaping of NNTP'?
 
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AshM said:
EDIT: Just curious, what is 'shaping of NNTP'?
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"Shapping of NNTP" is the restriction in speed when downloading from binary newsgroups, NNTP is the protocol that is used when downloading from them.

ISP's are able to restrict the download speeds of different protocols like NNTP/Bittorrent/FTP etc through the use of specialised switches(ellacoyas mainly). They use deep packet inspection to "see" the type of protocol used when you are downloading from the internet, and apply profiles to that protocol accordingly. HHTP, or web browsing, is normally un-shapped, but most other heavily used protocols(NNTP, FTP, BT etc) are restricted to some degree, in Eclipses case between 8am and 12 midnight. The amout of shapping is variable and totally programmable.
 
AshM said:
The router is a ZyXEL Prestige 660H, not sure where the stats are in it but can have a look when I get home in about half hour.
Click to expand...

This (bottom item, also in the FAQ) might be useful.

HHTP, or web browsing
Click to expand...

HTTP. :p

Eclipse uses the MSR supplied to them by BT to restrict the amount of data that gets to you.
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No. BTw use the MSR to (sort of) "restrict the amount of data that gets to you", thought the "BRAS cap/limit/thingy". It happens long before the ISP.
 
noise margin upstream: 17 db
output power downstream: 18 db
attenuation upstream: 30 db
noise margin downstream: 12 db
output power upstream: 12 db
attenuation downstream: 49 db

Is this the info that's needed?
 
AshM said:
Thanks for the advice and info hominid :)

I will give what you have suggested a try, although there is no excess cabling between the router and phone socket, and I have tried two different brand new microfilters as it is. I am using a surge protected extension lead however, perhaps that makes a difference?

It still doesn't explain why browsing is so slow in the daytime though. Download speeds may be better in the daytime but browsing is still horrendously slow. And to be honest, if I can move back to a fixed speed of 2mb then I'm not losing out on much, considering the router only connects at 2.6-2.8ish mb now. I'd be more than happy to do so for a stable and reliable connection again.

It's a shame this has happened as in 3 years I had never had an issue with Eclipse, but I guess things change! Someone has suggested IDnet as an ISP to try, anyone know if they are any good?
Click to expand...


I moved to IDNet today and they are amazing
 
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