Internet speed drops after firmware upgrade

[xdarksoulxy]

Ok so i upgraded my D-Link 2500U/BRU/D to current firmware v1.58

I have an uncapped IS Afrihost account wich usually would run at 6kb/s during the day :twisted:
and after i reset the modem at 6 pm it would go up to 39kb/s (this was when the modem ran on
firmware 1.3). Now after firmware update i get a wopping 4kb/s during the day and 9kb/s during
after hours (6pm-7am).

I've reseted the modem to factory defaults and entered 2 different accounts settings, 1 top-up
account from afrihost and another 1gb account from globeweb, both these accounts get full
40kb/s after hours (6pm-7am) and about 20-25kb/s during office hours.
Re-entered my IS Afrihost uncapped account settings and im down to 9kb/s again. Why? How?

I have downgraded my firmware back to v1.3 that was on the modem (which worked fine before)
but still now i can't get past the 9kb/s speed limit maybe after a few soft-resets it will go to 14kb/s
i can download from 2 websites at 14kb/s during this time but i cant download from 1 at 28kb/s.

so it seems like the account has has "channels" which the data goes through and these cap out at
9kb/s and i can open multiple downloads each will use a new "channel" and download at the full
"channel" speed of 9kb/s or until i hit my lines maximum wich is 40kb/s (384Kbit line)

Anyone that came across this kind of issue before? will it help if i cancel my account and get an
uncapped account from another isp? (but most uncapped accounts are IS based, so will it really
make a difference then?)

 

[Pada]

How much have you downloaded/uploaded this month? If you are in the top 20% bracket of the IS users, then that would be the reason for your poor download speeds.

There is a Telkom guest account (like username=guest@telkomsa, pass=guest) + a Telkom webserver that you can use to do speed tests.
So before you blame the router, ensure that the problem isn't ISP account related.

 

[xdarksoulxy]

hey Pada

Ok i can see my usage under the client zone at Afrihost.com its on about 32gb. that's less than i do usually during the month and i've never been throttled during after office hours
i always got my 39kb/s then. It only happend during/after i upgraded the firmware. the reason for upgrading my firmware is that after this post of mine http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/286103-Setting-up-Routing-Table
i have 2 accounts running on my modem and it occasionally drops connectivity for about 20-30sec so i thought ill try newer firmware. Im currently ramaging through the russian site of d-link (sins south africa's website is useless and the
frp site doesnt really say for which revision the firmware is, there is a D1 D2 and D3 revision) so im currently looking at they're website which is better categorized if i can call it that. according to the website the latest firmware for the D2
is only v1.51 so im flushing it again (hope the chip holds third time in last 3 hours now) if i can log back up ill post my findings again

 

[xdarksoulxy]

ok firmware DSL-2500U_BRU_D_RU_1.51_04232009 works fine i think....
after first restart when i flushed the modem it still only got 9kb/s download speed
i switched off my modem and unplugged the dsl line from it and left it like that for 30'ish seconds
then plugged back in and started downloads before it even finished pap authentication.
Downloads is running at 39kb/s again so i hope it stay there. Maybe firmware buggy or for different
revision, the original firmware was v1.2 (factory default) so the v1.3 that i had and the 1.58 was
maybe not the right ones (theyr not listed for the D2 on the russian website).

Ok so before im done typing this im back down to 9kb/s even after it downloaded 40kb/s for a few
seconds when i kept my eyes on it. So i will see if its still like this tomorrow maybe it is shaping
(at the same time im fidgeting with settings).

 

[Pada]

From where are you downloading? Torrents / IS News server / Free RapidShare account?

 

[xdarksoulxy]

well i get ****ty readings from speedtest.net and my download readings is from a news server astraweb.com
i don't use the free news servers from IS/SAIX etc cause they're crap .

my downloads have picked up sins 10 pm from 9kb/s to about 29kb/s now, but still, in thepast (before upgrade)
i got 39kb/s, but lets say its shaping or maybe, because i flushed my firmware, they (IS) detected something
fishy on their side and throttled me down till they can see what it is, or maybe the newer firmware "talks" funny
i'm too scared to stop and go to speedtest.net again now don't want downloads to start at 9kb/s again ill do a test
tomorrow night after 6pm again.

ill also reconfigure my duel account and routing tables again tomorrow and see what happens. have you ever come
across something like this that did not happen due to shaping/throttling?

 

[Pada]

No not really. I've seen viruses / other PC's affecting the download speeds too, but 99% of the time it is due to shaping from the ISP's side.

I have seen terrible download speeds on 2-4Mbps, as well as on 100Mbps connections which were NOT caused by shaping, but rather due to poor/faulty connections. eg. 2-4Mbps ADSL connections having too low SNR margins to maintain a steady data flow and the 100Mbps connection had a fault where it was set to 10Mbps half-duplex, causing many collisions, which effectively limited the speed from 100Mbps (11MB/s) to 150kB/s!

 

[xdarksoulxy]

Hi again

Ok ive tested the modem again and it seems it is just shaping that kicked in at the same time i was messing around.
Although i have to add that the modem is still abit weird it doesnt start full speed (40kb/s) it starts at 16'ish and works
it way back up to 40kb/s in an hour or so. i also got my second account up and running and havent really noticed any
loss in connection as before the firmware upgrade so downloading is mostly back to normal (yay XD) and gaming is
also running smooth

I also had a look at my SNR and Attenuation stuff in case that might have been the issue.

Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin (dB): 30.2 19.0
Attenuation (dB): 46.0 21.0

My attenuation fluctuates between 39 and 46 and snr is 29 when attenuation is 39. i guess that is more enough for a 384K line

Thanks again Pada. Im gonna PM you a question about my routing tables, since its off-topic and not worth a new threat

 

[Pada]

The Line Attenuation is NOT supposed to fluctuate at all! The SNR on the other hand may fluctuate.
As long as the SNR margins stay above 12dB you shouldn't have any issues.