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[bumperman]

Hi

My first post!

Having lots of problems with my adsl connection over last month or so, 

"This content doesn't seem to be working"
"Connection interrupted"
Pop3 incoming mail error messages
Very very slow connection, some sites won't work
blank screens etc etc

speedtest.net 2431 down, blank up, 43 ping
BT speed test just hangs!

My set up is 2x pentium PCs connected to D-link DES-1008D hub, then to Zoom X4 modem model 5551, then to dedicated BT master socket in wall 4' away,  phones have their own lines. 

Both PCs run fine when not online. but both PCs are impossibly slow when online. 

I have tried bypassing the hub - no change.
I have tried swapping cables - no change.
Ive tried disconnecting power to modem - no change.
I've been in contact with Zoom USA who say modem is ok.

I've spent much of the last four weeks talking to BTs business broadband help desk and they have said:

you've got a virus
it's your firewall
it's Mozilla Firefox
your PCs are faulty, etc etc

BT engineer came around the 9th or 10th October and fitted a new faceplate/filter.
After numerous calls to BT.
On Tuesday 28th Oct, had 2x Openreach engineers - said there was a fault on the outside wiring - said they'd fixed the problem but didn't want to wait while I checked the connection online!
On Friday, 31st Oct I rang BT again, said I was fed up and would close the account.  This seemed to change their attitude and one of their managers said he was personally taking charge of the problem and would phone me after engineer had called on Saturday.
On Saturday morning Openreach engineer visited - unable to complete test because his portable PC needed a software upgrade.
We had 2x Openreach engineers visit Monday 3rd Nov. after lunch - same software problems but did a 'woosh?' test by phoning some BT dept and said connection to my master socket was good, 4400 download, and my modem must be faulty.
Same day I contacted the helpdesk again and they agreed to send me a new modem which I would receive next day (not arrived yet!)
 
Meanwhile I ran your Kitz test for my Zoom X4 and got 3776 down and 448 up - is my modem really faulty?

I have constantly reminded BT of my problem and in particular of the symptom of the blank/zero upload results on most tests, but it doesn't seem to mean much to them.

Yesterday 4th Nov after pressure from me, a technical guy rang me from BT & tried to look at my system using "Go to Assist" software but the connection was too poor for him. He doubted that my modem is faulty!!

Any ideas??

Bumperman

PS is BT support always as bad as this?

[jid]

Hi and welcome

Take a look at this:-
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

To have a better picture of your line, could you use the link above to get your line stats please?

[roseway]

Hi and welcome

First, I think you should ignore the results of speed tests. They are very unreliable beasts, and the results don't really help with diagnosis.

Can you copy your full line stats here, so we can see if your connection speeds are reasonable.

Your symptoms suggest that the connection is very unstable and/or has very high packet loss. This could be caused by a line fault or bad external interference, or it could be an internal problem. Have a read of this and make sure that your own setup is not the cause.

It would be helpful to monitor the connection over a period to see if it drops out frequently and what happens when it does. I'm not sure if Routerstats works with the Zoom X4, but I would think that the Lite version would do so, by selecting Zoom X3 as the router in its config. This software will display a continuous graph of the noise margin and other data, so if you could run it for a while and copy the noise margin graph here, that would help a lot with diagnosis.

[bumperman]

Thanks jid

I've checked the link you've given me-its the same page that I used to run the Kitz speedtest for my Zoom X4, but I can't work out how to highlight the data so I can paste it to this forum!  I'm probably having a senior moment here, but any tips would be appreciated.

roseway
Thanks to you also. Same comments as above. Routerstats looks a bit daunting!

I still need any help you guys are able to give,

thanks
Bumperman

[roseway]

I've checked the link you've given me-its the same page that I used to run the Kitz speedtest for my Zoom X4, but I can't work out how to highlight the data so I can paste it to this forum!  I'm probably having a senior moment here, but any tips would be appreciated.

It's not a speed test, it simply reads data from your router about the connection characteristics. When displaying the data, you should be able to highlight the details by dragging the mouse over them, copy the highlighted section with Ctrl+C and then paste this into a message here with Ctrl+V. If that doesn't work you could just copy the information manually - the details we need to see are:-

- upstream and downstream connection speed
- upstream and downstream noise margin (SNR margin)
- upstream and downstream attenuation

Your router may use slightly different terms, but it should be pretty clear which items are wanted.

[bumperman]

Thanks roseway, I've managed to paste data here:

ADSL Line State:   SHOWTIME
ADSL Modulation:   G.dmt
ADSL Annex Mode:   ANNEX_A
ADSL Startup Attempts:   3
Elapsed Time:   1 days 9 hours 3 minutes 13 seconds

   Downstream   Upstream   
SNR Margin   8.2   21.0   dB
Line Attenuation   57.3   30.0   dB
Errored Seconds   627   9   
Loss of Signal   2   2   
Loss of Frame   0   0   
CRC Errors   629   9   
Data Rate   3808   448   kbps
Latency   INTERLEAVED   INTERLEAVED   

Hope this is what you require,

Thanks

Bumperman

[roseway]

Yes, that's fine. There's nothing much wrong with those stats. You've got a good speed for what is actually a pretty long line (57 dB downstream attenuation) and the uptime of over a day suggests that it's adequately stable. There are some errors, but not at a seriously high rate. So I would say that your connection is perfectly satisfactory.

