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[oldgeezer]

Hi there. I am a newbie to this forum and have spent some time just reading through the help given to people like me!
I have a Linksys WAG54GS router and a PC running on up to date XP. I am unhappy about my Download speed getting less than 1 mb at any time on various speed tests. My line, according to BT Wholesale is capable of 2 mb+. A neighbour on Sky and netgear gets about 3.5 average speed. I am with Tiscali and have the 8mb speed. I knew when I got it that I wouldn't be able to get very high speeds but as it was the same price  I thought that I would get it 'for the future' when lines were better. We are just under a mile away from the Chard exchange and have underground lines which were installed about a dozen years ago. The bell wire is not fixed in my wiring.
I have looked at checking my lines' capabilities through the router itself and that's where I get confused. the kitz...frogstats connection gives me advice on how to get the figures for attenuation and noise but I cannot understand how to do it. I have gone into my router and apparantly turned my "debug" on as I get a page up saying "Debug on" or similar. I do not know where to type in the other information requests though. Will someone help please and do so in laymans terms. Many thanks for any help received. Oldgeezer.

[kitz]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

>> turned my "debug" on as I get a page up saying "Debug on"

Unfortunately the WAG-54GS isnt one of the easiest routers for a newcomer to get their stats from but I'll try expanding a little.


You now need to start a telnet session - theres a few ways of doing it but try

From Start >>> run type "telnet"



This will open a black screen into that type "open 192.168.1.1".

You should then be asked to enter the routers username and password (normally something like admin)

Once logged in type "adslctl info --stats"

This should then print out a list of information

If you wish to save or copy the results to say notepad then you can use the following method
http://www.kitz.co.uk/tute/save_results.htm


If you get stuck please let us know.

[oldgeezer]

Many, many thanks Kitz. It seems so easy and obvious when you know how!
I have done the doings and have results of
Att: 28 db
SNR 6.5 db
Rate 8095
According to www.snipurl.com/2vfg7 my line is capable of 8096 kps.
I've now got to find out why my download speed is so slow,. Any suggestions anyone? Oldgeezer

[jid]

Well you are synced at 8megs, so should be downloading around 6.7megs.

If you are downlaoding at 2meg, there could be some congestion, or a cap of some sort?

[kitz]

>> my line is capable of 8096 kps.

Yes a 28dB line should easily be able to support the full 8Mb
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

>> I've now got to find out why my download speed is so slow,.

1)  According to your router, what speed are you currently syncing (connecting) to the exchange at?

2) Can you also go here please and tell me what speed it reports for your line http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/

[oldgeezer]

Hi again Kitz. According to my router I am downloading at 959.27 meg and uploading at 698.7 meg. The other test you recommend comes in with between 1035 and 1031 meg on a three test sequence and uploading at a constant 701 meg.
Oldgeezer

[mr_chris]

Hiya

Looks like you are capped at a speed of 1 Megabit/sec (1Mb or 1024 kilobits). You aren't by any chance on an old 1Mb account?

I was going to suggest an IP profile limit, but from your sync speed (which I presume is the 8095 mentioned), and the upload speed test you've done, I suspect you're on an LLU connection with your ISP.

It doesn't look like congestion either, given that you are downloading at consistent rates.

If you could paste the full output from the "adslctl info --stats" command, that would be really helpful, before a next course of action can be suggested. There's nothing that's personally identifiable in that output, but seeing it in its raw form would be helpful.

PS don't confuse mega(bits) with kilo(bits)... 1 mega-something = 1000 kilo-somethings (which is often 1024 in computer-related things) - hope you don't mind me saying

[kitz]

Sorry.... first time around I missed the bit "Rate 8095", which would perhaps appear to be your current sync speed as I thought that had come from Saffy's calculator in the link.

>> 959.27 meg and uploading at 698.7 meg

Could that actually be kbps which would tie more in with bbmax tests of 1035kbps downstream and 701kbps upstream.
Those speeds are more like what I would expect to see on a 1Mb line, rather than an 8Mb line.

If your sync speed is 8096 then it would appear that you do indeed have an 8Mb connection and the slow throughput is occuring elsewhere and something is choking your line back.  Have you ever seen speeds more than 1Mbps or is this a recent event?

What I would do if I were you is monitor my line for a few days, making sure that the sync speed is still at or around 8096 and perform a few speedtests.

Use either the BBMax one, speedtest.net or Thinkbroadband, as these are all hosted on UK servers and should be more accurate than some other speedtesters available.

Also try testing at different times of the day...  Is it better in the morning than evening for eg..  what Im trying to do here now is pin-point where the problem is occuring and whether its a local issue or an ISP issue.

