understanding b/w graphs on 50mb

[fedupstill]

hopefully someone can help understand whats wrong because countless engineers have failed to find the fault and now im being threatend with paying the call out charge becuase they cant see the issue

i have 50mb in the ne12 area ubr 13 and its so unstable but it will peak at 50mb but my problem is the connection will just drop making any browsing painfully slow and causing my online radio stream to buffer.
games will play in slow motion and virgin cant see the fault so i installed a bandwidth monitor from bwmonitor.com and when browsing and listening to music the browser will timeout or take ages to load at the same time the radio stream will buffer and my graph shows that the speed has dropped to nothing and then back up to normal for sometimes 10 mins and sometime an hour with no pattern to pinpoint why and how so im hoping someone here can look and pinpoint a possible reason so it can be fixed

using the ubuntu 700mb iso file hosted on a virgin server ive taken a screen shot to show the connection drops to zero and then back to normal



or



if someone can please help me find out why and whats wrong ill be grateful

pc runs on xp pro sp3
gbit network card connected to router/modem ( makes no difference ) by ethernet

[Pushkar]

I've found the Virgin server unreliable even on a VM connection, try speedtest.net and see what you get, also try and use a download manager when download large files - it helps max out your connection so much.

[broadbandking]

That won't help as the connection is losing connection, it could be a modem issue call them and ask for a replacement see if thats the issue mate

[fedupstill]

they said the graphs look how its meant to be ??? that my modem and line works fine as my average is ok and its sold as an upto 50mb product and as i can hit 50mb it works ..... i have an engineer booked and if he finds no fault i pay £25 yet as explained before the faults were reported in december i never had timeouts and my gaming worked fine but now i cant play because almost every game plays in slow motion
speedtest they said isnt reliable for 50mb but the results are below using maidenhead and london





thanks for the replys tried everything now im ready to quit so hopefully a problem can be seen and then fixed

*Edit*

radio stream buffered and browser timed out so i took a shot of the graph and copied the rates recorder text file



03/09/2009 12:30:56 149.1K 5.6K 154.7K
03/09/2009 12:30:57 128.6K 5.2K 133.8K
03/09/2009 12:30:58 132.0K 5.2K 137.2K
03/09/2009 12:30:59 135.0K 5.3K 140.3K
03/09/2009 12:31:00 137.7K 5.2K 142.9K
03/09/2009 12:31:01 109.3K 3.9K 113.2K
03/09/2009 12:31:02 128.4K 5.2K 133.5K
03/09/2009 12:31:03 5.4K 432 5.8K
03/09/2009 12:31:04 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:05 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:06 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:07 0 0 0
03/09/2009 12:31:08 169.6K 6.0K 175.6K
03/09/2009 12:31:09 145.8K 5.7K 151.5K
03/09/2009 12:31:10 193.8K 7.9K 201.7K
03/09/2009 12:31:11 218.0K 7.8K 225.8K
03/09/2009 12:31:12 193.8K 6.9K 200.7K
03/09/2009 12:31:13 242.2K 8.6K 250.9K
03/09/2009 12:31:14 135.6K 5.2K 140.8K
03/09/2009 12:31:15 133.2K 4.8K 138.0K
03/09/2009 12:31:16 186.5K 6.9K 193.4K

[broadbandking]

Call again and esclate the call to a manager or pm a mod and see if there contacts can help

[fedupstill]

Call again and esclate the call to a manager

my issue is being dealt with by a guy named john powell in the CEO office who although polite cant see the importance of stable and says i should be happy with my super fast download speed i have no reason for super fast download speed though and if it wasnt for the traffic management policy id be on 4mb or 10mb but we have a few consoles and pc's in the house so cant use them at tea time

cant i limit it to 40mb and make it stable ?
they cant see anything wrong but there is and i cant get them to see that so ive been told if the engineer cant find my fault then virgin will issue ME with 30 days disconnection notice and bill me for the engineer .... if they cant fix they cancel your contract

does anyone know what tests or logs i can show to find the fault ? theres no pattern or set thing that makes it happen its just annoying and i cant do anything to find a fix or proof

[sammyjayuk]

Originally Posted by fedupstill

speedtest[.net?] they said isnt reliable for 50mb

That, at least, is probably true. Last November, Virgin Media "tested the testers" and found that only one speed test, thinkbroadband.com's, could deliver consistent, accurate results.

