Help Diagnosing slow adsl

A

assagai

Expert Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
2,905
Reaction score
0
Location
Johannesburg
I'd appreciate if anyone could help me get to the bottom of my adsl problem.

Speeds lately have been very poor, usually under 1mbps on my 4mb line.
I've tried multiple isps with varying results, i sometimes get fill line speed (only after hours) but mostly it's just slow.

I contacted the isps who all told me it was a telkom fault, i've contacted telkom who say my line is fine and its the isps fault.. which leaves me to think that it may be my modem.

here are the modem stats:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 4096 kbps 512 kbps
Line Attenuation 56.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 10.2 db 11.0 db

I know the line attenuation is a bit high, maybe this is the problem?

any advice appreciated!
 
Pick up the handset and listen to the line. You;re looking for disturbing noised and crackles and perhaps a crossed line.
But, you're in all likely-hood on an over-congested exchange.
 
Telkom Script:

#1 - Tell the customer that thier line is fine

and they are correct.

Of all the tens of thousands of support issues ive dealt with, i can count the times the line is the issue on one hand.

Telkoms mantra of the line is fine is like calling eskom about no power on an extension cord and them telling you the extension cord is fine, but not talking about the electric outlet, or the vast power grid that feeds the outlet which is breaking all the time and over used in areas.

As said above, you issue is most probably an over-congested exchange, and phone telkom customer support wont help there :-/
 
Thanks, no crackles on the line.

I've had good speeds for the last couple years - this slowdown is a recent development, started last month.
Is there anything I can do?
 
Unplug everything connected to your phone line, even your alarm, then connect a telephone wire directly from the point the telephone line enters your house, to your router. Also switch off all appliances in your house, including lights, tv's, fridge, geyser etc. Leave only your PC and router running. Don't worry, the test will only last 10-30 mins.

Now reset your router and check it's sync speed. If it increased, then slowly switch on your appliances one by one to see if anything affects the router. Lastly, plug in your phone and alarm again, and check to see if there's any change in your sync speed.

Let me know how it goes. Also, your alarm might trigger if you unplug it, although I doubt it, since alarm companies are rather cheap when it comes to security. It doesn't really matter though. The only time a thief will cut your phone line to disable your alarm is if they're clever, and are specifically targeting your house.
 
Last edited:
Cltgra005 said:
Unplug everything connected to your phone line, even your alarm, then connect a telephone wire directly from the point the telephone line enters your house, to your router. Also switch off all appliances in your house, including lights, tv's, fridge etc. Leave only your PC and router running.

Now reset your router and check it's sync speed. If it increased, then slowly switch on your appliances one by one to see if anything affects the router. Lastly, plug in your phone and alarm again, and check to see if there's any change in your sync speed.

Let me know how it goes. Also, your alarm might trigger if you unplug it, although I doubt it, since alarm companies are rather cheap when it comes to security. It doesn't really matter though. The only time a thief will cut your phone line to disable your alarm is if they're clever, and are specifically targeting your house.
Click to expand...

alright, bit of a mission but i'll try it and post the results.
thing is, nothing has changed in my config, no new appliances or anything - my router is in an out building (my office) which has it's own mains board etc - but i'll give it a go.
 
assagai said:
Thanks, no crackles on the line.

I've had good speeds for the last couple years - this slowdown is a recent development, started last month.
Is there anything I can do?
Click to expand...

For the last few weeks I've also had horrible speeds - especially during the day. My modem syncs at the same rate that it always has however the actual speed is horrible (confirmed with a speedtest). This weekend it worked perfectly and in the evenings it's okay however using it during business hours is where the pain comes in (and this is with four different capped ISP accounts I have: Afrihost, Telkom, Webafrica and FNBConnect)...perhaps it is the case of our exchanges being congested and more noticeable during the day - is your speed also horrible in the evenings?
 
assagai said:
I'd appreciate if anyone could help me get to the bottom of my adsl problem.

Speeds lately have been very poor, usually under 1mbps on my 4mb line.
I've tried multiple isps with varying results, i sometimes get fill line speed (only after hours) but mostly it's just slow.

