Speed problems -- do these router stats look okay?

[waterprism]

Hi guys,

Out of the blue, I'm suddenly getting really bad download speeds on my line -- there's another thread in this subforum where I talk about it. Can I just run these router stats by you guys? Anything look out of the ordinary here? I'm on a 1 meg line.

DSP Firmware Version E.25.41.55 A
Connected true
Operational Mode G.Dmt.BisPlus
Annex Type AnnexA
Upstream 511800
Downstream 1019900
SNR Margin(Upstream) 11.5 dB
SNR Margin(Downstream) 23.25 dB
Line Attenuation(Upstream) 27.0 dB
Line Attenuation(Downstream) 50.0 dB
CRC Errors(Upstream) 0
CRC Errors(Downstream) 0
Latency(Upstream) Fast
Latency(Downstream) Fast

Something's definitely gone wrong, because I'm getting speeds like the following now for the last two weeks, but Telkom say they can find no issues on my line or exchange.

Download Speed: 172 kbps (21.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 393 kbps (49.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 219 ms
25 October 2013 03:52:05 PM

Anything look iffy in the router stats I pasted above? Thanks.

 

[11masoodt]

Those attenuation figures, eish they're a bit on the edge

Is your line stable? No disconnections during the day (or night)?

 

[waterprism]

Hi, 11masoodt. Yeah, I read that sticky at the top of this subforum and noticed that the downstream attenuation figure I'm getting is a bit dodge. But I don't really get too many disconnection problems. Sometimes during a storm, I get a disconnect. Once in a blue moon I'll have to reboot the router because the connection drops. But pretty stable overall, I'd say. My speeds have also been good, up until two weeks back when they took a dive.

 

[11masoodt]

Hmm then exchange congestion probably?

 

[waterprism]

Thanks. I was contacted by Telkom D-Tech. They said there's no congestion on my exchange. A Telkom technician came round and said there's nothing wrong with my line, even though his router was showing the same speeds. As far as they're concerned, there's nothing wrong. So, I'll have to escalate this.

 

[Rickster]

Those attenuation figures, eish they're a bit on the edge

Is your line stable? No disconnections during the day (or night)?

You have it mixed up,

Line attenuation is a measure of how much the signal has degraded between the DSLAM and the modem. This is largely a function of the distance from the exchange. The lower the dB, the better for this measurement. Attenuation is logarithmic and each 3dB of attenuation halves the strength of the signal power received.

20dB and below is outstanding
20dB-30dB is excellent
30dB-40dB is very good
40dB-50dB is good
50dB-60dB is poor and may experience connectivity issues
60dB or above is bad and will experience connectivity issues


Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), often referred to as noise margin is defined as the power ratio between a signal (meaningful information) and the background noise (unwanted signal):

SNR = signal / noise

Higher numbers repesent cleaner signals, with less noise. In some instances interleaving can help raise the noise margin to an acceptable level.

6dB or below noise margin is bad, it will experience no synch or intermittent synch problems
7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions
11dB-20dB is good with little or no synch problems (if no large variation)
20dB-28dB is excellent
29dB or above is outstanding

 

[HavocXphere]

You have it mixed up

No. 11masoodt's interpretation of the stats is correct and baring further info the conclusion (congested exchange) seems reasonable too.

What ISP are you on & have you tried another backbone?

 

[Impregim]

Hi guys,

Out of the blue, I'm suddenly getting really bad download speeds on my line -- there's another thread in this subforum where I talk about it. Can I just run these router stats by you guys? Anything look out of the ordinary here? I'm on a 1 meg line.

DSP Firmware Version E.25.41.55 A
Connected true
Operational Mode G.Dmt.BisPlus
Annex Type AnnexA
Upstream 511800
Downstream 1019900
SNR Margin(Upstream) 11.5 dB
SNR Margin(Downstream) 23.25 dB
Line Attenuation(Upstream) 27.0 dB
Line Attenuation(Downstream) 50.0 dB
CRC Errors(Upstream) 0
CRC Errors(Downstream) 0
Latency(Upstream) Fast
Latency(Downstream) Fast

Something's definitely gone wrong, because I'm getting speeds like the following now for the last two weeks, but Telkom say they can find no issues on my line or exchange.

Download Speed: 172 kbps (21.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 393 kbps (49.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 219 ms
25 October 2013 03:52:05 PM

Anything look iffy in the router stats I pasted above? Thanks.

Switch off your Router for 10mins or so, unplug the telkom line - Back on and see..

 

[bokka1]

Do you have any other phones on the same line?

 

[11masoodt]

Make sure your POTS filter isn't faulty or there's bad connections along the way. By bad I mean that there aren't joints along the way because joints can cause quite a bit of signal loss or interference for a lack of better words (which I don't think you're having a problem, but checking it might be a good idea)

 

[waterprism]

Hi, guys. Thanks, all.

@Havoc, I've tried 3 different ISPs, GConnect (IS), Afrihost (MTN?) and FNBConnect. I'm getting the same speeds on all of them. Also, Telkom contacted me and told me everyone's got good overhead at my exchange and they're showing no congestion.

@Impregim. I tried what you said. Shut down the router, unplugged everything and then plugged it back in. Didn't help. Thanks though.

@bokka, yeah, there is another phone on the line. I did try disconnect that extension when this first started, and it didn't help.

@masoodt, not sure what to check with the POTS filters really, except buy new ones maybe? I did look at them when this first started, but that didn't help obv . When the Telkom guy came, he didn't mention them or anything, so I don't think he felt this was a problem that could be related to them. And he said there's no noise on the line. But I don't know. I'll have to contact the team leader or whoever for this area and take it from there.

 

[11masoodt]

Lmao, maybe it's a long shot but a few days ago I also had speed problems on my Afrihost Business Uncapped and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. It turns out that I made a dumb mistake by setting the router's QOS down speed to 1mbps and up speed to 100kbps and those are the exact speeds I was getting using any account any time of the day.

So just to make sure, check your router's QOS settings as well

 

[ponder]

@masoodt, not sure what to check with the POTS filters really, except buy new ones maybe? I did look at them when this first started, but that didn't help obv . When the Telkom guy came, he didn't mention them or anything, so I don't think he felt this was a problem that could be related to them. And he said there's no noise on the line. But I don't know. I'll have to contact the team leader or whoever for this area and take it from there.

Disconnect any pots filters and phones to check if they influence the stats.

 

[ponder]

@masoodt, not sure what to check with the POTS filters really, except buy new ones maybe? I did look at them when this first started, but that didn't help obv . When the Telkom guy came, he didn't mention them or anything, so I don't think he felt this was a problem that could be related to them. And he said there's no noise on the line. But I don't know. I'll have to contact the team leader or whoever for this area and take it from there.

Disconnect any pots filters and phones to check if they influence the stats.

 

[waterprism]

Hi, masoodt. I've never touched that QoS screen and so I'm guessing it's never touched me Doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on on that screen in my router, but everything seems to be on what I'd guess is default though, as I've never dug around in it.

@ponder. Thanks. That was a good idea. I unplugged phones and POTS whilst refreshing my router's stat screen. Nothing jumped around too much though and the (lack of) speeds stayed the same, so I'm pretty sure now it's nothing onsite. But it was good to rule it out like that. Thanks.

 

[waterprism]

Okay, so an update. The problem was the DSLAM. Someone finally went out and repaired it. It's not hundreds, but close to. Thanks, all.