Sporadic Internet quality

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aussiejosh

22 posts

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#181191 5-Oct-2015 22:29

Hi all,

I live semi rural Auckland (riverhead area) and adsl is unfortunately the best internet we can receive.

We have had three ISPs while we have been here with varying degrees of success. Compass for the first year, and in summary I gained years of my life after not having to deal with them ever again. Orcon followed, and although we did have the odd issue, the service was mostly reliable and fast (14mbps down at best, usually around 7 peak).

In May I bundled my power and Internet with trust power. We switched, and straight away I noticed our line rate was 12mbps download. Peak times are now unbearably slow and sometimes websites don't even load. When I call TP, usually after a half an hour+ wait on hold, they tell me to reset my modem. This usually works in bringing the speed back up temporarily but it will drop back down shortly after. I have uploaded an image of my speedtest results of me in the same place for consecutive tests. How is it that the speed changes can be so dramatic when I am not introducing any element of change?

Here's a quick list of things I've tried:

-removed all old phone cabling and replaced with cat5e to a central hub
-added an adsl filter
-replaced TP provided netcomm wireless modem with Netgear D6300

None of these improvements made any great changes so It would be great to hear your opinions. Thanks!

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#1400589 5-Oct-2015 22:29

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

quickymart

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#1400602 5-Oct-2015 22:38

If you can answer Peter Reader's questions it will help greatly

Edit - make sure you are testing over ethernet, not wireless.

quickymart

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#1400605 5-Oct-2015 22:41

Also (and this depends entirely on where you are) it appears Riverhead is in line for fibre in the next couple of years. VDSL is available in some parts now.

sbiddle

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#1400640 6-Oct-2015 07:13

While I don't go around bashing ISPs for the sake of it, I've read enough comments about exceptionally poor speeds on TrustPower in recent weeks to suggest they potentially have some problems going on.

Assuming you've in a EUBA area (which is probably the case if you had 12Mbps) and your sync rate isn't fluctuating and you're testing over Ethernet, any speed issues can only be ISP related.

All your tests above are over WiFi, so you'll need to retest over Ethernet to show us any issues. WiFi is best effort. If Ethernet doesn't show the same issues you'll just need to go through basic WiFi fault finding.

johnr

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#1400642 6-Oct-2015 07:23

Looks like those tests are done over WiFi any testing should be done over Ethernet

aussiejosh

22 posts

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#1400658 6-Oct-2015 08:08

Yes, I did test over WiFi but the issue is still the same with my Ethernet-connected devices using the same test.

Sorry about my noob post, I will update you guys with the missing info when I get home from work this arvo.

Unfortunately it seems only the mains-water parts of Riverhead seem to be penned in for fibre. I live over the river more into Coatesville and 1.5km up a street so VDSL is out of the question (ISP informed me VDSL can only travel 900m max)

aussiejosh

22 posts

Geek

#1401237 6-Oct-2015 19:16

Amazingly, Trust Power contacted me today because of this post. I guess it's down to my descriptive username!

They were more than helpful and are monitoring my connection for the next 24 hours which will hopefully give us some resolve. I will update my outcome once the support case is closed. Thanks for those who replied, this forum is an amazingly effective tool!

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johnr

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#1401238 6-Oct-2015 19:19

Make sure you have a master filter installed and remove any line filters

aussiejosh

22 posts

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#1401247 6-Oct-2015 19:32

johnr: Make sure you have a master filter installed and remove any line filters

Yep, done.

pjamieson

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Chorus

#1408095 17-Oct-2015 00:12

The details of your post are pretty light. Any update on the outcome of this issue?

aussiejosh

22 posts

Geek

#1428054 14-Nov-2015 17:03

As stated previously, I have been working with Trust Power to get this issue resolved. They have had Chorus out a few times because our lines off the pole were corroded, and the latest is that the phone lines up the road have high resistance.

The customer support at Trust has vastly improved and there are some really helpful staff working there. It's just hard dealing with a situation when you speak to a new person almost every time.

The modem sync rates have been baffling, normally the downstream sync should show 13000-14000kbps. They have been anywhere from 6000-14000, mostly hanging around 6-7000. My understanding is this sync rate should be constant, no matter how much traffic there is. Our practical speed is then obviously halved, and that's when it is 'working'. The last few days, however, our sync rate has been at a stable 13500kbps, and is still holding that value.

Our internet was fine this morning, a speed test confirmed that we had a down speed of 10.3mbps and up of 0.9mbps with a ping of 27ms.

This afternoon is a very different story, using the same hard wired computer. The sync rate of the modem is still 13500kbps even after a reset. The speeds, however are not. We are not using the internet any differently from this morning to this afternoon. It was fine working an hour ago, I simply cannot find any reason why this continues to happen. I attached a picture just to show what we are dealing with here

johnr

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#1428055 14-Nov-2015 17:10

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

darylblake

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#1428249 15-Nov-2015 11:11

You should be getting just under your sync rate to most nz traffic destinations in most cases.

A lot of internet content is cached in nz so most of this should download at that speed. Once you start outside of nz the speed would depend on the isp and their level of transit capacity.

You should be able to get ~10mbit down on a speedtest to an Auckland server IF your sync rate is above 10000kbps.

aussiejosh

22 posts

Geek

#1428607 16-Nov-2015 08:42

darylblake: You should be getting just under your sync rate to most nz traffic destinations in most cases.

A lot of internet content is cached in nz so most of this should download at that speed. Once you start outside of nz the speed would depend on the isp and their level of transit capacity.

You should be able to get ~10mbit down on a speedtest to an Auckland server IF your sync rate is above 10000kbps.

Yes, I should be getting just under my sync rate, but the problem is most of the time I don't.

In addition, my sync rate is constantly changing. On Saturday, when I wrote the previous post, my sync rate was 13500kbps. Yesterday my sync rate was 10200kbps and now this morning it is 7400kbps. I just find it incredibly odd we very seldom experienced any sort of issues with Orcon and now with Trust we have these issues that can't seem to be resolved no matter what we do.

darylblake

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#1429037 16-Nov-2015 16:08

The Sync Rate will NOT be to do with your ISP.

That is the Layer 2 speed of the tail. As the Sync speed seems to be fluctuating that generally indicates that the line is noisy or has crosstalk. The only things you can really do about this, is to ensure the line coming into the house connects directly to a master filter. And then plug the modem into that filter. If this is already happening, then there may not be a lot else you can do apart from fiddle with the stability settings on your modem or if you are getting disconnected a lot you may be able to log a fault. I would also borrow a modem off someone and try it out and see if you get any better results and less fluctuation in sync. For example i had a telecom technicolour modem they used to issue with a new connection and i got about 6~7mbit. When i connected a fritz box I got 11~12mbps sync. (not all adsl2+ modems appear to be created equal).

As for getting well under your sync rate, this is potentially a problem with the internet provider, but you would need to work with them to diagnose why you are not getting a download close to your sync rate.

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