Jase2985:

why not run the router as just a simple access point instead of the setup you have now?

Still struggling away with this one.

Spark sent me a new modem, which I received earlier this week. This made no difference. 

They then performed a port reset two days ago, which resulted in sync speeds of 58Mbps/10Mbps. This lasted until earlier this morning, when the modem reconnected. I'm now synching at 5Mbps/3Mbps. Crap speeds just in time for the weekend.

Here's hoping Spark do as they promised this time, and will take the full case history into account when escalating it to Chorus. For the third time in four weeks.

I'm not 100% sure (as I can't seem to get a firm answer when I ask exactly what has been done), but I suspect every time Chorus are called they perform a port reset, observe the better sync rates, and then consider it job done. But we're yet to retain these speeds for more than a week.

So I ask again. What exactly does a port reset do? And would performing multiple port resets, which temporarily fix the problem, be an indication of a faulty port?

@cbrpilot @wheelbarrow01

Jase2985:

 

@cbrpilot @wheelbarrow01

 

Sounds very much like a card or joint going bad..

keep us updated on how things go with chorus, Sometimes these sorts of things do take ages to get resolved.

hio77:

 

Sounds very much like a card or joint going bad..

 

 

 

keep us updated on how things go with chorus, Sometimes these sorts of things do take ages to get resolved.

 

I had the similar situation with you, but I had VDSL more than 2 years+. Also drop down around the same speed you having. It was happen around 2-3 months ago. I was using vigor 130 for ages.

Had a case open, they said they fix the jumper in the cabinet. So thought to be working for a week or two and then it happen again, I've tested a few modem I bought a hg630b, a zyxel one & the vdsl technicolor tg589vn that come with when I had vdsl install, so not the modem problems. But then ask them performed a port reset after the jumper fix, now seem to be working again but I still monitoring and screenshot. It's been more than 10 days since port reset. Still resync from time to time but the speed is constant like the speed I had before, haven't drop speed but who knows will see. Now I'm just using hg630b to make sure everything is alright.

Also notices that seem to be often resync around 4:10-4:11am.

dclegg:

 

hio77:

 

Sounds very much like a card or joint going bad..

 

 

 

keep us updated on how things go with chorus, Sometimes these sorts of things do take ages to get resolved.

 

Card or joint in the Exchange or external Chorus infrastructure?

I actually don't mind if it's something internally, if it means I can finally get it resolved. But based on all the evidence I have from this (and my ADSL woes), I'd be surprised if that was the case.

 

While its uncommon, in your case, i would suspect it to be externally.

pinkydot:

 

I had the similar situation with you, but I had VDSL more than 2 years+. Also drop down around the same speed you having. It was happen around 2-3 months ago. I was using vigor 130 for ages.

 

Had a case open, they said they fix the jumper in the cabinet. So thought to be working for a week or two and then it happen again, I've tested a few modem I bought a hg630b, a zyxel one & the vdsl technicolor tg589vn that come with when I had vdsl install, so not the modem problems. But then ask them performed a port reset after the jumper fix, now seem to be working again but I still monitoring and screenshot. It's been more than 10 days since port reset. Still resync from time to time but the speed is constant like the speed I had before, haven't drop speed but who knows will see. Now I'm just using hg630b to make sure everything is alright.

 

Also notices that seem to be often resync around 4:10-4:11am.

 

Thats a common period for DLM to operate changes once outside of the 10 day period.

Here's a quick graph I cobbled together, using data from NPerf speed tests. It shows our VDSL performance since we had it installed.

While I don't have data points for every single day, it does still give a pretty good graphical illustration of the erratic performance we've been experiencing.



Current status is that Chorus have been called in to take their third look at this.

I had a slightly nervous start to the weekend, when on Saturday performance went back up to 55Mbps/10Mbps. But thankfully that didn't last the day, and we're now back down to our crappy, half our previous ADSL performance levels. 

It's ironic wanting poor performance. But I don't want Chorus to go <shrug> "Looks fine here. Closing the case", as they've done on so many previous occasions.

Just had Chorus visit no. 3. They performed tests at the exchange, and couldn't find anything wrong.

They rang me to inform me of this, and I pushed the issue, as this is exactly what had happened on the previous visits. So they came to my house and performed additional tests. They replaced the master splitter (which was installed when VDSL was installed 4 weeks ago). This gave the following stats:-



Those are the slowest "fast" VDSL speeds I've seen so far.

I mentioned to them that I thought that the master splitter had been installed upstairs, so they came to take a look. That was my mistake though, and the tech had simply installed a dedicated VDSL port upstairs, with the master splitter outside in the location where they'd already replaced it earlier (grumble, grumble.... stupid customers... grumble grumble). 

