50M : Think Broadband Ping Monitor Results (POST YOURS)

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Yes it is a surprise. Last time I had those schmitty DS power levels and poor SNR performance was terrible, including packet loss. It sort of flies in the face of the advice I dole out to others!

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Surprising how well it performs (essentially flawlessly) despite those stats... Essentially zero packet loss throughout the day aside from the two resyncs.

Believe it or not, those signal and power levels are within spec, depending on who you ask. It was never as clear cut as it should have been, they kept changing and adjusting the numbers. It was always confusing because in reality the CMTS you're on makes a huge difference to what's acceptable. It used to be "HEre are the ex-NTL levels, here are the ex-TW levels" but as time went on, the network became more and more mixed with Motorola and Cisco equipment all mingled together. It even changes with newer Cisco models, just to be awkward.
Basically I'm saying that the power levels are more of a guideline and the +/- 6 max is just what'll work best for everyone. The SNR can theoretically drop to as low as 20 and still work but once again, there's a lot more variables that are hard to check that makes it easier to just say 28+

Originally Posted by dwarven

I will most definately be chasing up on these 2 tickets. Do wonder why they bother giving people this 'free' upgrade when the network has these kind of issues.

Found out today that Sky is going to be offering their unlimited package in my area within six months so that may end up being the answer.

I would honestly advise that you seriously consider the move to Sky, assuming I'm right about those ticket numbers. I guess Virgin just keeps extending the deadline to try and keep people happy, but I'd personally rather just hear that it'll be 6 or 12 months before a resolution than be told what's basically a lie. I actually wonder how they get away with it.

[Chrysalis]

funny to see VM continue upgrading lower utilisation areas ahead of heavy utilisation areas and they wonder why people like me and QTX are leaving.



My area is also back down to 4 downstream channels.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Kushan

Basically I'm saying that the power levels are more of a guideline and the +/- 6 max is just what'll work best for everyone. The SNR can theoretically drop to as low as 20 and still work but once again, there's a lot more variables that are hard to check that makes it easier to just say 28+

Yes, indeed. Official spec puts power levels at -15 to +15 too, but many people see problems before this and some see no problems outside of these.

---------- Post added at 13:37 ---------- Previous post was at 13:36 ----------

Originally Posted by Kushan

I would honestly advise that you seriously consider the move to Sky, assuming I'm right about those ticket numbers. I guess Virgin just keeps extending the deadline to try and keep people happy, but I'd personally rather just hear that it'll be 6 or 12 months before a resolution than be told what's basically a lie. I actually wonder how they get away with it.

Unfortunately my personal experience fairly well reflected the above, with the addition that in some cases they'd say the previous ticket was "fixed" as soon as a few people went away on holiday and the load went down... for a week

[Sephiroth]

As Qasi says. The SNR strikes me as being the key value. I published in another post somewhere a table of low power levels and the necessary SNR with headroom published in the DOCSIS 3 specs. In practice, the SNR headroom needs to be DOCSIS value + 6dB to allow for impairments not attributable to the foreseen DOCSIS environment.

Yet mine currently seems to be running OK with one channel at 28 dB SNR & power at -11.5 dBmv (albeit some DS speed loss). When I had a VMNG 300, it was plain shocking when I had that brief spell at 28 dB SNR. Is my SH a good'n? LOL!

[qasdfdsaq]

Superhubs do tend to report a higher SNR than VMNG300's on the same line.

[trikz]

I'm on 100mb and have reported that i've received bad latency gaming in the evenings and they just fobbed me off saying their was healthy utilisation in my area, I really wonder what he meant by healthy?

[Kushan]

I think you've got more than a utilisation issue there, trikz. What's your modem stats?

[trikz]

here are my stats http://puu.sh/1QG0X

[Kushan]

Hmm. Those stats, while not perfect, seem reasonable enough that you shouldn't have such terrible pings. There must be an area issue after all.

[qasdfdsaq]

8 downstreams with only 1 upstream? Yeah that's begging for problems...

[Horace]

Anyone with a clue know why my connection falls apart between 4pm and Midnight exactly every day, I mean, utilisation problems shouldn't be so well scheduled and there's nothing running on my end to swamp my connection during those times by the way.

[trikz]

So you think another upstream could fix this? What's the sort of time-frame for them to do something like that?

[thenry]

after your downstream upgrades are done. i waited around 5months after my download double ETA was met. others have had to wait less than that and some more. in short no one knows.

[Kushan]

I don't think the number of downstreams versus the number of upstreams has any impact.

[thenry]

load balancing Kushan?