Experiencing 'lag' with Spark's Huawei HG630b modem

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Experiencing 'lag' with Spark's Huawei HG630b modem

limbuskhan

15 posts

Geek

#166204 5-Mar-2015 20:05

Hi all,

I recently got my hands on Sparks latest Huawei HG630b residential modem. However, rather than a seamless migration to the latest modem offering by Spark/Telecom, my internet browsing experience can only be described as slow and jittery. I have no idea what is causing this issue and, after speaking to the tech desk, Spark told me that they couldn't see any issues on their end, instead my connection was very good, clocking in at 18mbs.

This is true, I do get good speeds on speedtest, however in the real world, the modem delivers a jittery experience at best, sometimes even dropping connections or taking forever to load pages. So far I have tried resetting the modem and updating the firmware to no avail. The household has finally thrown the towel in and, as a result, I have reverted to my old and trustee Thompson TG585n modem from Telecom. The speeds are great and I really regret signing on for a further 12 months for a disappointing 'new' router.

Anyone else experiencing this issue? It would be great if I could get some advice on how to rectify this problem, although I am in no hurry as the old modem works like a charm.

Cheers.

1 | 2

6018 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#1251913 5-Mar-2015 20:05

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

These links are referral codes: Sharesies | Mighty Ape

Stu

Hammered
8334 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1251924 5-Mar-2015 20:17

Can you tell us please what devices are connecting to the modem, and if they're computers which operating systems and whether they're wireless or wired connecting? Cheers

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

Referral Links: Sharesies - Backblaze -

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? If so, please consider supporting us by subscribing.

No matter where you go, there you are.

limbuskhan

15 posts

Geek

#1251934 5-Mar-2015 20:23

Yeah sure,

I have a win 7 desktop (main/connected via lan cable), iPad (wifi), 2 x Macbook Pro (wifi), Windows laptop (vista), 3 x iPhones, Apple TV (wifi) and an iMac (wifi). The Macs are all used by family members, so I have no clue about the OS running on them.

I talked to the Spark tech and they said it could be a noisy wifi band. So I tried using different channels, but the issue was still there.

Much appreciated.

Stu

Hammered
8334 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1251946 5-Mar-2015 20:47

Are all devices connected? If you turn off/disconnect everything connected via wireless, do you still have the problem with the desktop?

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

Referral Links: Sharesies - Backblaze -

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? If so, please consider supporting us by subscribing.

No matter where you go, there you are.

limbuskhan

15 posts

Geek

#1252815 7-Mar-2015 16:40

I do experience a drop in speed during the evening when everyone is home and blasting away on their devices. I would say that this is down to increase demands on the the connection, but I've just gone back to my old modem and experience no such issue. So it could be down to the devices. Then again sometimes the internet slows down significantly or crashes when no other devices are connected.

limbuskhan

15 posts

Geek

#1252833 7-Mar-2015 17:20

Hmmm I've just realised that my wifi security is set to WEP on the thompson router, while the huawei is set to WPA2. Do you think this might be the issue?

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1252882 7-Mar-2015 18:43

interesting ... i'd say the thomson's superior wifi range. how far is everyone from the router?

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

limbuskhan

15 posts

Geek

#1252899 7-Mar-2015 19:18

The wifi is centrally located, the devices are no more that 10 metres away from the router at any one time.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1252962 7-Mar-2015 20:24

Does that mean everyone is in the same room?

if not, do a Wi-Fi speed test from a slow computer. If the range (Wi-Fi performance) is the issue sometimes the speedtest will show a big drop. If borderline it may not show a drop, but could still give you the same problems.

How to distinguish router Wi-Fi performance vs modem problem I can't help you

limbuskhan

15 posts

Geek

#1252993 7-Mar-2015 20:54

I live in a two story unit and I occupy the central room; the other rooms are all located around it. I will plug the new modem in tomorrow when everyone is out and run a speed test. Hopefully they reveal something.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1253039 7-Mar-2015 21:44

in that case it may not be just a simple "range" in terms of distance. that's because the wifi is not shaped like a sphere (round soccer ball), but another shape. for example it could be a double clamshell, resulting in black holes even though the raw straight line distance appear ok. that's my best guess. not necesarrily anything wrong with the modem itself (the modem is the bit that talks to your ISP)

limbuskhan

15 posts

Geek

#1253645 9-Mar-2015 02:10

So I managed to do a test at 2am and I got good results:

Speedtest on my desktop was 15.63 down and 0.85 up.
Speedtest on my old vista laptop was 15.65 down and 0.82 up.

I was surprised that the down speed on my laptop was faster than my desktop. Especially since my laptop is an old 2009 HP with G wireless.

Anyway let me know what else I could do, thanks.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1253649 9-Mar-2015 06:36

One more thing, have you factory reset the huawei?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#1253653 9-Mar-2015 07:19

limbuskhan: So I managed to do a test at 2am and I got good results:

Speedtest on my desktop was 15.63 down and 0.85 up.
Speedtest on my old vista laptop was 15.65 down and 0.82 up.

I was surprised that the down speed on my laptop was faster than my desktop. Especially since my laptop is an old 2009 HP with G wireless.

There is nothing to be surprised about. 802.11g is capable of ~20Mbps in a good environment - that's faster than your ADSL2+ connection.

andrew027

1286 posts

Uber Geek

#1253870 9-Mar-2015 11:19

Spark sent me the Huawei HG630b to try out after I called about the latest round of problems I was having with the Thomson/Technicolor TG589vn V2 they supplied when I switched to VDSL. I've been testing the Huawei pretty hard over the last week and I'm not saying it's the best unit around, but speeds are no slower than with the Technicolor (possibly slightly better but not a lot in it) but with one exception* I have had none of the frequent dropouts and disconnects I was getting with the Technicolor, even on a network-busy Friday evening when I had every device in the house going (a Win7 desktop, Win8 laptop, two iPads, one iPhone, two Android phones, a wireless printer and my bluray player) all trying to do something at the same time. And my wifi signal strength in the rooms furthest from the router is definately better with the Huawei than with the Technicolor.

* The exception was weird. Spark couriered it to me at work and I got it set up and working that evening. I got home the following day to my daughter saying "The new modem isn't helping - I can't access anything." I plugged the desktop in via ethernet cable, checked the admin UI and found an "Enable wireless" checkbox that was not ticked. Clicked it, saved the changes, and it has run fine all week since then. Not sure how it un-ticked itself though - wifi was working fine when I went to work that morning...

Edit: Fixing my poor typing.

1 | 2