Upstream/Downstream rate

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,207
Hi guys,

My GF is suffering very poor connection speeds. I've no idea what her usual speed is, but her router is displaying the following statistics:

downstream rate is 579kbps
upstream rate is 501kbps

Downstream Margin: 12 db
Upstream Margin: 12 db
Downstream Line Attenuation: 59 db
Upstream Line Attenuation: 18 db
Downstream Transmit Power: 12 db
Upstream Transmit Power: 15 db


To me it seems odd that the upstream rate is very high yet the downstream rate is very low. Is there an issue here? Should it be quicker?

What is likely to be the problem? Her statistics look better than mine and even on my line from hell I'm never as slow as 579kbps.
 
The upstream/downstream attenuation ratio is well out of sync. It looks to be a serious issue on the downstream atten, indicating a line problem. Has she restarted the router and tried plugging in to the master socket?
 
The attenuation ratio and power levels are a little out of the ordinary.

As benftl suggested, hopefully a simple reboot will sort it.
 
It's possibly a fault but those stats aren't, by themselves, a sign of a fault. The upstream attenuation will always be lower by a fair extent than the downstream.
Without before and after stats it's hard to say whether there's an issue or not. The transmit powers are low but that could be down to configuration - need more information (who the provider is, for starters).
 
I just find it a bit odd that the upstream rate is so 'good' compared to the downstream rate.

The provider is, unfortunately, AOLBroadband.
 
The upstream rate is capped by the provider, the upstream attenuation allows this rate to reach its maximum. The downstream atten however is very poor, the ratio is usually something like 2:1 down/up. Has she tried the master socket?
 
It does seem like there may be an issue with the line which is affecting the downstream speed. Upstream attenuation is always lower than downstream - this is because with DSL, the upstream link operates over lower frequencies than the downstream, and lower frequencies are less susceptible to attenuation within the phone system than higher ones. But 18db/59db is a really big difference. The 18 suggests that the line is probably reasonably short.

Can you hear any noise on the line? Is the router connected to an extension or to the master socket? Have you tried the test socket?
 
Sounds like a faulting line.
I was about to say 'Speak to AOL support' then realised how stupid that would be.

If you have an analogue phone, plug that straight into the master socket, dial 17070, and choose the option for a 'quiet line test'.
If there's crackling on the line, your telephone provider will pick it up as a fault rather than AOL.
 
No 30 to 35 attenuation usualy comes with a 18db upstream attenation, a 59db+ usualy comes with a 31.5 upstream.

people with massive downstream figures and low upstream are being reported wrong by the router.
 
That's true but you can't imply there's a fault the way you were or work backwards to what the attenuation "should be".

There used to be banded around a rule of thumb that the sum of the two should be around, IIRC, 70dB but you can't really imply that there's a fault or not based purely on the difference between the two being more or less than that.
 
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