ISP TEST RESULT RELIABILITY

rogue.goofball

Hi there.
I'm on BT. Was on the 2mb (option 2) for ages, but rang them up a couple of months ago due to ongoing drop out problems, and was sold the 3mb (option 3), as my line was to be upgraded to 7.8 and then 10/12 or whatever in the future.
Anyway, in the last few weeks the line was upgraded to 7.8. I have to say that I still suffer the same drop-out issues today as I did when I rang them up when on 2mb. I never noticed any difference when I went to 3mb, in terms of upload/download or service reliability - only difference was a bigger bill
Today has been particularly bad, but I can often surf and refesh a page or click only for it to fail (same with outlook send/recieve). It just drops out and comes back a few seconds later - this behaviour means you cannot stream anything. {same happened first time I tried to post this, and again when adding screenshots}.
When I first moved to BT a few years ago service was great, but in the last half year it has been deteriorating - Has something broke within the network in my house, or what???

So I have been testing my network now and again, I rarely get anything more than 3mb download, so I wonder was I sold a pup with option 3?
Would I get the same stats if I was on option 2?

Now onto the real topic. I usually test with www.irishisptest.com now and again I tested on www.speedtest.net (BT put me onto that one when I rang them. but I forgot the address until I saw it here on another post).
Anyway if I run them at the exact same time on the same pc on the same network I get very different results.
Are wither of them accurate?
Can anyone explain the difference?

Cheers, Dave.

smellslikeshoes

Post up your line stats. You should also try plugging everything out (sky boxe, phones,xboxs etc.) and plugging the modem into the main socket that comes into the house and see if there is any change. There really should be no reason why upgrading from 2-3mbit would help drop out issues, infact it would make them worse. My guess is the lad on the phone either hadn't a clue or else he wanted one or two more sign ups that month to get a pat on the back from his supervisor

rogue.goofball

Added them as jpgs earlier.
Have played around with the modem & routers. Switached all off bar the modem, but it still dropped out. Didnt turn off the sky etc, will try that tomorrow.

smellslikeshoes

rogue.goofball wrote: »

Added them as jpgs earlier.
Have played around with the modem & routers. Switached all off bar the modem, but it still dropped out. Didnt turn off the sky etc, will try that tomorrow.

I don't see any line stats on your first post or maybe I'm missing something at this time . Only jpgs I see on your first post are 2 speedtest results.

rogue.goofball

I thought they were the same thing - so it shows you what I know.
Dave.

MrVestek

Erm no, what he means is log into your DSL modem / router and post the stats for the DSL on the phone line itself.

rogue.goofball

Interesting... I disconnected my add-on router (dlink) and wireless gateway/bridge (netgear), and did the tests and it was good/reliable.

Both irishspeedtest.com and speedtest.net, gave similar results ~6mb down ~250kb up.

still got jitter, packet loss & quality of service issues though (see pic).

At this point I went into the zyxel broadband modem and the only test I could see was 'maintenance' -> 'diagnostic':

upstream
noise margin upstream: 12 db
output power downstream: 7 db
attenuation upstream: 18 db

downstream
noise margin downstream: 13 db
output power upstream: 19 db
attenuation downstream: 27 db

Then I reset the line, waited a few minutes, and retested:

upstream
noise margin upstream: 12 db
output power downstream: 6 db
attenuation upstream: 18 db

downstream
noise margin downstream: 13 db
output power upstream: 19 db
attenuation downstream: 28 db

Have I done the right tests?
I'm guessing this is a real reflection of my line, as the results are similar - so what is the diagnosis - will I have better speeds on this line? If I switch back the BT's #2 option will I get just as much throughput?

And now I have to investigate where within the Netgear or Dlink it all goes wrong. :eek:

Dave.

MrVestek

Wait hang on... so you had a ZyXel connected to a Netgear bridge to a D-Link? And you're wondering why you're having speed issues?

Those line stats look normal and now you're getting 6Mb down and 250kbps up. Sounds about right.

By the way, you'd really want to stay away from D-Link and Belkin routers if you want a reliable connection when sharing it out.

rogue.goofball

Indeed the dlink is old, and it was the one connected to the modem, the netgear was hung off that to give me wireless.
As soon as I have it out of the equation my stats are good.
I've tested it now on my wife's laptop through wireless-N, and got good stats, and no drop-outs.
So if I stick a netgear 5 port gigabit switch (GS605) in there instead will I be rocking? I need to have a wired switch, as I hang printer and work laptop (no wireless) off that.
Or should I try to get rid of the zyxel too, so that I only have 2 components, and if I stick with netgear one brand to deal with?
Dave.