Sporadic Internet quality

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dclegg

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#1429065 16-Nov-2015 17:24

johnr: Sounds like a ISP back haul issue then if the modem is SYNCing at 13Mbp/s

Are you able to expand on this in laymans terms, John?

Or to cut to the chase... am I correct in reading this to mean that if your modem shows a sync rate of 13Mb/s, but a speed test via Ethernet shows far less than that, then it is more likely to be an ISP or external issue, rather than one due to poor wiring or equipment within the users home?

johnr

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#1429066 16-Nov-2015 17:33

Hand over links peak time could be congested

RunningMan

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#1429067 16-Nov-2015 17:34

dclegg:
johnr: Sounds like a ISP back haul issue then if the modem is SYNCing at 13Mbp/s

Are you able to expand on this in laymans terms, John? Or to cut to the chase... am I correct in reading this to mean that if your modem shows a sync rate of 13Mb/s, but a speed test via Ethernet shows far less than that, then it is more likely to be an ISP or external issue, rather than one due to poor wiring or equipment within the users home?

You're pretty much correct.

The sync rate is basically the maximum speed that the physical connection from your home to the exchange or cabinet will run at. You'll never see faster than this, and generally speaking will be able to connect at this speed to local servers.

Other users of the same connection will have an impact though - so if someone or something is up or downloading a lot of data, then there is less bandwith left over for other users.

dclegg

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#1429068 16-Nov-2015 17:37

RunningMan:

The sync rate is basically the maximum speed that the physical connection from your home to the exchange or cabinet will run at. You'll never see faster than this, and generally speaking will be able to connect at this speed to local servers.

Other users of the same connection will have an impact though - so if someone or something is up or downloading a lot of data, then there is less bandwith left over for other users.

Thanks.

We're having similar issues as the OP (started about 4 weeks ago). Spark arranged for Chorus to come out, and the Chorus tech said there was an issue with an external connection, which he re-seated. He also reset our port at the Exchange. This did fix the issue for us then, but we're now seeing that this wasn't a permanent fix, and we'll often see a significant degradation in performance (often, but not always, during peak times).

I obviously still have more diagnostic work to do, and am trying to determine whether this is something internal, or external factors we don't have much control over.

RunningMan

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#1429071 16-Nov-2015 17:43

The first thing I would rule out is any background uploads (cloud backups, torrents etc.) as saturating the upstream connection will impact the downstream also.

Next is check your sync rates and noise margin, and see if they are fluctuating - they should be reasonably steady, if the physical line is in good condition. Check the error rate for the DSL connection as well. If both these are OK, then the physical connection is also probably OK.

aussiejosh

22 posts

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#1429080 16-Nov-2015 18:04

RunningMan: The first thing I would rule out is any background uploads (cloud backups, torrents etc.) as saturating the upstream connection will impact the downstream also.

Next is check your sync rates and noise margin, and see if they are fluctuating - they should be reasonably steady, if the physical line is in good condition. Check the error rate for the DSL connection as well. If both these are OK, then the physical connection is also probably OK.

I can have my onedrive syncing a large file and my internet connection be fine. Our upload speed isn't the greatest at around 1mbps so this shouldn't 'saturate' the much faster download connection, right?

RunningMan

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#1429130 16-Nov-2015 18:55

aussiejosh:

I can have my onedrive syncing a large file and my internet connection be fine. Our upload speed isn't the greatest at around 1mbps so this shouldn't 'saturate' the much faster download connection, right?

Nope. Saturating the upstream will have a very significant impact on downstream - depending on the precise traffic type, the downstream can become almost unusable, even through there is plenty of downstream bandwidth.

In very general terms when there is a series of packets coming down a connection, there has to be a series of requests for these packets going in the opposite direction - if that upstream connection is at full capacity, then the requests for the next piece of data can't get through in a timely fashion, and the result is a very poor downstream rate.

