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Dravic
24-07-2006, 22:06
The problem I have at the moment is a very inconsistent and slow connection. I'm on the 10mb package and get pretty poor speeds, around 2-6mb usually.

It will often work for an hour or two and be ok, then I'll have a spell where I get massive amounts of packet loss or total loss of connection. This can last for anywhere between 5-10 mins or a few hours, during this time my connection is pretty much useless, maybe loading the odd webpage between the timeouts.

This can happen at any time of day really and has been going on for a couple of months, but it got alot worse and more frequent around a month ago.

Sometimes the modem will seem to reset itself, ie cycling through the lights and then reconnecting and other times it will just sit there with the power, enet, sync and ready lights on but no connection.
A reboot of the modem usually sorts it out for a very short time, often < 1min.

I have contacted the BB support line a couple of times and have had a couple of visits by NTL engineers, the first one replaced my NTL 120 modem with an NTL 250 and put a 6db FPA on the back of it, the second one just removed the FPA.

Neither visit made any positive difference although my connection is possibly worse after the first visit.

This happens on both Windows XP and Linux (Mandriva)

I'm located in between guildford and portsmouth so I'm not sure which of the 2 franchises I use but my first hop is Cosham.

The modem is plugged directly into the PC via an ethernet cable.

The problem persists wheather I have my firewall (Zone Alarm) on or disabled.

Tracert to bbc.co.uk:
Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 25 ms 6 ms 5 ms xx.xx.xx.xx
2 10 ms 7 ms 8 ms cosh-t2cam1-a-v116.inet.ntl.com [80.3.162.25]
3 8 ms 7 ms 9 ms cosh-t2core-a-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.3.161.5]

4 29 ms 21 ms 12 ms win-bb-a-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.249]

5 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms gfd-bb-b-so-500-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.130]

6 10 ms 40 ms 41 ms redb-ic-1-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.174.138]
7 10 ms 18 ms 11 ms 212.58.238.189
8 9 ms 10 ms 12 ms 212.58.238.133
9 12 ms 10 ms 9 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Trace complete.

Line test results: http://www.broadbandreports.com/quality/nil/2064926

Speed test results:

http://www.lucidni.com/results.php?kbps=5720.7&downloadtime=4.296&KB=3000&recorded=1

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedchart.asp?id=115376993457907717997

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/results.php?t=1153773302&v=261361

Dslreports Speed Test Results:

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-07-24 15:26:52 EST:
4035 / 470
Your download speed : 4035 kbps or 504.4 KB/sec.
That is 60.1% better than an average user on ntl.com
Your upload speed : 470 kbps or 58.8 KB/sec.
That is 61.5% better than an average user on ntl.com


Signal levels at downtime:

Cable Modem Downstream
Downstream Lock : Not Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 0
Downstream Frequency : 586750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 2.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 35.6 dB


Upstream Lock : Not Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 3
Upstream Frequency : 46384000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 43.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2


Anyone got any ideas as to what is wrong before I make another call to their Tech support?

SLM
24-07-2006, 22:39
[quote]Downstream Receive Power Level : 2.8 dBmV[quote/]

This looks ok as you are looking for a figure -/+3 db of zero


[quote]Upstream transmit Power Level : 43.0 dBmV[quote/]

This also looks good, a figure as far from 60db is what you are looking for (45-55db is about average)

Do not try any of the speed tests out there they are not designed for a fast BB such as 10 meg, if you try a large file to down load and look what the transfer rate is, try this
http://www.mirror.ac.uk/mirror/ftp.fi.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r2/i386/iso-cd/

homealone
24-07-2006, 22:43
[quote]Downstream Receive Power Level : 2.8 dBmV[quote/]

This looks ok as you are looking for a figure -/+3 db of zero


[quote]Upstream transmit Power Level : 43.0 dBmV[quote/]

This also looks good, a figure as far from 60db is what you are looking for (45-55db is about average)

