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[streetfarm]

I've had a throughput speed problem for quite a time.  I was with Bulldog which became Pipex Homecall and they upgraded me to 8M from 1M.  I'm not sure if that's when my problems began - I didn't really do any speed tests on the old 1M service, as everything appeared ok.  The new 8M service never seemed to achieve anything like it should.  I'm only about 100m from the exchange.  I've done all the usual checks - tried 3 different routers.  Changed the filters.  Changed the cables.  Moved the router next to the master socket.  Tried the test socket.  Tried many different computers.  Tried them wireless and through LAN connection.  Performed speed tests at different times of the day.  Nothing seemed to make a difference - my throughput is always about 400kbps.

Pipex Homecall support was initially quite impressive.  They phoned me back several times and kept getting me to do speed tests.  Then they arranged for a BT engineer to visit.  He claimed to have checked the exchange and found no faults, and then came to the house.  He replaced the filters with an NTE5 faceplate and said wait 10 days.  Well after 10 days there was no improvement.  Pipex said they were seeing an 8M connection and no faults and as far as they were concerned there was nothing wrong and nothing they could do.  But I was still getting 400kbps. 

So I thought I'd leave Pipex and go to BT Broadband.  That way everything would (so I thought) be under the control of just one company.  I received a HomeHub 2 and changed over on the appointed date.

Well, I know I am still in the 10 period, but my speedtest results are almost identical:

This Test comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    Your DSL connection rate: 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
    IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 204 kbps

This test was not conclusive and further testing is required.

Please wait whilst you are redirected to undertake a second and final test.
You now have two choices-

   1. If you wish to carry out further tests and you are competent to make changes to your ADSL system configuration, then please click on 'Continue' button.

   2. If not, please close the window using 'Exit' button and contact your ISP for further assistance with these results.

I have never had any success with the 'further tests'.  I have succesfully connected with speedtest@speedtest_domain but the test always locks up at 96%.  I have tried both IE and Firefox.  I've tried this at several different times of the day.  Best I've had is 400kbps.

Line stats from the Home Hub are as follows:

Connection information
Line state   Connected
Connection time   0 days, 2:49:17
Downstream   8,128 Kbps
Upstream   448 Kbps

ADSL settings
VPI/VCI   0/38
Type   PPPoA
Modulation   ITU-T G.992.1
Latency type   Interleave
Noise margin (Down/Up)   7.9 dB / 24.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up)   2.0 dB / 1.5 dB
Output power (Down/Up)   7.8 dBm / 12.4 dBm
Loss of Framing (Local)   3
Loss of Signal (Local)   4
Loss of Power (Local)   0
FEC Errors (Down/Up)   189 / 0
CRC Errors (Down/Up)   4 / 2147480001
HEC Errors (Down/Up)   4 / 0
Error Seconds (Local)   6


The HomeHub has actually been connected to the service for just under 4 days now.  As you can see, my sync speed is high, my line attenuation is low but my throughput is very very slow.  I haven't bothered calling BT support as I'm still in the 10 day initial period, but I don't think it will be any different after 10 days.

Reading through other posts in this forum, I wonder if there is a problem in the exchange?

Thanks for all the anticipated support!

Phil

[roseway]

Hi and welcome.

There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your connection. Your IP profile is what it should be for your connection speed. So swapping routers and moving things around at home isn't going to make any difference. Just to check that it isn't anything seriously misconfigured in your PC, have you tested the performance with a different PC, or if not, can you?

Failing that, it does look like something badly wrong in the exchange, and I'm afraid I'm out of my depth in working out what it is.

[waltergmw]

Hi Streetfarm,

This does seem a most extrordinary situation and quite different from the usual long distance problems.

The following are a few thoughs for discussion but I'm afaid aren't an immedaite answer.

There is a high probability that this connection only has a E side cable and there's no street cabinet involved.

Signal transmission times are likely to be minute so perhaps the processors in either the DSLAM or Modem aren't sufficiently fast to cope.

