Speed and Connection Issues

[duesouth]

I'm fairly new to Sky Broadband, having signed up to Max a couple of months ago. Since signing up I've had fairly constant speed (i.e. lack of) problems - and right now it's a real struggle to even connect most days. My stats are:

System Up Time 01:22:37
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 2960 3659 0 85 638 01:21:12
LAN 10M/100M 3970 3235 0 672 104 01:22:35
WLAN 11M/54M 157 0 0 8 0 01:22:25

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 128 kbps 416 kbps
Line Attenuation 57.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 17.4 db 13.0 db


Any help/advise would be much appreciated.

[jayhab]

The more knowledgable bods on here will need to see your extended router stats in order to fully diagnose your problems, but due to the size of your noise margin it looks like you have been capped - Possibly as a result of errors on your line. Have you done all the usual things: checked internal wiring, plugged router into test socket, use a filter on all telephone equipment and main sky receiver, etc

Have a quick looksy around the site and at the very least post again with your full stats!

[duesouth]

Thanks for your reply. I had a look at common problems before I posted and no joy. Here are my full stats as requested - again, much appreciate any help.

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 416 Kbps, Downstream rate = 128 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 17.3 13.0
Attn(dB): 57.0 31.5
Pwr(dBm): 12.5 4.1
Max(Kbps): 192 960
Rate (Kbps): 128 416
G.dmt framing
K: 5(0) 14
R: 16 16
S: 16 16
D: 2 2
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 5 14
M: 16 16
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 18.6666 17.0666
L: 48 120
D: 2 2
Counters
SF: 103859 103857
SFErr: 0 2
RS: 441406 441392
RSCorr: 0 34
RSUnCorr: 0 0

HEC: 0 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 533257 0
Data Cells: 81802 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 21 0
Total time = 29 min 53 sec
SF = 103859
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Latest 1 day time = 29 min 53 sec
SF = 103859
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 14 min 53 sec
SF = 52518
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 51341
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0


Thanks.

Paul

[James67]

You really need to leave your router on for a bit longer and then get the full stats. What you've posted only has information for the last half hour. Ideally, try and give your full stats after a complete 24-hour day, but I do appreciate that on some very bad lines, going a whole 24-hours between reboots is not actually possible.

Your attenuation is very high, meaning that by the time the broadband signal has reached your house, it is very weak. Even so, a line with that kind of attenuation level can usually achieve a few Mbit/sec, so there must be something else wrong with the line, and that would seem to be very high levels of interference. Those Max(Kbps) figures you can see indicate the very highest rate that data can be sent over your line at. In practice, they're usually higher than your current speeds in order to give the system a bit of spare capacity to cope with changes in the interference on the line. Yes, I know your max rate is a whole 50% higher than your actual rate, but that's probably only one step up.

My guess is that Sky have severely restricted the range of frequencies that your line is using, to the point where there's very little space to fit in your downstream signal. They're probably doing this in an attempt to stabilise the broadband connection.

It may be that a Sky broadband connection is just not suitable for your line. You may be better off going to an alternative supplier and getting 512kbit broadband, which will give you what's known as rate-adaptive ADSL (or RADSL). This sacrifices some of the upstream speed in order to improve the downstream speed.

Sorry about the negative response, but try and post your full stats covering a longer period - it may give some more information.

[Isitme]

Judging by your upstream rate, I think you are probably on Mid, rather than Max. Although I am not sure if capping would effect this as well as your downstream rate. This is probably not a bad thing as your Attn would not support ADSL2+, which you need to get any speed benefit out of Max.

As James says, post your stats after 24hours, but they may not help much, as you appear to be very severely capped which may cancel out any errors. You must be plugged into your test socket or your internal wiring may effect the result.

[duesouth]

As requested - here are the stats after 24 hours:

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 416 Kbps, Downstream rate = 128 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 17.6 13.0
Attn(dB): 57.0 31.5
Pwr(dBm): 12.5 4.1
Max(Kbps): 192 960
Rate (Kbps): 128 416
G.dmt framing
K: 5(0) 14
R: 16 16
S: 16 16
D: 2 2
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 5 14
M: 16 16
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 18.6666 17.0666
L: 48 120
D: 2 2
Counters
SF: 5093964 5093962
SFErr: 2 12
RS: 21649352 21649338
RSCorr: 33 266
RSUnCorr: 4 0

HEC: 2 2
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 26142702 0
Data Cells: 485599 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 11 0
SES: 10 0
UAS: 21 0
Total time = 1 days 3 min 45 sec
SF = 5093964
CRC = 2
LOS = 12
LOF = 0
ES = 11
Latest 1 day time = 3 min 45 sec
SF = 13232
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 3 min 45 sec
SF = 13232
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52989
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 1 day time = 24 hours 0 sec
SF = 5080732
CRC = 2
LOS = 12
LOF = 0
ES = 11
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52931
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-45 min to -30 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52931
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-60 min to -45 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0


Many thanks,

Paul

[Isitme]

Are you plugged in to the Test socket, behind the Master socket faceplate? You are still showing errors even when severely capped, so if you are in the test socket things don't look good. As James has said you may be one of the unlucky ones whose line will not support a decent speed. 128kbps, is not broadband.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

you've been capped to 128...did u log a fault before when it wasn't working at all?

[duesouth]

I have logged a call - I'm awaiting a call back from Tier 3.

I've been connected directly to the test socket for the past 24 hours - here are the stats if they are of any use:

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 416 Kbps, Downstream rate = 416 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 32.7 13.0
Attn(dB): 56.0 31.5
Pwr(dBm): 15.7 5.0
Max(Kbps): 480 928
Rate (Kbps): 416 416
G.dmt framing
K: 14(0) 14
R: 16 16
S: 16 16
D: 2 2
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 87 14
M: 2 16
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 2.1818 17.0666
L: 704 120
D: 16 2
Counters
SF: 4697280 4697278
SFErr: 4 0
RS: 19963444 19963431
RSCorr: 30 232
RSUnCorr: 11 0

HEC: 2 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 78347070 0
Data Cells: 20762 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 14 0
SES: 11 0
UAS: 41 0
Total time = 22 hours 34 min 36 sec
SF = 4777380
CRC = 217
LOS = 43
LOF = 0
ES = 14
Latest 1 day time = 22 hours 34 min 36 sec
SF = 4777380
CRC = 217
LOS = 43
LOF = 0
ES = 14
Latest 15 minutes time = 4 min 36 sec
SF = 16232
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
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 = 52990
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 = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0

Many thanks.

Paul

[richone54]

looks strange. your SNR nearly doubled from 17 to 32. hopefully someone here can comment on that