power levels.

[Charliedontsurf]

These are my power levels.

Power Level
(dBmV) 9.12 8.34 9.46 9.33
RxMER
(dB) 36.17,35.97,36.61,36.84

Obviously under 7 is where you want it. I have a tech coming in the week to sort them out but from previous experience of VM techs I am thinking he will just shove some more attenuation on my line.

I already have a 6db FPA an I suspect the tech will be more than happy to daisy chain a 4dbFPA onto that. But then I believe that will drop my RxMER levels below 35dB.

So will that just cause more issues? Is there anyway of getting someone just to go to the green box and connect me to an appropriate powered point?

Or maybe even check my line to see if the over 8 year old repair done by a Telewest "tech" is causing an issue?

[jb66]

Telewest don't always have a different powered tap. If I was visiting I'd put a 10db attenuator on.

What's ur upstream

[Peter_]

Here are the latest power levels for all platforms.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35251144-post1.html

[Charliedontsurf]

Telewest don't always have a different powered tap. If I was visiting I'd put a 10db attenuator on.

What's ur upstream

Power Level
(dBmV) 41.25

---------- Post added at 15:01 ---------- Previous post was at 15:00 ----------

Here are the latest power levels for all platforms.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35251144-post1.html

Well when it gets cold my powerlevels will be hitting 12-15 as we all know the drop in summer(warm) rise in the winter(cold)

[Peter_]

Power Level
(dBmV) 41.25

---------- Post added at 15:01 ---------- Previous post was at 15:00 ----------



Well when it gets cold my powerlevels will be hitting 12-15 as we all know the drop in summer(warm) rise in the winter(cold)
You need a engineer who should check the tap in the cabinet and the cabling.

[Charliedontsurf]

You need a engineer who should check the tap in the cabinet and the cabling.

Hopefully, but they always tell me our cabinet is a mess and they can't find our line.

[Peter_]

Hopefully, but they always tell me our cabinet is a mess and they can't find our line.
Not really a valid excuse to say the least, they need to check out your connection and if that requires them doing a bit of work which takes time then so be it.

[jb66]

You need a engineer who should check the tap in the cabinet and the cabling.

What wil the tech be checking and how will he check it?

[Charliedontsurf]

What wil the tech be checking and how will he check it?

I'm not a "tech" but I would imagine checking my connection at the cabinet is tight? The cable into the screw in connector is fitted good not loose.

If there is different power level point maybe change me to a new one? Check my line from the cabinet to my home?

You're the "tech" and your asking?

Check my line isn't earthing? yes you're right I have no idea but the mess these cabinets are in must down to the "techs" as theyre the only ones who use them.

[Peter_]

What wil the tech be checking and how will he check it?


the tap may have corrosion on it and I presume that you have seen similar ones in the cabinets you visit and may need cleaning up and replacing the f connectors.

You would know more than me but simply saying they cannot find the connection in the cabinet is taking the mick to say the least.

[jb66]

I change the f in the pit and make sure it's tight also take a signal measurement to see how much loss is going over the drop. I was just curious to what you think we actually can do. We don't have a superdooper signal meter that shows us graphs and upstream power levels. So a change of f connector is all we can do.

Plugging a toner in the customers phone socket will let the tech find the cable.

[Charliedontsurf]

I change the f in the pit and make sure it's tight also take a signal measurement to see how much loss is going over the drop. I was just curious to what you think we actually can do. We don't have a superdooper signal meter that shows us graphs and upstream power levels. So a change of f connector is all we can do.

Plugging a toner in the customers phone socket will let the tech find the cable.

Wow I didn't realise being a "tech" was so technically challenging..

Would you say you're more of a fitter than a tech?

[jb66]

I'm a service tech, the same dept who will visit you To 'check' your line

[Peter_]

Plugging a toner in the customers phone socket will let the tech find the cable.
Now that shows that the previous techs have shown little interest in finding their tap.

[Charliedontsurf]

Well the "tech" just arrived ....................and left within 5 minutes.

Put a 10dB attenuator on the back of the modem after removing the 6dB that was on it, no need to check at the cab and left.

So here's hoping all is good

Power Level
(dBmV) 3.69 3.00 4.02 3.97

RxMER
(dB) 36.17 35.60 36.39 36.61

[Neo-Tech]

Aye, seems good to me. Although he really should have checked the cabinet and moved you to a different tap point, 10dB attenuation is quite a lot.

[Charliedontsurf]

I would imagine using a 10dB attenuator would be a last resort after checking the line and tap as cabinet.

I can't be arsed anymore I pay on time every month and expect the best service VM can give me. Slapping a 10dB FPA on my line is not the best service they can offer.

Here we go with the cancellation line. I got rid of the TV service and the phone-line I give the internet 2 weeks before they let me go for free.

Not only that but BT sent me a letter today offering unlimited calls and broadband for £5 a month ontop of line rental.

