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[kezzaman]

Hello

I play online games alot on my xbox 360 but i don't have the best connection in the world, infact it was really intermittent for awhile. So i got on to my ISP Virginmedia on their forum and we posted messages back and fourth for months and finally they admitted there was something wrong with my line and had it fixed. So yea now my line isn't intermittent anymore but its still not a great connection when im gaming. Anyone who plays games online will know that you'll never have the perfect connection but you'll want it to be as close to perfect as possible. Anyway to my main point, in this period of talking with Virgin they would do these tests on my line, Woosh test and the KBD test and EVERY time they did, for the following 2-3 days i would have an absolute fantastic connection when playing online      And nobody knows why.

After the 2-3 days my connection would gradually return to it's normal state of ok-ness.

I would love for it to be great all the time so if anyone has an explantion as to what might be happening i will be so grateful.   

Thanks.

[waltergmw]

Hello Kezza and welcome,

As you seem to be doing woosh tests we can probably say you are on the Virgin national service using BT wholesale services, rather than Virgin's own cable services.

The first thing to do is some research here following the advice carefully.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

You might then wish to look at some of the more expensive ISPs who might provide a less contended service.

Kind regards,
Walter

[kezzaman]

Thx but that really didn't answer my question 

[waltergmw]

Hi Kezza,

Perhaps there's nobody else here that has any ideas as to your specific question which perhaps has insufficient background information.
In any case you haven't provided your modem statistics which are necessary for most of us to offer opinions or suggestions.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Kind regards,
Walter

[kezzaman]

Ok heres my stats, but i supose ud need to see stats also from the 2-3 day period after virgin have tested my line to compare?



p.s. thx for taking time to try and help me out.

[waltergmw]

Hi again Kezza,

Others here may have more ideas but the noise margins look a bit high which might suggest you experience some noise on the line at some time, although you are very lucky to be so close to the exchange with the very low attenuations.

Assuming you are still on a 20CN (ADSL1) service, it would be worth looking here http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php to see if 21CN is available as that should have a dramatic effect on your performance at your line distance. Whether Virgin would upgrade you FOC is another matter but the cost isn't usually very high anyway.

Kind regards,
Walter

[roseway]

the noise margins look a bit high

It's connecting at the highest possible speed for ADSL1, so the noise margin is simply what it is, and not the result of any earlier problems.

[kezzaman]

the noise margins look a bit high

It's connecting at the highest possible speed for ADSL1, so the noise margin is simply what it is, and not the result of any earlier problems.

I've been reading about SNR on this site, and after reading the above comment, i still can't work out if a high noise margin is good or bad?

[roseway]

The larger the noise margin, the more stable your connection will be, so in that sense a large noise margin is good. But the noise margin is inversely related to the connection speed, so if you want the highest possible connection speed then you normally want the lowest noise margin which will still deliver adequate stability.

In your case, you have a very short line (low attenuation) so you connect at the maximum possible speed for your service and still end up with quite a high noise margin, so you have the best of both worlds, so to speak.

[kezzaman]

The larger the noise margin, the more stable your connection will be, so in that sense a large noise margin is good. But the noise margin is inversely related to the connection speed, so if you want the highest possible connection speed then you normally want the lowest noise margin which will still deliver adequate stability.

In your case, you have a very short line (low attenuation) so you connect at the maximum possible speed for your service and still end up with quite a high noise margin, so you have the best of both worlds, so to speak.

But if it's uncommon to have a high noise margin on such a short line wouldn't it suggest that the noise is being caused by a fault? (My connection is great for download things but sucks for gaming when it shouldn't)

[kezzaman]

Ok i just did another stats test and got this

[roseway]

But if it's uncommon to have a high noise margin on such a short line wouldn't it suggest that the noise is being caused by a fault? (My connection is great for download things but sucks for gaming when it shouldn't)

No, not at all. The service you subscribe to is ADSL1 which is limited to 8128 kbps. When people with short lines connect to such a service, it's quite normal to end up with a high noise margin. If you were subscribed to a service which isn't limited to 8128 kbps (ADSL2+) you would expect to connect at a higher speed with a lower noise margin.

[kezzaman]

But if it's uncommon to have a high noise margin on such a short line wouldn't it suggest that the noise is being caused by a fault? (My connection is great for download things but sucks for gaming when it shouldn't)

No, not at all. The service you subscribe to is ADSL1 which is limited to 8128 kbps. When people with short lines connect to such a service, it's quite normal to end up with a high noise margin. If you were subscribed to a service which isn't limited to 8128 kbps (ADSL2+) you would expect to connect at a higher speed with a lower noise margin.

Interesting... I have a Netgear DG834GT, if i was to install the DGTeam firmware on to it and raised the noise margin to say 200% on the advanced adsl settings would that better my connection on Xbox Live? and setting it to 1% would worsen it? 

[jeffbb]

HI
quote : if i was to install the DGTeam firmware on to it and raised the noise margin to say 200%

If you raised the noise margin you would lose SYNCH rate .Normally raising the margin (elbow room) will reduce Synch rate . Every increase  3db can  lose about 800Kbps of synch. The reason you have HIGH margin is that even at max speed  your noise levels on your line is so low that naturally the margin is high . If your line developed some problem involving noise generation then your Noise margin would drop.If the noise got bad enough then eventually your Noise margin would get so low that you would lose synch. Remember the NOISE Margin is the difference between the data and noise .

Regards Jeff

[burakkucat]

Remember the NOISE Margin is the difference between the data and noise .

Cough, ahem. Have you been testing the quality of my secret supply of cat-mint, Jeff?

The Netgear modem / router is reporting the Signal to Noise Ratio Margin, isn't it?