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[roseway]

.. to get an unstable ADSL connection.

My connection has been very stable for over a year now, but yesterday it started dropping out repeatedly for no apparent reason. It's probably due to the weather - we've got overhead telephone lines here, and the last time this happened it was during a cold snowy period. There's no audible noise on the phone.

I've used DMT to increase my target noise margin to 12 dB, but apart from that I'm going to sit it out and wait for it to correct itself when the weather improves, as it did last time. I'll switch off the router when it's not being used, to minimise the number of unscheduled disconnections.

Thankfully it hasn't seriously clobbered my IP profile - it's gone down from 5000 to 3500, which is of course still perfectly usable. Happy days!

[kitz]

sigh - adsl is so fragile at times.   

Hope it sorts itself soon eric

[Astral]

I've a feeling that IP profile is going to become a bit of a side issue with the steep increase in traffic brought about by the advent of BBCi-player and the like. My profile is a steady 7150 but I was struggling to get 3Mb download at past 3am the other day.

Hope your wet wires dry out soon.

[kitz]

>> My profile is a steady 7150 but I was struggling to get 3Mb download at past 3am the other day

Something not un-noticed by a few others too :/

[b4dger]

Obviously your ISP also have a large impact of any capacity issues - some have more capacity than others and some providers also manage it better than others!

[Astral]

Obviously your ISP also have a large impact of any capacity issues - some have more capacity than others and some providers also manage it better than other

s!

Agreed, but the network has a finite capacity and traffic has risen sharply since i-player was launched so there is bound to be an across the board effect on speeds. You can't get a quart out of a pint pot; to mangle the metaphor.

[kitz]

Obviously your ISP also have a large impact of any capacity issues - some have more capacity than others and some providers also manage it better than others!

Indeed thats quite correct, and some ISPs are known to be better than others.
but iirc Astral is on a BT business product and you wouldn't expect that sort of slow downs at that time.

I can see the problems and same speeds using either my PN connection or my RIN connection.
Jabs is on the same exchange as me using a different ISP again and also seeing it.

---

Anyhow hows things today eric any better?

[roseway]

>> Anyhow hows things today eric any better?

I left the router switched off overnight and started it up this morning about 7:00, and since then it's dropped the connection twice (the second time it reconnected with an odd upstream speed of 416). So it seems to be a bit better than it was, but still not right.

[kitz]

>> with an odd upstream speed of 416

Whats your downstream at? 
Ive seen cases where upstream can be borrowed for downstream but normally only when the downstream starts getting pretty low.

[roseway]

It's currently connecting at 5344/488. The upstream speed has been unusual three or four times since this started, and when this happens the upstream noise margin is always 6 dB, but the downstream speed isn't much different from what it was before. I've tended to conclude that the interference which is causing the problem is in the lower part of the frequency range where it affects the upstream connection.

[kitz]

yes very possible

[roseway]

In a spirit of investigative enthusiasm I decided to try a different router to see if it behaves differently. I've got a DG834Gv3 and so I've put that in place of my normal ST576. Interestingly enough, it does produce different results - in particular there is a large upstream noise margin (19 dB, the same as it was before the trouble started) whereas the ST576 only had 6 - 12 dB.

Another advantage is that I can use Routerstats, which runs perfectly in Linux using Wine. I've got it running now, and the downstream noise margin is hopping between -1 and 4 dB, so we'll see how long it holds on this evening.

[kitz]

hmm trading off the upstream -v- downstream?
:/

[roseway]

It dropped at about 8 pm and since then it's been connected at 4480, with a noise margin between 6 and 10 dB, which is very similar to what I was getting with the ST576, but with what seems to be a more stable upstream component. So I would say that the DG834G is doing a better job on what is currently a dodgy line.

[graevine1]

Hi Roseway,
I have a neighbour, a software and firmware developer, who wondered if you could produce an instruction sheet on how to set up and run routerstats 2.8j ?? on Linux based pc's or direct us to such if it already exists. He is one hundred meters nearer to the exchange than I, and, is lucky to hit one Meg of sync but only with a Netgear DG834G Ver3, he is unfortunatly in the position where his line has to be with and provided by BT (company reasons) Sorry about this request, not had the time to do my normal searching, BUT noticed your thread where you mention Linux, and as I soon will be going over to Ubuntu. (I guess your going to point me to a recent thread) Have a great Holl to those who are lucky to have the time. Thanks in anticipation, D