Weird Connection drops. High downstream power to blame?

[Steve Day]

Hi,
over the last few days I have been experiencing strange lag spikes/connection drops which last about 10 seconds. Enough to disconnect me from WOW and occasionally from MSN too.

WS10 walsall area.

running a hypertrace during these spikes gets me to the GSR at walsall then times outt after that.

an engineer is coming tomorrow to sort out my high downstream power level which is currently 13-14db.

could this high power level be causing the problems i see?

has anyone else in the walsall area experienced these spikes? ( i see from the forum that a few people elsewhere have posted symptoms similar to mine).

cheers,

Steve

ps apologies for not posting a whole signal log but i aam posting this from work and all other signal data was in the "normal" range

[mrsnooch]

I have also been getting a similar problem, probably for about 4 weeks now, 9 times out of 10 it's when ever I'm using Skype. I'm assuming the high volume of data being sent back and forth is whats cutting out my modem!! I haven't checked the power level when it drops as the modem itself actually switches off and restarts.

This only started a month ago or so, maybe around when updates began? Then again I live in Belfast and I don't think they've started here yet!

It seems myself and Steve are having a similar problem...maybe. So Steve if your technician showed up, did he give you much info?


Thanks,
Mark

[Steve Day]

ok the engineer came and fittented a 6db attenuator to the back of the modem in about 5mins.
my downstream power level is now a more respectable 7db.

currently i cant say whether this has solved the problem as its only been 24 hours, but so far it hasnt dc'ed me at all. in the 2.5 hours before the engineer arrived it happened about 6 times.

the engineer was dubious as to whether it would in fact solve the problem as his opinion was that it was a virgin server out in "the world" that was at fault and not me.

my most noticable symptom was regular reconnecting of MSN and getting booted from online games.

the engineer did ask me if my modem lights changed when this happened or if it reset. which mine didnt.

when i got the lag spike, tracing a route would take me to the local GSR and go no further. as it cleared i would be routed via Wolverhampton instead of the usual Manchester node i see, which kind of suggests that a node near manchester could be at fault.

anyway. anyone wishing to use technical support, i would heartily reccomend they do so online at virgin newsgroups intead of by phone. they seem far more savvy on there than the phone support (with the advantage of your posts also being read by a load of other users who may be able to chip in too).

lastly i would advise that because your modem is actually resetting that u go on the newgroups and post your signal levels and traceroutes. they can and will book engineers for u without u having to phone anyone.

i will post if i get a recurrance or if it seems to have solved the problem later on.

Steve

[Shin Gouki]

Hi Steve,

I live in brierley hill and i'm iv'e been having the exact same issues for about 2 weeks now.

I think it's up and down the country tbh.

[Steve Day]

Its very possible, i too have see the posts with similar issues on the newgroup from round the country.

Steve

[Steve Day]

ok i had my first spike and disconnection today (saturday 8th) since the downstream power level was adjusted on Thursay. so it looks like the engineer was correct in thinking it wouldnt solve the problem as it wasnt at my end.

same symptoms, connection goes dead for several seconds. running a trace during start of dead period will get me to the first node after the modem and no further. as the link comes back i will be routed thru a different set of servers than a normal trace will show. the network has obviously detected a time out somewhere and is rerouting me round it.

usually my traces go me>>>Walsall>>>Dudley>>>Manchester then out to whereever.

when i have a problem the trace never includes dudley or manchester.

Steve