I contacted the isps who all told me it was a telkom fault, i've contacted telkom who say my line is fine and its the isps fault.. which leaves me to think that it may be my modem.

here are the modem stats:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 4096 kbps 512 kbps
Line Attenuation 56.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 10.2 db 11.0 db

I know the line attenuation is a bit high, maybe this is the problem?

any advice appreciated!
Click to expand...

Post a Tracert to any site you like it will show if its congestion problem also Vixremento post one

Start > run > type cmd press enter > type tracert [website] > [Filepath of where you want to save it]
 
Last edited:
Vixremento said:
For the last few weeks I've also had horrible speeds - especially during the day. My modem syncs at the same rate that it always has however the actual speed is horrible (confirmed with a speedtest). This weekend it worked perfectly and in the evenings it's okay however using it during business hours is where the pain comes in (and this is with four different capped ISP accounts I have: Afrihost, Telkom, Webafrica and FNBConnect)...perhaps it is the case of our exchanges being congested and more noticeable during the day - is your speed also horrible in the evenings?
Click to expand...

sounds very similar to my problem.. speeds improve in the evenings, usually quite late though. Also using "unshaped/capped"
 
Merenwenrago said:
Post a Tracert to any site you like it will show if its congestion problem also Vixremento post one

Start > run > type cmd press enter > type tracert [website] > [Filepath of where you want to save it]
Click to expand...

Here are a couple sample traceroutes:

traceroute to www.speedtest.net (69.17.117.207), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.869 ms 0.548 ms 0.436 ms
2 rnls-ip-esr-2.ipnet.wa.co.za (41.185.73.1) 39.654 ms 50.071 ms 49.106 ms
3 vl105.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.250) 64.137 ms 52.728 ms 55.390 ms
4 vl32.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.26) 56.532 ms
vl33.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.30) 51.334 ms
vl32.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.26) 39.600 ms
5 upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.230) 45.212 ms
upstream.vl101.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.226) 60.318 ms
upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.230) 53.948 ms
6 lon-ip-dir-telecity-pos-1-1-1.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.9.138) 239.799 ms 235.213 ms 297.792 ms
7 1329.xe-3-2-0.mpr2.lhr3.uk.above.net (213.161.92.181) 254.799 ms 224.985 ms 228.086 ms
8 ge-4-2-0.mpr1.lhr3.uk.above.net (64.125.27.157) 244.483 ms 223.234 ms 247.727 ms
9 so-0-0-0.mpr2.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.28.66) 276.788 ms 277.188 ms 276.210 ms
10 xe-1-3-0.cr2.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.29.61) 274.214 ms 296.720 ms 312.353 ms
11 xe-0-2-0.cr2.ord2.us.above.net (64.125.27.33) 290.194 ms 301.618 ms 329.126 ms
12 xe-1-1-0.mpr2.sea1.us.above.net (64.125.31.1) 384.823 ms 380.792 ms 366.859 ms
13 209.249.11.189.available.above.net (209.249.11.189) 383.102 ms 357.033 ms 344.351 ms
14 151.ge-1-3-0.sr1.sea5.speakeasy.net (69.17.82.50) 409.242 ms 383.712 ms 359.254 ms
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 * * *
26 * * *
27 * * *
28 * * *
29 * * *
30 * * *
31 * * *
32 * * *
33 * * *
34 * * *
35 * * *

etc…..

And

traceroute www.apple.com
traceroute to e3191.c.akamaiedge.net (92.123.213.15), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.832 ms 0.488 ms 0.458 ms
2 rnls-ip-esr-2.ipnet.wa.co.za (41.185.73.1) 10.519 ms 12.860 ms 13.718 ms
3 vl108.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.238) 31.038 ms 31.683 ms 31.675 ms
4 vl35.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.38) 33.950 ms
vl34.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.34) 38.284 ms
vl35.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.38) 35.848 ms
5 upstream.vl101.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.226) 37.038 ms
upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.230) 41.084 ms
upstream.vl101.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.226) 44.061 ms
6 196.43.11.218 (196.43.11.218) 50.496 ms 53.474 ms 53.463 ms
7 196.43.26.58 (196.43.26.58) 51.334 ms 47.797 ms 49.739 ms
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *

