Line Attenuation between Netgear routers

Mint_Sauce · 6 Nov 2008 at 01:49

I have a very old DG834G v2 with the latest firmware, our internet here is not so good, with it reporting the following line stats:

Connection Speed
down: 1536 kbps
up: 768 kbps

Line Attenuation
down: 61 db
up: 15.5 db

Noise Margin
down: 15 db
up: 7 db

It shows the line attenuation as 61db and I thought perhaps a newer router might have a better chance at helping the attenuation so I bought a brand new DG834GT and put the DG Team firmware on it.

The DG834GT with DG Team firmware reports a line Attenuation of 63.5 db!

Could this be due to the way it reports back, i.e. there is no actual change it's just the numbers reported are different or could it be that for some reason the older DG834G is just better for the critical (in my case being a long line) Attenuation?

I'm not sure if I should leave my old DG834G v2 there or replace it with the newer one with custom firmware as I believe the higher attenuation will maybe lower my speeds further than they already are over time?

:confused:

Hamster · 6 Nov 2008 at 01:59

The only way to really find out is by plugging in the DG834GT for a day or two and seeing if there is any difference in synch speeds and disconnections.

I'm not sure about your DG834G v2 but the DG834GT in my case (with DGTeam firmware) does not log disconnects and uptime properly for some reason so here's a nice bit of software i came across which is great for monitoring SNR levels, synch speed etc:

http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm

Routerstats 4.7a. Works with windows or linux.

tolien · 6 Nov 2008 at 08:43

The attenuation isn't critical in the slightest. Does it connect at the same speed and SNR margin?

Mint_Sauce · 6 Nov 2008 at 13:00

Do you mean as long as the modem syncs at the same speeds it doesn't matter about the attenuation? I'll have to screenshot the stats and then swap them over and have a look if I get the same stats.

tolien · 6 Nov 2008 at 18:13

They were separate points - what does your modem say it's connected at, and at what SNR margin?

It's not abnormal for your attenuation to change a little each time you connect and especially with different modems.

Skidilliplop · 7 Nov 2008 at 12:20

tolien said:
They were separate points - what does your modem say it's connected at, and at what SNR margin?

It's not abnormal for your attenuation to change a little each time you connect and especially with different modems.

What would we do without V=IR

tolien · 7 Nov 2008 at 17:28

Dribble that again?

Mint_Sauce · 8 Nov 2008 at 01:06

tolien said:
They were separate points - what does your modem say it's connected at, and at what SNR margin?

It's not abnormal for your attenuation to change a little each time you connect and especially with different modems.

My attenuation fluctuates between 61 and 62 db, mainly staying on 61.

Connection Speed
1600 kbps down
768 kbps up

Line Attenuation
61 db down
15.5 db up

Noise Margin
15 db down
7 db up

tolien · 8 Nov 2008 at 09:40

If the sync rate and SNR margin stay roughly the same, there's no problem then.

CurlyWhirly · 8 Nov 2008 at 18:15

Mint_Sauce said:
I have a very old DG834G v2 with the latest firmware, our internet here is not so good, with it reporting the following line stats:

Connection Speed
down: 1536 kbps
up: 768 kbps

Line Attenuation
down: 61 db
up: 15.5 db

Noise Margin
down: 15 db
up: 7 db

It shows the line attenuation as 61db and I thought perhaps a newer router might have a better chance at helping the attenuation so I bought a brand new DG834GT and put the DG Team firmware on it.

The DG834GT with DG Team firmware reports a line Attenuation of 63.5 db!

Could this be due to the way it reports back, i.e. there is no actual change it's just the numbers reported are different or could it be that for some reason the older DG834G is just better for the critical (in my case being a long line) Attenuation?

I had the same thing happen to me when I bought a new DG834GT router and put the DG Team firmware on it as my attenuation rose from 54 dB to 58 dB.

Afterwards I realised that it was because I was on ADSL2+ (as opposed to ADSL2) and as ADSL2+ uses higher frequencies, this adds to the attenuation even if they can't be used.

Also I've found that the DG834Gt is a lot more stable than the O2 wireless box and so I'm glad that I took the chance now.

CurlyWhirly · 8 Nov 2008 at 18:22

JoeMama said:
The only way to really find out is by plugging in the DG834GT for a day or two and seeing if there is any difference in synch speeds and disconnections.

I'm not sure about your DG834G v2 but the DG834GT in my case (with DGTeam firmware) does not log disconnects and uptime properly for some reason so here's a nice bit of software i came across which is great for monitoring SNR levels, synch speed etc:

http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm

Routerstats 4.7a. Works with windows or linux.

I've noticed that according to the router stats (below), my internet connection (WAN) only lasts a few hours compared to the router uptime (LAN) :confused:

Does the same thing happen with you?

tolien · 8 Nov 2008 at 18:27

The LAN should roughly match the router's overall uptime, whereas the WAN uptime will be how long the router's been up since it last resynched.

Using ADSL2+ won't increase your attenuation unless you use some of the extra bins - how many bits you'd need would depend on how badly those bins were attenuated.

CurlyWhirly · 8 Nov 2008 at 18:54

tolien said:
The LAN should roughly match the router's overall uptime, whereas the WAN uptime will be how long the router's been up since it last resynched.

Thanks for that.

Using ADSL2+ won't increase your attenuation unless you use some of the extra bins - how many bits you'd need would depend on how badly those bins were attenuated.

Well it happened to me :confused:

I use the DMT tool and none of the frequencies over 724 kHz can be used either on Max, ADSL2 or ADSL2+