BT just told me my Modem was faulty

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 02:35PM #1

Today I was having more problems than usual so I decided to ring them up.
I told them that I had to restart the modem loads of times and I still couldn't get pages to load. Even with opendns. Even told them I was rebooting the modem at least 3-10 times a day just to get a decent connection.
He got me to ping google.ie, which amazingly came back with an average time 39ms. He said that there was nothing wrong with my line as it was under 40ms. Then he got me to check yahoo.com 153ms and then google.com 173ms.
He checked my log and noticed that I have been resarting my modem a lot and came to the conclusion that my 6 month old Linksys WAG150N modem is screwed. I got a bit hot tempered and said fine, so when I return it to Linksys and they test and find there is nothing wrong with it, I'll get back to you and then you can sort out the bloody internet. :mad:

I have not been able to get anywhere near 39ms to google.ie since.

Should be on 8M BT unbundled.

Line stats..

DSL Mode: ADSL2+
DSL Channel: FAST
DSL Upstream Rate: 507 Kbps
DSL Downstream Rate: 6032 Kbps

Down up
DSL Noise Margin: 6.9 dB 21.7 dB
DSL Attenuation: 40.0 dB 20.1 dB
DSL Transmit Power: 0.0 dBm 12.4 dBm

Speed test

Spear · 30-09-2009 02:50PM

kleefarr wrote: »

Today I was having more problems than usual so I decided to ring them up.
I told them that I had to restart the modem loads of times and I still couldn't get pages to load. Even with opendns. Even told them I was rebooting the modem at least 3-10 times a day just to get a decent connection.
He got me to ping google.ie, which amazingly came back with an average time 39ms. He said that there was nothing wrong with my line as it was under 40ms. Then he got me to check yahoo.com 153ms and then google.com 173ms.
He checked my log and noticed that I have been resarting my modem a lot and came to the conclusion that my 6 month old Linksys WAG150N modem is screwed. I got a bit hot tempered and said fine, so when I return it to Linksys and they test and find there is nothing wrong with it, I'll get back to you and then you can sort out the bloody internet. :mad:

I have not been able to get anywhere near 39ms to google.ie since.

Should be on 8M BT unbundled.

Line stats..

DSL Mode: ADSL2+
DSL Channel: FAST
DSL Upstream Rate: 507 Kbps
DSL Downstream Rate: 6032 Kbps

Down up
DSL Noise Margin: 6.9 dB 21.7 dB
DSL Attenuation: 40.0 dB 20.1 dB
DSL Transmit Power: 0.0 dBm 12.4 dBm

Speed test

Google and Yahoo are both on geo-targeted and load balancing CDN's, pinging them can be quite variable. Pinging boards.ie would be better and much more reliable.

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 02:55PM

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

Pinging boards.ie [89.234.66.107] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 89.234.66.107:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 29ms, Average = 28ms

Seems to be behaving it's self at the moment. I know it won't last long.

Spear · 30-09-2009 03:02PM

kleefarr wrote: »

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

Pinging boards.ie [89.234.66.107] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 89.234.66.107:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 29ms, Average = 28ms

Seems to be behaving it's self at the moment. I know it won't last long.

Your up SNR margin is weak, do you have the error stats available?

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 05:21PM

Can't find any.
I'm trying a firmware update, but it's not working too well. Was in contact with Linksys. They'll be ringing back. Will ask them about the low margin and see what they say.

The down is 6.9 and the up is 21.7.

DECEiFER · 30-09-2009 05:28PM

kleefarr wrote: »

Can't find any.
I'm trying a firmware update, but it's not working too well. Was in contact with Linksys. They'll be ringing back. Will ask them about the low margin and see what they say.

The down is 6.9 and the up is 21.7.

Do you still have your Voyager router from BT or one of the ZyXEL offerings before the Voyagers came out?

If so, try to see what your line stats are from that.

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 05:33PM

Got an older Linksys BEDFSR41W and a ZyXEL 640 something from about 6 years ago. I'll give them a try when I find them and get a chance.

DECEiFER · 30-09-2009 05:35PM

kleefarr wrote: »

Got an older Linksys BEDFSR41W and a ZyXEL 640 something from about 6 years ago. I'll give them a try when I find them and get a chance.