Syncing onedrive is exactly the sort of thing that can kill a downstream connection. Limiting the upload rate of this syncing to say half of your upstream rate (see what works for you) would be a good starting point to getting a better experience for your downstream traffic.

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marshalleq

40 posts

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#1429211 16-Nov-2015 20:33

I'm not sure if the first screenshot is taken from your router, or from speed tests on your PC. There seem to be two threads going on here.

1 The most important first step to do is to first monitor your routers sync speed. You have to log into your router to do this and it is imperative you do this first. This is because this shows you the current maximum capability of your internet bandwidth (how much data it is possible to trolly between your home and the exchange you are connected to). There might be 1000Mb/s capability at the exchange, and each home get's a 10-20Mb/s or so share of it(depending on the router sync speed).

If the sync speed is variable (which you will know by repeat checking in the router), then you know 100% there is a) equipment failure between the router and the exchange or b) variable or bad quality line. Like you have said this can be in the spanning cable (the bit that runs from the road to your house) and you can pay money for that to be fixed by Telecom. This is totally worth it. Anything beyond that is their problem. When the Telecom guy turns up, talk to him, they really go the extra mile when they understand your problem and realise there's a good human being at the end of it.

If and only if the router sync speed is stable, then ISP bandwidth allocation (i.e. are the 1000 people sharing that 1000MB/s bandwidth on the exchange and using up the available bandwidth), do you have a problem with WiFi in your house (yes use ethernet to check), a faulty router, or poor wiring. A quick tip - disconnect all slave sockets from your house and see if there's an earthing loop or something - that one trick moved my speed from 1Mb to 7 in once case.

Other things I've seen - wind blowing spanning cable onto trees at random times slowing things down, rain and water getting into a junction box. Ask yourself if there are commonalities to the weather the issue occurs.

Outside of that, it's really up to the ISP. Hope that is a nice and more complete answer for you. :)

Q

aussiejosh

22 posts

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#1429327 17-Nov-2015 07:59

marshalleq: I'm not sure if the first screenshot is taken from your router, or from speed tests on your PC. There seem to be two threads going on here.

1 The most important first step to do is to first monitor your routers sync speed. You have to log into your router to do this and it is imperative you do this first. This is because this shows you the current maximum capability of your internet bandwidth (how much data it is possible to trolly between your home and the exchange you are connected to). There might be 1000Mb/s capability at the exchange, and each home get's a 10-20Mb/s or so share of it(depending on the router sync speed).

If the sync speed is variable (which you will know by repeat checking in the router), then you know 100% there is a) equipment failure between the router and the exchange or b) variable or bad quality line. Like you have said this can be in the spanning cable (the bit that runs from the road to your house) and you can pay money for that to be fixed by Telecom. This is totally worth it. Anything beyond that is their problem. When the Telecom guy turns up, talk to him, they really go the extra mile when they understand your problem and realise there's a good human being at the end of it.

If and only if the router sync speed is stable, then ISP bandwidth allocation (i.e. are the 1000 people sharing that 1000MB/s bandwidth on the exchange and using up the available bandwidth), do you have a problem with WiFi in your house (yes use ethernet to check), a faulty router, or poor wiring. A quick tip - disconnect all slave sockets from your house and see if there's an earthing loop or something - that one trick moved my speed from 1Mb to 7 in once case.

Other things I've seen - wind blowing spanning cable onto trees at random times slowing things down, rain and water getting into a junction box. Ask yourself if there are commonalities to the weather the issue occurs.

Outside of that, it's really up to the ISP. Hope that is a nice and more complete answer for you. :)

Q

Thanks for your detailed response. Yes, the sync speed is variable day to day and can be reduced by over half of my nominal sync rate for what seems like no apparent reason.

