Speeds on 4mbps?

...
One thing the techie did say though, was that at least three people connected to the DSLAM need to whine before they do something about it. He said that only two people had complained and he was seeing both of us that day.
...

That's interesting. I think it's time you went door-to-door in your apartment, asking people if they have ADSL (if they don't, convince them they need it) and whether they have problems with it (if not, test it for them, confirm if they get CRC errors just like you) and then get them all to complain. :p :p :p

If this does not work, or you're not willing to do this, see if you can find out where your DSLAM is, and then pay someone to set fire to it so that it is replaced with one that works (make sure you ready your 3G card before the plan is set in motion).

Seriously though, just be persistent. You may get a techie that actually knows what is happening and knows how to fix it. Another thing you could try is asking the techie to change the DSLAM port you are on...? Perhaps that might help?
 
Thanks fz1... To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the only person in my complex on an ADSL connection. The majority of the people here seem quite content with their 2GB FreeBSD cap and download speeds of 5KB/s. Not to mention paying R275 for an extra 1GB after reaching their caps -.-'

That, and I fear I'm too shy to go knocking on other people's doors :)

I believe the techie said that the DSLAM was at the Santam building across the road... :D

Will do some asking when I see him... Who knows, might actually get something done this time...

Oh, and http://www.centeq.co.za/ <-- the company giving this complex "broadband access" *spit* Original name, eh? :P
 
Hi feo

Sorry - did not mean to ignore your post. Can you please post what your line stats are during the day (when you say it works fine) and what they change to at night (when you experience problems)? From what I have read, apparently a decrease in noise margin at night is normal (although I don't see this myself). Additionally, what are your line stats at the other line point that you take your router to (and experience no problems at)?

Regarding the wiring - if you can prove to them that there is a problem with where you normally place your router vs. no problems at the other location you take it to (and it works fine), then I would say they should not charge you for wiring as there is obviously something wrong. I have never been charged for wiring (although the most that has been done is some splicing and rejoining, and replacing certain segments of the cable within the house - I guess, the latter of which is what you would need done). Just act casual once the techie is done with re-wiring, be grateful, smile while showing them the way out of your house and tell them they must have a nice day. Maybe they will let you off the hook without a charge ;)

Here it is now at 5.28PM:

Modem Status
Code:
Connection Status 	  	Connected
Us Rate (Kbps) 	  	        512
Ds Rate (Kbps) 	  	        4096
US Margin 	  	                12
DS Margin 	  	                12
Trained Modulation 	        ADSL_G.dmt
LOS Errors 	  	                15
DS Line Attenuation 	  	26
US Line Attenuation 	  	15
Peak Cell Rate 	  	        1207 cells per sec
CRC Rx Fast 	  	        1644
CRC Tx Fast 	  	        16
CRC Rx Interleaved 	  	0
CRC Tx Interleaved 	  	0
Path Mode 	  	                Fast Path

Will post back with the figures when/if it starts to crap out.

Also, I'll try to grab the line stats using my laptop from the other wall jack that (seems) to work fine.
 
Some cow from Telkom phoned me a few minutes ago. Her first words after telling me that she's, "Blahblah from Telkom" were "What's your problem?" I ignored this and just told her that I'm having high CRC errors and loss of signal but that my synching is perfect - same old, same old. She asks me again... So I just said that I'm having slow download rates - like 600kbps slow - and high latency. She tells me that she can't pick that up, so I said, "Well, that's a shame, because I can." To which she said that she'll phone me back in ten minutes.

So... the wait is on... But Jeez... there's something special about being asked, "What's your problem?"
 
*sigh* I think we can say it's three days later now and today I found my line speed running at 2048kbps... Nothing like an "eish" resolution to a problem.
 
Gosh :( Why don't you reboot your router, let it re-synch, run it for a little while and see if you still get CRC errors?

Also, it would be worthwhile to do another speed test and see if you are getting the full 2Mbps, or if the errors cause it to be less than 2Mbps (as previously the effective speed was over 2Mbps but synched at 4Mbps).

Maybe if it works at the full 2Mbps without errors, you can call them up and see if there is an intermediate profile (between 2 and 4Mbps) that you can be put on (e.g. 3Mbps). Then test again. Perhaps you can find a speed that gives you error-free operation?

If not, continue nagging them :(
 
Still the same problems, fz1. Them changing the synch speed never did anything before, it's definitely not doing anything now.

Proof:
Results from http://www.speed.io
(Copied on 2008-09-19 12:22:43)
Download: 466 Kbit/s
Upload : 379 kbit/s
Connects : 2581 conn/min
Ping: 22 ms



I'm getting sick of this, and fast.
 
Eish. I would phone them back, shout at them for downgrading the profile without consultation, get them to up it back to 4Mbps and ask them to send a technician out to test it at your house. Once the technician is there, show him the CRC errors and how the effective speed is far lower than it should be (given the synch speed).