Sam

[Joxer]

Wired or wireless connection?

Try direct to the modem (reboot the modem) and test again.

When connected to the modem, run ipconfig in a command prompt and find the default gateway. Try pinging that using ping -t (default gateway ip). leave it running and monitor while running the download. Post the result here.

If you don't fancy that you could try pinging the modem - 192.168.100.1 againwhile the download is running to check for local issues.

[fedupstill]

Sam - think broadband results :

Date 10/03/09 01:59:55
Speed Down 31847.16 Kbps ( 31.1 Mbps )
Speed Up 1584.98 Kbps ( 1.5 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest1.thinkbroadband.com
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedt...403218729.html

Joxer - connected wired always but usually through the router (netgear N series) when using other computers ,ive plugged direct to modem and powered off completly before rebooting

ping the default gateway will idle at 4ms TTL=255 but every 8-10 lines jump to 10ms and when downloading jumps to 80ms-103ms with every 8-10 lines showing request timed out

ping the modem is 1ms TTL=64 and even when downloading stays at 1ms

hope that helps and thanks for the replys

[graf_von_anonym]

It's fairly clear that something is causing your connection to drop, the problem is identifying it. Since it affects you when you bypass the router I think we can discount that, but you're still connecting via ethernet, so:

Have you ensured that windows isn't power managing your NIC? You can check this in the Device Manager, under either the 'advanced' or 'power management' tabs depending on your software. Further to that, have you updated your NIC drivers at all?

Your modem may not be going offline, it may be that something else is going on, but nonetheless could you post your power levels from the modem configuration page? It's usually 192.168.100.1, and I'd want to see your upstream and downstream power, as well as your snr score. If I recall correctly, you'll have more than one of the downstream values, I think it's three, because of the way the 50Mb platform works. Don't post your MAC address, or your IP address, as it'll just get removed by a moderator for your own privacy's sake.

Could you use the netstat -a command to see how many connections are open on your system. The more that there are the more likely it is that something is being overwhelmed somewhere along the lines.

The other option is a command called 'pathping' which is half ping and half tracert. It will attempt to contact every 'hop' between you and a target to see where an issue might start. When your connection is misbehaving, command prompt, "pathping web.site.address", again bbc.co.uk or google.com or similar. If there's loss on any of those hops that can point us in the right direction again.

Other things that might prove useful: You've said you've got multiple PCs there. Does any other computer suffer the drops in connection?

What you've said to Joxer about your packet loss while downloading could put the onus on the operating system. Have you run through the TCP/Optimiser?

[fedupstill]

windows is power managing both pc's NIC

engineers fitted an attenuator with a value of -6 dB to the modem but the logs show :

Upstream
Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 2 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 37504000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 2560 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 2 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 53.00 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Downstream
Frequency 315000000 299000000 307000000 N/A
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y N/N/N
Channel Id 62 60 61 N/A
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM N/A
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 N/A
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 3.76 3.67 3.64 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 38.26 37.36 37.36 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 1 4 1 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 283 242 271 N/A

General Configuration
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Baseline Privacy : Enabled
DOCSIS Mode : DOCSIS 3.0
Config File : A,.iyewrkldJKDHSU
Primary Downstream Service Flow
SFID : 6748
Max Traffic Rate : 53000000 bps
Max Traffic Burst : 3044 bytes
Min Traffic Rate : 0 bps
Primary Upstream Service Flow
SFID : 6747
Max Traffic Rate : 1750000 bps
Max Traffic Burst : 3044 bytes
Min Traffic Rate : 0 bps
Max Concatenated Burst : 1522 bytes
Scheduling Type : Best Effort

netstat -a shows the following :


