New Wireless Modem has destroyed my Net Speed :(

Lord TSC

So we got a new modem sent out to us from Eircom yesterday because our old one stopped working.

Got it working on everything now, but the problem is the connection seems to be really slow and/or weak compared to what it was a few days ago. Where a youtube video would load in seconds before, it takes forever to load now (it took 30 minutes to load a 10 minute video last night). If we're streaming a video anywhere in the house, no one can access any webpages.

Even sitting right beside the modem, the speed is dire. A speed test online says my...
Upload Speed: 0.23mbps
Download Speed: 1.43mbps

I found an old post on here from back in Septmeber where the same test gave results of...
Upload: 0.38mbps
Download: 7.02mbps

Thats a huge difference in download speed, and the only thing to change is the wireless modem. I'm not 100% sure if thats a linked or seperate problem but it's frustrating having to spend so long trying to stream a short film, and not being able to do even two things at once online. I tried changing the channels and that hasn't improved anything.

Any thoughts?

Sponge Bob

Change the channel ( wireless settings) to 1 6 7 or 11 from whatever it is now. Coul be interference.

eircom: James

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

So we got a new modem sent out to us from Eircom yesterday because our old one stopped working.

Got it working on everything now, but the problem is the connection seems to be really slow and/or weak compared to what it was a few days ago. Where a youtube video would load in seconds before, it takes forever to load now (it took 30 minutes to load a 10 minute video last night). If we're streaming a video anywhere in the house, no one can access any webpages.

Even sitting right beside the modem, the speed is dire. A speed test online says my...
Upload Speed: 0.23mbps
Download Speed: 1.43mbps

I found an old post on here from back in Septmeber where the same test gave results of...
Upload: 0.38mbps
Download: 7.02mbps

Thats a huge difference in download speed, and the only thing to change is the wireless modem. I'm not 100% sure if thats a linked or seperate problem but it's frustrating having to spend so long trying to stream a short film, and not being able to do even two things at once online. I tried changing the channels and that hasn't improved anything.

Any thoughts?

Hi Teamshadowclan,

As Sponge Bob said, although you have already tried changing the channel I would advise moving right through the range of frequencies to be sure there's no outside interference. Try maybe every second channel until you find the best one. May not be the problem but give it a go as a start. If that doesn't do it, send me a PM with the phone/account number and I'll check it from this end to ensure there's no problems with the signal from our end. Also, try a speed test over ethernet with only one device connected and see if the result is any better. There's a speed checklist on our own forum here. There are a few basic checks you can carry out there. Let me know if nothing changes.

Regards

James

Lord TSC

Hey again,

I did a speed test with the wire plugged in and ended up getting 1.36mbps.

Tried all the channels and same results. None are significantly better than the others.

I'll PM you my details now

Sponge Bob

Plug it straight into socket, no filter, and see what happens.

Lord TSC

Won't connect to the net at all when I do that; the wireless light is on, the DSL light flashes on and off, the net connection light stays off and the computers just say "Local Only".

Lord TSC

So I decided to try something this morning.

Before, I had a normal filter on the modem downstairs and a spliter on the phone line upstairs with the phone plugged into the right part. This is how it's been for a solid two years now.

This morning, I switched them round, so the filter is on the phone line and the splitter is now on the modem with it plugged into the corresponding section.

This has, for some reason, doubled my net speed.
Upload 0.43mbps
Download 3.01mbps

This, at least, means I can stream videos again without constant pauses. However I still have the problem whereby when I am streaming a video, no other device in the house can access the net at all. If they try, they just get a huge wait time followed by a "Page failed to load" error screen. :S

It's nice to be making progress but it's frustrating only being able to have one device working at a time like that...

Sponge Bob

Something odd here. The modem does not actually need a filter, the phone does. So plugging a modem straight into a socket should worsen nothing. Change the phone cable from the modem to the socket and see what happens.

eircom: James

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

So I decided to try something this morning.

Before, I had a normal filter on the modem downstairs and a spliter on the phone line upstairs with the phone plugged into the right part. This is how it's been for a solid two years now.

This morning, I switched them round, so the filter is on the phone line and the splitter is now on the modem with it plugged into the corresponding section.

This has, for some reason, doubled my net speed.
Upload 0.43mbps
Download 3.01mbps

This, at least, means I can stream videos again without constant pauses. However I still have the problem whereby when I am streaming a video, no other device in the house can access the net at all. If they try, they just get a huge wait time followed by a "Page failed to load" error screen. :S

It's nice to be making progress but it's frustrating only being able to have one device working at a time like that...

