Losing Internet Access when Downloading/uploading

buzlightyear · 16-02-2004, 19:41

(Connecting Via STB Cross over cable) (was connecting via Wireless Router until that packed up) I am having a problem where if i am downloading/uploading at the same time i lose my internet connection, IP address goes to the 169 internal address and loses the NTL IP/Gateway etc... I have to reset my Set top box to get the internet working again, this could be 3 meg could be 120 meg downloaded, no time limit either, im not using Kazzaa or Grokster, Bitorrent and DC only. The internet will work fine for hours on end, but as soon as you upload/download it will drop you off. Its fine if say downloading from MS (260 Meg) so it must be to do with uploading too. NTL service has been dire as usual, the tech people have been fine, but there seems to be no log of what the last person has said, and if there is, they still ask the same questions, the fave i get is reset your box (yes ive done this for 3 months now) its working now sir (yes i know that) i cant really help anymore now the box it working (arrrggghhh) ive had 2 engineers out, one took the attenuator off the cable, the second one turned the volume down on the box outside the house. Still no help, This happens on 3 PC's and also tried it on the other STB in the house, Anyone else had this, it must be a network problem with the area, I dont want to leave NTL but ADSL may have to be. Any help/ideas would be gratefully recieved

Buzz

Marge · 16-02-2004, 19:43

What model STB are you using and what speed of BB have you got?

Actually answered my own question, should be 1000 series doh !!

and

btw

Kneebs · 16-02-2004, 20:40

What BT client are you using - if possible, you should use one where you can limit your upload - you want to limit to about 70-80% of you upload rate, althought I'm on 1Mb, and i've set mine to 15K (globally). I'm using Azureus, and since doing this, but also my pace 4000 box was swapped out for a 1000+ model, with azureus running constantly, my connection has been fine for.....(checks !)....over 9 days, without dropping once.

I don't know if it was the limiting of the upload though, I think my problem was mainly due to the crappy 4000 model STB, but I've read several places reccomending limiting your upload - give it a go, it can do no harm !

buzlightyear · 16-02-2004, 22:53

Sorry forgot to mention that bit, its the 1000 model and 1 meg, one of the Tech support told me about the 4000 and the problem and got me all excited, he then told me i had the 1000. Im using Bittorrent (shadows experimental) latest version, i will try limiting but should not really have to do this right,

Marge · 16-02-2004, 23:01

Well I have 1000 series box, tried upgrading to 1mg from 600k and my conx went horrendous, dropped all the time whilst downloading. No problems with 600k at all.
Can only suggest maybe ringing tech support again and asking if they can have your STB checked.

buzlightyear · 17-02-2004, 09:31

Ive treid two STB boxes in the house, so cant really imagine its the box. Tech support were trying to send me out a USB to Ethernet Adaptor last night

not quite sure how thats going to help (any ideas anyone) as the same was happening with a wireless usb connection via router. Will see how my limited upload goes today otherwise back onto Tech Support.

Thanks for you help all

Stuartbe · 17-02-2004, 09:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by buzlightyear

Ive treid two STB boxes in the house, so cant really imagine its the box. Tech support were trying to send me out a USB to Ethernet Adaptor last night

not quite sure how thats going to help (any ideas anyone) as the same was happening with a wireless usb connection via router. Will see how my limited upload goes today otherwise back onto Tech Support.

Thanks for you help all

I would ask for a SACM myself....... These set top boxes seem to be nothing but trouble !

rdhw · 17-02-2004, 09:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by buzlightyear

if i am downloading/uploading at the same time i lose my internet connection

This is a frequently reported problem with the Pace STBs. You must arrange to rate-limit your uploads to be a little bit less than the cable modem upstream rate cap (the limit is 256kbps upstream for the 1Mbps download service), so that the cable modem upstream cap never begins to operate. Setting an upload limit of 20 to 25 kBytes/sec should do the job.

In certain NTL regions, if you are on the 1Mbps service, you can ask for your broadband service to be transferred to a stand-alone cable modem.

