Eir F2000 modem high pings, dropped connections, reduced download speeds

Danger781

Hey folks,

I got eir installed 6 days ago. For the most part it has been fine, however what seems to happen infrequently is the connection will just stop working. Can't access websites, can't ping websites, steam disconnects, etc.. In other words everything goes down for a period of time. I am currently connected via Ethernet to the modem.

This happened today right about 5:30PM, and a few nights ago as well. While this was happening today I noticed that Steam was downloading an update in the background. A rather small update of 330MB. Not sure how related that is considering my speeds were averaging about 200KB/s while that was happening, and I have a 12Mb Fibre connection. Could it be that despite the shockingly low speeds it was somehow consuming my entire connection?

While downloading the speeds would drop to 0KB/s for anything up to a minute, then increase again to anything from 100KB/s to 250 KB/s then shortly after drop to 0 again. While the speeds were at 0 I was not able to access any web pages or ping google. Once it spiked back up temporarily I was just barely able to access any sites - I managed to get a speedtest to run at one point:


Download speeds appeared to be unaffected but my ping was insane..

Danger781

4 minutes prior to the one above:

Danger781

DSL Information
DSL synchronization status:
Up
Connection status:
Showtime
Upstream line rate (kbit/s):
1022
Downstream line rate (kbit/s):
12286
Maximum upstream rate (kbit/s):
1149
Maximum downstream rate (kbit/s):
29365
Upstream noise safety coefficient (dB):
9.1
Downstream noise safety coefficient (dB):
22.8
Upstream interleave depth:
0
Downstream interleave depth:
0
Line standard:
VDSL
Upstream line attenuation (dB):
12.3
Downstream line attenuation (dB):
24.7
Upstream output power (dBmV):
10.5
Downstream output power (dBmV):
14.5
Downstream interleave depth:
None
DSL up time:

notahappycamper

Ring them. Could be an error relating to being on the wrong port? One for ED E I think.

degsie

One for eir support I think.

ED E

1700m to cab, 30Mb max DS but set to 12Mb so should be stable but that US is just barely there.

I would suspect your upstream is erroring like hell and the connection is falling over.

You can still call Eir now, do it and have them test it.

Danger781

I spoke to Eir earlier on live chat and they found no issues after a line test. The support agent said he was going to escalate this to their engineering dept. and they would work on this in the next few days remotely. As it's intermittent I don't know how they can test this...

@Ed E: By 'do it' what do you mean? I assume you mean try downloading something and see if the issue happens again?

ED E

I simply meant call them.

Their meter will detect some issues that could cause this.

kilowog

Did you have any luck getting this fixed? I am having the same problem in Dublin, and I also had my modem installed on 30 Sept. I've been round with eir support several times now, and each time they are sure its fixed, but it isn't.

Danger781

kilowog wrote: »

Did you have any luck getting this fixed? I am having the same problem in Dublin, and I also had my modem installed on 30 Sept. I've been round with eir support several times now, and each time they are sure its fixed, but it isn't.

Engineer popped out the other day but needed access to the main line which was on the landlords side of the house, and he is on holidays so I've had to rearrange. He said the line shouldn't have been installed in the first place without going up there to take a look.

Hopefully they find something odd and it's a quick fix.

Danger781

Happened again today for about 45 minutes or so.. Connection completely dropped.. Restarted modem as couldn't get connectivity back.. After restart I ran the above speedtests..

Weirdest thing is the rogue 16ms result in between all the bad ones :pac:

Phoned Eir, and they said there is an engineer looking at the exchange now and apparently he is still on-site. Looks like I'll have no more updates until tomorrow.

Danger781

This is how it has been all evening since about 8PM.

Looks like the engineer working on the exchange fixed nothing..

ED E

"Working at the exchange" = Hitting buttons on work phone in the pub.

Danger781

Eir engineer has just left the house.. He got access to the attic and found that my line had some sort of splitter on it (I forget the term he used), but he has now fixed that and the main line goes directly into my connection now. Sounds promising I thought to myself! My issues have finally been fixed!

Until I got near my computer.....

