When having issues with your ADSL line, its often difficult to know who to blame, and to diagnose the problem yourself. If its an ISP problem, reporting to Telkom will only waste a few days for them to tell you its not their fault, and similarly the other way around.
These are the steps I take when diagnosing the problem, so I know who to email/phone to get the problem sorted out asap.
1) First you want to run a speedtest and check the results. Go to www.speedtest.net and click "begin test". The results will be from a local server, meaning that the ping should be less than 100ms. The actual download speed should be slightly less than your line speed. For international tests, drag the green box on the map to a server internationally and run the test - pings should be 180ms to 250ms to be normal, but speeds should remain the same. You can also use mybroadbands speedtest, http://speedtest.mybroadband.co.za/ .
Here's mine for a 6mbps line (local test): http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3230372626
So for example normal parameters are as follows:
If either is considerably less and slow (or considerably higher for pings), then you know there's a problem. But you still dont know whether its your ISP, or line (Telkom).
2) Restart your router and redo step 1 just to check that rebooting your router doesn't resolve any problems.
2) Now use a spare ISP to check if its your ISP. Go to http://www.afrihost.com/site/product/adsl_capped?src=website_nav , Afrihost will give you a free 1GB capped account which you can use for testing or whatever you like for that matter. (If you're already on Afrihost is may be worth getting a different spare small account from someone else)
Log into your router by opening up your browser and going to the routers IP address. If you dont know it, its usually shown on a sticker underneath the router. Normally something like 192.168.1.1, or 192.168.0.1, or 10.0.0.1 or 10.0.0.2 for example. It'll ask you for a username and password to enter - if you dont know those, try the default ones shown on the bottom of the router.
- Once into your router look for the Basic Settings where your ISP login and password are entered.
Here is mine for a Netgear router:
- First make sure you know your current ISP login and password before entering the Afrihost spare account details.
- Now use your afrihost spare 1GB account details and click apply, or save to activate. The router will restart and after a minute or so you will be able to browse the web on the spare account.
3) Rerun the www.speedtest.net steps at 1. And jot down the results.
- If the results are exactly the same as your initial findings in step 1, then you can be confident that its not an ISP issue but more a Telkom line issue.
Now that you've established who's fault it is, you can report it to them being more confident that after the initial report it should be resolved. Nothing worse than reporting to your ISP, they come back saying, its not our fault, then you report to Telkom who then fix it. Or the other way around.
To report Telkom faults go here: http://www.telkom.co.za/general/customercentre/faults.html
- Select report a fault online and follow the steps. They will follow up within a few days.
To report your ISP problem, just email/phone them and tell them your issues you've discovered.
- they may ask you to run ping tests, tracerts too, but thats for another day.
These are the steps I take when diagnosing the problem, so I know who to email/phone to get the problem sorted out asap.
1) First you want to run a speedtest and check the results. Go to www.speedtest.net and click "begin test". The results will be from a local server, meaning that the ping should be less than 100ms. The actual download speed should be slightly less than your line speed. For international tests, drag the green box on the map to a server internationally and run the test - pings should be 180ms to 250ms to be normal, but speeds should remain the same. You can also use mybroadbands speedtest, http://speedtest.mybroadband.co.za/ .
Here's mine for a 6mbps line (local test): http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3230372626
So for example normal parameters are as follows:
- 1mbps line = 0.89Mbps
- 2mbps = 1.7Mbps
- 6mbps = 5.3Mbps
If either is considerably less and slow (or considerably higher for pings), then you know there's a problem. But you still dont know whether its your ISP, or line (Telkom).
2) Restart your router and redo step 1 just to check that rebooting your router doesn't resolve any problems.
2) Now use a spare ISP to check if its your ISP. Go to http://www.afrihost.com/site/product/adsl_capped?src=website_nav , Afrihost will give you a free 1GB capped account which you can use for testing or whatever you like for that matter. (If you're already on Afrihost is may be worth getting a different spare small account from someone else)
Log into your router by opening up your browser and going to the routers IP address. If you dont know it, its usually shown on a sticker underneath the router. Normally something like 192.168.1.1, or 192.168.0.1, or 10.0.0.1 or 10.0.0.2 for example. It'll ask you for a username and password to enter - if you dont know those, try the default ones shown on the bottom of the router.
- Once into your router look for the Basic Settings where your ISP login and password are entered.
Here is mine for a Netgear router:
- First make sure you know your current ISP login and password before entering the Afrihost spare account details.
- Now use your afrihost spare 1GB account details and click apply, or save to activate. The router will restart and after a minute or so you will be able to browse the web on the spare account.
3) Rerun the www.speedtest.net steps at 1. And jot down the results.
- If the results are exactly the same as your initial findings in step 1, then you can be confident that its not an ISP issue but more a Telkom line issue.
Now that you've established who's fault it is, you can report it to them being more confident that after the initial report it should be resolved. Nothing worse than reporting to your ISP, they come back saying, its not our fault, then you report to Telkom who then fix it. Or the other way around.
To report Telkom faults go here: http://www.telkom.co.za/general/customercentre/faults.html
- Select report a fault online and follow the steps. They will follow up within a few days.
To report your ISP problem, just email/phone them and tell them your issues you've discovered.
- they may ask you to run ping tests, tracerts too, but thats for another day.
) spare accounts I use for debugging issues, so if anyone wants to use them just PM me and I'll help you out.