I have replaced the phone cabling in my house that runs from the J-box under my awning with cat5e. This eliminates the other jacks from potentially having a fault and is also using much newer cable. I also installed a hard-wired master filter (XDSL-MASTER from CDL) that is terminated on the other end of the cat5e phone line, just before it patches into my modem. The wiring coming off the pole is only a short span and looks okay, but might be worth looking into replacing this. I know it definitely isn't a modem fault, as stated in my first post I purchased another modem/router ($400 Netgear D6300) which made no difference to the quality of the connection.

I had 2 Wifi access points for my large house, the inbuilt one in the modem in the data cabinet and one in my lounge acting as an AP. I never experienced any problems with this set up on my iPhone 6 but my partners iPhone 5s would sometimes struggle with maintaining a connection. Both were set on channels at either end of the spectrum. I have now disabled both of these and installed a dedicated long range enterprise grade Wifi AP in my ceiling space to give us house-wide coverage, and has worked flawlessly ever since. There is never any difference in ping/speedtest results when using a device on Wifi or a hardwired computer.

aussiejosh

22 posts

Geek

#1448891 11-Dec-2015 21:10

Our connection has been fine for the last fortnight or so but I just returned home from an overnight trip to Queenstown and the speed has dropped once more. I have jumped through all the hoops with the support staff from Trust Power but the underlying issue still seems to be there.

Using a hard-wired PC, I ran a speedtest and the down speeds were 1mbps at best, with pings of anywhere between 60-1250ms. I logged into the modem, and our sync rate has dropped from 13900kbps to 8591kbps. I have taken a screenshot of the DSL stats on my modem to see if anyone can pinpoint any abnormalities from this information.

marshalleq

40 posts

Geek

#1449172 12-Dec-2015 13:32

What you've written confirms the issue is between your router and the exchange. I can't say where but precious points still stand. There is zero point looking anywhere else in the chain. So that is all cabling between you and the exchange with further possibilities of the card assigned to you in rue exchange and interference from wind and rain etc. Make sure you've got wiring insurance and call your isp to get someone to have a look. Make sure you talk to them when they come out or they'll likely run off saying nothing is wrong again. Good luck.

RunningMan

8955 posts

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#1449180 12-Dec-2015 14:00

That SNR of 18dB on an ADSL2+ connection is a big warning sign of trouble. On Chorus gear it should be 12dB with maybe 0.3dB fluctuation with noise.

Something is causing a lot of noise on the line, enough that the connection drops and resyncs at a lower rate. Once the noise drops off, you are left with that high SNR and a lower sync rate. This is a hardware issue - given you are semi rural, are there any electric fences nearby between you and the exchange/cabinet? If so, if they can be turned off temporarily, reboot the modem and check your connection again.

Failing that, a corroded connection is usually the other major cause of varying noise like this. It could be in your house, or somewhere along the line to the exchange. Try and figure out if there is a pattern to it - high wind, rain, hot temperature etc, as this may pin down where to look.

marshalleq

40 posts

Geek

#1449216 12-Dec-2015 15:36

I couldn't agree more. What runningman says is exactly the kind of place to look. Though I wouldn't personally define that as a traditional hardware issue, but what ev's the sentiment is exactly right. It's a nice day for poking around under the house! ;)

pjamieson

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Chorus

#1449758 13-Dec-2015 18:53

As others have said you need to try and focus on (and resolve) the Modem sync speed issues with your line (if sync rates are varying that much) before worrying about Speed tests, Wi-Fi or Throughput from the RSP. This will be the same issue on any RSP.

So what have Trust Power said - they ran a 24Hr Analyser - what was the result? What is a line test saying now - What have the sign off notes from the techs been? They should be advising you what is going on.

Frustrating I know, but no one on here can help you much, you need to keep contacting your RSP to test your connection and send more Chorus techs out until they fix all the problems (there could be multiple) and Intermittent issues are very difficult to repair unfortunately.

In saying that there are also Escalation processes that RSP's can use if there are multiple faults and truck rolls or the tech doesn't turn up on time etc.

PS: Great you have replaced internal wiring and added a splitter!

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