WallIT
22-01-2010, 16:51
Hi,
I support the IT at a small firm. I have a bunch of remote workers who connect via VPN. One user in particular complains about frequent disconnections. All other users say the service is rock solid. He was using BT ADSL, which was slow and unreliable and eventually removed. I signed him up with VM 10mb package (cable). This was installed before xmas and all was going well until he said the VPN still drops and iplayer is juddery.
I went to his house did a few speedtest.net tests - he was getting speeds around 9.7mb down.
After some time on the phone an engineer popped round, took a look at the modem stats and immediately noticed the downstream power level was too high. He fitted an attenuator to the modem and said that would cure the instability. I did a few more speed tests - still getting high 9's so I was happy.
However, he still complains about dropping VPN. I thought a fair way to test this would be to ping his home from the office and compare that to other home users. I know ping isn't the most scientific of tests but it's quick and easy.
So, last night I setup 5 pings all running concurrently to 5 different home users (I have 1 other user on Virgin Cable, the other 3 are on Pipex and Be). The ping test logs to a file when the line appears down, and logs again when the line is back up, detailing the amount of time it was down.
The results, over 15 hours, are here:
User 1 (Pipex ADSL) - down 12 times
User 2 (Pipex ADSL) - down 2 times
User 3 (Be ADSL) - down 15 times
User 4 (Virgin 10mb) - down 5 times
User 5 (Virgin 10mb) - down 36 times (user who is complaining)
Now, I know some ping loss is typical, especially over 15 hours, but User5 seems to get it bad, particulary against User4 who also has Virgin cable.
I don't have the stats from the modem to hand (will do soon) but the engineer who visited and fitted the attenuator seemed to know what he was talking about, immediately identified the problem and was happy with the rest of the stats from the modem.
Q1. Is there anything else other reason why the line might be unstable?
Q2. The router updates DynDNS with it's current IP address, which I use for pinging, but I'm not sure which box is replying. The router? Or modem? The IP address starts 82.35.48.xx
Q3. If I'm getting ping reply from the router, I would like to rule that out by pinging direct to the modem - is this possible?
Any other helpful comments are much appreciated.
I support the IT at a small firm. I have a bunch of remote workers who connect via VPN. One user in particular complains about frequent disconnections. All other users say the service is rock solid. He was using BT ADSL, which was slow and unreliable and eventually removed. I signed him up with VM 10mb package (cable). This was installed before xmas and all was going well until he said the VPN still drops and iplayer is juddery.
I went to his house did a few speedtest.net tests - he was getting speeds around 9.7mb down.
After some time on the phone an engineer popped round, took a look at the modem stats and immediately noticed the downstream power level was too high. He fitted an attenuator to the modem and said that would cure the instability. I did a few more speed tests - still getting high 9's so I was happy.
However, he still complains about dropping VPN. I thought a fair way to test this would be to ping his home from the office and compare that to other home users. I know ping isn't the most scientific of tests but it's quick and easy.
So, last night I setup 5 pings all running concurrently to 5 different home users (I have 1 other user on Virgin Cable, the other 3 are on Pipex and Be). The ping test logs to a file when the line appears down, and logs again when the line is back up, detailing the amount of time it was down.
The results, over 15 hours, are here:
User 1 (Pipex ADSL) - down 12 times
User 2 (Pipex ADSL) - down 2 times
User 3 (Be ADSL) - down 15 times
User 4 (Virgin 10mb) - down 5 times
User 5 (Virgin 10mb) - down 36 times (user who is complaining)
Now, I know some ping loss is typical, especially over 15 hours, but User5 seems to get it bad, particulary against User4 who also has Virgin cable.
I don't have the stats from the modem to hand (will do soon) but the engineer who visited and fitted the attenuator seemed to know what he was talking about, immediately identified the problem and was happy with the rest of the stats from the modem.
Q1. Is there anything else other reason why the line might be unstable?
Q2. The router updates DynDNS with it's current IP address, which I use for pinging, but I'm not sure which box is replying. The router? Or modem? The IP address starts 82.35.48.xx
Q3. If I'm getting ping reply from the router, I would like to rule that out by pinging direct to the modem - is this possible?
Any other helpful comments are much appreciated.