Drop outs and low speed - big frustration

[Gump]

Hello,

I don't do much downloading but I do play online frequently. Recently I have been experiencing periods of what appears to be lost packets, sometimes lasting 30 secs and 1 in 10 of these events I lose the connection which is then automatically renegotiated.

Additionally at any time of the day, I could experience slow to very slow browsing which often ends in 'cannot load the web page - connection lost' msgs.

This most frequently happens between 2pm adn midnight - Initially I put it down to contention and kids coming home, going online and peak periods but it is getting worse - so bad in fact that sometimes I have to connect using my mobile bb, which incidentally gives me up to 4 times the speed I get from Sky.

I have a quad core. 4 gb sys running Vista, nothing else special about it. Router stats are:

System Up Time: 51:12:11

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 73388 114601 0 0 0 12:18:32
LAN 1131169 894919 0 0 0 51:12:11
WLAN 29291 14044 0 0 0 51:11:44
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 918 kbps 412 kbps
Line Attenuation 71.5 db 45.7 db
Noise Margin 8.0 db 12.0 db

Although the snake oil salesman sold us a 4mbit package, my line will only support 2 max and has never, ever delivered more that 768kbits but usually 360kbits.

I have tested for fragged packets and set the MTU at the recommended 1442 for my sys/setup (and reflected that in IP and Router settings)

Thanks in advance for any help.

ps In the event of lost packets whilst gaming, I can continue to press action buttons and when the connection wakes up again (i.e 9/10 times), the game will cycle quickly through the actions that I have initiated and 'catch up' with where I should be. This indicates that the connection is kinda stalled at this end waiting for a response at the exchange? perhaps?

[gorebrush]

Is it correct that you are on Sky Connect?

Do you have these issues first thing in the morning?

[Isitme]

I am afraid most your problems are down to the length of your line. Not long ago it would not even have been considered for broadband. All I can suggest is that you plug into your Test socket using only the cable supplied by Sky and post the stats form there. This is in the hope that your internal wirig is badly effecting your connection.
How to test your ADSL in the Master Test Socket

If you are on Connect, that does not help

[Gump]

Tried the test socket thing first, there is no difference.

Only problem I have first thing in the morning is ME waking up lol. Most of the issues, as I said are between 2pm and midnight.

If I stay up all night and play EQ2, rarely do I get the drop outs or 'stalling'. During the mornings maybe occasionally, the browsing speed will slow down but that could be the popular news sites slowing down their end cos of all the traffic they are handling.

Yes, I am probably at the far end of beyond in adsl terms. It is very unfortunate that providers are allowed to sell bb that can rarely be faster than dial up. They should not be allowed to charge for it but que sera. Perhaps I should dump Sky and stick with the mobile BB only. HSPDA delivers a far better result atm.

I should also point out that this first happened a year ago, I got rather frustrated with it then but repeated calls to Sky just went round the usual blame BT cycle and I gave up and just put up with it. After about 3 months, it seemed to clear itself up and I had perfect (allthough still quite slow) service for 9 months and just last week, it started up again - no change to equpt or gubbins this end.

[gorebrush]

They would blame BT - you are on Sky Connect and that's BT Broadband rebadged, only worse.

I'd say get off Sky Connect! (BT Broadband is poor enough!)

[Gump]

I just checked the contract and it's supposed to be Sky Broadband Unlimited.

I still struggle to understand why I had this prob for 3 mths then it went away then came back 9 months later.

I suspect it's Sky putting the max no of customers on the same node maybe and won't do anything about it until the level of complaints is inversely proportionate to the abysmal level of service lol.

[User05]

The line is on adsl2plus, so it's not Connect.

You've got a long line and probably suffering from large error counts with the settings that it is on. Having Sky move the code to g.dmt would be the only other thing that can be done, assuming internal wiring / set-up is fine.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

OP says its not different in the test socket but without stats we can't confirm that - for all we know the SNR might fly up in the test socket

[Gump]

Test socket stats

System Up Time: 53:40:15

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 212 299 0 0 0 0:32:21
LAN 1170291 926145 0 318 318 53:40:15
WLAN 33812 14369 0 324 0 53:39:48
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 903 kbps 412 kbps
Line Attenuation 71.5 db 45.8 db
Noise Margin 7.9 db 13.0 db

[Isitme]

. It is very unfortunate that providers are allowed to sell bb that can rarely be faster than dial up.

That is a commomn misconception with users who have slow broadband. Yours might not be very fast, but it is infact nearly 20 times faster than dial up. Not long ago we were amazed at the high speed given by 512kbps broadband, you have almost twice that

Without moving closer to the exchange, you are not going to get much more. You might get a bit more if you were moved to G.DMT(ADSL1), but it would not help much .