[Sephiroth]

Thing is, you never posted your upstream power. If he were to move you to a higher attenuation tap pointin the cabinet, say 10 dB, he'd lower your downstream but raise your upstream output by 10 dBmv.

If your upstream power was sitting at, say, 45 dBmv, then that cabinet change would have put you into the upstream power danger zone.

Do you think that is why you got an FPA (which doesn't affect upstream by more than ½ dB)?

[Charliedontsurf]

Thing is, you never posted your upstream power. If he were to move you to a higher attenuation tap pointin the cabinet, say 10 dB, he'd lower your downstream but raise your upstream output by 10 dBmv.

If your upstream power was sitting at, say, 45 dBmv, then that cabinet change would have put you into the upstream power danger zone.

Do you think that is why you got an FPA (which doesn't affect upstream by more than ½ dB)?


Power Level
(dBmV) 41.25

Do cabinet points only go up in 10's then? could he not raise it by 5 or 4 etc? If it is the case the points only rise in 10's then fair enough. Why did I ever leave my ADSL2+ connection.

All I want from cable is an internet connection that was as stable as my old ADSL2 connection. I want to be able to stream youtube whenever I want, I want the kids to play xboxlive without issues, iplayer to work. I will do my bit(pay my bills on time) I'M NOT ASKING FOR THE WORLD HERE.

[Sephiroth]

Ah yes - you did post your upstream earlier. At 41.25, it's where it should be.

Just sticking to the technical question, in my area the tap points are at the following attenuation levels 29dB, 22dB, 18dB, 15dB. Generally speaking, if you're further away from the cabinet, they'll put you on a lower tap value so that the downstream gets through and to give the upstream a better chance.

They can move you around to a different tap point subject to a vacant tap point being there. Each cabinet has 4 x 12 tap points (12 per attenuation value).

He did the right thing attenuating the downstream. You've already made the point that in the winter your power will rise by c. 3 dBmv so 10 dB attenuation is correct IMO.

Your last post was the first time I could see that there was a problem with your user experience. The RxMER of c. 36 dB is fine for the 50 meg service. Anywhere at or above 35 dB is optimal.

So tell us more about the user experience, and your location? Can we see the event log please and the FULL set of stats so that events and stats can be correlated. Had you considered congestion? Is it a SH or a modem? If it's a modem, we can see the codeword errors in the stats which is a useful diagnostic. Please don't reboot the modem before taking the snapshot.

Cheers

[Charliedontsurf]

Ah yes - you did post your upstream earlier. At 41.25, it's where it should be.

Just sticking to the technical question, in my area the tap points are at the following attenuation levels 29dB, 22dB, 18dB, 15dB. Generally speaking, if you're further away from the cabinet, they'll put you on a lower tap value so that the downstream gets through and to give the upstream a better chance.

They can move you around to a different tap point subject to a vacant tap point being there. Each cabinet has 4 x 12 tap points (12 per attenuation value).

He did the right thing attenuating the downstream. You've already made the point that in the winter your power will rise by c. 3 dBmv so 10 dB attenuation is correct IMO.

Your last post was the first time I could see that there was a problem with your user experience. The RxMER of c. 36 dB is fine for the 50 meg service. Anywhere at or above 35 dB is optimal.

So tell us more about the user experience, and your location? Can we see the event log please and the FULL set of stats so that events and stats can be correlated. Had you considered congestion? Is it a SH or a modem? If it's a modem, we can see the codeword errors in the stats which is a useful diagnostic. Please don't reboot the modem before taking the snapshot.

Cheers

If you knew that the taps points at the cab don't have to drop is 10's why did you even say the comment about the tech dropping me to a tap that was 10db below the one I'm on?

The tech would know not to drop me to a much lower tap point if my upstream power level was at 45 or higher there fore making your previous point redundant.

I'm looking for solutions not random things the tech would never do because it would make my situation worse.

What help to me would it be if I gave YOU my correctable/none correctable codewords? Or my location?

But FYI my correctables are in the millions and my none correctables in the 100's.

BTW Have you ever worked for Telewest/NTL/Virginmedia? You seem to be a textbook* hero with no capacity for the variables of the real world.





*Read a lot, not a lot of field experience.

[Sephiroth]

I'm rather taken aback by those unfriendly remarks.

But I'll carry on trying to help you get to the bottom of your problem. The full stats tell us more than the power & RxMER levels. I don't know how much you know about HFC networks, but for now I'll assume it's somewhat modest.

If your correctables are in the millions and your uncorrectables (and your power levels are acceptable) , then you've got a downstream problem that could be SNR related, although your RxMER appears OK. I have a slightly lower RxMER than you and I get millions of correctables but the uncorrectables are not rising. My RxMER has been slowly rising and the rate of increase of correctables has fallen.

So it could be that your modem's tolerance is slightly worse than mine. But i generally get 50 meg and 4.8 meg upload.

