Have I broken my router?

soolin

Browntoa wrote: »

I'd ring up Linksys support and ask if the router will support 8 meg, if it does then the Virgin support team are talking out of their bottom

I don't think that will be a first either!

The problem with a lot of these help desks is that once they know they have a non techie they just assume they can tell you anything and you'll believe them. (and I usually do:o )

deklan99

You mention a BT box somewhere so I presume it's not virgin cable you have.
Quite possible, if you are on a long line, that a fixed 1 or 2 meg product worked better than adsl max due to snr margin problems.
Post your line stats as someone else has mentioned - downstream attenuation, down snr margin, down sync/connection rate - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm and try and get them from the test socket behind master socket.
Speed tests are of no use unless you have your IP profile as well - http://speedtester.bt.com/

soolin

I'm not sure how to do a speed test from the master socket. The box sits on my desk and is currently plugged in to a power source and into the BT socket and also into the PC.

I had the BT socket installed around 3 years ago and the BT engineer said that he had installed it as a Master, so it fed directly through the main box rather than tagged onto the main connection as an 'add on'. The work was all done privately for me and he assured me that as he was doing it as a favour (he is a friend of a friend ) he gave me a much better system for sockets than most general customers would get. I can't explain it but I have a box by the front door and that has a jack plug in it, but from the box comes two wires, one directly to my PC socket and one that then carries the phone extensions round the house.

Oh and yes I have a BT line and am using it for phones and broadband with Virgin as my ISP. I had my line checked by the same engineer, and since then by Virgin who assure me that my connection should be excellent.

After dinner I'll come back and do the tests in the previous post.

soolin

deklan99 wrote: »

You mention a BT box somewhere so I presume it's not virgin cable you have.
Quite possible, if you are on a long line, that a fixed 1 or 2 meg product worked better than adsl max due to snr margin problems.
Post your line stats as someone else has mentioned - downstream attenuation, down snr margin, down sync/connection rate - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm and try and get them from the test socket behind master socket.
Speed tests are of no use unless you have your IP profile as well - http://speedtester.bt.com/

Just had a quick look my router isn't listed. I have a HG200 V.2 (according to th emodel number on the back). It look svery similar to the WAG ones though.

jje_2

Dont get BT in if its your internal problem they charge minimum of £170.

If your ADSL connection is coming out of a BT master socket then for testing you are required to plug the router into the rear socket on the BT master . This eliminates the interior wiring . Last similiar problem i had to fix was a faulty phone on a bedroom extension . Once removed speed jumped from 1.5 mb to 3.5mb and i would expect that to creep up in a couple of weeks .
Your actual speed on a up to 8mb ADSL Max service is subject to a number of factors one is the quality and distance from the exchange of the BT cable that enters the house . The noise on the internal phone cables is another factor as is the quality of the filters . Then of course their is contention most often felt in the busy periods 4pm to 9pm and Sunday afternoon .
I suspect it would be cheaper to buy a new router rather than pay somebody to come in more so if you could buy one and return if not suitable Tesco???

jje

albertross_2

You had a 2Meg download speed test a while back, that is about average for a Sunday afternoon, your sync speed will be higher than this, (you need to login to the router to find it).

It sounds like it is working to me. If it goes slow, reboot the router, (which appears to be working, so pointless changing it).

Vancat

Hi
I'm a complete novice when it comes to all this technospeak about changing settings etc, and always frightened to change anything in case I make things worse!:rolleyes:
I'm with Virgin (was NTL cable); they always talk you through their "reboot then change this that and the other" stuff....drives me mad! It's usually recorded two days later as a fault/outage, yet it never shows at the time on the status thingy...and the techno peeps always deny a problem.:mad:
However, I noticed you said your router was Linksys....
Their support is fantastic...and free....I once had a guy speaking from Mexico or somewhere who talked me through step by step for over an hour to fix a prob with my router. They even talked me through securing it as I couldn't get my head round the online tutorial. I've had my router replaced...again free...by them...and it was only about £50 when I bought it a few years ago.
If you think it could be your router, try calling them for support.
Think their number is 0800 026 1418
Regards
VC

deklan99

soolin wrote: »

Just had a quick look my router isn't listed. I have a HG200 V.2 (according to th emodel number on the back). It look svery similar to the WAG ones though.

Just so happens I have an old hg200, login to router by typing 192.168.1.1 in browser, user name admin, password admin and look for the dsl connection tab.

soolin

deklan99 wrote: »

You mention a BT box somewhere so I presume it's not virgin cable you have.
Quite possible, if you are on a long line, that a fixed 1 or 2 meg product worked better than adsl max due to snr margin problems.
Post your line stats as someone else has mentioned - downstream attenuation, down snr margin, down sync/connection rate - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm and try and get them from the test socket behind master socket.
Speed tests are of no use unless you have your IP profile as well - http://speedtester.bt.com/

Yesterday I couldn't get speedtester open at all it just said it was busy and that I needed to report that to my ISP. This morning my internet is running absolutely fine and I can get into speedtester but it tells me my log in and/or telephone number is wrong and I realise that my caller id is blocked so I use the prefix 1470 on my line and speedtest doesn't recognise that. Will work round that later.

On the other site I get the following from my usual set up:

ItemValueADSL Line TypeGDMTADSL Line CodingINTERLEAVEDLine Attenuation(Down):31 (Up):14Noise Margin(Down):15 (Up):21Total Output Power(Down):0 (Up):0Current RateDownStr: 4960(K) UpStr: 448(K)ADSL Line StatusUPFEC(FAST)(Near):0 (Far):0FEC(INTERL)(Near):0 (Far):2778CRC(FAST)(Near):0 (Far):0CRC(INTERL)(Near):1 (Far):13HEC(FAST)(Near):0 (Far):0HEC(INTERL)(Near):68 (Far):0Showtime last(sec)1208161131ADSL_FW_Version0.49ADSL_Board_TypeAnnex A

However I di dunplug everything and carry it all to the front box and try from there but I just couldn't work out how to set it all up again.

The fact though that everything is working fine this morning rather suggests to me that it was Virgin and not me having problems at the weekend.

Also just to 'prove' my non techie theory my speed test today was:

Download Speed: 3859 kbps (482.4 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 380 kbps (47.5 KB/sec )

which is about the best it has ever been! I rather suspect that Virgin have been telling me porkie pies.

soolin

Sorry , I forgot to say thank you to everyone who offered advice. I was tearing my hair out yesterday and just having something to try really helped!