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Rigsby · 09-04-2013, 02:44 PM

I know some of you guys are majestic galleons when it comes to understanding FTTC so I might as well ask you a few questions about my own connection. I've tried getting the answers from Google but my brain says 'no'.

Here are my current line stats using the latest HG612 firmware. I'm on the capped service so my attainable rate is low : -

Questions: -

My line rate is now always 14000kbps. Does that mean it's fixed?

If 'yes', should it be fixed? Does that mean that I'll never get higher download speeds in the future?

I used to get 22Mbps without connection drops so what could have caused my service to degrade? None of my wiring or kit has changed.

Should I ask Ask4 to try and improve my service or should I be happy that everything is currently stable?

Any recommendations are welcome. I can provide more stats if required. I'm located at least 500 metres away from the cabinet if that helps.

Thanks very much.

alexatkin · (This post was last modified: 10-04-2013 12:07 AM by alexatkin.)

It certainly sounds capped from your description. I would definitely query it with Ask4 to be sure as unless your line has been really unstable lately it would be odd for them to mess with your line profile.

I suppose the question is, WAS it stable when you were on 22Mbit?

For the record, on our part is all guesstimates. The general rule is that a good line should be able to handle a 6dB SNR margin (but it can be higher if your profile is capped well below your lines maximum capability), a bad/long line can struggle with just about anything. But we have found that they can be a bit over-cautious with the line profiles, aiming for ultra stability rather than speed. Fortunately they are not as reluctant to tweak the profile for speed now as they were 12 months ago.

Rigsby · 10-04-2013, 11:28 AM

Cheers.

The suspected cap appeared last autumn after I'd been struggling with PPPoE drops several times per day. However, at the time, I think someone mentioned that PPPoE has nothing to do with line stability but maybe I made that up?

I have to say that my connection has been stable since the line rate was lowered but it kinda leaves me wondering why I'm going backwards and not forwards. I've certainly had a stable connection at 19Mbps, when Ask4 first took over, but things seems to have gotten worse for me in the past year.

I'll query Ask4 and see what they say. Am I right in thinking that Thales are responsible for the line profiles?

bgnx · 10-04-2013, 12:52 PM

(10-04-2013 11:28 AM)Rigsby Wrote: Am I right in thinking that Thales are responsible for the line profiles?

Yes

Endhis · 10-04-2013, 03:48 PM

Hmm.... No idea about the graphs but its better if u talk to Ask4, they might be able to provide you more info on there how to work system !

SPritchard · 12-04-2013, 12:49 AM

One thing you'll find that's almost universal across ISP's (both those on DR and those outside of it) is that their first step to try and stabilize a connection will be to change your profile. This is done to prevent the exchange from 'overloading' your line or router with more data than it can handle. However, you line will have a maximum attainable speed regardless of the profile. Initially, it'll try to set a profile which is very close to the maximum. It'll then be monitored (either automatically by DLM, or manually adjusted in the case of DR) for a few days in order to make sure the line is stable.

Line stability issues can crop up at any time for no apparent reason. There'll always be a reason, but it's not always easy to track it down. For example, it could be that the line outside your house has started to fail due to the weather or age. It could be that an engineer misconfigured something at the exchange or cabinet affecting your connection. It could even be that the microfilter or prefiltered faceplate you're using has started to fail.

Right now I'm going through the diagnostics with Origin to find the cause of my recent stability issues (where the DSL would drop at random times regardless of whether the connection was in use or not). I started at 25Mb/s before diagnostics. We first took out the faceplate and used an external microfilter into the test socket. The issue remained. The profile was adjusted bringing me down to 15Mb/s and the issue remained. The profile was adjusted again and though it became more stable, there's still been 4 drops today (and so I'm to phone them 'tomorrow' to push the next step of diagnosis -- would have phoned today but been dealing with the cold/flu for much of this week and today it peaked). Point is, the issue appeared seemingly out of nowhere and it's proving to be difficult to track down. It could be that the cellpipe has failed (i've been with them for only 5 months but it's still a possibility), it could be that the recently replaced line which was fine just a few weeks ago has been subject to a surge, it could be something at the exchange. We'll hopefully find the cause in the near future.

TLDR: The first steps in stabilizing a connection will almost always been to reduce the speed with a profile change. Contact your ISP and ask them to see what can be done. You'll find the ISP's on DR are actually very approachable and do really push things to provide you with great service. You've of course got to be patient and calm about it while remaining persistent.

alexatkin · (This post was last modified: 12-04-2013 03:38 AM by alexatkin.)

That's what amazes me about my line, the chimney got hit by lightening years ago and it fried the answer phone, my external modem, went down the serial port, fried the IO chip and then blew the diodes in every Ethernet card on the LAN. The phones all rang for a good 10 seconds or so. That MUST have meant a spike went down the phone line the other direction too.

The only thing that got changed on that line since then was I got the old master socket swapped for an NTE5, so its pretty astonishing its working as well as it is. I guess I was fortunate that it was in excellent condition to start with so the surge obviously didn't break anything.

Rigsby · 12-04-2013, 10:16 PM

Thanks very much SPritchard for an excellent post. That is the kind of information that I can easily understand and act upon.

Rigsby · (This post was last modified: 19-04-2013 08:49 PM by Rigsby.)

I checked my connection status with Ask4 and they confirmed that my line-rate had been capped since last year's PPPoE problems. However, they were helpful as usual and have put me back on an uncapped profile to see how things go over the next few days.

My download speed is now back to over 20Mbps (hooray!) but I have been warned that this is likely to come at the cost of line stability. I'm currently using the HG612, in favour of the CellPipe, and it hasn't reported any disconnections since being switched on this morning. I'll let you know how things look in a couple of days.

Cheers!

alexatkin · 19-04-2013, 11:35 PM

Would not surprise me if you DON'T have any sync problems but the PPPoE issue remains.

Several of us are fairly convinced there is some sort of PPPoE issue on the network as a whole, nothing to do with sync problems. Its unclear how many people it affects as most people wouldn't notice PPP dropping every now and again, in fact without logging I wouldn't have noticed either.