50mb installation/modem stats question

[Wonnov Menny]

Hello,

Last week I had the BB upgraded on my VIP pack from 20mb to 50mb. I've had quite a few problems, especially relating to speed issues. 2 engineers and one senior tech have been out, they have tried/done various things, checked/replaced cables, altered settings in the street cabinet, altered settings on my PC, in fact they couldn't do enough.

They told me I'm on the same UBR as I was on 20mb which is perfectly fine for 50mb, but they checked it anyway, everything was fine.

From what they tell me, it appears that there is not a decent speed test site anywhere, or one that is compatible with 50mb. Some give extremely low results (1.96mbit), others give absurdly high results (184mbit). Apparently, the only one that gives a true and correct reading is virgin medias own 50mb test, but this is only available to the tech/install guys.

The senior tech spent a few hours here, doing various tests.. every level and setting all the way from their end to my house was checked and adjusted to be spot on. In the end the problem turned out to be my firewall. Using VM speedtest, on the techs laptop, D/L speed was average 46mb, on my pc anywhere from 18-26mb. Disabled the firewall on mine and the D/L speed went up to 45-47mb. Repeated the tests numerous times with firewall on/off, same conclusive results every time. The tech explained anything over 45mb is considered good and within parameters.

He told me to speak to my firewall tech support people to see if there's a setting I can change. They have suggested I upgrade to latest release just out, then retest. The problem I have is, how can I test if the new firewall software improves things if I can't use the 50mb VM speed test (which is the only one that works)? VM should allow a speed test site just for the 50mb users to use if none of the others work with 50mb.

The upstream/downstream settings from my modem are shown below. Based on the above, I know all the levels etc must now be correct & set spot on, but what does all the other stuff mean such as correctable & uncorrectable codewords, timeouts, ranging status, etc? Could someone please explain.

-------------------------------------------------
Cable Modem Downstream
DS-1 DS-2 DS-3 DS-4
Frequency 298750000 306750000 314750000 N/A
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y N/N/N
Channel Id 36 37 38 N/A
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM N/A
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 N/A
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 6.22 6.31 6.16 N/A
RxMER
(dB) 35.78 36.17 36.84 N/A
Correctable
Codewords 1293 490 561 N/A
Uncorrectable
Codewords 339 313 307 N/A


Cable Modem Upstream
US-1 US-2 US-3 US-4
Channel Type 1.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 1 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 45808000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 2560 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 2 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 49.71 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 4
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 10 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 1 0 0 0
------------------------------------------------------

In addition, I checked the modem log file, it's full of loads of these critical errors and warnings (below) going right back to the install date last week. The tech guys must obviously think they're ok, but could someone please explain what they actually mean?...

------log file extract (edited to save space)------
Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;
Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out
Warning (5) MDD message timeout;
Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;
Warning (5) MDD message timeout;
Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;
Warning (5) MDD message timeout;
Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;
Warning (5) MDD message timeout;
Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Warning (5) MDD message timeout;
etc
etc


Thanks in advance..

[azcomposer]

Sent you a PM.

Btw, what firewall you using and what OS?

I had similar problems when mine got installed, and I put it down to XP 32-bit edition. I am now using my wife's dongle (the one she was going to use on her laptop) and I am getting 40+ speeds. She is connecting via "g" on her laptop and isn't too bothered about 50Mbits.

I intend to go to Windows 7 at some point, so that will sort out my speed problems as on Windows 7 and Vista, 50Mbits is always reached bar the occasional drop. XP 32-bit wasn't designed for speeds that quick and I think that's the problem with me. Might be with you.

Oh, and their laptops passed their tests (getting 45+ each time), unlike mine and my PC!

[Wonnov Menny]

what firewall you using and what OS?

Using Kaspersky Internet Security (firewall is part of the package), running under Vista 32bit Home Premium.

I had similar problems when mine got installed, and I put it down to XP 32-bit edition. I am now using my wife's dongle (the one she was going to use on her laptop) and I am getting 40+ speeds. She is connecting via "g" on her laptop and isn't too bothered about 50Mbits.

The VM tech who came to my house had XP 32bit on his laptop without any of the mods available on speedguide.net, and it was achieving much faster speeds than my Vista laptop, but he did say Vista can be a problem sometimes.

My wife has a new Sony laptop with built-in wireless-N, running Vista 32bit Home premium. She gets 40+ speeds no problem. She uses Norton Internet Security which doesn't seem to slowdown the connection at all. BTW, my PC is directly connected to the router via ethernet.

I intend to go to Windows 7 at some point, so that will sort out my speed problems as on Windows 7 and Vista, 50Mbits is always reached bar the occasional drop. XP 32-bit wasn't designed for speeds that quick and I think that's the problem with me. Might be with you.

I'm looking for another new PC, I asked the VM tech what he thought about about waiting until Windows 7 was released, he said he would avoid Windows 7 for now, because of driver issues, best sticking with Vista for a while.

Oh, re. firewalls/internet security software... the tech said on his own home machine he just uses the free software from Virgin, I think it's called PCGuard, which doesn't cause any problems at all. Not sure who actually makes that software for Virgin or if it's a cut down version or what?

Thanks for the reply..
.

[Ben B]

Originally Posted by Wonnov Menny

Oh, re. firewalls/internet security software... the tech said on his own home machine he just uses the free software from Virgin, I think it's called PCGuard, which doesn't cause any problems at all. Not sure who actually makes that software for Virgin or if it's a cut down version or what?

PCGuard is powered by Kaspersky Internet Security so there should be no impact difference with that compared to the original Kaspersky Internet Security that you have.

[Xteria]

Windows 7 64bit rocks, for the odd thing like my g5 mouse drivers, i just used the vista 64 drivers and it works no problem.

When we had speed problems on our 50mb, they came out to look - my girlfriend over heard the tech saying to his manager that i was "using windows 7 and it's illegal"

lmao

[AbyssUnderground]

Originally Posted by Xteria

Windows 7 64bit rocks, for the odd thing like my g5 mouse drivers, i just used the vista 64 drivers and it works no problem.

When we had speed problems on our 50mb, they came out to look - my girlfriend over heard the tech saying to his manager that i was "using windows 7 and it's illegal"

lmao

Hardly illegal if you're using a beta version with is readily available

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Xteria

When we had speed problems on our 50mb, they came out to look - my girlfriend over heard the tech saying to his manager that i was "using windows 7 and it's illegal"

No just unsupported by Virgin.

[Wonnov Menny]

Originally Posted by Xteria

Windows 7 64bit rocks, for the odd thing like my g5 mouse drivers, i just used the vista 64 drivers and it works no problem.

What about in general.. Can you run 32bit stuff or do you have to source 64bit versions of apps etc. I thought I've seen things (various vista apps/drivers) which say they will only run under 32bit. Is there a compatibility setting or something in Win7?

I originally couldn't take to Vista, but the more I've used it, the more I like it.. I now find going back to XP very limiting... Is Win 7 much better than Vista?
.