impy
25-06-2008, 15:31
I'll get the information out the way first.
Ntl customer to VM
Location: Glasgow
Modem: NTL Home 120
Package:M (been upped to 10 from 4)
OS:Window XPsp3/Ubuntu/Xandros
Modem Signal Levels
Downstream Receive Power Level : 4.52 dBmv
Downstream SNR : 35.13 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 56.50 dBmv
Router: Netgear RP614v3 with the latest firmware
TCP patched to 80
torrent client: utorrent
I've read the board now and seen various topics on 2 of the issues I face, namely streaming media (sopcast, tvants, iplayer, etc) and torrents but can't seem to find a topic where someone faces problems with both these at the same time like myself so thought I'd make my own topic.
Before I go on my torrent settings were optimised for the 4mb connection(changed this last night when i realised my connection has been upped to 10) with down/up speeds capped at 80% and torrent activity would only occur from 12am as to avoid being capped.
From about december I noticed problems with torrents, firstly it was the speeds being affected unlike the previous months where I'd usually be above 200k for most torrents I was struggling to get above 50k with similarly active and well seeded torrents. Then in about january the speed issue was added to with being unable to connect to trackers most of the time, this last about 2 weeks and since then it has been an intermittent problem.
February the real problem started, I noticed that each morning after I'd left torrents on at night my modem wouldn't be flashing the down/up lights, the torrent wouldn't be going and I wouldn't be able to connect to anything yet my router would say that the modem still had an IP address. Turned both the router and modem off and on again but the modem took about 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP, this has been happening ever since.
I figured it may be the router being overwhelmed with connections so directly connected to modem to my pc again and tried to see if that would work any better, the only difference this time being it would take 5-10 minutes to get an IP again the next morning. This went on til about the start of april then it disappeared and everything was fine then during may it came back again but this time it started doing it with streaming media as well, but with streaming media the connection would drop out, obtain a new IP quickly and get back to streaming this would happen atleast 3 times if I was streaming something for an hour.
By this point I thought it must be windows doing something stupid so tried with ubuntu got the same results, then tried my eee pc laptop running Xandros thinking it might be my ethernet cards but again, same result. Decided to phone VM and complain and I was basically told the problem was on my end and I must have set up the modem/router/machine wrong (I just finished my degree in Networking, so don't really think thats the case).
Just another thing to add in, I figured it could be traffic management that was doing this so I started using a secure VPN (relakks.com) to avoid virgin seeing what the traffic was but the only thing that changed that I was able to download for slightly longer before the connection would drop out.
tl,dr: Basically I now have a 10mb up from 4mb cable connection that drops its connectivity repeatedly while streaming and during torrent activity that either reconnects right away or takes a few minutes if modem is directly connected to the pc, if it's connected to the router the connection drops out and the modem needs to be turned off/on and takes between 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP.
The odd thing with this though is that I've been running torrents at speeds for a 4mb line and my modem has cut off when I've been upgraded to 10mb so it's not even like I've been maxing out the bandwidth for the line.
Anyone else get both the streaming+torrent problem or even the problem with taking nearly 20 minutes to obtain an IP? Also, I read a post saying the older CMs can't handle above 4mb so should I get VM to send me a new one?
Cheers.
Ntl customer to VM
Location: Glasgow
Modem: NTL Home 120
Package:M (been upped to 10 from 4)
OS:Window XPsp3/Ubuntu/Xandros
Modem Signal Levels
Downstream Receive Power Level : 4.52 dBmv
Downstream SNR : 35.13 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 56.50 dBmv
Router: Netgear RP614v3 with the latest firmware
TCP patched to 80
torrent client: utorrent
I've read the board now and seen various topics on 2 of the issues I face, namely streaming media (sopcast, tvants, iplayer, etc) and torrents but can't seem to find a topic where someone faces problems with both these at the same time like myself so thought I'd make my own topic.
Before I go on my torrent settings were optimised for the 4mb connection(changed this last night when i realised my connection has been upped to 10) with down/up speeds capped at 80% and torrent activity would only occur from 12am as to avoid being capped.
From about december I noticed problems with torrents, firstly it was the speeds being affected unlike the previous months where I'd usually be above 200k for most torrents I was struggling to get above 50k with similarly active and well seeded torrents. Then in about january the speed issue was added to with being unable to connect to trackers most of the time, this last about 2 weeks and since then it has been an intermittent problem.
February the real problem started, I noticed that each morning after I'd left torrents on at night my modem wouldn't be flashing the down/up lights, the torrent wouldn't be going and I wouldn't be able to connect to anything yet my router would say that the modem still had an IP address. Turned both the router and modem off and on again but the modem took about 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP, this has been happening ever since.
I figured it may be the router being overwhelmed with connections so directly connected to modem to my pc again and tried to see if that would work any better, the only difference this time being it would take 5-10 minutes to get an IP again the next morning. This went on til about the start of april then it disappeared and everything was fine then during may it came back again but this time it started doing it with streaming media as well, but with streaming media the connection would drop out, obtain a new IP quickly and get back to streaming this would happen atleast 3 times if I was streaming something for an hour.
By this point I thought it must be windows doing something stupid so tried with ubuntu got the same results, then tried my eee pc laptop running Xandros thinking it might be my ethernet cards but again, same result. Decided to phone VM and complain and I was basically told the problem was on my end and I must have set up the modem/router/machine wrong (I just finished my degree in Networking, so don't really think thats the case).
Just another thing to add in, I figured it could be traffic management that was doing this so I started using a secure VPN (relakks.com) to avoid virgin seeing what the traffic was but the only thing that changed that I was able to download for slightly longer before the connection would drop out.
tl,dr: Basically I now have a 10mb up from 4mb cable connection that drops its connectivity repeatedly while streaming and during torrent activity that either reconnects right away or takes a few minutes if modem is directly connected to the pc, if it's connected to the router the connection drops out and the modem needs to be turned off/on and takes between 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP.
The odd thing with this though is that I've been running torrents at speeds for a 4mb line and my modem has cut off when I've been upgraded to 10mb so it's not even like I've been maxing out the bandwidth for the line.
Anyone else get both the streaming+torrent problem or even the problem with taking nearly 20 minutes to obtain an IP? Also, I read a post saying the older CMs can't handle above 4mb so should I get VM to send me a new one?
Cheers.