Some basics questions around ADSL - exceptions vs what you get

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malcolmm

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I'm recently new to the work of ADSL at home, although I'm somewhat of a nerd. I had these high expectations of silkysmooth streaming and enough bandwidth to host my own portfolio of cyber services, but alas I was hit with cold hard reality.

Question 1: my adsl line seems to disconnect every now and then. the actual modem Telkom DGN2200M seems to be the problem, however I need to ask the jury (you guys) what is the expectation around this issue. Should I expect minor disconnects, or should this puppy motor on like a steam engine no matter what.

Question 2: although I have a 4mb uncapped dsl line, I get an average speedtest of around 2.45mb. I've checked on this mybb and this seems to be about average. Is this right? Should we not be getting better speeds for our 4mb lines?

Question 3: on my router status, I can see that I am connected at 3072kb down .... my inner nerd tells me that this is 3meg instead of 4. I believe that this has to do with my exchange, line noise, line sync, etc. So I'm to simply except that 25% of my 4mb is unbelievable?

3 simple questions about adsl I'd like to hear from the people.
 
If your ADSL modem connects at 3Mbps, then your actual download speed would be about 80% of that, which is round about 2.45Mbps like what you're getting.

Could you please post your ADSL stats here, including SNR/noise margins and line attenuations? It sounds to me like you're a bit far from the DSLAM/exchange, which is the reason why you're only connecting at 3Mbps and it is also the reason why it is disconnecting every now and then.

A modem with a better chipset may indeed provide better stability and possibly a higher line speed too. I quite like my D-Link DSL-2500U ADSL modem (with 1x 100Mbps LAN and no WiFi, that I use in combination with a WiFi + 1Gbps router).
 
some basic answers

1) No... you shouldn't be getting regular disconnects

3) This is the meat and potatoes.

what's your line attenuation? (an indicator of "line quality", usually directly proportional to your distance from the exchange)
For reliable DSL, a line attenuation figure below 50 is desirable... the lower the better in this case.

what's your SNR or "Signal to Noise Ratio"? A higher number is best in this case... and you're kinda aiming for a number above 12.

If you have a 4mb line... your max speed should be around 412KB/s down... but it seems your line is syncing at 3mb. Either because your line quality and SNR are not in the desirable bands, or the dorks haven't enabled the correct line speed.

Since you're getting regular disconnects, I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's because your attenuation is closer to 60... bad SNR values will usually result in poor speeds even though you sync at a full 4mb.


You could try and phone telskum to try and see if there is a physical issue with your line; a dodgy connection downstream, a crusty connection box or something similar. But if you're just too far away from the exchange, ther is little that can be done I'm afraid.
 
thanks for all the feedback guys. I want to post that information you mentioned.

How do i find out my line attenuation?

How do i find out my SNR/noise margins?

what tools can I use to get this information and post back?
 
You get all of that information on the statistics page on your modem's web interface. If you cannot find it, search in the user manual for it.
 
malcolmm said:
thanks for all the feedback guys. I want to post that information you mentioned.

How do i find out my line attenuation?

How do i find out my SNR/noise margins?

what tools can I use to get this information and post back?
Click to expand...

Go to Router Status and select connection stats if I remember right at the bottom of the page

Got the same router at home with no problems
 
malcolmm said:
View attachment 51690

Tell me what you think, good bad?
Click to expand...

Looks very good dont see any problems with those stats at all and looks like you on ADSL 2+

Wondering if its the router at fault since the line looks great so far and you should get at least 10 mb line speeds easily with those stats.

Have you checked with Telkom if your line is actually set to 3 meg for some odd reason?
 
Last edited:
malcolmm said:
View attachment 51690

Tell me what you think, good bad?
Click to expand...

DUDE!

Those stats are pashash!

Could be that your router is crusty and it's causing the disconnects... so maybe it's worth changing it.

You could sync at higher speeds with those numbers.
Phone telkom adsl technical help and ask them to up your speed from their end. Be nice to whoever you're speaking to and ask to speak to someone who can help you sync at a higher speed remotely. (being nice helps... because it isn't on their standard helpdesk protocols)
If you got a 4mb line, it should be "up to 10mb".
So you could probably sync at 6mb or 8mb with those stats. Once the router is synced at the higher speeds, check to see if the SNR values are still good, stable and above 12-15.

I sync at 6mb, and after hours I get 500+KB/s download speeds with my ISP even though I've only got a 4mb account. So it's worth it.

Good luck man! let us know!
 
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2726555434.png

2726555434.png

Thanks guys you have been awesome. I am syncing at 4mb now and speeds are much better. Just a note, if my line is also with afrihost can I still phone telkom up? Surely they "own" that line now, and asking for higher sync from telkom wouldnt apply? or am i wrong?
 

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Telkom won't deal with you. You can try, but I doubt it'll work since technically its between Telkom & AH.
 
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