Do, yeah. I'm thinking BT are full of s**t and would do anything to mitigate themselves from the blame. They are always ready to blame your own equipment. If it wasn't the router, it would have been your computer.

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 05:56PM

DECEiFER wrote: »

Do, yeah. I'm thinking BT are full of s**t and would do anything to mitigate themselves from the blame.

Was thinking much the same thing myself.

30-09-2009 06:55PM

I don't know what is going on, here's my BT 7.6MB:

[URL="http://www.speedtest.net]

[/URL] and this has got to be the worse result I have ever got from Eircoms speedtest"]

and this has got to be the worse result I have ever got from Eircoms speedtest :eek:

[/URL]

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 07:06PM

Edit: Forget that

What's the address for that Eircon speed test?

30-09-2009 07:52PM

kleefarr wrote: »

What's the address for that Eircon speed test?

http://home.eircom.net/speedtest/default.asp?id=1

My speeds are getting worse and my pings are getting bad too:

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 08:16PM

Must be your modem. :rolleyes:

Eircon test flatters my connection I think...

Eirconspeedtest.jpg?t=1254338113

30-09-2009 08:25PM

kleefarr wrote: »

Must be your modem. :rolleyes:

Thats been ruled out already

, BT are still looking into what is wrong with my connection so just have to wait and see what happens.

kleefarr · 30-09-2009 08:29PM

Good luck!

I'll have to push on and try to make them see there is something wrong my end.

30-09-2009 08:45PM

kleefarr wrote: »

Good luck!

I'll have to push on and try to make them see there is something wrong my end.

Good luck to you too, tell them your not the only one having problems and to look here on the boards

01-10-2009 09:48AM

Back to normal for now, was told last night that there was issues with exchanges, especially Mullingar.

BT 7.6MB:

01-10-2009 10:20AM

I spoke too soon, speeds and pings gone again, service is like a yo-yo :mad:

10.23am

Pinging www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=158ms TTL=58
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=58
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=199ms TTL=58
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=142ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 89.234.66.107:

Packets:
Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 45ms, Maximum = 199ms, Average = 136ms

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 15 ms 1 ms 7 ms voyager.home [192.168.1.1]
2 487 ms 676 ms 226 ms bas503.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.239]
3 46 ms 40 ms 87 ms vlan500.sw501.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.124]
4 36 ms 37 ms 38 ms vlan53.sw002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.130.153]
5 41 ms 37 ms 37 ms ge1.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.20]
6 44 ms 36 ms 37 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
7 38 ms 81 ms 40 ms ip-89-234-66-107.dedi.digiweb.ie [89.234.66.107]

10:35am and worse:

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 29 ms 13 ms 4 ms voyager.home [192.168.1.1]
2 35 ms 39 ms 34 ms bas503.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.239]
3 721 ms 1360 ms 1480 ms vlan500.sw501.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.124]
4 303 ms 47 ms 234 ms vlan53.sw002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.130.153]
5 1078 ms 1409 ms 1381 ms ge1.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.20]
6 38 ms 35 ms 47 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
7 38 ms 36 ms 38 ms www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]

Trace complete.

10.45am and back to normal:

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms voyager.home [192.168.1.1]
2 36 ms 36 ms 34 ms bas503.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.239]
3 34 ms 34 ms 36 ms vlan500.sw501.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.124]
4 36 ms 34 ms 34 ms vlan53.sw002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.130.153]
5 35 ms 35 ms 34 ms ge1.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.20]
6 35 ms 35 ms 35 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
7 37 ms 36 ms 36 ms www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]

Trace complete.

11.05am and worse again:

Pinging www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=598ms TTL=58
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=468ms TTL=58
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=659ms TTL=58
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=137ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 89.234.66.107:

Packets:
Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 137ms, Maximum = 659ms, Average = 465ms

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms 1 ms 1 ms voyager.home [192.168.1.1]
2 244 ms 266 ms 304 ms bas503.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.239]
3 377 ms 235 ms 210 ms vlan500.sw501.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.124]
4 419 ms 399 ms 402 ms vlan53.sw002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.130.153]
5 231 ms 247 ms 288 ms ge1.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.20]
6 140 ms 170 ms 206 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
7 39 ms 39 ms 37 ms www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]

Trace complete.

What is going on

kleefarr · 01-10-2009 08:19PM

I'm amazed. Today I have had great speeds all day.

