unreliable connection, caused by warmth/humidity?

Daaaveee

Daaaveee

Daaaveee

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Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
1,873
hi guys/gals,

the past 3-4 days my internet connection has been really unreliable. the router will lose the signal and the light will flash for 30 secs or so until it pick up the line again. very annoying when trying to play BF2! in fact, it just lost the line right now... :o

i live out in the country and i'm on 512k ADSL, currently the fastest i can get here. i've also noticed in the past it would be nearly unusable during thunderstorms and other similar weather.

any ideas what could be causing it, and if i could try and stop it from happening?

TIA,

Dave
 
Daaaveee said:
i live out in the country and i'm on 512k ADSL, currently the fastest i can get here. i've also noticed in the past it would be nearly unusable during thunderstorms and other similar weather.
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I know you aren't on Max but I also get disconnections when there's a thunderstorm but in any case is it wise to use the PC in the middle of a storm?
I always turn mine off and disconnect the phone line just to be on the safe side ;)


Daaaveee said:
any ideas what could be causing it, and if i could try and stop it from happening?
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AFAIK it's caused by a low SN/R margin which can't absorb any line interference.

As I am on Max, my SN/R is usually a lot lower than it used to be when I was on a fixed 1 Mb speed so before I never used to get affected by thunderstorms.

What is your current SN/R margin as if it's low, say around 6 dB, then you are more likely to get dropped connections.

If your phone line wiring is okay, AFAIK there is nothing that you can do about trying to stop it from happening :confused:
 
Same old story, try connecting to the master (test) socket without any extensions (or filters), and using a short bit of decent quality cable.
If it's better, your internal wiring's crappy.

Stats (attenuation, SNR margin etc) would be useful if you're going to see if it makes any difference.
 
A bit of physics for you. Resistance is caused by high temprature.
However, the formula for resistance is:

Resistance = (Resistivity * Length) / Cross sectional Area

If you can the cross sectional area wider and the length shorter you should in theory get better connection :)
 
All fine and well, but the vast majority of the cable is beyond your control.

Resistance is caused by high temprature.
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Not quite. The resistance of a metallic conductor (gradually) increases with temperature. Not that we're concerned with attenuation anyway (to a point), just crappy SNR margin.
 
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My internet has been considerabley unstable recently. I used to be able to predict thunderstorms before they hit as my internet would go, but at least when it wasnt stormy it was stable.. now its just rubbish.. ah well, im on my second BT test soon.
 
I came here to post the same problem and I actually live in the countryside too, and am on the same line for the same reasons. I never thought it might be the weather though. I haven't really heard any storms but I know they are about. Could the intense heat be an issue? Sometimes I am up for hours, but lately I've been disconnecting random every 5 minutes to an hour. Its driving me insane. Sometimes I have to wait 90 odd minutes before I'm back online, and sometimes its 5 minutes. :(
 
first of all thanks for all the replies.

AFAIK the router is currently plugged strait into the master/test socket on the main socket in the house, with one filter and one extension IIRC.

how do i go about getting line stats such as attenuation, S/N ratio etc? i'll post them up tonight when i get home if i can, and have a look for a cable i can temporarily run strait from master socket - router, to see if that helps the stats and connection problems.

another slightly related question... on availablity check sites they say the max i can currently get is 512k ADSL. if i were to sign up to a 1MB deal, would the connection still only run at 512k? or could it be something like 650k, I.E. the maximum the line could handle?

TIA,

Dave
 
Daaaveee said:
how do i go about getting line stats such as attenuation, S/N ratio etc?
Click to expand...

Depends what modem you've got.

if i were to sign up to a 1MB deal, would the connection still only run at 512k?
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You wouldn't get it, or it wouldn't work at all. If you signed up for (and could get an ISP to give you) Max, you might get something in the middle.
 
I'm having a similar problem; DSL light flashes, connection goes then comes back . In the router settings I can see it go from 'Connected'->'Training'->'Connected' as it loses then regains the connection. It's been happening pretty much since I got broadband, but I ignored it as it was so infrequent. Lately it's become much more regular (every 12 secs at one point, now about 5 mins) and is becoming a real problem.

Phoned BT (on 2mb Bt/Yahoo) and jumped through all the hoops; disconnecting all the phones, trying different wall sockets and filters etc. Same result. They say the line test shows no fault, and i'm starting to suspect the router slightly, a BT Voyager 2000.

Stats anyway;
Downstream speed- 2272 Kbps
Upstream speed- 288 Kbps
Trellis coding - Enabled
Loss of signal - 7798
Line attenuation - 31.5 dB
Loss of frame - 69
Noise margin - 4 dB
CRC error - 180990
Line up count -110
Total error duration -31411 seconds

Sorry for the total thread hijack, but it's the same problem so I didn't think it was worth another thread. Seems to be happening to a lot of people in more rural areas though :confused:
 
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