[WXC/VFX] Strange Speed Drops

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coffeebaron

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Topic # 17184 15-Nov-2007 20:28

I've had a strange intermittent speed issue this week, not the same as the other "slow speeds at night" issue. At random times, but usually at night, my download speeds, local & international will drop to about 250/130'ish Kbps. My router is still synced at around 3Mbps. To fix the issue, I reset my router, download speeds return to normal. I'm not counting out a router fault, but I think not highly likely.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

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Wannabe Geek

Reply # 95419 15-Nov-2007 22:36

I have this exact problem, would love to hear from anyone with clues as too how to fix.

maverick

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WorldxChange

Reply # 95459 16-Nov-2007 08:11

Hi Guys,

A couple of questions so we do some checks at our end just in case something funny is going on, don't think so but we will check anyway

1. What are your routers types, Make Model firmware please
2. Are you a VFX call at the time or prior to the speed drops.

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coffeebaron

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Reply # 95471 16-Nov-2007 08:40

Hi Phil,
I emailed Cameron early in the week about this issue, so he has a head start on hearing about this one.

maverick: 1. What are your routers types, Make Model firmware please

ZyXEL 660RU-T1 (latest available firmware). I have now swapped to Dynalink RTA1025W to see if this re-occurs on that, so will keep you posted if it does.

maverick: 2. Are you a VFX call at the time or prior to the speed drops.

I was not on a VFX call at the time. The speed drop is sustained until I reboot the router. Interestingly it did not affect VFX calls. Does XNet now prioritise the VFX traffic? I have found it very difficult to upset a VFX call lately, with no QoS control (at my end), I can do large downloads etc, and my call stays solid with no packet loss - very impressed!

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StatiC

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Wannabe Geek

Reply # 95498 16-Nov-2007 11:20

I am using a dynalink RTA1320, will update the firmware tonight. (is only one update behind). I am not using VFX at all.

maverick

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WorldxChange

Reply # 95507 16-Nov-2007 12:06

Thanks for the info Guys, we will take a look to see if anything unusual stands out.....my Network guys are happy you like the improvements Fraser

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frio

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Master Geek

Reply # 95510 16-Nov-2007 12:30

Yeah, I've actually noticed this as well. The other day I was peaking at 2Mbps, but powercycling my gear brought me back to the 5Mbps my line is capable of. I use a Dynalink RTA230 in half-bridge and a Linksys WRT54GL.

I've seen other people mention the same issue. It's not just peak, but at random periods my speed will drop significantly (often to around the 300kbps mark) and will stay there unless I powercycle.

Niel

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Reply # 95519 16-Nov-2007 13:52

I am adding a question for the guys affected by this: Do you have to turn the modem off and on, or is it sufficient to disconnect and reconnect via the modem config page, or to unplug the line cable and plug it in again?

I am not seeing this problem myself, but that might be because my line drops a few times a week so it might hide this problem on my connection (as well as many other people who have frequent line drops). So if a simple line drop restores your speeds (and I suspect it does), then it is probably a lot more than just a few people affected by this.

(Phil/Cameron, I suspect a powerful RF transmitter at my neighbour to cause my line drops. Sometimes his transmitter prevents me from watching TV1! He uses it intermittantly and only short periods.)

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coffeebaron

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Reply # 95527 16-Nov-2007 15:18

maverick: Thanks for the info Guys, we will take a look to see if anything unusual stands out.....my Network guys are happy you like the improvements Fraser ......."with new networks toys comes great power"

Ah yes, definitely happy with the "new network toys". Was thinking oh no here we go again when my speed dropped to a crawl tho, but this looks like something else, so that's kind of a good thing :)

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coffeebaron

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Reply # 95529 16-Nov-2007 15:21

Niel: I am adding a question for the guys affected by this: Do you have to turn the modem off and on, or is it sufficient to disconnect and reconnect via the modem config page, or to unplug the line cable and plug it in again?