pathping www.bbc.co.uk shows 11 hops and all show 0/ 100 = 0% except for the last hop and that shows 100/ 100 = 100%


the other computer is also windows xp pro with sp3 and has the exact same issues and all drivers are updated
TCP optimisers were done during install by the engineer using the speedguide.net site and the TCP optimisers are : Windows 9x/ME/2K/XP/XP-SP2/2k3 | version: 2.0.3 | date: 01/06/2006 | filesize: 596 KB
after downloaded he slid the bar to maximum 20,000 and then clicked optimal settings and apply changes

hope i havnt missed anything but anything else just ask and im grateful for the time and help

[cabsandy]

So to be clear here, your not that bothered about hitting the heights of super-fast broadband?-its more stability in terms of latency that allows your radio streaming to work and web pages to work?
When the engineers have called, did they demonstrate to you that it worked on their machine-did they get the speeds, web pages, radio streaming ok?
As for your logs, they show that from the modem point of view,everything is fine.The lack of anything in the T1,2,3 and 4 timers would suggest the connection from the network is pretty solid and the downstream MER's are good as well.

Would it be an idea to use something like Ping Plotter to ping the UBR ( your WAN default gateway) over a day or so and see if you can note any dropouts? It seems to me the speeds are there or thereabouts but it's the stability that is causing you grief
PS-should have mentioned it's quite good for latency as well.

HTH

[fedupstill]

speed isnt an issue for me no but with having 2 pc's and 2 consoles in the house used at different times of the day we would often set the traffic management limits off.
pingplotter is now installed but what would you like me to add to test and see whats happening ? is my WAN ip my public ip ? and how would i test the pingplotter ?
its running but nothing happening and the guide says it can be used for different things depending on what info im looking to test
thanks for the replys so far

*Edit*

pingplotter installed but whats my WAN ip please ?
just as a test i added the default gateway that showed last drops and i have this result and im guessing ive set something up wrong so would someone be kind enough to explain what details to enter thanks

[cabsandy]

Originally Posted by fedupstill

speed isnt an issue for me no but with having 2 pc's and 2 consoles in the house used at different times of the day we would often set the traffic management limits off.
pingplotter is now installed but what would you like me to add to test and see whats happening ? is my WAN ip my public ip ? and how would i test the pingplotter ?
its running but nothing happening and the guide says it can be used for different things depending on what info im looking to test
thanks for the replys so far

*Edit*

pingplotter installed but whats my WAN ip please ?
just as a test i added the default gateway that showed last drops and i have this result and im guessing ive set something up wrong so would someone be kind enough to explain what details to enter thanks

Okdokay-good start .

If the PC is connected directly to the modem, then bring up a DOS prompt (Start/Run and then type in cmd and hit return) and type in ipconfig /all. You will see an IP address-the default gateway is your VM hub (UBR) ip-if you put this ip in the "address to trace" box and hit return, you should be on your way.There are some options you can change (packet size is one) but lets keep it simple for now.Leave it running overnight and see how it looks in the morning.Ideally, you should see no red blocks/lines on the graph (this is packet loss) and the scale on the left hand side, at the bottom, should range from 0 to <100ms (hopefully a lot less but you may see the odd spike-what we don't want to see is huge humps of spikes-this would be consistent latency).
If this runs smoothly, then it isn't the VM local network that has the problem-well, not latency anyway. There may be issues in the core (doubtful) or with the sites you use (but you say it was fine on the old service). Post back some pics when you have some stuff.
What is the radio station and games you play?-I can try it from here.

[fedupstill]

found my WAN address and its ticking along and has been since 5:30pm and ill grab any times and events that will help find the issue but just to be sure ive set it right heres 2 screens from earlier on and at the times pingplotter shows a spike but while these shots were taken there wasnt anything running or any browser etc open





the radios can be anything depending on what mood im in but theres thousands to choose from here http://shoutcast.net/
games can be anything from Cod or Fear or even some basic flash games from the good ole atari and spectrum days

hopefully its recording whats needed and find out whats going wrong
thanks for the help