Hi again,

Thanks for the PM, have been able to check a bit further into this for you. There does seem to be an issue there as the tests I have done are inconsistent. One test tells me the line can handle around 15-17mb but all others say max of 7-8mb. This points to the internal wiring being the problem. Have you tried the checklist linked in my first post? This gives the most basic troubleshooting but from what you described above it seems that the main socket may not be the one you think it is.

The best way to test is have one PC on ethernet with the modem connected directly to the main socket. Unplug all phones and filters and have just phone cable to modem (and power to wall) with the ethernet cable directly into one device. Ensure there's nothing like torrent programs or background updates going on as these can also skew the results. If that setup gives the same results again we may need to send an engineer. Try that and let me know so we can move on to the next steps. It's possible that one of the filters may also be faulty but I'm just guessing at this stage. The troubleshooting list will help us begin to narrow it down.

Regards

James

Sponge Bob

Unplug all sky boxes in particular.

Lord TSC

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Something odd here. The modem does not actually need a filter, the phone does. So plugging a modem straight into a socket should worsen nothing. Change the phone cable from the modem to the socket and see what happens.

Ok, I threw the old phone line from the old modem in and it's helped a bit (I was using the new one which came with the new modem). Without the filter, Speed tests now are giving results of just over 3mb/s, BUT I can stream videos and access pages at the same time again, which is a huge leap forward

It was getting worse last night before I made that switch, mind. Speed tests were at about 0.5mb, and it was near impossible to do anything online.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Unplug all sky boxes in particular.

Never have had the Sky box plugged in, nor any other third party thingy. I have two phone sockets; one downstairs by the front door (which I believe to be the main) which the modem is plugged into. And one upstairs in the parent's bedroom which the phone is plugged into. I also have an Eircom phone alarm, but the engineer the other day said that shouldn't cause an issue, especially since we've had it for quite a while with no qualms.

eircom: James wrote: »

One test tells me the line can handle around 15-17mb but all others say max of 7-8mb.

I'd love 15-17 mb :P As I said, at its peak with the old modem, I think we were getting about 7-8mb.

I did go through the checklist with not much luck or improvement.

* 1. CHECK WHAT LIGHTS ARE ON THE MODEM /ROUTER - Power -Green Light?

Power solid green, wireless ocassionally flashing, DSL solid green, Internet occasionally flashing.

* 2 RESTART THE MODEM - Turn the modem off and on again

Does nothing.

* 3 REMOVE THE ADSL SPLITTER FROM THE PHONE SOCKET; remove the adsl adaptor

See above. Slight improvement.

* 4 USE ONLY THE DSL CABLE (RJ11) CONNECTED TO THE MODEM /ROUTER; this cable is normally coloured purple or black or grey.

I'm using the cables supplied with the new modem, with the exception of the one from the modem to the phone socket, as detailed above.

* 5 DISCONNECT ANY LONG EXTENSION PHONECABLE – Private phoneleads

Don't have any.

* 6 TEMPORARILY DISCONNECT ANY THIRD PARTY EQUIPMENT - Remove Sky (box/s), Fax from the Intenal wiring /phoneline.

Don't have any.


Once you have done this then -
PLEASE TEST THE MODEM (ROUTER) DIRECTLY ON THE MAIN PHONE SOCKET (MDP)

I'm pretty sure that's how it's always been set up.


I've tried the "unplug everything but a computer plugged into the modem" and results didn't change. Just returns the same results as wireless.

With regards the internal wiring, when the engineer was out last week, he checked the wiring on the box at the front door beside the phone socket, and said it was perfectly ok.

Lord TSC

So I ended up ringing Eircom this morning; no offence, but I can't keep waiting 48 hours for responses. Its great having this service of being able to talk to people on Boards.ie, but I needed to get this fixed.

Nearly as soon as I rang up, I was told the problem was my modem wasn't fully updated. It took seconds for the problem to be diagnosed and minutes to be fixed. Speed tests have me back up at 7mbps now, but more importantly, I can load multiple sites and do multiple things at once again.

I do wonder though; why are the modems not fully upgraded before they are sent out. Why send out a modem thats not fully functional? And why not tell people when they are getting these modems that they need to upgrade the firmware before it can really work?