Connection Issues due to Abnormal Power Levels?

[helios]

OK, been having sereral connection issues with NTL 2mbit service (2048kbit/200kbit).

The problems i'm getting are intermittent and occur while under heavy load usually. Namely Choke, lag spike and general connection issues related to Online gaming and RDC via VPN connection.

Looking about here for some help on this, I found my way to this thread (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=26006).

Having checked my power levels against this, i find that mine seem to be quite high. (see below)
Downstream Receive Power Level : -8.69
dBmv Downstream SNR : 30.68 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 57.00 dBmv

So, i called NTL TS, and, as usual they were most unhelpfull, and they said that these power levels were not a problem.

My question is, could abnormal power levels cause the connection issues that i am getting?

[Paul K]

OK, been having sereral connection issues with NTL 2mbit service (2048kbit/200kbit).

The problems i'm getting are intermittent and occur while under heavy load usually. Namely Choke, lag spike and general connection issues related to Online gaming and RDC via VPN connection.

Looking about here for some help on this, I found my way to this thread (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=26006).

Having checked my power levels against this, i find that mine seem to be quite high. (see below)
Downstream Receive Power Level : -8.69
dBmv Downstream SNR : 30.68 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 57.00 dBmv

So, i called NTL TS, and, as usual they were most unhelpfull, and they said that these power levels were not a problem.

My question is, could abnormal power levels cause the connection issues that i am getting?
Those levels don't seem very good, well the Downstream is looking a bit low anyway. Are these the levels you see when your connection goes wrong?
Also when you say it happens when your connection is under load, what are you doing at those times? Is it just the VPN or gaming?
Also have you swept your system for virus, trojan, spyware etc?

[helios]

Cheers for the quick reply,

Those are the values that i got last time i checked, they fluctuate ALOT!

Those were the ones when i was testing it under full load earlier, but those are pretty much what i have been seeing over the last few days.

The only time we notice it is when we have VPN sessions open/playing games. Ingame, pings are areound about 20/30 (UK servers), but i can see that the choke is in the 50s normally. With the RDC over VPN, it is just that the mouse pointer slugs every now and again (coming from a 2mbit upload source at non-peak times). Normal web browsing is OK. Idle, the values are slightly better, but still quite poor (see below), but those are the values when the connection is put under any load above light web browsing.

As for viruses/spyware, this is occuring on every machine in my house (5+), including a fresh-built box. And it is not performance related (AMD 64 3500+, x800xl 256mb gfx, 1gb ram on the fresh build)

Currently, they are sitting at -
Downstream Receive Power Level : -7.11
dBmv Downstream SNR : 30.64 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 55.75 dBmv

The downstream doesn't get any better than that (connection was idle when i did this one)

[Paul K]

Best thing to do is take readings at random times in the day and post them here, also ring technical support again and tell them how the signal is fluctuating and how it is affecting your browsing. The odds are your line needs a slight adjustment at the cab that it comes out of.

[helios]

Cheers for the advice, but we have already done that, and TS say that the power levels are not causing the problems, and that the power levels are nothing out of the ordinary (:S). Originally, they were not going to log a call, until we persuaded them otherwise.

Did another 2 readings 10 minutes apart, here they are
Downstream Receive Power Level : -6.88
dBmv Downstream SNR : 30.07
dB Upstream Transmit Power Level : 55.75 dBmv

Downstream Receive Power Level : -7.59
dBmv Downstream SNR : 30.48 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 55.75 dBmv