Do I really have a router fault?

agrinnall

My broadband with BT has suffered a slowdown today, from it's usually slow 450 kbps to an even more glacial 300 kbps (speeds from Thinkbroadband, although the BT retail speed tester wouldn't run, and the BT Wholesale one claims a download speed of 150 kbps).

I reported it to BT in India, who ran some tests and claimed that while the line did not have any faults they had also tested my router and that it was not working properly. Their suggestion was that I buy a new router.

Similar slowdowns have happened many times in the past, and it's always been a line fault (I'm almost 10km from the exchange). There has never previously been any hint that BT could remotely diagnose a fault as being with the router. Is this something they can actually do?

The router is a Belkin N Wireless Modem Router. While I generally connect wirelessly I have repeated the speed tests with a wired connection, with no change to the results. Router stats are shown below.

ADSL
Type Interleave Path
Status SHOWTIME
Downstream Upstream
Data rate(Kbps) 480Kb 448Kb
Noise Margin 9 9
Output power(dBm) 124 141
Attenuation(dB) 74 31

Basil1234

think you will find its not the router that has issues its line length and noise on the line but at that length longest i had heard of usually bottoms out around 2km ,you may be better changing to an fttc product if you can get it! looking for WBC FTTC
try https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html
enter phone number tell you what is available with speed estimates, as i don't think your situation is ever going to get better to be honest at that distance its just too far for an llu product.

Yorksboy

Hi

My BT broadband has been slow for the last week or so. I've also notice this on Plusnet (bt) in my office ( totally different exchange in another city).

I think that the whole Internet has been slow recently - google search for recent news.

If I were you I would monitor it for another few days and keep an eye on what's in the news.

Out of interest why do you use the. Belkin router and not a BT hub?

agrinnall

Basil, you are having a laugh aren't you, the nearest FTTC is at least 50 miles away and may even be further than that. Do you really think I'd be using a 10km copper and aluminium wire if there was an alternative? If you re-read what I said my normal speed (which has been achieved over several years of getting BT Wholesale to make incremental improvements) is 450 kbps. I know the line will support that speed so that's what I'm aiming to get back to.

Yorksboy, the last Home Hub I had was fried by a lightning strike on the line a couple of years ago, rather than pay BT and wait for a new Home Hub to turn up I opted for a 100 mile round trip the same day to buy an alternative.

chanz4

try a friends router, if the silent line test came back as fine / ping it would sound like a router

kwikbreaks

The sync rate looks spot on for your original 450Kbps speed test results so I doubt anything has gone wrong with your line as such.

I also doubt you have a router fault - when low grade TS people haven't a clue what's wrong they'll suggest anything that comes to mind to get you off the line so their turnround stats aren't compromised. It's the first time I've heard of any blaming a router though.

Try installing something like netmon or networkx on your PC to check if there is something using your bandwidth in the background. If there is the next thing of course is a hunt and destroy mission to find and kill it.

Basil1234

agrinnall wrote: »

Basil, you are having a laugh aren't you, the nearest FTTC is at least 50 miles away and may even be further than that. Do you really think I'd be using a 10km copper and aluminium wire if there was an alternative? If you re-read what I said my normal speed (which has been achieved over several years of getting BT Wholesale to make incremental improvements) is 450 kbps. I know the line will support that speed so that's what I'm aiming to get back to.

Yorksboy, the last Home Hub I had was fried by a lightning strike on the line a couple of years ago, rather than pay BT and wait for a new Home Hub to turn up I opted for a 100 mile round trip the same day to buy an alternative.

well with an attitude like i suggest you stop asking on forums for help when you seem to know it all. like difference between speed tests and thruput from dedi server i suggest the problem will be line noise and attention on your line and if you had a copy of old line stats from your router. also all of that will cause packet loss add in the weather if you get in any moisture on the line add that in as well that drop it some more.
it would seem you are up the swanny unless you get fttc which stands for fibre to cabinet that should be alot nearer to you e.g. a cab
or better yet fttp which they release at the end of the month but i think the install costs would make that too expensive for you.

example just for you
on a 19714 kbps sync line
speedtest thinkbroadband shows im pulling 16.71mb 'peak' running from a private dedi server in germany i just pulled in constant 19mb only small difference between speedtesters and proper server but you would know that wouldn't you!