Eradic8r · 17-02-2004, 10:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdhw

In certain NTL regions, if you are on the 1Mbps service, you can ask for your broadband service to be transferred to a stand-alone cable modem.

Anybody any ideas which regions this applies to? - I frequently experience drop outs using the connection on the STB and when speaking to CS they try to suggest every other option i.e Signal - fine, oversubscribing - seems that I'm one person who doesn't actually suffer from this.

Is it worth pushing for a SACM or am I fighting a losing battle because everytime I subtly mention it the topic gets pushed aside. - in the Northwest (Macclesfield/Wilmslow).

Rad

buzlightyear · 17-02-2004, 15:01

I had one of there Tech Support Guys say to me about getting a External Modem (his first day) since then ive had fob off's like but the modem is excatly the same as in the STB and would not make any difference. The biscuit was they asked me to get 3 days worth of data for them, then when i rang up last night the agent didnt even seem interested in looking at it. Another week wasted.

I will see what happens when i get home to see how my limited upload speed has got on. If not a call to CS and see if anything will happen when i try to cancel my BB

Vorbis · 27-02-2004, 06:50

I'd love it if anyone else had some information on this. Using the same 1000 STB and ethernet x-over cable I get drop outs while using bittorrent (and kazaa when I used that) resulting in me having to reset the STB to regain connection.

What puzzles me is that this is seemingly random, for instance the other night my connection died after 30ish mins of d/ling a bittorrent file, I had only uploaded to two people, 8meg total and never over 5kb/s. My bittorrent client only detected 10 other people using that torrent and my download rate stayed around 15kb/s (pretty low, but it was an under-used torrent so expected).

Conversely I have had bittorrents uploading at 15kb/s for many hours while downloading 500 to 2gig files at 60-70kb/s before the connection drops.

Also perhaps unrelated, if I reset the STB and I still have a program trying to maintain an active connection to the net (such as a BTclient or mirc would try) the pc will fail to automatically reconnect to the net, is this common? It is easy to fix generally anyway by turning off mirc's auto-reconnect and closing bittorrent. I have noticed my firewall will not let me "repair connection" (from the network connections in winxp home) but if I turn it off then it will, this is not a problem as such but perhaps will be useful info.

I'd be happy to find out any other info I can for anyone who has a clue why my connection keeps dropping when all my bt adsl friends have it good

Neil · 27-02-2004, 07:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eradic8r

Anybody any ideas which regions this applies to? - I frequently experience drop outs using the connection on the STB and when speaking to CS they try to suggest every other option i.e Signal - fine, oversubscribing - seems that I'm one person who doesn't actually suffer from this.

Is it worth pushing for a SACM or am I fighting a losing battle because everytime I subtly mention it the topic gets pushed aside. - in the Northwest (Macclesfield/Wilmslow).

Rad

Get a SACM, they are much more reliable/stable.

rdhw · 27-02-2004, 11:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vorbis

I'd love it if anyone else had some information on this. Using the same 1000 STB and ethernet x-over cable I get drop outs while using bittorrent (and kazaa when I used that) resulting in me having to reset the STB to regain connection.

This is an often-reported problem with STBs, when they are driven for periods hard up against their rate cap. As a workaround, you should use clients which enable you to rate-limit file transfer rates, and set the rate below that of the broadband rate caps, so that the rate limiting in the STB never comes into play.

Vorbis · 27-02-2004, 13:31

You missunderstand sorry I should have been more clear in my post. I am using a modified bittorrent client and limiting the rates at which it uploads and the # of peers it can connect to and/or upload to at the same time. None of that has helped and my connection still drops, sometimes after only uploading a few megabytes at 2kb/s max rate.

I can thrash the hell out of the connection d/ling from FilePlanet or any other decent site at 75ish kb/s or play games such as Planetside which has a fairly large upload requirement and never get a drop out.

This is what baffles me so much about it, there is obviously more to the way p2p in general works than I know but it just seems so wierd that it has such an effect on my stb.