The rest of the stats tell us what your upstream modulation is. If it's QPSK, you have a noisy upstream which would severely affect gaming and can also seriously affect the downstream. We can also tell if you've been correctly provisioned. There have been cases I've diagnosed in this way where I (and one or two others) spotted that the upstream symbol rate was 128-0 K rather than 5120; a crippling misconfiguration.

Finally - your location. There are known places where there is chronic congestion. There are known places where VM isw upgrading infrastructure and squeezing peops temporarily onto a single CMTS - temporary congestion.

I haven't seen the engineer solve your problem; I haven't seen anyone else delving deeper into your problem. So I'm trying to help you and didn't deserve the tone of your response.

[Charliedontsurf]

<snip>

So I'm trying to help you and didn't deserve the tone of your response.

I apologise for my tone. Unfortunately I was a very happy ADSL2 Customer who was fooled by Virgin medias headlines...50Mb GREAT SUPER FANTASTIC NOTHING IT CANT HANDLE.

I took out vip50 and it was poor, now all I want is the absolutely pathetic useless for anything other than basic browsing broadband taken out.

I got rid of the TV then the phone now I want rid of the internet. I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!!

The kids moan they cant use xbox as its to laggy the oldest moans she cant stream youtube songs whilst facebooking, the mrs moans iplayer or 5ondemand wont stream her missed shows.

We had 7 years of trouble free adsl and sky tv, I got the sky tv back now just need to get VM to let me cancel FREE.

You maybe got a little bit of what I get every evening from my family lol....So again I'm sorry for my earlier reply.

ANYWAY--

Weve taken a decision tonight. On Friday were paying BT for the 12 months in advance line rental and taking there Broadband. The VM can run untill contract ends but every tiny fault will be reported and credits given.

Can I JUST ADD OUR adsl2 line played xbox, streamed youtube, played iplayer and no one in my family ever moaned......My 50Mb line from VIRGIN cant do any of it.

Post corrected to comply with T&Cs.Please remember to use the correct terms when referring to any product used by any company..

[Sephiroth]

Fair enough. I've got both VM/50 and BT Infinity. I hope you can get Infinity. It's as stable as my VM service (I'm obviously luckier than you). Reason I have both: It's as much an indulgence as for professional reasons. I can't afford ever to be without broadband.

Good luck.

[Charliedontsurf]

Fair enough. I've got both VM/50 and BT Infinity. I hope you can get Infinity. It's as stable as my VM service (I'm obviously luckier than you). Reason I have both: It's as much an indulgence as for professional reasons. I can't afford ever to be without broadband.

Good luck.

The fact you have BT infinity which I assume was fitted AFTER your VM install raises one question................

If you had infinity first would you ring VM and ask them to install there services at your property to run along side your infinity?

---------- Post added at 21:32 ---------- Previous post was at 21:17 ----------

The fact you have BT infinity which I assume was fitted AFTER your VM install raises one question................

If you had infinity first would you ring VM and ask them to install there services at your property to run along side your infinity?

http://www.pingtest.net/result/42073007.png (http://www.pingtest.net)

http://www.pingtest.net/result/42073165.png (http://www.pingtest.net)

http://www.pingtest.net/result/42073257.png (http://www.pingtest.net)

[Sephiroth]

You ask a good question. I had BT ADSL first but could only get 1 meg because of distance from the exchange. So when the VM 20 meg service launched (2005/2006?) I added this to my TV & phone that I'd had since 1996. I kept the ADSL as a precaution and switched in 2008 to O2 ADSL2+ because I could get it for £7.50. This ran faster (because of 2+) but only 1.5 meg. Nevertheless I took rare but appreciated comfort from having this backstop available.

Then, with the hype over Infinity, my forum involvements, professional curiosity and so on, I took the Infinity iindulgence last December and have used it twice during periods of VM instability. I switch to it every couple of weeks just to stay abreast of its performance as take-up grows in my area.

So, to your question. The most honest answer is that with Infinity as I judge it now, I would have no more need for VM 50 meg than I had for Infinity when I ordered it.

In other words, for normal folk, based on my experience, Infinity would do. BTW, I believe the speed is doubling in the autumn (dunno the price yet). I live some 300m from the Infinity cab and get 38 down and 8 up.

HTH.

[qasdfdsaq]

Aye, seems good to me. Although he really should have checked the cabinet and moved you to a different tap point, 10dB attenuation is quite a lot.
Pfft, I need 18 to make my connection run stable. And they can't move me to a different tap point because we don't have individual drops here.

---------- Post added at 01:04 ---------- Previous post was at 00:59 ----------


BTW Have you ever worked for Telewest/NTL/Virginmedia? You seem to be a textbook* hero with no capacity for the variables of the real world.
Seph's one of the nicest guys around here and also happens to be an uber-geek at times too (spending weeks mapping out VM's network beats even me :P). I'd wager he knows more about VM's network and the "variables of the real world" than half of VM's own staff. And most certainly, you.