The CRC errors seem to be the only startlingly obvious anomalies but I have heard that they are sometimes a calculation "feature" of Thompson modems and should be treated with caution.

Perhaps some additional attenuation might be one possible cure ?

This could turn out to be a fascinating discussion hopefully with a resolution in the end.

Kind regards,
Walter

[streetfarm]

Thanks for your initial replies guys.

Yes I've tried a number of PCs and a Mac, and they all give the same speed result, i.e. about 400kbps.

[streetfarm]

Just to give a little more info, a friend of mine is connected to the same exchange, but is about twice the distance from it, and he gets 6Mbps.  He is also on BT Broadband.

The exchange is HIGH HALDEN (kent).

[waltergmw]

As the exchange only has:-

600 residential premises
43 non-residential premises

it is likely to have only a minimal DSLAM / MSAN.

Using the Homehub it would be worth exploring to see if you can view the boot log as that might provide some clues.
You'll see we are talking about this on page 2 at:-

http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=4008.15

With the Mac in Tiger or Leopard you could also try Applications, Utilities, Network Utility, Traceroute to 1.1.1.1 or to say BBC just to see if anything looks strange.

Kind regards,
Walter

[streetfarm]

Hi Walter,

I connected using speedtest_user@speedtest_domain and did a tracert as you suggested.  Not sure if this shows anything unusual or not.  I have included the screen capture as an attachment.  Hope it works!

Not sure how to get to the Homehub's start-up log.

Phil

[attachment deleted by admin]

[waltergmw]

Hi streetfarm,

Re your traceroutes, the figures for your first hops to the router are very large. (On my NTL cable connection at I can regularly Ping the BBC  in under 15 ms. for the total journey.) From which I suspect that glorious M$ are misbehaving again.
I hope that some of the PC Gurus will suggest a cure for this particular ill.

Similarly Kitz or others will probably be able to tell you if you have a logging capability with a HH 2.

Kind regards,
Walter

[streetfarm]

Thanks Walter. 

What did you mean by 'the glorious M$ are misbehaving...?'.

Is it important to do the tracert whilst logged in as speedtest_user, or can I just do it under my normal bt log in?

I just did several tracerts to the BBC using my normal log in, and the first line is:
x, 99ms, 99ms, where x seems to vary from 10ms to 74ms.

Thanks for your interest in my problem, and to anyone else who may be reading this.

I will not be able to reply further until Thursday, but I look forward to any comments/suggestions etc.

Kind regards,

Phil

[kitz]

OMG at those line stats - those are the best Ive ever seen - you must be right next door to the exchange! 

The CRC errors looks odd - but the 2147480001 is a known reporting problem on home hubs.
The tracert high 1st hop is also a 'known feature' of the HH and ST routers and should be ignored.


>> my throughput is always about 400kbps.

On first glance reading your post if you were still with Pipex which is now owned by and run on the Tiscali network, where many users report throughput of around 400kbps in the evenings.  However since its all times of the day and also now that youve moved - that rules out that one.

I cant see any reason from your stats or IP profile why your speeds should be so low.

Can you grab a copy of Netmeter.

Install it
Make sure no other PCs are connected to the router and the wireless network is secure.
Then go here and download one of the test files.

Netmeter should monitor your realtime throughput speed  - which is something that remote speedtesters cant do so accurately.  The graph may spike so you have to watch it as you download.. but watch the figures at the bottom which will continually change as you download one of those files - but just see what speeds it shows whilst downloading.



----------
Note for later - check MTU.

[streetfarm]

Hi Kitz,
Thanks for your reply.  Yes the exchange is just over the road, so it's particularly disappointing to get such low speeds.

I have done the Netmeter test you suggested, and have attached a screen shot of the result.  It shows speeds fluctuating rapidly between 15 and 65 most of the time, but has recorded a peak of 102.1 kbps.  The test was performed at 07:30 today, with a secure network and all other computers disconnected.  The file I downloaded was 10MB_zero.bin.

Just after the test I ran the thinkbroadband speed test, which reported 400kbps.

