Extremely Slow Download Speed

Gambler

Hi All,

I'm getting painfully low download speeds of 128kps since Friday evening. Upload seems fine at 346kps.

I did try calling my ISP (Vodafone at Home) yesterday becasue the DSL link kept dropping but they are a complete waste of time. Totally throws them when I ask for help with 'home' broadband!!

My line has a max speed of 7MB and I usually consistently get between 3 and 6.

I have tried a different router and read about the 3 day profile if there was a problem with my line the exchange keeps it low for up to 3 days.

I have downloaded routerstats and synch speed is a constant 5.5mps.

Router stats are as follows:

System Up Time 00:40:52

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions TxB/s RxB/s
WAN PPPoA 14987 19254 0 791 9739
LAN 10M/100M 1100 0 0 37 0
WLAN 11M/54M 22711 17464 0 10349 869

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 5472 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 35 db 9 db
Noise Margin 15db 25db

Is there anything I can do?

Many thanks

bonzer

Tried doing any traceroutes and pings to common big sites e.g. Google or BBC etc? Might be nothing to do with your actual phone line. Could be elsewhere on the network (although most likely relatively close to you e.g. equipment in your area).

Try starting with some pings and look at ping time and packet loss. Then move onto traceroutes which could identify who is the cause of the problem.

Gambler

bonzer wrote: »

Tried doing any traceroutes and pings to common big sites e.g. Google or BBC etc? Might be nothing to do with your actual phone line. Could be elsewhere on the network (although most likely relatively close to you e.g. equipment in your area).

Try starting with some pings and look at ping time and packet loss. Then move onto traceroutes which could identify who is the cause of the problem.

Thanks Bonzer. Please do you have any links that will explain how I can carry out your suggestions?

bonzer

The tools you need should be available in Windows (and other operating systems) as standard.

Open a command/DOS prompt (I've got XP, that's start, run and type "cmd"). Type:

ping -n 50 bbc.co.uk

This will send 50 "pings" or short messages to the bbc site and you should get 50 corresponding replies. The tool will measure how long the message takes to get there and back and how many messages made the trip without loss.

When the command finishes you'll get a report, look for the percentage lost (should be zero). Also look at the average round trip time, might be e.g. in the range of 20ms or so.

marcw79

bonzer wrote: »

The tools you need should be available in Windows (and other operating systems) as standard.

Open a command/DOS prompt (I've got XP, that's start, run and type "cmd"). Type:

ping -n 50 bbc.co.uk

This will send 50 "pings" or short messages to the bbc site and you should get 50 corresponding replies. The tool will measure how long the message takes to get there and back and how many messages made the trip without loss.

When the command finishes you'll get a report, look for the percentage lost (should be zero). Also look at the average round trip time, might be e.g. in the range of 20ms or so.

A great piece of software i used recently was a trial of pingplotter pro - this automates the process and repeats traceroutes at predetermined intervals and puts the data into a graphical format. This will allow you to view the service outages that you mention in the OP. Just leave this running on your PC day and night for a few days and should help u see exactly how bad the problem is.

I had an issue with Virgin - turned out to be return voltage (a fibre specific issue) - the pingplotter software proved very useful for confirming the outages.

If your connection is dropping out (connection lost with DSL light flashing on the router) make sure u change the microfilter to verify if that is the problem, also ensure you are plugged into the BT master socket in your property and, as a final measure, remove the face plate and plug your microfilter directly into the socket in the wall behind the faceplate as this will eliminate the faceplate as being a cause. I know this seems like a big ask, but if you have done these things and are still having an issue, u can pretty confidently report a line fault to your service provider - and will be able to answer "yes" when they ask "Have u tried ..."

That's my two penny's worth anyway ...

Inactive

Change ISP if Vodafone cannot/will not help you.

kwikbreaks

Gambler wrote: »

System Up Time 00:40:52

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 5472 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 35 db 9 db
Noise Margin 15db 25db

A line with 35dBattenuation should be capable of getting just about maximum sync on plain ADSL (8Mbps). You have a 15dB noise margin and the default target is 6dB. That says that your line has been very unstable and the line management routines have slowed it down in an attempt to make it stable. Instability is usually caused by noise introduced by internal extension wiring. Less likely but possible is poor quality or missing filters.

Have a read - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

Hammyman

"My ISP is Vodafone"

There's the problem right there. You're using a company who provides a mobile phone service as an ISP. Like those who use companies who are telco providers or satellite TV providers as their main business, you'll get poor service.

If you want decent speed, go with a company whose main business is internet providing.

Gambler

Hammyman wrote: »

"My ISP is Vodafone"

There's the problem right there. You're using a company who provides a mobile phone service as an ISP. Like those who use companies who are telco providers or satellite TV providers as their main business, you'll get poor service.

If you want decent speed, go with a company whose main business is internet providing.

I do normally get decent speeds there is obviously a problem at present. I don't have a lot of choice as no LLU's in my exchange. I am billed by Voadafone but the ISP is actually BT.

Gambler

bonzer wrote: »

The tools you need should be available in Windows (and other operating systems) as standard.

Open a command/DOS prompt (I've got XP, that's start, run and type "cmd"). Type:

ping -n 50 bbc.co.uk

This will send 50 "pings" or short messages to the bbc site and you should get 50 corresponding replies. The tool will measure how long the message takes to get there and back and how many messages made the trip without loss.

When the command finishes you'll get a report, look for the percentage lost (should be zero). Also look at the average round trip time, might be e.g. in the range of 20ms or so.

Packets: Sent = 50, Received = 39, Lost = 11 (22% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 32ms, Maximum = 850ms, Average = 88ms

bonzer

Gambler wrote: »

Packets: Sent = 50, Received = 39, Lost = 11 (22% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 32ms, Maximum = 850ms, Average = 88ms

Yep that's a poor result. Lost should be zero or very nearly zero. Average ping time is also high.

In the same command/dos box, try a pathping if you have it available:

pathping bbc.co.uk

This will take 5 minutes to run. This is like a traceroute and shows you all the intermediate hops between you and the BBC. However it measures the ping time and packet loss to each hop.

If the problem is your line or your equipment, I guess you'll probably expect high packet loss and high ping between you (your IP) and the first hop after that. If it goes bad a bit further down the list, the problem could be somewhere else in Vodafone/BT.