Broadband slower in summer months?

Gwynston

This may sound weird, but about a year ago, when we started using our PC more at home, I got into the habit of checking our Vodafone At Home (landline bundle) broadband speeds using speedtest.net. We're 2 or 3 miles from the exchange, so we've never got great performance and it used to average around 0.62MB/s. Just about OK for web surfing, but no good for streaming video or large downloads.

Then around September time I noticed it had magically jumped to 1.72 MB/s - with noticeably quicker surfing and even streaming video was possible! This speed was very consistent for months until sometime during the last month it seems to have switched back to "slow mode". Now speedtest.net consistently reports around 0.56 MB/s.

I can't be sure exactly when the "switch" occurred, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say it speeded up around the times the clocks changed last Autumn and then slowed down again when the clocks changed again last month. Coincidence

BTW, upload speeds have always stayed around the same at 0.26 MB/s.

Kensington

The weather, or more specifically, temperature, can affect your copper line between the house and the exchange. You could also have a load of online gamer school kids who go crazy outside of school term time on the same exchange as you

lucernarian

Speedtest.net is not always representative. Especially where lower speeds are concerned, it's more important to check the modem's reported connection speed and also the line statistics (like attenuation and signal margin). If you could post those it would be helpful!

Gwynston

I think speedtest is close to the mark. The line is noticeably slower in use. I also don't think it's a temperature or exchange usage issue, because it's a black and white change, with very little variation.

Is there a utility or web site I can use to measure my modem and line statistics?

lucernarian

Gwynston wrote: »

I think speedtest is close to the mark. The line is noticeably slower in use. I also don't think it's a temperature or exchange usage issue, because it's a black and white change, with very little variation.

Is there a utility or web site I can use to measure my modem and line statistics?

Just log into your router's page at 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254. The modem will report these stats somewhere. All those stats paint a far more detailed picture of what's going on with your line than what speedtest.net indicates.

In saying that, the information you've given suggests that the line suffers from intermittent bursts of interference. (E.g. an electric welder operating near your phone line will significantly reduce the maximum speed the line can handle). There probably won't be much you can do if that is the case. The signal margin and attenuation stats (before and after the speed issue arises) will help to clarify this.

Gwynston

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

But aside from minor daily differences, there seemed to be a bit jump from an average around 0.62 MB/s to 1.72MB/s last September which it stayed around for months until March sometime. It's since been consistently 0.56MB/s.

So if the pattern continues, I will have to wait until September for performance to improve in order to compare my modem stats!

Gwynston

OK, I managed to find my modem setup utility. Here's what I found:

Upstream attenuation: 31db
Upstream noise margin: 16db
Downstream attenuation: 59db
Downstream noise margin: 6db

Does anyone know how to interpret that?

yoyo

Gwynston wrote: »

OK, I managed to find my modem setup utility. Here's what I found:

Upstream attenuation: 31db
Upstream noise margin: 16db
Downstream attenuation: 59db
Downstream noise margin: 6db

Does anyone know how to interpret that?

Those stats are quite poor, the attenuation is very high and margin low (preferable low attenuation & high margin). Do you have any sky boxes or monitored alarm systems going in to the phone line? Also make sure there is a DSL filter on the modems phone connection (either via seperate filter or a filtered adsl phone line box)

Nick

Gwynston

Nothing else on the line except for the phone. It's plugged into a double-jack-type-thing that came with the modem. I presume that's the filter you're talking about?

yoyo

Gwynston wrote: »

Nothing else on the line except for the phone. It's plugged into a double-jack-type-thing that came with the modem. I presume that's the filter you're talking about?

Yep, that would be it, is the modem plugged in to an extension phone socket or the socket coming in from the street, if its an extension to the original socket the issue could be internal wiring, otherwise a bad line. Unfortunately with those stats I'd say you'd be lucky getting 1-2meg dl speed, what speed is the modem syncing at?

Nick

Gwynston

yoyo wrote: »

is the modem plugged in to an extension phone socket or the socket coming in from the street

Yep, plugged directly into the main Eircom plate.

yoyo wrote: »

Unfortunately with those stats I'd say you'd be lucky getting 1-2meg dl speed, what speed is the modem syncing at?

I'm not sure what you mean by "modem syncing". How do I find that out? I also didn't find in the setup screens exactly what the modem's reported connection speed was. I need to check for that again.

I know we're on a crap line and a long way from the exchange, so I was honestly happy and surprised when our connection jumped up to 1.72 MB/s last Autumn. My confusion is - why the sudden change? And why has it suddenly changed back down to crappy 0.56 MB/s this spring?

I guess I might not know unless it suddenly jumps back up again and I can compare the stats....

Gwynston

OK, so having been stuck with between 0.5 and 0.6 MB/s since the spring, some time during the past week, the "switchover" happened again and we're all of a sudden magically getting 1.72 MB/s again, like all of last winter. I'm happy enough for now, but what's causing it?

lucernarian

Gwynston wrote: »

OK, so having been stuck with between 0.5 and 0.6 MB/s since the spring, some time during the past week, the "switchover" happened again and we're all of a sudden magically getting 1.72 MB/s again, like all of last winter. I'm happy enough for now, but what's causing it?

I'm still waiting to see the connection speed (aka the speed the modem's "synced" at) from the router. I can't really narrow the problem down without that information.

The shorter the line, the better. So having the line going direct from outside to a socket without any other extensions to other sockets is best. Throughout the years, extension sockets and wiring issues like that are often responsible for slowdowns.

Why the seasonal variation, I don't know. Changes like that are too dramatic to be just weather, especially given how Ireland gets its fair share of rain during summer also.