I have a 12mb connection:




Ran one more - Hit ping of 1800ms, 2.5Mb download, and the upload simply hung and never completed..

I'll keep an eye on it for the rest of the day and see if it makes a difference...

mass_debater

So after all you're ranting about dodgy modems a bridge tap buried in the attic was causing issues. Can you be certain there are no more bridge taps or dodgy cabling? If your cable comes to the attic is it a twin cable without twists or was this twin cable replaced with a modern drop wire?
Also post your line stats.

AngryDiMaria

Your line stats show that your upstream SNR is a bit low, I'm pretty sure that's something to do with internal interference (in your house).

Danger781

mass_debater wrote: »

So after all you're ranting about dodgy modems a bridge tap buried in the attic was causing issues. Can you be certain there are no more bridge taps or dodgy cabling? If your cable comes to the attic is it a twin cable without twists or was this twin cable replaced with a modern drop wire?
Also post your line stats.

I don't think I was ranting about the modem, or at least I don't recall doing so I'm not versed in internet infrastructure so I have no idea whether the problem lies in the exchange, the connection to the house, the modem.. etc.. Hence the need to continuously phone Eir asking them to look into this again and again..

Not sure what statistics you're looking for, but I assume it's the DSL stats;

DSL synchronization status: Up
Connection status: Showtime
Upstream line rate (kbit/s): 1023
Downstream line rate (kbit/s): 12411
Maximum upstream rate (kbit/s): 3302
Maximum downstream rate (kbit/s): 32048
Upstream noise safety coefficient (dB): 13.6
Downstream noise safety coefficient (dB): 24.2
Upstream interleave depth: 0
Downstream interleave depth: 0
Line standard: VDSL
Upstream line attenuation (dB): 61
Downstream line attenuation (dB): 24.4
Upstream output power (dBmV): 6.1
Downstream output power (dBmV): 14
Downstream interleave depth: None
DSL up time: 0 days 5 hours 47 minutes 19 seconds

Danger781

AngryDiMaria wrote: »

Your line stats show that your upstream SNR is a bit low, I'm pretty sure that's something to do with internal interference (in your house).

What could cause that? I only have one modem with one ethernet cable coming out of it. I do not own a landline phone.

Danger781

Last time I posted stats:
Upstream line rate (kbit/s): 1022
Downstream line rate (kbit/s): 12286
Maximum upstream rate (kbit/s): 1149
Maximum downstream rate (kbit/s): 29365
Upstream noise safety coefficient (dB): 9.1
Downstream noise safety coefficient (dB): 22.8
Upstream line attenuation (dB): 12.3
Downstream line attenuation (dB): 24.7
Upstream output power (dBmV): 10.5
Downstream output power (dBmV): 14.5

Today:
Upstream line rate (kbit/s): 1023
Downstream line rate (kbit/s): 12411
Maximum upstream rate (kbit/s): 3299
Maximum downstream rate (kbit/s): 32024
Upstream noise safety coefficient (dB): 13.6
Downstream noise safety coefficient (dB): 24.2
Upstream line attenuation (dB): 61
Downstream line attenuation (dB): 24.4
Upstream output power (dBmV): 6.1
Downstream output power (dBmV): 14

Green is increased, red is decreased..

Some fairly substantial changes.. dont know if thats good or bad

mass_debater

Danger781 wrote: »

What could cause that? I only have one modem with one ethernet cable coming out of it. I do not own a landline phone.

Poor cable and bad cable work with bridge taps to other phone points would cause this. Your line looks okay now with 3mbit upstream attainable which would not have any issue delivering 1mbit up, as long as it's stable like this and not continuously fluctuating. Fluctuations in stats would mean you still have a cable issue. Connect by Ethernet and do a few speedtests.

What type of dropwire have you? Is the dropwire new or was the dropwire into your house replaced?

AngryDiMaria

There's definitely something wrong with your internal wiring

Danger781

mass_debater wrote: »

Poor cable and bad cable work with bridge taps to other phone points would cause this. Your line looks okay now with 3mbit upstream attainable which would not have any issue delivering 1mbit up, as long as it's stable like this and not continuously fluctuating. Fluctuations in stats would mean you still have a cable issue. Connect by Ethernet and do a few speedtests.