traceroute to www.saix.net (196.25.1.200), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.768 ms 0.470 ms 0.442 ms
2 rnls-ip-esr-2.ipnet.wa.co.za (41.185.73.1) 9.259 ms 9.574 ms 9.498 ms
3 vl105.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.250) 31.119 ms 31.496 ms 32.156 ms
4 vl34.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.34) 31.709 ms
vl35.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.38) 31.578 ms
vl34.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.34) 30.676 ms
5 upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.230) 32.083 ms
upstream.vl101.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.226) 32.012 ms
upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.230) 31.230 ms
6 wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 32.472 ms 33.722 ms 32.730 ms
7 * wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 32.111 ms !X *
8 * * *
9 wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 45.424 ms !X * *
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 72.948 ms !X
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 * * *
26 * * *
27 * * *
28 * * *
29 * * *
30 wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 48.984 ms !X * *
31 * * *
32 * * *
33 * * *
34 * * *
35 * wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 59.717 ms !X *
36 wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 71.592 ms !X * *
37 * * *
38 * * *
39 * * *


Just about all the traceroutes I ran ended up looking like this.
So is this an exchange/line or ISP problem?
 
Last edited:
I'm getting 8 hops to www.saix.net. You're getting a whole stack of extra hops & since we're both using the same ISP, that is strange. On what hop exactly do you finally get to SAIX since it's not in your report?

EDIT: http://fremnet.net/article/216/adsl-theoretical-speed-calculator

You should still be getting in excess of 3Mbps according to that, though you won't be a contender for the 10Mbps speeds.

I had problems - turned out it was the line from the pole into my house. I still had connectivity, it was just causing crosstalk because it was worn. Maybe do an inspection of your lines, including junction boxes, before you get log a fault.
 
Last edited:
Those are some weird tracerts... Hops 6,7,9,18, 30,35 and 36 are to the same IP address... :wtf:

I'm on WA (shaped) and I get this
Tracing route to saix.net [196.25.1.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms rndf-ip-esr-5.ipnet.wa.co.za [41.185.72.1]
3 32 ms 32 ms 33 ms vl108.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [196.220.59.238]
4 31 ms 32 ms 31 ms vl35.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [41.185.0.38]
5 34 ms 33 ms 33 ms upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [196.220.59.23
0]
6 34 ms 35 ms 35 ms wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-1.telkom-ipnet.co.za [1
96.43.11.22]
7 33 ms 33 ms 46 ms wblv-ip-www-1.saix.net [196.25.1.200]

Trace complete.
Click to expand...
And if I use Mweb for "local" (it isn't so local any more) I get this :eek:
Tracing route to saix.net [196.25.1.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 9 ms 9 ms 41-132-16-1.dsl.mweb.co.za [41.132.16.1]
3 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms tengig-0-0-0-110.vic-ipc-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.16
9.170]
4 9 ms 11 ms 9 ms vl-92.vic-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.189.2]
5 11 ms 12 ms 10 ms tengig-0-0-0-0-11.vic-up-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.16
9.225]
6 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms tengig-0-2-0-0.mid-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.169.219]

7 234 ms 233 ms 233 ms 196.22.175.214
8 242 ms 242 ms 242 ms 149.6.98.17
9 241 ms 241 ms 660 ms te7-2.ccr01.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.36.
165]
10 * 242 ms * te1-2.mpd01.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.3.
225]
11 234 ms 235 ms 335 ms 149.6.2.194
12 400 ms 399 ms 399 ms wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-1.telkom-ipnet.co.za [1
96.43.11.22]
13 408 ms 409 ms 409 ms wblv-ip-www-1.saix.net [196.25.1.200]

Trace complete.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
The OP is using linux traceroute, which uses UDP instead of ICMP on the hops, not all routers respond so nice to those.

Instead of using the command "traceroute www.saix.net" he should use "sudo traceroute -I www.saix.net" and the traces might look a lot better.
 
