Ping speeds and Capping

[MarkColeman]

Just wondered if someone could provide some advice on strange things that have been happening with my Max connection recently. Apologies for the long post in advance.

When I joined Sky the salesperson informed me that I should get around 8-10mbps, which exactly what I got. The best stable sync that I got (by reseting the router in the evenings at busy times) was about 7900. My attenuation was around 43.5db and the SNR always around 7ish and I was very happy with this.

I play HL2 quite a bit and about 4 weeks ago, I noticed that many of my favourite servers were pinging extremely high (200ms+) between 6:30pm - 10:30pm. Outside these times they were fine (40ms-60ms).

Doing some detective work, I noticed that they were only servers located outside the UK, all UK servers were pinging at normal (40ms-60ms).

Anyway, spoke to CS recently to sort out the problem - went through the standard Tier 1 script. Had a problem explaing that it wasn't a speed issue, I was still synced at 8mbps and very happy but the response time were slow.

The Tier 1 guy then told me that my line could only support 6mbps - Strange as I was still synced quite happily at 8mbps with a SNR of 7+db, more than stable.

Anyway he arranged for Tier 3 to call me back - Still waiting for that, surprise surprise.

In the meantime, my pings have reduced almost back to normal but for some reason I am synced at 6880 and even though the line should support more, it will not sync any higher. This morning my Attenuation was 40db (better than normal) and my SNR was 10db. Reseting the router had no effect and it will not sync any higher.

It's a bit of a coincidence that the tier 1 guy thought my line could only support 6mbps then all of a sudden I seemed to be capped at that speed. Surely I should be syncing higher than 6mbps?

Thanks

Mark

[Saturday]

Your call to Sky has triggered T3 to cap you probably because the T1 passed the problem on as a speed issue (not understanding what a ping time is quite possibly). From your attenuation change it sounds like they have moved you from ADSL2+ to G.DMT but without seeing your full stats I can't say that for certain. You'll have to call T3 to get this undone if you prefer the way things were..

[MarkColeman]

Saturday

Thanks for the response, I thought that may be what had happened but I didn't think to check if they had moved me from ADSL2+.

I'll check this evening when I get home. If they have, I'll be one unhappy subscriber.

Thinking about it, my attenuation was 40db when I was with pipex.

I spent another fruitless hour trying to get some sense out of what they laughingly describe as 'support'. I got transferred 4 times (even once to Sky TV installs) before being cut off and am no closer to speaking to tier 3.

Mark

[Saturday]

Saturday

I didn't think to check if they had moved me from ADSL2+.

I'll check this evening when I get home. If they have, I'll be one unhappy subscriber.

OK but don't get too upset if you are now on G.DMT. Your attenuation at 43.5db on ADSL2+ is the wrong side of high and G.DMT will give you a more stable connection with minimal/no sync impact. You may even find your download speed is marginally higher. Also, the interleave settings on G.DMT are less aggressive than on ADSL2+ so your pings should also be lower.

What you need to do is satisfy yourself that your home wiring is in as good a state as it can be, check your line isn't generating too many errors then, if all looks good, call Sky and ask them to uncap you but (if it were me) leave you on G.DMT.

[MarkColeman]

Here are the stats let me know what you think.

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 768 Kbps, Downstream rate = 6880 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.9 13.0
Attn(dB): 41.0 26.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.8 10.0
Max(Kbps): 7552 1152
Rate (Kbps): 6880 768
G.dmt framing
K: 216(0) 25
R: 16 16
S: 1 8
D: 64 8
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 216 25
M: 1 8
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 1.0737 8.6153
L: 1736 208
D: 64 8
Counters
SF: 2421213 2421211
SFErr: 85 32
RS: 164642522 20580293
RSCorr: 665542 104
RSUnCorr: 3160 0

HEC: 79 24
OCD: 5 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 667884272 0
Data Cells: 17545286 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 30 0
SES: 6 0
UAS: 21 0
Total time = 11 hours 26 min 28 sec
SF = 2421213
CRC = 85
LOS = 6
LOF = 0
ES = 30
Latest 1 day time = 11 hours 26 min 28 sec
SF = 2421213
CRC = 85
LOS = 6
LOF = 0
ES = 30
Latest 15 minutes time = 11 min 28 sec
SF = 40462
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52990
CRC = 1
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 1
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-45 min to -30 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-60 min to -45 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52931
CRC = 2
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 1

[MarkColeman]

OK but don't get too upset if you are now on G.DMT. Your attenuation at 43.5db on ADSL2+ is the wrong side of high and G.DMT will give you a more stable connection with minimal/no sync impact. You may even find your download speed is marginally higher. Also, the interleave settings on G.DMT are less aggressive than on ADSL2+ so your pings should also be lower.

What you need to do is satisfy yourself that your home wiring is in as good a state as it can be, check your line isn't generating too many errors then, if all looks good, call Sky and ask them to uncap you but (if it were me) leave you on G.DMT.

The home wiring is excellent, I am in the test socket and I have recently had a brand new line from the DP.

I am not entirely sure what the stats i posted above mean, but the errors don't seem to be that high.

At 43.5 I was getting a very stable 8mbps. If I reset in the morning when the line was quiet, I have seen it as high as 11mbps, although in reality this would drop out in the evening.

The other issue, is know that I have been moved to g.DMT the connection is now interleaved, increasing the ping times on average. Although servers outside the uk are better, they are still around the 90-100ms mark. while on ADSL2 they were more like 50.

All in all, I feel that I am getting less than I was this time last week.

Cheers

Mark

[MrStabby]

It sounds more like the line has been 'automatically regraded' which is essentially an automated cap.

[MarkColeman]

It sounds more like the line has been 'automatically regraded' which is essentially an automated cap.

I spoke with somemone in tier 1 last night who said that tier 3 had closed the call down becuase 'your issue with a slow connection has been resolved' even though the problem was never a slow connection rather just response times. What I understood from the conversation was that T3 had imposed the cap.

The T1 person then refused to put me through to T3 as the ticket had been closed. I could not explain in a way she understood that the problem had not been resolved and there was still an issue.