i suggest you find somewhere with proper files to pull thru first!
and what yorksboy was saying was valid there was a mass ddos using dns attack slowing the net down but you would have known that too as well!
examples:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21954636
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/biggest-cyberattack-in-history-slows-down-internet-worldwide-after-quarrel-between-webhosting-company-and-antispam-group-8551815.html

also fttp news but you knew that too!
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5770-fibre-on-demand-openreach-confirm-29th-april-for-roll-out.html
costs may get you though
https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=0WyIM7tTGGgucFf0dXUIWK4XSAplAmgrRZNg5Pk%2B5%2F%2BkRgB7BL4KNYn%2FlKx2YB4Qe6YShZ82RgLO%0AGLsH2e9%2Bmw%3D%3D

so yes there it is my little laugh when you came asking for help!
my free suggestion for you from now on don't ask for help because you don't listen just ignored what yorksboy said links above prove that!
and no bt will only be able to look at line stats from there end or a bt router which they will have back door access to, not a belkin you bought just little bit of free info bt only support there own equipment be like asking sky to support someone Else's.
as to the indian call center they are all reading from scripts or trying to get you off the phone. probably fed up with the attitude and i can see why though. btw indian call center has saved bt thousands though look for the awards though for when things have gone wrong like yours.

enjoy
basil :beer:

colin79666

Is your router ddwrt or open wrt compatible?
You may be able to play with some snr setting to get a bit more speed while sacrificing some stability.

agrinnall

Basil, thank you for answering the one question I asked, which confirms my own thought that BT would not be able to investigate my router remotely.

While the rest of what you say is interesting it's not anything I can alter because there is currently no alternative (other than perhaps satellite) to what I have. Those of us who live in remote Highland glens do not have the choices that those served by a better range of infrastructure options have. I have to put up with that, but it is annoying when the speed of the line drops below what I know it can support, more so when BT try to fob me off.

I had actually forgotten about the DDOS attack, so Yorksboy's post did remind me of that. And of course, that could indeed be the reason for the slowdown, although it would be useful to know if other people are still experiencing it. Had BT mentioned it rather than coming up with a spurious reason I might never have needed to create this thread.

Luckily I have a contact in BT High Level Complaints after a previous long running issue, so I will ask her to look into it when they return to work tomorrow.

agrinnall

kwikbreaks wrote: »

The sync rate looks spot on for your original 450Kbps speed test results so I doubt anything has gone wrong with your line as such.

I also doubt you have a router fault - when low grade TS people haven't a clue what's wrong they'll suggest anything that comes to mind to get you off the line so their turnround stats aren't compromised. It's the first time I've heard of any blaming a router though.

Try installing something like netmon or networkx on your PC to check if there is something using your bandwidth in the background. If there is the next thing of course is a hunt and destroy mission to find and kill it.

These are the router stats (taken from a previous thread in 2011) at a time when I was getting the normal 450 kbps download speed.

ADSL
Type Interleave Path
Status SHOWTIME
Downstream Upstream
Data rate(Kbps) 736Kb 448Kb
Noise Margin 8 8
Output power(dBm) 123 154
Attenuation(dB) 75 31

As you can see the synch speed is not as good now as it was then, so perhaps there is a line fault,

Basil1234

or you have had line drop out and dlm has slowed the line down as a result as your noise margin has increased as well. which i suspect where the fault lies. have you thought about rewiring the inside of your home with cat5e cable on all phone extensions? i did this to mine and it helped greatly with sync speed noise reduction and then increased the speed as a result of this! when i say that went from about 15.7 to where i am now region of 19mb
I know is more work for you but could be worth a great deal to your line stability with a reduction in noise abit but might be the difference to you.
basil

such as
305m roll £38 play of all places
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/18192810/495909104/MHP-305m-Roll-Solid-UTP-Cat-5e-Ethernet-Cable-RJ45-LAN-Network-Grey/ListingDetails.html?_%24ja=tsid:13315|cat:18192810|prd:18192810&ef_id=UVmv7AAAAX1pCMwT:20130401160700:s

or amazon 405 choices there
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acat5e+cable+305m&keywords=cat5e+cable+305m&ie=UTF8&qid=1364832809&ajr=2

second one down in list looks good if want an external graded one
https://www.amazon.co.uk/1000ft-OUTDOOR-Network-External-Crimps/dp/B008ILBASO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364832893&sr=8-2