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

Pinging boards.ie [89.234.66.107] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 89.234.66.107:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 29ms, Maximum = 29ms, Average = 29ms

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <10 ms <10 ms 192.168.1.1
2 32 ms 27 ms 28 ms bas005.bmt.esat.net [193.95.142.246]
3 26 ms 30 ms 27 ms vlan101.rt001.bmt.esat.net [193.95.141.1]
4 30 ms 26 ms 26 ms ge1-0.core002.bmt.esat.net [193.95.140.2]
5 29 ms 26 ms 28 ms pos3-0.core002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.131.53]
6 26 ms 26 ms 26 ms ge0.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.4]
7 72 ms 27 ms 75 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
8 38 ms 29 ms 29 ms ip-89-234-66-107.dedi.digiweb.ie [89.234.66.107]

Trace complete.

DSL Mode: ADSL2+
DSL Channel: FAST
DSL Upstream Rate: 507 Kbps
DSL Downstream Rate: 8124 Kbps

DSL Noise Margin: Down 5.1 dB Up 24.3 dB
DSL Attenuation: Down 39.5 dB Up 20.1 dB
DSL Transmit Power: Down 0.0 dBm Up 12.8 dBm

I wonder how long it will last.
I'll still dig out those other modems.

01-10-2009 08:25PM

kleefarr wrote: »

I'm amazed. Today I have had great speeds all day.

You stole my bandwidth

kleefarr · 01-10-2009 08:30PM

lol

We're in a bad way if everyone has to take turns in using it.

We should see it again in about 6 months time.

01-10-2009 08:41PM

kleefarr wrote: »

We're in a bad way if everyone has to take turns in using it.

As funny as it sounds that is more or less what is going on

cpu-dude · 01-10-2009 08:51PM

kleefarr wrote: »

We're in a bad way if everyone has to take turns in using it.

hellboy99 wrote: »

As funny as it sounds that is more or less what is going on

Uh oh...

*Japanese girls vomiting in each others’ mouths did this*

lucernarian · 02-10-2009 01:33PM

Just out of curiousity, what package do BT have that sells exactly 8 mbps broadband? I thought they just did eircom reselling or "Up to 24 mbps"

cpu-dude · 02-10-2009 01:36PM

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Just out of curiousity, what package do BT have that sells exactly 8 mbps broadband? I thought they just did eircom reselling or "Up to 24 mbps"

Only certain exchanges offer up to 24MB availablilty or ADSL2+ through BT (now Vodafone) but c. 90%+ of exchanges are only setup for standard Bitstream (up to 7.6MB) or ADSL. Resellers all use Eircoms equipment but BT and Smart have there own LLU equipment.

lucernarian · 02-10-2009 01:49PM

That's not really what I asked. Someone has a line speed of just below 8128/512 (ADSL2 never quite reaches the full sync speed of the profile)

This is a speed package I have not come across except with Smart and possibly Magnet. If it's BT and it's ADSL2+ then why is the speed not "up to 24 mps"?

Btw when my crappy zyxel modem got DSL sync with BT option 2 on an unbundled exchange, it synced just below 10240/1024 until I called them to set it to the full speed profile. I never heard why that happened either.

cpu-dude · 02-10-2009 02:18PM

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

That's not really what I asked. Someone has a line speed of just below 8128/512 (ADSL2 never quite reaches the full sync speed of the profile)

This is a speed package I have not come across except with Smart and possibly Magnet. If it's BT and it's ADSL2+ then why is the speed not "up to 24 mps"?

Btw when my crappy zyxel modem got DSL sync with BT option 2 on an unbundled exchange, it synced just below 10240/1024 until I called them to set it to the full speed profile. I never heard why that happened either.

Up to 24MB is exactly that, you get the maximum your line can handle... it's rate adaptive. With your line, a quick capacitance test is run and your maximum speed is estimated, this can rise or fall every now and again depending on your line.

BT don't have an 8MB package - you can be put onto that profile if for example, if it's the maximum your line can handle with ADSL2+ or by request with ADSL2+ but not with ADSL.

lucernarian · 02-10-2009 04:53PM

Ok, I think Kleefarr should ask them to change the profile, just so that the upload speed will reach near 1024 kbps. The download speed will not change. The target Signal Margin for the BT modems running at full speed, is 6dB. My line works just grand at that SM, despite the comments to the contrary on this forum. Signal margin is SNR minus 6 dB. In effect, a modem should lose its connection in ADSL1 or normally ADSL2 if signal margin reaches 0 dB.

