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[Sebby]

I'm with Sky LLU (ADSL). My phone line is decent enough with a 29.5dB attenuation and my modem syncs at ~12Mb. The noise margin is always solid at 7dB or thereabouts. I have a single NTE5, no extensions, and a filtered faceplate (initially a BT ADSL v1 plate and now the BT VDSL mk2 plate).

For just over a year I have had issues with occasional loss of sync and intermittent issues with performance. Things will be fine one minute but the next throughput is very poor and pings shoot up from the usual 35ms to 500ms+. This then passes and everything goes back to normal.

When it first started I spoke with Sky and was run through the usual (which I'd tried anyway) – test socket, new filter, etc. A line test showed up nothing. Sky concluded that the router was at fault and sent a replacement.

Once installed things seemed fine for a bit, but then the issues returned (I guess because the issues are intermittent anyway it had never really been resolved).

Due to the birth of my son soon after there really hasn't been much time to address this, but a couple of weeks ago I called Sky again. This time a line fault showed up, and Openreach came and did something outside my property (I'm not sure what). I was pleased because I thought this was sorted once and for all.

For a week or so everything was great (again though, because the issue is intermittent anyway it may have never been any different after the engineer attended for all I know). But over the last few days I have been seeing loss of sync a few times a day and issues with performance.

I have today (yesterday technically) spoken with Sky again. Another line test was carried out but was all clear. It has now been raised with their higher support team.

My concern is that this is going to be a difficult one to solve, not least because everything looks fine; always good line stats, no errors, etc.

By the way, I have also ruled wireless out as being the issue – same issues when connected by Ethernet.

Any help will be gratefully received. Thank you!


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[burakkucat]

Hello Sebby and welcome to the Kitz forum. 

As you have already stated, an intermittent fault is a problem to trace. From your description of things, I think we can rule out any problems with the physical wiring, etc, within your home. So the next step is to recommend running an appropriate utility to gather statistics of the line's performance.

Unfortunately I am not familiar with the modem/router that Sky provides to its users. If you would please take a look at its label and then post the details of make/model/version, we should then be able to advise which utility would be appropriate.

[Sebby]

Thank you for your fast response!

I too am certain that there is nothing wrong within my property.

Sky supply the Sky SR101. However, I very recently bought a Draytek Vigor 120 and Apple AirPort Extreme combo, but Sky don't really permit the use of third party modems and routers so I had to plug in the SR101 before I called them yesterday! Essentially I can use either depending on what is available to monitor the connection. By the way I use a Mac.


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[burakkucat]

Hmm . . . Significant numbers of people have ignored Sky's diktat, have extracted their Sky login credentials and replaced the supplied modem/router with equipment of their own choice.

I know nothing about the SR101 other than recognising its existence. I am unsure if even John Owen's RouterStats can be used with it.

The Draytek Vigor 120 is a reliable device and its pairing with an Apple AirPort Extreme has proved to be a good combination.

As I see it, the current problem is that we really need to see line-monitoring statistics for at least 24 hours, minimum, to get a "feeling" for your line's behaviour.

(Thinking "out loud" . . . ) I wonder if a Huawei HG612 could be used in conjunction with the AirPort Extreme? If do-able, then DslStats or ModemStats might be other monitoring options.

I wonder if Roseway (DslStats), Bald_Eagle1 (ModemStats) or any other Kitizen would care to comment, please?

[roseway]

The HG612 can certainly be monitored by DSLstats in any of its modes, although I have to admit that I struggled to use it in bridge mode on my TalkTalk connection. I presume that you could disable DHCP and NAT but retain PPP negotiation in the HG612, and use the AirPort Extreme as a straight wireless router.

[kitzuser87430]

A hg612 works fine with BE1's programs in bridge mode on my BT adsl1 (G.DMT), Dslstats also works.

If you look at our (be1 and myself) discussion here http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=14013 I also post the settings for bridge mode.

Ian

[Sebby]

Thank you all for your very helpful replies. I may head over to Sky User, where I'm a member, and ask the question, only because the simplest option would be to use a Sky router to do the monitoring (I also have a D-Link DSL-2640S and a Sagem F@st 2504n, both Sky branded). Hopefully one of these will work with one of the monitoring tools. If not I guess it's worth investing in an HG612. Maybe I should have gone for that instead of the Vigor 120!


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[Sebby]

Hi all. Apologies for the radio silence — I've been away for a while. I have been in contact with Sky (whose telephone support has improved immensely in the space of a year I must say). They escalated the case to their higher team, who agreed the line seems unstable, despite the stats and all looking fine. An engineer visit has been arranged for Tuesday. I am hoping that the instability and intermittently poor throughput are related.


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[Sebby]

An Openreach engineer visited my house today. I explained the problem and he connected his testing device up to the ADSL. He was about to say I had a great line but then it started erroring all over the place (his words). After hours of checking and testing the line from my property back to the exchange, he concluded that the aluminium cabling used around here is to blame. He switched the line to a new section (his words again) and I'm told no errors occurred during tests after that.

He also commented about the line power having been 55 initially (which he said was borderline) and 69 afterwards. I've no idea what this means but no doubt one of you will be able to enlighten me!

Observations so far are that the modem is syncing a bit lower, attenuation is up 1dB, but thus far everything seems stable and throughput is as expected. I guess time will tell.


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[Black Sheep]

Can only be pure guesswork, but I think the 55 and 69 figures are likely to be the AC Balance of the line. Basically, the circuits integrity at keeping 'Noise' out. Anything over 60dB is documented as being ideal for digital circuitry (Anything over 45-50dB for PSTN circuits) ............. so, if it is this that he meant, you have got quite a marked improvement in this area.

[Sebby]

AC balance – that was it! Thank you. Fingers crossed that everything is stable going forward.


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[Black Sheep]

 

[boost]

What's your attenuation reported as now, out of interest?

[Sebby]

It's now 31dB!


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[Sebby]

Unfortunately the problem has reappeared. I haven't noticed the poor performance I must admit, but I'm still experiencing dropouts. Tonight it was at its worst, losing sync again and again in quick succession.

Sky once again ran some tests (no faults showing on the line) and have now raised it to their higher level support again.

Interestingly, and I'm not sure whether this suggests anything, but when Sky called me back after the line test the phone rang just once but no one was there when I answered. The router then lost sync (maybe unrelated). When I asked the Sky agent what happened, she said it rung as normal then went to voicemail. Very odd, because my phone didn't ring like that.


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