Recommend me a decent router....

StevieP · 4 Apr 2006 at 12:41

I am having some issues with my Bulldog line sync dropping using either my internal PCI modem or my USB Speedtouch modem. This is becoming increasingly annoying as the connection then wont work until I disconnect and re-connect (which potentially stops any torrent files downloading overnight, 10 minutes after I've gone to bed!!)
It makes no difference setting it to re-dial because its not the connection thats gone, just the line sync!!

Anyway, I've been told that a router would probably improve the stability of the line sync, my question is....which one is best (while not beeing too expensive)

I've been looking at the Belkin 7633, as it supports ADSL2+, which I'm told Bulldog will shortly be upgrading people to!!

Anyone got any opinions on this or any other router to suit my needs??

Many thanks

StevieP

Sone · 4 Apr 2006 at 15:35

Belkin are genrally bad, Linksys, netgear or d-link normally do good home user kit. Look at Draytek if spending a bit more or cisco if you don't mind paying for reliability

NutritioN · 5 Apr 2006 at 14:21

StevieP, I'm having a similar Bulldog problem to you, been having for a few months now. Line sync drops to ~4kbps down : 96bps up from the ususal ~6kpbs down : 576bps up. I'm using a D-Link504 ADSL Router.

Let me know how you get on! It's bugging the carp out of me.

Skilldibop · 5 Apr 2006 at 14:48

NutritioN said:
StevieP, I'm having a similar Bulldog problem to you, been having for a few months now. Line sync drops to ~4kbps down : 96bps up from the ususal ~6kpbs down : 576bps up. I'm using a D-Link504 ADSL Router.

Let me know how you get on! It's bugging the carp out of me.

I hope you mean Kbps and Mbps. Else you got phat old issues.

It's probably to do with the ADSL chip not being that great at syncing at distance from the exchange. If you can get your mits on a Speedtouch 510v4 it'll help as it's renound for syncing well at long distance.
Some of the new Cisco 800s are using the alcatel Modem chips too now i believe, so one of those would do it.

NutritioN · 5 Apr 2006 at 16:02

Bulldog says I'm not far from the exchange and Samsknows.com says I'm 368m straight from the exchange. Last year I was with Bulldog for 6mths and it was fine. After a change of BT account, ADSL disconnection and reactivation with a new Bulldog account the problem started.

And yes, I always laugh when other people get it wrong, but this time I got the units wrong!

tolien · 5 Apr 2006 at 16:10

Straight line distance is irrelevant. Stats (attenuation, SNR margin, transmit power, sync rate, error counters if available) are your friends.

NutritioN · 5 Apr 2006 at 19:20

Yeah I know, heard you say that enough

I don't think my line stats are particularly good:

Downstream Upstream
ADSL Link Speed 4448 kbps 128 kbps
SNR 4.0 dB 0.0 dB
ATEN 43 dB 15 dB

Normally at 5880 kbps // 576 kbps when it is playing up. Same stats when plugged into the hidden master socket.

As per the OP's question, will a better router (and microfilter) improve things noticabley? Or is it beyond our reach?

tolien · 5 Apr 2006 at 19:28

NutritioN said:
Yeah I know, heard you say that enough

If enough people paid attention (and read the FAQs) I wouldn't have to keep repeating it.

I don't think my line stats are particularly good

No, but 0dB upstream SNR seems...unlikely. If it's even remotely accurate, your problem's probably packet loss - if your router gives some kind of error counters you'll see them going up quickly.
Assuming your attenuation's accurate, you're somewhere in the realms of 4 km (see how the straight line distance is worthless?) from the exchange.

As per the OP's question, will a better router

That offers better stats, yes.

(and microfilter)

If it's the same with the test socket, no.

Or is it beyond our reach?

Quite probably.

ironhorse · 5 Apr 2006 at 20:47

I'm getting the same problem with my DLINK router and bulldog, i.e when downloading using newsleecher it leeches at 298Kbps, if I then reboot the dlink DSL504, it leeches at 700Kbps. very strange?

stats as follows:

downstream link:6656kbps
upstream link:576kbps
SNR down:3.0db
SNR up: -
ATEN down:36db
ATEN up:20db

LINE ERROR ADSL layer down FEC: 1
LINE ERROR ADSL layer up FEC: 0
LINE ERROR ADSL layer down CRC: 166
LINE ERROR ADSL layer up CRC: 5072
LINE ERROR ATM layer down HEC: 88
LINE ERROR ATM layer up HEC: 2592

frame counter down: 30845333
frame counter up: 16894149

loop distance: 7000ft

dont know whats causing it, hell i dont even know what half these stats mean lol. can someone help.

tolien · 5 Apr 2006 at 21:41

Poor SNR margin and loads of errors. Try master (test) socket, different modem, asking Bulldog to up target SNR or limit maximum sync rate.

NutritioN · 5 Apr 2006 at 22:10

Using a different program, i see SNR readings of
8kbps down : 7kbps up
After 10mins of uptime errors are

D U
FEC 0 0
CRC 9 0
HEC 8 0

tolien · 5 Apr 2006 at 22:15

SNR isn't measured in kbps...

benjo plz. · 5 Apr 2006 at 22:19

tolien said:
SNR isn't measured in kbps...

heh

.

NutritioN · 5 Apr 2006 at 22:23

dammit! Was distracted while posting!

D U
FEC 0 0
CRC 14 0
HEC 12 0

tolien · 5 Apr 2006 at 23:05

Not particularly interesting, without how long it was counting those.

NutritioN · 6 Apr 2006 at 08:23

25 minutes.

It was fine last year May-November. If the hardware hasn't changed, but all that is different between now and last year is that the Bulldog account was closed and reopened with a new account on the same package, why can the hardware no longer stay synched at the faster speed?

It's managed it before no problem. Now it seems random whether it'll be fast or slow when I wake up in the morning or come home from work. I can't see any pattern (during the day/night; whether it's used or not.)

I'm monitoring it as much as can, while waiting fro BD support to get back to me...

StevieP · 6 Apr 2006 at 11:30

I am following all of this but my problem isnt syncing at a low speed (mine ALWAYS connects at between 7.5 & 8 meg)
My problem is that the line sync drops occasionally (particularly annoying when downloading overnight or half-way through a quest on guild wars!!!)

I would happily sacrifice some speed for a little stability!!!

StevieP

Have we established that a decent router WOULD improve things??? (dont want to splash out £80 for nothing basically)

NutritioN · 6 Apr 2006 at 11:35

Mine started off as occasionally, and if it did synch lower on the odd occasion, using the "retrain" line button in the web console for the router ALWAYS fixed it. Now that has got progressively useless at having an effect.