After taking a poke around upstairs, they left me with the following stats, which have been my baseline "normal fast" VDSL stats:-



So after finding no fault (apart from what they considered to be an "unusual" master splitter), they're currently closing my case with a "No fault found" result. They don't actually expect that things have been resolved, but they wanted to ensure that it wouldn't be raised as a different fault, if/when the problem re-occurs.

They also told me that they were informed that I was assigned a new port at the exchange when VDSL was installed. Apparently some ports support both ADSL & VDSL, so there was the chance that I had the same port as previously.

So I guess now I wait to see if this has finally resolved it, or if we're still yet to find the root cause. Due to the fact that they didn't actually find an actionable item to resolve, I'm suspecting it is probably the latter.

Connectivity degraded again overnight, the day after Chorus' third visit. I'm not overly surprised by this, as they didn't find a fault to fix. I woke up to sync speeds of 10Mbps/300Kbps. I rebooted the modem, and this got me speeds of 8Mbps/90Kbps.

Following Chorus' advice, I left the modem off for 10 minutes. The sync speeds remained at 8Mbps/90Kbps when I switched it back on.

I logged into modem & noticed that VDSL connection mode had reverted from bridged back to IP_Routed (PPP). I re-enabled bridged mode & rebooted the modem. I got initial sync speeds of 27Mbps/8Mbps, but the modem then lost signal and reconnected at 9Mbps/900Kbps.

That left only one piece of Chorus recommended troubleshooting to try. I reconfigured the modem to perform authentication, and turned the Asus router off completely. I'm currently syncing at 58Mbps/10Mbps.

While it is tempting to blame the Asus, I'm sceptical that it is the root cause. When I got my replacement modem from Spark, I initially confirmed that was working without using it in bridged mode. That showed similar poor performance.

But I will run with this config for a while and see where it leads. May have to buy some earplugs so I can't hear the kids screaming at me about poor wifi performance though. :-)

Regardless of authentication method, your DSL SYNC is the physical layer, where your having an issue with.

ofcourse if the modem itself is dodgy, well.. one could argue you just flicked the switch enough times to score a winning sync once again. 

I don't mean to offend the tech, but if he said that to me i would quite simply laugh and lay down a full detailed argument for why he's IMO pulling crap out of his ass.

I have done this in the past, ended up with his supervisor in my house within the hour, agreeing with my position. my bad... they did not like me that day.

hio77:

 

Regardless of authentication method, your DSL SYNC is the physical layer, where your having an issue with.

 

 

 

I don't mean to offend the tech, but if he said that to me i would quite simply laugh and lay down a full detailed argument for why he's IMO pulling crap out of his ass.

 

I have done this in the past, ended up with his supervisor in my house within the hour, agreeing with my position. my bad... they did not like me that day.

 

That was my thought too. But they are meant to be the experts here. And he said he had run into issues before with routers and other third party equipment affecting sync rates at the modem level. I wasn't really in a position to call him out on this.

It is frustrating for me, but all I can really do is assist them by following all the troubleshooting steps they've asked me to complete. At least we've now moved on from the previous approach of "Perform port reset and consider it case closed". The optimist in me likes to see that as progress. 

dclegg:

 

 

 

That was my thought too. But they are meant to be the experts here. And he said he had run into issues before with routers and other third party equipment affecting sync rates at the modem level. I wasn't really in a position to call him out on this.

 

It is frustrating for me, but all I can really do is assist them by following all the troubleshooting steps they've asked me to complete. At least we've now moved on from the previous approach of "Perform port reset and consider it case closed". The optimist in me likes to see that as progress. 

 

I certainly agree with following through, simply to cover your basis.

Simply the techy in me has no problem picking out points and biting down on them. If you can give me a technically sound reason for why it is i'm wrong, then i will gladly admit defeat. 

As suspected, I have now confirmed that my Asus router has nothing to do with it.

Approximately 7:20PM last night, the modem dropped its connection. When it reconnected, it obtained speeds of 6.7Mbps/400Kbps (according to nperf speed test; modem UI timed out when attempting to query it).

This morning, I noticed the modem had reconnected at around 4:15AM. It had sync speeds of 11Mbps/800Kbps. I rebooted the modem, and ended up with sync speeds of 29Mbps/2Mbps. As per Chorus' advice, I rebooted it a second time. This is currently giving me sync speeds of 10Mbps/1Mbps.

I have forwarded all my recent diagnostics to Spark, so I guess the ball is back in their court.