PPoA overhead 100% ?

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UreKismet

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#71011 3-Nov-2010 14:44

Firstly I hope I have posted to the correct forum if not I apologise.
I am what should probably be called a "Big Time refugee" who has been through the ups & downs of having a broadband account in NZ since before T/com had retail dsl yet I cannot remember back in the dial down to dial up speed days, that the encapsulation overhead was anything like the 100% I seem to be getting now.

I'm running adsl 2+ thru a Linksys WAG160N. I don't use the wireless for downloading and rarely use it for browsing other than little stuff when Wi-Fi-ing the milestone.

I never torrent, the bulk of my downloading is done with HTTP yet when I download 900MB the day's usage shows 1800MB. The worst was a big day of 8.5 gigs that shows up on usage as 16748.92MB, 294.13MB of which was upload.

Is this about right? It certainly doesn't seem so to me and frankly I have to wonder how accurate the telecom usage metters are.

I mean to say there is always going to be some extra usage for browsing but the fact that my usage is always close to 2 times what I download on the days when I drag down some large files would tend to suggest I have a fault somewhere. Either with my modem or on the Telecom side of the network.

Does anyone have any suggestions before I begin the time consuming and all too often frustrating business of trying to get Telecom to sort it.

BlakJak

1275 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#399655 3-Nov-2010 14:56

My comment is that an error like this sits squarely with your ISP. This isn't overhead, this is a calculation foul-up. Ring/email your helpdesk.

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Ragnor

8219 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#399658 3-Nov-2010 15:05

Telecom and most ISP's have had a few issues with their system that calculate usage in the past, it certainly wouldn't be the first time.

However it also wouldn't be the first time someone has found their wireless being used by their neighbour or one of the machines on their network left running bittorrent or p2p video streaming etc etc.

I'd record usage at your gateway if you have a capable modem/router that can do it, otherwise install Networx on every machine (enabled the ignore lan traffic options) as a backup check.

Also ring the helpdesk and lodge a fault if you're sure it's not your real usage.

UreKismet

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#399745 3-Nov-2010 17:37

OK thanks I'll try the networx thing my wireless runs wpa2 off a pretty long hexdex string backed up with a Mac address filter so the chances of anyone leeching are low. I tend to watch for that nowadays after a spate of war driving round here a few years back. The lan has 3 desktops a laptop plus occasional access from the aforesaid motorola milestone. None of the putas have a torrent client on them as p2p isn't our thing.
The network is easy enough to monitor although I would be happier if I had router that recorded throughput just to be sure I can prove the discrepency with telecom.
I've got the linksys, my original dynalink rta 20, a dlink 604t none of them have snmp let alone any throughput metering capability, Telecom sent me a thompson tg585v8 when I signed up to their 40 gig plan( the first thing they've ever given in 10 years of broadband and I haven't taken it outta the box lol) somehow I doubt it monitors thoughput lookin at the handbook it doesn't appear to have an accessible interface! No doubt it does but if it is as dumbed down as the manual I doubt it will do much.
Which brings me to my next query does anyone know of an affordably priced adsl gateway that does allow recording of its throughput? Or some hardware that I could put between the router and the switch would at letast re-assure me that there wasn't any error.

I thought maybe a kid had got slack and let a bot through but I have scanned all the machines and two things; the low upload percentage, and the fact that the download I make and the download telecom measure are directly proportional point to it being either a fault with telecom or maybe my router.

BlakJak

1275 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#399768 3-Nov-2010 18:43

The additional checks are great, but I come back to the fact that your variance is almost exactly double. Unexplained usage from a random machine would not be so predictable in its variance.

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