Thanks for your assistance.  Regards,

Phil

[attachment deleted by admin]

[kitz]

It shows speeds fluctuating rapidly between 15 and 65 most of the time, but has recorded a peak of 102.1 kbps.

The peak of 102.1KB/Sec = 816kbps, but I notice after these short spikes the speed immediately drops.
An average of 65KB/Sec = 520kbps inc overheads so taking the other spikes into account, then a remote speedtest of around 400kbps probably fits.

From the tests youve done so far it really does look like possible ISP throttling at around 500 kbps.

One thing I do notice - just what is that continual upstream of 5.5KB/Sec and downstream of 4.4KB/Sec?  Theres something on your PC that looks like its continually uploading.

Do you have any p2p progs running on your PC - or perhaps and TV on demand type progs.**


------------------
*Something occurs to be that you may possibly have inadvertently exceeded a FUP without realising it. 
A couple of months ago I installed C4's 4oD and within an hour I noticed that I'd managed to upload 1GB without me even realising.
A couple of years ago there was an episode when my daughter installed Veoh which is another TV downloader.. which was using a couple of GB today.
These types of programmes can soon cause an unwary user to exceed their ISPs FUPs.. who in turn then throttle the users account to low speeds.

[streetfarm]

Hi Kitz,

I really don't know what the continuous background traffic was, but I've just repeated the test at 19:00, and it's no longer there.  Also, I did a speed test on day 1 of my new connection (last Wednesday) with BT Broadband and was getting 400k straight away.  As far as I know, I have no P2P or any other programmes running which would account for this.  I've attached this evening's Netmeter results.

The Homehub gives the following statistics:

Connection time   3 days, 20:02:49
Data transmitted/received (MB)   111.87 / 722.77

I assume this shows the amount of traffic since the last re-connection, i.e 722.77MB in nearly 4 days, which would be within the 10GB/month allowance if it continued at that rate.

Thanks for your help,

Regards,
Phil

[attachment deleted by admin]

[kitz]

Your maximum spike on the new one is still less than 1Mbps and your still averaging approx 500kbps inc overheads.

Ive no idea what the other upstream was, but its good to see that its not there now, but it may be an idea to keep an eye on things to make sure its not a common occurance.
If it happens again NetLimiter 2 Monitor is a good tool to get - its free and will tell you exactly which applications are using what/how much bandwidth.

I'm running out of ideas since it doesnt appear to be your physical line - nor is it an IPprofile problem.

May be worth just checking with BT for the sake of elimination that your FUP is ok.  The normal CS team cant check this but theres a special freephone no that you can ring where they will advise you.

FUP Team 0800 707 6044


Although its highly unlikely that an MTU issue will be restricting you as much as it is, I'd also if possible like you to check your MTU - are you using an XP or Vista PC?  I dont think its MTU but its worthwhile checking for elimination since MTU can and does sometimes have some really weird effects.

Walter has already noticed your attenuation being low - attenuation cant be increased but the DSLAM is compensating for your short line and has actually turned down the power output
(Output power   7.8 dBm), from the maximum of 20dB in order to compensate.
Turning down the power output reduces your Signal strength, which in turn reduces your SNR to ensure that your data bit rate is right for your line, and also that your signal wont drown out anyone elses at the dslam.

The figures look about right the only thing that does look slightly wrong is that you have 3 LoFs & 4 LoS in just under 3 hours.  Normally this would be considered acceptable,  but its not something I would really expect to see on such a short line.  Im wondering if those are continous counters since your current error rate doesnt warrant them.


Your line is also interleaved - which is doesnt need - so it may be worthwhile asking your ISP to get that turned off at some point.

[mbeenham]

Your line is also interleaved - which is doesnt need - so it may be worthwhile asking your ISP to get that turned off at some point.

ISTR that you could not have an 8128/7150 connection interleaved.
I did think that interleaved was 7616/6500 max.

I remember chacking and when I had my connection changed my sync changed from 8128 to 7616 and vice versa.

Have I got it wrong?