I am going to try that next, but the first time this happened, I just thought it was the speed issue again, and the next morning it was fine; however, my router had re-synced over night, so I suspect you don't need to reboot the router.

Also when the speed does drop, the router stays synced at it's 3meg rate.

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DylanReeve

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Reply # 95581 16-Nov-2007 21:35

I've noticed the same at work (not sure about home, don't tend to download as much here)...

In my case disconnecting and reconnecting is all that's required to get things kicking along again. When it happened today, I was seeing total throughput of only about 350kbps, after reconnect it picked up to around 3mbps.

I can't remember off-hand what the router is. I will check on Monday.

coffeebaron

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Reply # 95602 17-Nov-2007 00:17

DylanReeve: I've noticed the same at work (not sure about home, don't tend to download as much here)...

In my case disconnecting and reconnecting is all that's required to get things kicking along again. When it happened today, I was seeing total throughput of only about 350kbps, after reconnect it picked up to around 3mbps.

I can't remember off-hand what the router is. I will check on Monday.

If it does happen again, before you reboot/reconnect router, please check it's sync speed - cheers

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Niel

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Reply # 95657 17-Nov-2007 11:52

(I am an electronic engineer who should probably research this better before posting anything, but at the moment have better things to do. So feel free to correct me.)

On my Dynalink RTA-1320 I've discovered a setting that I think should be on for ADSL2+ but by default it is not. It is under Advanced - Internet - ADSL and is called Seamless Rate Adaptation. It is only for ADSL2+ and from what I understand what it does is seperate the login layer from the connection layer so that if the noise margin starts to drop then the connection layer can renegociate a new connection without dropping your login. This happens before (and without) the connection gets dropped so that intermittant problematic channels can be tolerated. It is new to ADSL2+, so will only work if your exchange (and your modem) supports it. It looks like in 12 hours my connection has already been renegociated without dropping the login, because my status screen shows uncorrectible erros but the line stayed up.

Perhaps what users are experiencing is noise which corrupts some channels and they do not recover, perhaps in that case the exchange is configured to slow the connection and wait for the modem to renegociate the connection. Perhaps when an ISP supplies a modem they will enable the setting so other ISPs do not get the benefit of it, but now I'm treading on thin ice and anyway do not want to get into conspiracy theories. Note that I am not naming any specific ISP, simply stating what is possible in a highly competitive industry where small players are starting to outperform bigger players.

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DylanReeve

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Reply # 95660 17-Nov-2007 12:22

coffeebaron:
DylanReeve: I've noticed the same at work (not sure about home, don't tend to download as much here)...

In my case disconnecting and reconnecting is all that's required to get things kicking along again. When it happened today, I was seeing total throughput of only about 350kbps, after reconnect it picked up to around 3mbps.

I can't remember off-hand what the router is. I will check on Monday.

If it does happen again, before you reboot/reconnect router, please check it's sync speed - cheers

I have done, it's not been unusual (I can't remember the specific numbers, but it was about 5mbps downstream, 2.5mbps upstream. Basically the same numbers as usual.

chris021

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Reply # 95680 17-Nov-2007 14:51

Hey, I have experienced the same thing.

Have been away for a while, got home today and my DSL was really slow. did a speed test and was pulling a max of 300kbs! rebooted the router and back up to 7MBs... Although my VoIP (VFX) was still working fine. even with ulaw. Before i rebooted i checked the router and it was still showing my normal sync speed of 7.5MBts. Also got the WxC helpdesk to check at their end and they also could see i was still sync'd up at 7.5.

Most odd.

never had any problems like this in the past. Dynalink router.

Chris021

Niel

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Reply # 95687 17-Nov-2007 16:11

Okay, me too. Dropped to 260k until I did a disconnect/reconnect. It is the first time this week I've seen it, but it is only last night that I've enabled Seamless Rate Adaptation. I have turned it off and will see if it solves the problem for me.

Is a bug somehow dropping us to a 256k download limit (Stream plan)?

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