If you want to get back to us when you have a few more results then we can perhaps say more where we think the problem may be occuring.  If you continue to sync at 8096 then its certainly not your line.  The next thing to rule out is day if it only happens at certain times of the day.


----
edit chris's post wasnt there when I started my reply.

[oldgeezer]

Hi there Thanks for the replies. I will gather more information as you suggested (and mind my M's and K's) and post back in a few days. Thanks very much for the help thus far. I'm grateful. See you all. Oldgeezer

[kitz]

Like chris says my first thoughts were that tiscali had you on a 1Mb account, but high upstream figure doesnt fit in with their 1Mb account either which would cap your upstream at 256Kbps.

If you could continue to monitor for a few days and see if the 1Mbps downstream is fairly consistant or not that would aid diagnostics.

[oldgeezer]

Hello again. I have collected some Telnet stats and have results from Think Broadband as requested. How much of the Telnet stats do you want me to up load. I have the results of five Speed Tests so do you want the whole page for each to be able analyze them? Will post them when I have your reply. Many thanks, Oldgeezer.

[kitz]

Re the speedtests just post the date time and result.
Re the stats, what we are wanting mostly is
~ Sync Speed  (Connection Speed)   
~ Attenuation (atten)
~ SNR Margin  (Noise Margin, Margin) 

[oldgeezer]

Hello again. Here are the results of the Chard Jury. They seem, in general, to be pretty much a muchness. I wrote to Tiscali on 2 September asking them to confirm that they were not capping me and asking them to explain my slow connection. Of course they have not replied. So Tiscali=nil points!



                                                                              Down               Up
1 Sep 2008   3.58 pm Think Broadband             959Kbps        699Kbps
                                   Telnet  Attn                     18.0dB          13.5dB
                                               SNR                     11.3dB          7.0dB
                                               Rate                     8096Kbps    832Kbps
                                               Max                      8768 Kb       1000Kbps


2 Sep 2008   11.20pm Think Broadband              960                 699
                                    Telnet Attn                      28.0                13.5
                                               SNR                      11.6                7.0
                                               Rate                     8096               832
                                               Max                      8768               1000


3 Sep 2008  9.46 am   Think Broadband              958                 699
                                    Telnet  Attn                      28.0                13.5
                                                SNR                     12.3                 7.0
                                                Rate                     8096               832
                                                Max                      8768               1000


3 Sep 2008  4.59 pm     Think Broadband            958                  698
                                      Telnet  Attn                    28.0                 13.5
                                                  SNR                    12.1                 8.0
                                                  Rate                    8096               832
                                                  Max                   10272             1032


4 Sep 2008  8.13pm      Think Broadband             956                 698
                                      Telnet   Attn                    28.0                13.5
                                                   SNR                    6.3                  8.0
                                                   Rate                   8096                832
                                                   Max                   10272              1032


5 Sep 2008 11.13am      Think Broadband              959                699
                                       Telnet   Attn                     28.0               13.5
                                                    SNR                     6.8                 8.0
                                                    Rate                     8096              832
                                                    Max                     10272            1032

I hope that these mean more to you than they do to me and they will help to find out what is going wrong.
Thanks, Oldgeezer

[kitz]

Excellent results! - well as far as diagnostics are concerned, but not the speed.


You need to get back to tiscali on this one..  those results prove without a doubt that Tiscali are capping your connection at 1Mbps downstream.
You have a nice rock-steady 1Mb Tiscali account, but a rock steady 8Mb connection.

You need to get back to Tiscali saying something like

I have been monitoring my connection over a period of time and at all times of the day I consistently get  speeds of around 960 kbps.

During this period I have also been monitoring my connection speed from my router, which constantly syncs at a very healthy 8096 kbps.  The line has a good SNR Margin as would be expected for a 28dB attenuation.

The obvious conclusion from these tests is that there are no faults on the line, it has no problem syncing at the higher speeds and therefore the throughput has been artificially capped to 1Mbps on Tiscalis systems.

Since I'm obviously on Tiscali LLU, the cap has nothing to do with my equipment, BT equipment, your MSAN at the exchange and must be wrongly set on my account.

I enclose below a sample of results showing throughput speed and my linestats which without a doubt show an artificial restriction.
Please arrange to remove the 1Mb limit which has been wrongly applied to my account on your internal systems.

Then paste below those same results.
Good Luck.

[oldgeezer]

Thanks so much Kitz. I will use your proforma and get in touch with them again and let you know the outcome. Oldgeezer