Btw, I doubt CPE or DSLAM equipment could do capacitance tests on the fly. I thought rate adaptive DSL was based on SNR and attenuation measurements.

cpu-dude · 02-10-2009 05:02PM

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Ok, I think Kleefarr should ask them to change the profile, just so that the upload speed will reach near 1024 kbps. The download speed will not change. The target Signal Margin for the BT modems running at full speed, is 6dB. My line works just grand at that SM, despite the comments to the contrary on this forum. Signal margin is SNR minus 6 dB. In effect, a modem should lose its connection in ADSL1 or normally ADSL2 if signal margin reaches 0 dB.

Btw, I doubt CPE or DSLAM equipment could do capacitance tests on the fly. I thought rate adaptive DSL was based on SNR and attenuation measurements.

It's not on the fly, it's periodic (and it's a different setup than ADSL). And the target Noise Margin for ADSL is 10dB, any less and it will cause problems with intermittency, speeds and packet loss - ADSL2+ works differently, even BT can bump up your NM if you really need it, very useful in fact. A SNR of 3dB + can be fine for an ADSL2+ connection.

Changing the profile to get the 1024kbps upload speed won't work, he will be trying to force too much down the line on the downstream and cause the line to possibly be unstable. Best stick to the upload rate that's assigned to your maximum downstream profile.

kleefarr · 02-10-2009 05:21PM

I'm on their unbundled exchange and when I asked to be switched over to it they tested the speed and said I would get 8MB so would set it at that.
I realise that it could go up to 24MB if I was lucky enough, but apart from once it has never been over the 830KB/s.

Needless to say, today is back to the usual rebooting to get a regular connection. Speeds are down again.

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

Pinging www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=57
Reply from 89.234.66.107: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 89.234.66.107:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 26ms, Maximum = 28ms, Average = 13ms

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <10 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 26 ms 25 ms 25 ms bas005.bmt.esat.net [193.95.142.246]
3 25 ms 25 ms 24 ms vlan101.rt001.bmt.esat.net [193.95.141.1]
4 26 ms 25 ms 25 ms ge1-0.core002.bmt.esat.net [193.95.140.2]
5 26 ms 25 ms 26 ms pos3-0.core002.cwt.esat.net [193.95.131.53]
6 25 ms 25 ms 25 ms ge0.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.4]
7 27 ms 26 ms 26 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
8 28 ms 28 ms 27 ms ip-89-234-66-107.dedi.digiweb.ie [89.234.66.107]

Trace complete.

lucernarian · 03-10-2009 03:00PM

cpu-dude wrote: »

It's not on the fly, it's periodic (and it's a different setup than ADSL). And the target Noise Margin for ADSL is 10dB, any less and it will cause problems with intermittency, speeds and packet loss - ADSL2+ works differently, even BT can bump up your NM if you really need it, very useful in fact. A SNR of 3dB + can be fine for an ADSL2+ connection.

Changing the profile to get the 1024kbps upload speed won't work, he will be trying to force too much down the line on the downstream and cause the line to possibly be unstable. Best stick to the upload rate that's assigned to your maximum downstream profile.

Upload sync speed is not dependent on download sync speed. Setting the profile to UBR up to 24576 kbps would keep the speed at near 8128 anyway, but would bring the upload speed to 1 mbps if the upload signal margin allowed it.

The target on BT ADSL2+ modems/connections is 6dB. BT also have a signal margin target of 6dB for their up to 8 mbps service in the UK. Which uses ADSL1 I note. Apart from what I was told by BT support, my modem also clearly shows that 6dB is the signal margin target.

Where's your source for all this information? It seems like you're mixing up the terms SNR and signal margin. Also, while ADSL2 can use one bit per symbol channels, it still doesn't change the signal margin to provide a reliable service. Changing from ADSL1 to ADSL2 just causes, in theory, a 3dB jump in signal margin. 6dB signal margin is adequate for most lines in non-fault conditions or when no sporadic strong interference is experienced.

BT just told me my Modem was faulty

Comments