Tinuva said:
The OP is using linux traceroute, which uses UDP instead of ICMP on the hops, not all routers respond so nice to those.

Instead of using the command "traceroute www.saix.net" he should use "sudo traceroute -I www.saix.net" and the traces might look a lot better.
Click to expand...

great thanks, I didn't know that :-)

the traces do at least complete now:

traceroute to www.saix.net (196.25.1.200), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 1.144 ms 0.581 ms 0.408 ms
2 rnls-ip-esr-2.ipnet.wa.co.za (41.185.73.1) 18.122 ms 23.311 ms 22.435 ms
3 vl105.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.250) 48.540 ms 44.350 ms 45.664 ms
4 vl35.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.38) 49.506 ms 49.941 ms 46.549 ms
5 upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.230) 44.837 ms 49.069 ms 46.263 ms
6 wblv-ip-essr-1-atm-2-0-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za (196.43.11.30) 38.079 ms 38.880 ms 44.383 ms
7 wblv-ip-www-1.saix.net (196.25.1.200) 46.036 ms 49.937 ms 47.180 ms

traceroute to www.webafrica.co.za (196.220.58.66), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 1.015 ms 0.449 ms 0.460 ms
2 rnls-ip-esr-2.ipnet.wa.co.za (41.185.73.1) 20.651 ms 19.751 ms 17.975 ms
3 vl105.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.250) 36.067 ms 39.753 ms 46.147 ms
4 vl36.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.66) 44.552 ms 46.191 ms 46.615 ms
5 vl38.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.73) 49.433 ms 56.633 ms 53.551 ms
6 fe0.er1.gw.cpt.za.wadns.net (41.185.0.4) 50.567 ms 54.010 ms 55.565 ms
7 wa-acc2.wadns.net (196.220.39.254) 59.546 ms * 49.169 ms
8 196.220.58.66 (196.220.58.66) 51.759 ms 60.477 ms 66.254 ms

sudo traceroute -I www.apple.com
traceroute to e3191.c.akamaiedge.net (92.123.213.15), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 1.160 ms 0.429 ms 0.466 ms
2 rnls-ip-esr-2.ipnet.wa.co.za (41.185.73.1) 19.260 ms 18.247 ms 21.991 ms
3 vl108.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.238) 52.465 ms * 45.426 ms
4 vl35.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (41.185.0.38) 55.080 ms 64.290 ms *
5 upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za (196.220.59.230) 71.427 ms 207.597 ms 70.760 ms
6 196.43.11.218 (196.43.11.218) 69.781 ms 64.501 ms 48.940 ms
7 196.43.26.58 (196.43.26.58) 36.947 ms 32.442 ms 33.443 ms
8 a92-123-213-15.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com (92.123.213.15) 32.973 ms 32.890 ms 34.136 ms

still getting the slow speeds though - and I don't seem any closer to finding the source of the fault.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1022073469.png
 
Last edited:
Doesnt really show much congestion to make speeds bad

but you do seem to get timeouts in the tracerts *

could be isp or something faulty with line somewhere
 
Last edited:
assagai: I would suggest that you downgrade your ADSL line speed to 2Mbps and see if you then get your full line speed (~220KB/s) most of the time.

If your line seems to be stable at 2Mbps, then you can try changing it to 3Mbps, but I seriously doubt that it will be stable at 3Mbps.

Btw: what router do you have?
 
Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm using a netgear DG834N.

After a couple of calls to telkom, i got an sms saying they'd found and logged a fault, and today my linespeeds are much better.
Hopefully it'll stay that way.
 
Pada said:
assagai: I would suggest that you downgrade your ADSL line speed to 2Mbps and see if you then get your full line speed (~220KB/s) most of the time.

If your line seems to be stable at 2Mbps, then you can try changing it to 3Mbps, but I seriously doubt that it will be stable at 3Mbps.

Btw: what router do you have?
Click to expand...

You can actually downgrade to 2Mbps and then upgrade to 3Mbps with Telkom just like that. Have you got a contact?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X