Do not try any of the speed tests out there they are not designed for a fast BB such as 10 meg, if you try a large file to down load and look what the transfer rate is, try this
http://www.mirror.ac.uk/mirror/ftp.fi.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r2/i386/iso-cd/


david elwells tests cope reasonably well

http://www.broadbandspeedtest.net/

as they use multiple servers

- you need to register to get an upload speed ;)

Dravic
24-07-2006, 23:39
[quote]Downstream Receive Power Level : 2.8 dBmV[quote/]

This looks ok as you are looking for a figure -/+3 db of zero


[quote]Upstream transmit Power Level : 43.0 dBmV[quote/]

This also looks good, a figure as far from 60db is what you are looking for (45-55db is about average)

Do not try any of the speed tests out there they are not designed for a fast BB such as 10 meg, if you try a large file to down load and look what the transfer rate is, try this
http://www.mirror.ac.uk/mirror/ftp.fi.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r2/i386/iso-cd/

I'm getting ~190-200kB/s from that link, I used to get >1000KB/s :(

Rik
25-07-2006, 09:37
Using "brhm-cache-5.server.ntli.net" i get 1.19MB/s on that link for reference

Dravic
25-07-2006, 21:08
Just posting my CM event log if that's any help to anyone

Tue Jul 25 20:13:00 2006 Tue Jul 25 20:13:00 2006 3 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Time Not Established 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Tue Jul 25 19:46:16 2006 Tue Jul 25 19:46:16 2006 2 Critical(3) 73000200 REG RSP not received
Tue Jul 25 19:45:59 2006 Tue Jul 25 19:45:59 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Tue Jul 25 19:45:50 2006 Tue Jul 25 19:45:50 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Tue Jul 25 19:45:18 2006 Tue Jul 25 19:45:18 2006 16 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Time Not Established 2 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Tue Jul 25 19:03:08 2006 Tue Jul 25 19:03:08 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Tue Jul 25 19:02:36 2006 Tue Jul 25 19:02:36 2006 26 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Tue Jul 25 07:39:51 2006 Tue Jul 25 07:39:51 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Tue Jul 25 07:39:38 2006 Tue Jul 25 07:39:38 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Tue Jul 25 07:39:05 2006 Tue Jul 25 07:39:05 2006 48 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Tue Jul 25 02:22:17 2006 Tue Jul 25 02:22:17 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Tue Jul 25 02:22:05 2006 Tue Jul 25 02:22:05 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Tue Jul 25 02:21:32 2006 Tue Jul 25 02:21:32 2006 20 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Tue Jul 25 02:11:30 2006 Tue Jul 25 02:11:30 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Tue Jul 25 02:11:24 2006 Tue Jul 25 02:11:24 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000200 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Tue Jul 25 02:11:17 2006 Tue Jul 25 02:11:17 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Tue Jul 25 02:10:45 2006 Tue Jul 25 02:10:45 2006 22 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Mon Jul 24 19:42:57 2006 Mon Jul 24 19:42:57 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Mon Jul 24 19:42:46 2006 Mon Jul 24 19:42:46 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Mon Jul 24 19:42:13 2006 Mon Jul 24 19:42:13 2006 16 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Mon Jul 24 19:40:11 2006 Mon Jul 24 19:40:11 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Mon Jul 24 19:40:00 2006 Mon Jul 24 19:40:00 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Mon Jul 24 19:39:27 2006 Mon Jul 24 19:39:27 2006 17 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Mon Jul 24 18:19:55 2006 Mon Jul 24 18:19:55 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Mon Jul 24 18:19:43 2006 Mon Jul 24 18:19:43 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Mon Jul 24 18:19:10 2006 Mon Jul 24 18:19:10 2006 45 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Mon Jul 24 17:48:00 2006 Mon Jul 24 17:48:00 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Mon Jul 24 17:47:49 2006 Mon Jul 24 17:47:49 2006 1 Critical(3) 82000400 Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Mon Jul 24 17:47:16 2006 Mon Jul 24 17:47:16 2006 18 Critical(3) 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Mon Jul 24 17:42:22 2006 Mon Jul 24 17:42:22 2006 1 Critical(3) 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Meh, It was all nicely formatted when I wrote it :(