So I hate to say this, but it rather looks as though the problem is in your PC or its configuration. The fact that the PC slows down when connected to the internet suggest that there's some heavy internet activity going on, and this looks rather like a virus, but I don't use Windows myself so I've no expertise on that subject.

[kitz]

As eric says it is perhaps looking like malware that may be eating the bandwidth when online..  your actual stats look fine.

However, I would like to see the stats over a longer period of up time just to make sure that its not an intermittent fault thats causing periodic low IPprofiles.

Theres also some tips on the main site for trouble shooting slow speeds.  In particular look at the one near the bottom about monitoring your data with Netmeter to see what that records.
Netlimiter 2 (free) is also a good diagnositc tool for cases like this since it will monitor which applications (such as browser/ mail etc) are taking up how much bandwidth per process.

[bumperman]

Thanks roseway,

Both my PC & my wife's PC are running very slowly-so slowly they're unusable when online.

My son visited last night and brought with him a Dell portable and that ran very slowly as well.
We ran speedtest.net and got the following results:

my HP pc  1900 down, blank up, 67 ping.
son's Dell 1912 down, blank up, 61 ping.

It's getting even slower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I run Avira antivirus regularly and ran it again this morning:

***********************
Starting the file scan:

Begin scan in 'C:\'
C:\pagefile.sys
    [WARNING]   The file could not be opened!
Begin scan in 'E:\' <New Volume>


End of the scan: 07 November 2008  08:29
Used time: 45:05 Minute(s)

The scan has been done completely.

   9150 Scanning directories
 463515 Files were scanned
      0 viruses and/or unwanted programs were found
      0 Files were classified as suspicious:
      0 files were deleted
      0 files were repaired
      0 files were moved to quarantine
      0 files were renamed
      1 Files cannot be scanned
 463514 Files not concerned
   2481 Archives were scanned
      1 Warnings
      0 Notes
*********************

pagefile.sys could not be opened-I think this is a swap file-is this OK?


Thanks again

Bumperman

[Oranged]

pagefile.sys could not be opened-I think this is a swap file-is this OK?

Yes, that's because it's a system file being used by Windows so it could not be accessed by the AV, you would see that message every time.

I think you've eliminated your computers being the problem if your son's laptop performs the same.

If your son connected to your router then I would begin to suspect the D-link and/or Zoom or something on your side of the BT linebox. I notice you got blank upstream results on both tests last night.

Having lots of problems with my adsl connection over last month or so

Did you notice any problems before a month ago ?

[kitz]

As mentioned above - I'd like to eliminate the IP profile.  The only way you can check this yourself is by performing a BTw performance test which should in theory give you your IPprofile.  Unfortunately the test does get very busy during peak hours, so doing one in the am is about the best time to try.

That done I'd also like to test http performance. - This proceedure is outlined in the page I linked to in my above post... but basically........

Routers /firewalls shouldnt be blocking this protocol and downloading certain http files is often said to be a better indication of your true speed than doing speedtests.
To check your http throughput - grab a copy of Netmeter or Netlimiter2 (both are free).  Then have then open whilst downloading one of the (15MB) files from here and see what speed it records.

The slow upstream is noticed - Netmeter will record upstream too so if theres any upstream activity it should show.

When you tested with the lappy were any of your PCs connected to the router. 
When you do the above tests, its important make sure that only 1 PC - the one you are testing from is connected to the router.

[bumperman]

Kitz

thanks for your suggestion,

I've had netmeter running in a small window since yesterday(Fri). How/what do I do next
to get the results out of it and on to this forum?

thanks again
Bumperman.

[kitz]

I normally screen capture the image and paste into a graphics program (if you dont have one MS paint should do the job). 

You can then either upload the image to a free hosting site (such as ImageShack) and link to it using the insert image button so it appears like this



OR

if the image isnt too big you can upload it to the forum, direct from your PC..  using the attach image option found under "Additional Options & File Attachments" when you make a post so that it appears like this:-

[jeffbb]

HI
Another thing I have learnt !!
But you could of hidden the DL and UL speeds ,making me  green with envy   
Jeff 

[bumperman]

Thanks kitz

I've tried to screen capture and paste into MS Paint & then browse for this attachment & all looked OK until I went to post, but then got "Your file is too large. The maximum attachment size allowed is 600 KB."
So now I'm stuck!


On another matter.............
My wife downloaded Netlimiter but didn't use it as we seem to be solving our problems, so she uninstalled it but she seems to be left with a file that halts her anti virus s/w Avira - any ideas please?

thanks

Bumperman