Speed drop by 1.5Mb/s

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Speed drop by 1.5Mb/s

jurgensp99

68 posts

Master Geek

#239587 25-Jul-2018 12:06

Yes, in the age of fibre for all I'm still on ADSL and will most likely never see fiber or VDSL.

For over a year now ive had a constant 6.3MB/s Down. It wasn't perfect but it worked however in the last 3-4 weeks we lost 1.5Mb DL speed. I can't seem to get above 5 now. That's almost a quarter of my bandwidth, and it hasn't gone unnoticed.

More concerning is the latency or more accurately the jitter. Sometime as high as 180ms. I can do multiple test and get massive variations in latency. This to is noticeable. Websites won't load for brief periods, TV streams just stop, servers disconnect and gaming is the worst with lagging/desync/server kicks. Only to come right shortly after for a while.

Before we all regurgitate the fault-finding list.

Yes, I've spoken to Spark help desk, twice. They tell me because the modem can see the full rate there is noting they can do.

- I've done a modem reset

- They did a port reset

- I've tried a different modem and cable

I use nPerf

I've done trace routs, outcome variable as per the latency

I have a master splitter installed and no other filters.

Hoping someone here may be able to give me a bit more insight/assitance with this.

My Numbers

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8953 posts

Uber Geek

#2062349 25-Jul-2018 15:33

First, I'll ping @hio77 - he's got a good ~~crystal ball~~ set of tools to help diagnose this sort of thing.

Secondly, you are showing a 12dB noise margin (d/s) - this is probably a recent move from 6dB, where you would have seen a higher sync rate. The high number of FEC errors here (depending on the line uptime) seems to be the problem though. It suggests a physical line issue (could be moisture or a corroded connection) that is raising the noise level, and causing the line to revert to a more stable profile to keep connected.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2062358 25-Jul-2018 15:47

RunningMan:

First, I'll ping @hio77 - he's got a good crystal ball set of tools to help diagnose this sort of thing.

Secondly, you are showing a 12dB noise margin (d/s) - this is probably a recent move from 6dB, where you would have seen a higher sync rate. The high number of FEC errors here (depending on the line uptime) seems to be the problem though. It suggests a physical line issue (could be moisture or a corroded connection) that is raising the noise level, and causing the line to revert to a more stable profile to keep connected.

Best tool is my brain, apparently it's often correct.

Truth be told, the above looks to be exactly the case.

Noise on the line, causing errors thus pulling back the snr.

DM your details and i'll wack on a test..

Being a reset was done, it's equally possible you have simply pulled back because of that.

on the note of latency, this will be utilization on your upstream. Again, likely tightly related to your upstream speed.

i suspect you used to get say, 1.2, drop of 300kbit can be huge.

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

jurgensp99

68 posts

Master Geek

#2062385 25-Jul-2018 16:07

Thanks, the uptime for that one was 95:24:16. I restarted shortly after, current numbers bellow.

RunningMan

8953 posts

Uber Geek

#2062397 25-Jul-2018 16:20

So it looks like you were getting more FEC / hour than you are now, but still not brilliant. You're obviously on a long line going by the attenuation - I'd expect a joint has been affected somewhere along the cable.

Naked or clothed? If clothed, how's the phone sound, any noise on the line?

nakedmolerat

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#2062415 25-Jul-2018 16:33

@jurgensp99 is 4G spark rural not an option for you?

jurgensp99

68 posts

Master Geek

#2062417 25-Jul-2018 16:34

RunningMan:

So it looks like you were getting more FEC / hour than you are now, but still not brilliant. You're obviously on a long line going by the attenuation - I'd expect a joint has been affected somewhere along the cable.

Naked or clothed? If clothed, how's the phone sound, any noise on the line?

Yes re long line, we are about 2.5km from the cabinet.

Phone has a bit of fuzzieness in the background

jurgensp99

68 posts

Master Geek

#2062421 25-Jul-2018 16:38

nakedmolerat: @jurgensp99 is 4G spark rural not an option for you?

I was waiting for this to come up :)

I haven't asked them however there is very little to no Vodafone reception in my hole.

This hole tbh doesn't have much of anything, spark mobile being the best then 2D and then VF. And when I say best I mean there is one spot on the deck you can make a phone call from.

On the RBI topic. What is the latency like for gaming?

Edit - Spelling

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Linux

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#2062426 25-Jul-2018 16:43

If you are on VodafoneNZ mobile look into getting a Sure Signal unit, They work on any fixed ISP now not just VodafoneNZ fixed line

John

RunningMan

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#2062435 25-Jul-2018 16:50

jurgensp99:[snip]

Phone has a bit of fuzzieness in the background

This is always relevant to raise when lodging a fault - it can be easier to get voice faults repaired than xDSL.

wellygary

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#2062440 25-Jul-2018 16:57

jurgensp99:

On the RBI topic. What is the latency like for gaming?

Probably better than 180ms :)

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2062501 25-Jul-2018 18:16

Looks to me like a fairly standard Battery Contact fault.

I'd call it through as noise on the landline (since you do experience that) run through quick tests etc.

Being you have splitter can't really look too deep in terms of isolation testing.

Suspect you noticed disconnections last week? that was the leadup to the line pulling back on speed to try to stabilize itself. (which it has done fairly well. be it at a speed loss)

This is the one case which is why i both hate and love ddDLM.

ddDLM has done exactly it's job and stabilized the line, but at the cost of a lesser user experience.

Most will log that as a Frequent disconnections and then by the time the field tech is out, ddDLM is masking the disconnections.

we really need an overhaul in the Copper assurance space, to work with more underlying issues rather than user experienced fault..

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

jurgensp99

68 posts

Master Geek

#2062504 25-Jul-2018 18:31

Thanks

Ill call that through now and return with the results.

jurgensp99

68 posts

Master Geek

#2062514 25-Jul-2018 18:58

Result

According to Evangelus at Spark: "From the looks of it, there is a fault detected on the test results - Insulation Fault - Battery Contact"

a tech has been deployed.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2062922 26-Jul-2018 11:58

@jurgensp99 hows this looking? (mainly asking about the phoneline)

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

jurgensp99

68 posts

Master Geek

#2062985 26-Jul-2018 14:45

I was informed the fault had been fixed, just returned home, reset the modem and did a test as below.

RE the noise its pretty much the same.

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