What type of dropwire have you? Is the dropwire new or was the dropwire into your house replaced?

AngryDiMaria wrote: »

There's definitely something wrong with your internal wiring

Speedtests are fine at the moment, but as I've been saying all along this happens intermittently.. I'll run random speedtests throughout the next few days. I am currently connected via Ethernet, and have been since day one.

I don't know anything about a dropwire. This is the first I'm hearing of this term, so not sure what to tell you.. He removed the cable tap from my line and disabled the connection in my bedroom. There was nothing connected to this port at any point anyway, but he still thought it best to disable it.

ED E

AngryDiMaria wrote: »

There's definitely something wrong with your internal wiring

From a skim theres no way to conclude that.


The stats have improved, speeds are still fluctuating. Have you fully disabled wifi for a while and tested? Hold the wifi button for 3s and it should go off. Strikes me as local activity.

Danger781

ED E wrote: »

From a skim theres no way to conclude that.


The stats have improved, speeds are still fluctuating. Have you fully disabled wifi for a while and tested? Hold the wifi button for 3s and it should go off. Strikes me as local activity.

I can do that, but the only other device connected to my network is my phone. Something to keep in mind next time it happens. Thanks.

AngryDiMaria

ED E wrote: »

From a skim theres no way to conclude that.


The stats have improved, speeds are still fluctuating. Have you fully disabled wifi for a while and tested? Hold the wifi button for 3s and it should go off. Strikes me as local activity.

Upstream attenuation jumped from 12 to 61. Do you think that's normal?

ED E

AngryDiMaria wrote: »

Upstream attenuation jumped from 12 to 61. Do you think that's normal?

CPE is tragically bad at measuring uAtten, unless you've a Heritage/JDSU to corroborate ignore it.

mass_debater

Danger781 wrote: »

Speedtests are fine at the moment, but as I've been saying all along this happens intermittently.. I'll run random speedtests throughout the next few days. I am currently connected via Ethernet, and have been since day one.

I don't know anything about a dropwire. This is the first I'm hearing of this term, so not sure what to tell you.. He removed the cable tap from my line and disabled the connection in my bedroom. There was nothing connected to this port at any point anyway, but he still thought it best to disable it.

The dropwire is the Eir cable coming in from the distribution point outside. Take a picture of it in the attic where it joins to your internal cabling.

Danger781

mass_debater wrote: »

The dropwire is the Eir cable coming in from the distribution point outside. Take a picture of it in the attic where it joins to your internal cabling.

I have no access to the attic unless I go round and knock on my landlords door and ask him to let me in. That isn't happening.. :pac:

AngryDiMaria

ED E wrote: »

CPE is tragically bad at measuring uAtten, unless you've a Heritage/JDSU to corroborate ignore it.

CPE or not, something is wrong with the OPs internal wiring.

mass_debater

Danger781 wrote: »

I have no access to the attic unless I go round and knock on my landlords door and ask him to let me in. That isn't happening.. :pac:

See how your connection is now on Ethernet. If you have problems you will need to investigate this dropwire

Danger781

Something strange just happened..

I was connected over ethernet and then briefly lost connection to the internet.. Wifi kicked in and connectivity resumed almost instantly.. I hadn't noticed the Wifi kick in at all but my connection went downhill again..



So as ED E mentioned above I turned off Wifi connectivity on my phone. There is no other devices turned on in my house. At that point I noticed I was now connected over Wifi rather than ethernet on my desktop. I disabled Wi-Fi on Windows, then disabled the adapter. Reset the ethernet adapter and speeds returned to normal again immediately..



For about 5 minutes.. until this problem returned again..




Then back to normal again a few minutes later..



So as of right now, speeds are good again. I'll continue testing variations of enabling and disabling Wifi to see if it makes a difference..

mass_debater

Try another pc using Ethernet, it could be something like a nasty or malware on the pc downloading or uploading in the background