Diagnosis Telkom - result, I'm not sure

[Alwynz]

Hey guys!

I have a bit of a problem. About a month ago there was a destructive rainstorm that seemed to have caused my phone line to be dead and my internet to be on permanent re-sync. Whether or not it was the rain that caused it will remain a mystery though.

I have a 4meg telkom line with telkom as my ISP and I live in Pretoria.

The line was really slow and kept dropping every 10 minutes. It would sync lower and lower until it would settle at a 512k line speed, then it would stay there for 40 mins and drop again - trying to sync again starting at 4meg.

I contacted telkom about 4 days later at 8:00pm and a technician was there the next morning (In the many years with telkom I've never waited more than 2 days for a technician, haha)

Anyways, the line is much more stable now, but still drops 4-5 times a day (before that its been 4 years where the internet hasn't disconnected for any other reason than me tampering with it) and my internet is shockingly slow. I've noticed that some nights after 00:30 it reaches its normal performance and sometimes before 10 in the morning or right after lunch. The speed is not just uncomfortable, its downright impossible to use - browsers would time out before the page loads and on the 3rd to 4th attempt it would load.

Because I'm new I didn't want to ask things which has already been explained in another post so I went ahead and did the following :

Troubleshooting:

1. Speedtest.net - Download is going at the correct up and down speeds for a 4meg line and I ping 20ms to the Pretoria speedtest servers.

2. Called Telkom and confirmed that my exchange is not congested (although that could be to just shut me up ), we have an available speed of up to 10mbps - which is apparently what Telkom says is my current speed - which has probably to do with the November rollout of the new speeds, I also let them do a port reset (Telkom's site says I have 10meg but my router still syncs at the usual 4meg, but that's okay, I'm a patient man)

3. I checked my line attenuation, SNR and noise ratio as well as my attainable rate -

SNR

27.6 dB downstream
25.6 dB upstream

Attenuation

15.5 dB downstream

Attainable rate

22500Kbps (I'd love to know where I can see the distance to my exchange, there are hundreds of telkom boxes all over my neighbourhood)

4. I did a traceroute to www.google.co.za, www.telkomsa.net and a few other local sites, my first 5 hops are all going from 7ms to 9ms.

5. Switched with two different working routers - same result.

6. Changed wifi password, switched off all my electronic devices' wireless - I don't really trust my neighbour..

7. Confirmed with my other neighbour whom I assume to be on the same exchange, his internet is flowing like brandy in boksburg.

To conclude, I tried to do as much as I could to get to the bottom of it but just like the WP Rugby team, my internet seems very lucrative on paper but fails to perform when needed. I have had a much better experience with my trusty ol' 56k.

Regardless of all my jest, this issue is really starting to boil my blood and I feel like I'm running out of ideas and places to troubleshoot - can anyone maybe suggest something I haven't tried or haven't done right?

Yours truly,

Disgruntled Internet Lover

 

[gjfourie]

Hey guys!

I have a bit of a problem. About a month ago there was a destructive rainstorm that seemed to have caused my phone line to be dead and my internet to be on permanent re-sync. Whether or not it was the rain that caused it will remain a mystery though.

I have a 4meg telkom line with telkom as my ISP and I live in Pretoria.

The line was really slow and kept dropping every 10 minutes. It would sync lower and lower until it would settle at a 512k line speed, then it would stay there for 40 mins and drop again - trying to sync again starting at 4meg.

I contacted telkom about 4 days later at 8:00pm and a technician was there the next morning (In the many years with telkom I've never waited more than 2 days for a technician, haha)

Anyways, the line is much more stable now, but still drops 4-5 times a day (before that its been 4 years where the internet hasn't disconnected for any other reason than me tampering with it) and my internet is shockingly slow. I've noticed that some nights after 00:30 it reaches its normal performance and sometimes before 10 in the morning or right after lunch. The speed is not just uncomfortable, its downright impossible to use - browsers would time out before the page loads and on the 3rd to 4th attempt it would load.

Because I'm new I didn't want to ask things which has already been explained in another post so I went ahead and did the following :

Troubleshooting:

1. Speedtest.net - Download is going at the correct up and down speeds for a 4meg line and I ping 20ms to the Pretoria speedtest servers.

2. Called Telkom and confirmed that my exchange is not congested (although that could be to just shut me up ), we have an available speed of up to 10mbps - which is apparently what Telkom says is my current speed - which has probably to do with the November rollout of the new speeds, I also let them do a port reset (Telkom's site says I have 10meg but my router still syncs at the usual 4meg, but that's okay, I'm a patient man)

3. I checked my line attenuation, SNR and noise ratio as well as my attainable rate -

SNR

27.6 dB downstream
25.6 dB upstream

Attenuation

15.5 dB downstream

Attainable rate

22500Kbps (I'd love to know where I can see the distance to my exchange, there are hundreds of telkom boxes all over my neighbourhood)

4. I did a traceroute to www.google.co.za, www.telkomsa.net and a few other local sites, my first 5 hops are all going from 7ms to 9ms.

5. Switched with two different working routers - same result.

6. Changed wifi password, switched off all my electronic devices' wireless - I don't really trust my neighbour..

7. Confirmed with my other neighbour whom I assume to be on the same exchange, his internet is flowing like brandy in boksburg.

To conclude, I tried to do as much as I could to get to the bottom of it but just like the WP Rugby team, my internet seems very lucrative on paper but fails to perform when needed. I have had a much better experience with my trusty ol' 56k.

Regardless of all my jest, this issue is really starting to boil my blood and I feel like I'm running out of ideas and places to troubleshoot - can anyone maybe suggest something I haven't tried or haven't done right?

Yours truly,

Disgruntled Internet Lover

Hi.

Do you have pots filters on your line if needed? if you do you can try a new filter. Has worked for me before after days of troubleshooting.

Also had a problem at home where I had constant disconnects. Had telkom over 3 times and they could not find the fault, until I noticed that the problems got worse everytime there was a slight breeze or birds sitting on the cables outside. Had to argue with 3 consultants to eventually get them to check the connections outside. Turned out the line got damaged. Hour later and everything was fixed.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[Alwynz]

Thanks - I'll go get a new filter out of the box so long!

 

[Alwynz]

Nope - still the same

I'll have to resort to checking the line outside the house then - just a question though, if all my statistics are doing well, can it really be the line outside?

 

[gjfourie]

My experience was that the loose connection outside my house was causing noise on the line that degrade my speed and also led to intermittent disconnects.

You first need to cancel out the physical layer. By testing all hardware that can cause the problem. Another test you can do (if you have not already) is disconnect all telephones/faxes etc from the line and make a direct cable connection between your modem and the wall socket. even try it with a new cable in case of wire damage in the cable

If that is ok then the only other hardware is lines as you say you have tested on 2 modems allready.

Only thing I can think of is line noise

 

[McGuywer]

I would also try a factory reset on your modem.

I was continuing syncing at 1024kbps and after a reset, it finally syncs at the correct rate.