Good luck.
 
downloading from local sites

doing speeds in the 320kB/s to 350kB/s for most of the time these days. It does reach 420kB/s when downloading from local sites but not all of the time. When I feel i have the energy I will phone the Telkom helpdesk to ask them to reset my profile again.
 
fz1... I'm so tired of phoning Telkom... I'm sick of that god awful doobi-doobi song being repeated in my damned ear again and again and again. Not to mention that retard's inability to round his syllables. What's the point of choosing between music or promotional messages if they both end up with the same bulldung?

I'm phoning them now... And I pity the soul that deals with me right now.

I neglected to mention to you that on Thursday morning at 02:14 they suspended my line because I had apparently gone over my credit limit of R1,500. I was in the middle of an MMO, so I was beyond pissed off. Apparently they sent me a text saying that I had to pay my bill by the 17th - I didn't get it. My bill says I have to pay by the 30th September. I flipped my goddamned lid.

Naturally, I had to wait until 08:00am Thursday morning before I finally got to let loose 6 hours of pure frustration and anger. The first person I spoke to was a bona-fide idiot. He told me that he cannot unsuspend my line until payment "clears" 48 hours later when it reflects on his system. I went nuts. I said, "I HAVE A ****ING REFERENCE NUMBER FOR THE PAYMENT!" But he said there was "nothing" he could do.

I slammed the phone down and dialled in again. This time I spoke to a brilliant lady with a brain who unsuspended my line in seconds while I was talking with her and she didn't even need the reference number for my payment.

Later that afternoon - and this is the bit that had me wanting to strangle someone. The "ADSL" repair guys phoned me. It was someone, yet again, without a brain and without the ability to speak a lick of English. He tells me that I have been getting slow speeds because my line was suspended. Oh... my... god...

I just said, "Do you realise when I logged that fault? Do you realise that was a ****ing week ago?! Do you realise my line was suspended THIS MORNING?!?! And do you realise that I've been having issues with this line since I had it installed?!

The last 48 hours have driven me nuts. And to wake up this morning and find my line synching at 2048 was just the cherry on the cake. I'm fed up.
 
Gentleman from Telkom just phoned and set my synch speed back to 4096 after a bit of persuasion. We spoke about my problem and how the previous technician did nothing, but realised that there was a problem and told me about the problem and yadda-yadda-yadda. He said that "unfortunately" there's nothing else he can do and that he was just phoning to confirm whether or not my line is "working properly" which quite obviously - it's not.

He also said that he's sending my problem back to the "help desk" and that they will decide whether or not to send a technician out. He also said that on Monday I should phone 0800 282 404 and ask to, "Speak to the specialist." Yes, apparently there's only one "specialist" and today he's gone home early.

Yippidee frikkin doodah...

Around and around the call centres I go... Where I'll stop... nobody knows...
 
Annnnd got another call. This time from someone I imagine is a "specialist." So there's hopefully more than one, unless he WAS the one. *shrug*

Seems they're going to end up sending out another tech and that they're going to change the DSLAM port and see if that's what's causing my trouble, but unfortunately all ports are currently occupied, so I don't know what they'll do if that IS my problem.

I liked the gent who phoned now a lot. Very pleasant and was cracking jokes and telling me that they were putting up their DSL speed to 8mbps and he was downloading at 800KB/s and all that and that they're 50m away from their DSLAM. He... he made me jealous!! *cries* :(

Eh well, after speaking to him I feel a bit better and feel a bit more hopeful.
 
And 40-odd minutes later it's back to 4096...

*sigh* Anyone feel like taking a guess at how long it'll take before they realise that lowering the synch rate doesn't, in fact, make it go faster?
 
Last blab for (hopefully) the day. I noticed the I get the CRC (and other) errors when they change the synch or when I unplug it from the wall. I have a sneaking suspicion my previous CRC errors may have been because I was screwing around with the POTS filter that came with the new router and kept unplugging it and plugging it back in.

Last few days before I had no errors whatsoever... I just rebooted the router and restarted RouterStats and will keep an eye to make sure.

*sigh* So... who's annoyed with my rant? ;)
 
I'm not annoyed. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's entertaining reading your adventure. I think you should start up a blog... At least it sounds like "The Specialist" may be able to get you somewhere?

As for CRC errors - yes, doing pretty much any kind of activity on the line seems to introduce these. It's the same way with mine. In fact, my line is physically spliced and rejoined at a certain point inside my house, and that part of the cable is running on the floor. If I touch the cable where it is spliced (while monitoring line stats with RouterStats) I can see variations in SNR and a couple of CRC errors show up. I also recall that LOS errors occurred when I connected a telephone to the line without a microfilter, and more every time I took it off the hook.

Keep your blo... err, thread, updated. ;)

BTW, if YOU were causing the CRC errors, then we are back to square one regarding why your line's effective speed is so low: we don't know what it is :(
 
Yeah, I'm definitely starting to think it was because of me. Gamed for a while, watched a few YouTube vids, but no errors at all. So... I'm really hoping it's the DSLAM.

Glad to hear I'm entertaining you - I hope to look back on this one day and laugh, laugh, laaaaaaaugh.... :)
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X