Connection Drops during Peak Time Gaming

[spelk]

I've recently migrated from a 1Mb BT Broadband package to Sky Broadband Max (gives roughly around 3.5Mb) and I'm pleased with the speed boost. However during peak times 6pm-10pm in the evening, I am having dropped connections and disconnects from the game server whilst playing Lord of the Rings Online on my PC, or some disconnects when playing on my Xbox360. It is frustrating because I never had any disconnect problems whatsoever from the BT Broadband setup.

I have a wireless setup, with the Sky NetGear v2 DG934G router plugged into the Master BT socket. My PC has a NetGear WG311v3 802.11g Wireless PCI Adapter plugged into it, and my Xbox360 is using the official Microsoft Xbox360 Wireless Adapter.

As instructed I have some router stats, from a normal connection to the socket and from the test socket with the faceplate removed.

Normal Connection, around 8:20pm GMT


Test Socket Connection, around 8:12pm GMT


I have also included a Ping log to bbc.co.uk


I have also performed a Speed test from speedtest.net



I have been monitoring my Noise Margin and during the day the downstream value can be as high as 8db, but during the evenings it tends to hover around 5db or below down to 1db or even go into an odd extremely large number (something like 2365426514db). I've tried rebooting the router until its over 6db, but I've not yet get it to stabilise, it always seems to drop lower, no matter how many reboots of the router.

I've also switched to using OpenDNS as some people have recommended it, and it did seem to help at first, although I have been getting the drops using their DNS.

I've also changed the Channel from the default 1, to 11, in an attempt to find a channel that other Sky users in the vicinty are not on, in case of interference there.

I've read that you can contact CST and ask for your Max Delays to be lowered, in an attempt to lower you ping for gaming, and I will do this, would it have an affect on these disconnects?

Anyway, I am happy with the connection as it is, but my gaming is suffering from these drops, they can happen up to about 5 times a night. Can anyone suggest anything to help, or further diagnostics I can do? Your help in the matter would be very much appreciated..

Cheers

Spelk.

[richone54]

you have a fairly long line (high attenuation) which is not really hellped by using an extention.
have you used the test socket during the evening and still got dropped connections ?

are you sure your router is dropping the connection or do you think its the wireless (i got a bit lost in your post)

[spelk]

you have a fairly long line (high attenuation) which is not really hellped by using an extention.

I'm not using an extension as such, the router is plugged into the microfilter and that is directly plugged into the BT Master socket.

have you used the test socket during the evening and still got dropped connections ?

I will try that, I've only just grabbed the stats from the Test Socket, I haven't tried gaming whilst connected to the Test Socket. I'll let you know.

are you sure your router is dropping the connection or do you think its the wireless (i got a bit lost in your post)

I'm not entirely sure to be honest, I get disconnected from the game servers. If its just the wireless cutting out, between the router and the PC/Xbox is there anything that can be done for that? Sadly, I'm not in a position to be able to hook the PC/Xbox in a wired configuration.

Apologies for the long winded post, I just wanted to include all the information I could.

[Monday]

HI if your willing to drop your upload speed to 416 then it may be worth downgrading to Mid you'll be saving £60 a year

[richone54]

no probs on the post, i just have a low attention span

one way to check about the drops would be to log into the router after you have been disconected and look at the WAN time (if it is only a couple of miniutes that would be a connection drop between the router and the exchange, if it still shows a longer time the problem will be wireless)



there are a couple of things you could do to get rid of the wireless (which is not that good for games imo). you could rewire your house with the correc cable to be able to plug in wired (there is a whole load of info in the cabling and faceplate forum) or you could look into getting something like this (you can get others, a search on ebay would bring up loads

[spelk]

Whilst plugged into the Test Socket, it seems to be the WAN port that is dropping, checking the stats directly after a game disconnect. It usually happens around 7pm-9pm ish.

[Keef79]

yes i've noticed this too. sucks as its the best time for me.

[spelk]

Sky have said they might be able to do something about the stability of the line and the ping (not sure about the line, perhaps capping its speed?, but I presume the ping is setting the max delays lower).

[wannabgeek]

Hi i had a very similar problem to you and got sky to lower max delays (not sure how low) My DL/UL did not suffer and my pings have gone down to 22 jolt/25 bbc. For 3 days it was so fast and it was Awesome playing cod4, but for some reason today i am again getting dissonected all the time and having probs killing opposition in COD4 My noise margins are still good as is my ping times. Cannot understand this! Good luck

[spelk]

I monitored the situation for 72 hours after the "regrading"

=============================================
Tuesday 22/04/2008
-----------------------------
20:35 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - playing LOTRO*
21:22 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - playing LOTRO
Wednesday 23/04/2008
-----------------------------------
00:20 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - Downloading
(No disconnects during Wednesday evening)
Thursday 24/04/2008
--------------------------------
07:00 - WAN/ADSL Dropped (required Router hard reboot to get connection back)
20:00 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - Surfing
21:00 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - playing LOTRO
21:20 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - playing LOTRO
21:46 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - playing LOTRO (hard reboot router)
22:55 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - playing LOTRO
23:45 - WAN/ADSL Dropped - Surfing
Friday 25/04/2008
--------------------------
01:54 - WAN/ADSL Dropped
=============================================
*LOTRO = Lord of the Rings Online (Game)


They responded by saying that I should try changing the channel from 1 through to 13 and seeing if that helps. And to be fair its been better on channel 2 than it has on 1, or 7. So I'll keep trying the channels and monitoring the disconnects.

After this regrading the router isn't reporting much in the way of different connection speeds.