Slow / laggy broadband issue

[digitalspace]

Hi,

I'm a 20mb broadband customer who has had near-faultless internet for many years now. However over the past few days my connection has been hard to deal with.

Websites will take half a minute to load, with some timing out. Usenet downloads are suffering too so I'm guessing it isn't a DNS issue, usually I'll get 2.4MB/sec download but now it's anything from 300KB to 1MB - the graph is all over the show.

I've tried bypassing the router and connecting the modem direct to my PC and laptop, but the problem remains on both. I've also checked the local area checker (Southampton) and there are no known faults at this time.

Here are my stats, I know some will complain but they've been like this for absolutely ages now!

Cable Modem Upstream
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 1
Upstream Frequency : 42800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 45.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 16
Downstream Frequency : 322750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 12.4 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 39.0 dB

Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 768000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 3044
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Enabled

Here's a ping result:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\>ping www.google.co.uk

Pinging [208.69.34.230] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 208.69.34.230: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=52
Reply from 208.69.34.230: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 208.69.34.230:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 20ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 21ms

C:\Users\>

I get similar 'Lost' with any other address.

Please advise!

[dangles]

I am also a 20MB broadband customer (joined almost 3 months ago) and in the last few weeks there's been a drop in speed. Nothing terrible but it's definitely not the speed I expect from a 20MB line, if anything it feels like my previous TalkTalk line (which ran at about 6MB). This is on all three of my PC's, all with varying installs, two connected wirelessly and one via ethernet port. I only overnight download once every few weeks so there's no need for traffic shaping. Having had my third phone call with customer services (all of them to offshore people who just seem to want to blame me or get me off the phone rather than help me) I was told that there are broadband issues in my area (Bournemouth/Poole) that engineers are aware of and that an estimated fix will be in place by around 14th June.
Can't help but think I'm having my leg pulled there, has anyone else heard of this?
I'm at work right now so can't post modem stats, I'll try and get those up later.

[Peter_]

Downsream to high and will probably need an engineer to adjust.

[digitalspace]

An update:

My neighbour has a 10mb (Ambit 255) modem and has no reported issues. I took my 20mb (256) over there and swapped their modem with mine. The signal stats were pretty much the same as I have over in my house, and the ping / slow browsing issues remained.

I then tested her 10mb modem and pings / browsing were perfect. Bringing her modem back over to mine, the stats again were perfect and browsing was excellent.

From this, it's safe to conclude my actual coax line is good, and instead it looks like the modem may be faulty?

Could someone link us up on how to contact the newsgroup guys, as I've heard they're very 'techy' and may be able to help me better?

Many thanks!

[Peter_]

If you had called earlier you may have had an engineer booked by now or a replacement modem winging its way out to you..

We no longer offer support via Newsgroups, you would have to register and post it in the New Support Forum which can be found HERE

[dangles]

I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or just post my stats here, I'll stick 'em here.

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 1
Upstream Frequency : 42800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 49.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

ownstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 120
Downstream Frequency : 322750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 10.3 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 40.7 dB

Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 768000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 3044
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Enabled

I did a ping test at pingtest.net, not sure how reliable the results are but after two tests I got pretty much the same result each time.



This is for a 20MB line in Poole - BH12. I hope that's enough info, I'm new at all this. If anyone can recommend what to do, that would be great.
Cheers.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by dangles

Downstream Receive Power Level : 10.3 dBmV

Same problem as the OP. You need an engineer to adjust the signal level.

[dangles]

Originally Posted by pip08456

Same problem as the OP. You need an engineer to adjust the signal level.

Got an engineer coming out next week, they suspect a dodgy modem. At least it's getting sorted. For the record it wasn't an offshore person this time, it was a very helpful rep who went through EVERYTHING to try and nail the problem. Big thanks to him.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by dangles

Got an engineer coming out next week, they suspect a dodgy modem. At least it's getting sorted. For the record it wasn't an offshore person this time, it was a very helpful rep who went through EVERYTHING to try and nail the problem. Big thanks to him.

If you receive a Virginmedia Satmatrix email about a week afterwards askng about your issue and how it was handled then you can praise him.

[Nedkelly]

This could be the 10 meg modem uses a different ubr to the 20 meg modem which uses the 50 meg ubr .It depends on the area you are in here 10 meg modems use 331 or 402.75 and a small amount of 20 meg modems all 50 meg and most of the 20 meg modems use 299 ,307.315 and 323 mhz

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Nedkelly

This could be the 10 meg modem uses a different ubr to the 20 meg modem which uses the 50 meg ubr .It depends on the area you are in here 10 meg modems use 331 or 402.75 and a small amount of 20 meg modems all 50 meg and most of the 20 meg modems use 299 ,307.315 and 323 mhz

Go on Ned blind him with science.

[digitalspace]

Nah, that makes sense. I thought UBR was physically connected to a cab, so all customers on cab A are fed to UBR B. Obviously I don't know too much!

What's annoying is I have a tech booked for tomorrow, but tonight my net has gone back to normal excellent speeds.

FFS, it's always the way

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Masque

Go on Ned blind him with science.

so 6 downstreams he listed there.

4 for 50mbit and most of 20mbit

2 for rest of 20mbit and all of 10mbit.

how many upstreams?

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

so 6 downstreams he listed there.

4 for 50mbit and most of 20mbit

2 for rest of 20mbit and all of 10mbit.

how many upstreams?

50mb has 3/4 depending on uBR, 20Mb/10Mb/2Mb all have 1 downstream.

All have 1 Upstream.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Masque

50mb has 3/4 depending on uBR, 20Mb/10Mb/2Mb all have 1 downstream.

All have 1 Upstream.

I meant in total on the UBR not per user.