v. slow upload

Not sure whether I should be raising a ticket about this, or whether the problem's almost certain to be at my end. I'm on the "up to 8 Mbps" product (not fibre).

I've got normal download speeds (normal for this line, that is) of almost 4 Mbps, but woeful upload. TBB's speedtester is reporting it at just 61.09 Kbps. As usual, I don't have a spare router to just switch in and test. I've tried rebooting the router, but that didn't fix it.

I know upload isn't supposed to be as fast as download, but it surely shouldn't be as bad as this. It's impacting the browsing experience.

I've had a few phases of this recently, but eventually it seemed to fix itself. This latest phase has lasted at least a couple of days, and is getting to be a real pain, though.

I know, if I raise a ticket, I'm going to get: "Try another router", but I don't just have one lying around, and there isn't anyone I can just borrow from. Is it likely to be my router, or is there a more common explanation for this?

T.

What are the router reported stats - noise margin, speeds and attenuation.
if you are on 21CN run the BT speedtest diagnostic version and see if the upstream IP profile is odd

Here are the router stats. I see I'm getting a very high number of FEC errors, but according to this ancient thread from these forums, that ought not to be critical (besides, they are shown on download, which is the bit NOT giving me a problem). The attenuation has always been this bad (it's a v. long line), so that is not a new development, and unlikely to be the source of the problem.

Uptime: 0 days, 0:58:30

DSL Type: G.992.1 annex A

Channel mode: Interleave

Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,076 / 5,024

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 5,024

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/MB]: 0.00 / 21.39

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.5 / 20.0

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 30.0 / 49.0

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 23.0 / 6.5

Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / IFTN

Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Link (Remote): 0

Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 987,831

CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 3

HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 5


I can't remember whether I'm on 21CN or not, and don't know how to check...


T.

You are almost certainly still on 20CN
Regarding the FEC result - like you I am surprised at the high number in under an hour which would tend to indicate a problem
Given that the router resynched recently that may have fixed the problem
Can you run another speed test and see what the upstream speed is.
Have you tried the quiet line test - dial 17070 option 2 and are there any crackles on the line
This is from my monitoring and shows what can happen to the upstream speed when there is noise on the line and my attenuation figures are 50/25

Thu 04 Oct 2012 17:05:04 Rx-Noise=5.3 Tx-Noise=9.0 Rx-Sync=4960 Tx-Sync=448
Thu 04 Oct 2012 17:15:04 Rx-Noise=4.8 Tx-Noise=1.0 Rx-Sync=4576 Tx-Sync=64
Thu 04 Oct 2012 17:25:04 Rx-Noise=5.1 Tx-Noise=23.0 Rx-Sync=4928 Tx-Sync=448

One other thing which may be relevant - your upstream attenuation is a little high given the downstream attenuation

No, the "resync" was me manually rebooting it - it hasn't fixed the problem at all.

TBB's speedtest is showing 122.66 Kbps upload, which I suppose is a very slight improvement, but still nothing like the speed it should be, I don't think, and hasn't made any noticeable difference to what it's like to use.

I don't know what to do about upstream attenuation. I'm already plugged directly into the master socket. There are no extensions. The only other thing plugged in is the phone. I can't remember if upstream attenuation has always been high. I know downstream always has been about 49dB, which means there's been no change for the worse there.

Tried the quiet line test: no obvious noise or crackles on the line (haven't noticed any during recent voice calls either).

T.

In which case raising a fault may be the next step although BT normally refuse to accept low upstream speeds as a fault
One other thing - are you sure that there isn't any other activity hitting your upstream usage such as a P2P application
One way of checking that is to start the computer in safe mode with networking and try a speed test - this would also rule out any other programs mucking up the result

I don't use P2P at all, so there's nothing of that nature. I do run SETI, which uploads periodically, but NOT all the time - certainly not frequently enough to cause an ongoing problem. It might hog the connection for a few moments every few hours.

Pretty sure it's nothing on the computer at all. There's nothing new I've installed lately, or suddenly started using in a different way.

In reply to a post by TLM:

DSL Type: G.992.1 annex A

I can't remember whether I'm on 21CN or not, and don't know how to check...


T.

992.1 is ADSL

992.3 is ADSL2

992.5 is ADSL2+

and you can have any of them on 21CN

Post deleted by RobertoS

I would describe that as a medium length line . Same attenuation as I had.

Your "bandwidth" speeds are quite good for the 49dB.

Are you connecting wired or wireless to the router?

I didn't as his upstream is 448kbps - of course he could be on 21CN forced to ADSL1 but given his attenuation that is unlikely which is why I though he was probably still on 20CN
http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/t/4164674-r...

Edited by deleted (Sat 06-Oct-12 14:58:10)

Yeah, I have no complaints, on the whole. I generally get better speeds than BT officially predicts I can get.

Download is still OK to this day. Just need to work out what's gone wrong with upload.

I'm a girl, both! Well, "girl" might be pushing it a bit, but I'm still a lady.

It's wireless - at the mo. Will try it wired when I remember where I put the cable. Not run wired in a year or two.

A thought for a LADY are you using a Plusnet supplied TG585 and, if that is the case, have you tried updating the firmware http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,9249... covers it

Yes, it is the 585. Thanks, will have a proper look later. I'll be surprised if it's a firmware issue, though, given that I've been using it for ages, but only recently started having problems.

T.

Oooops! Sorry Jim.

I was looking at the maximum bandwidth line.

In reply to a post by TLM:

It's wireless - at the mo. Will try it wired when I remember where I put the cable. Not run wired in a year or two.

Sorry about the gender as well. It's usually possible to guess from handwriting, but ....

The reason I asked was that it is possible someone nearby has started using the same, or a close, wireless channel. I would have expected that to have a noticeable effect on the download speed as well, but is a possibility.

InSSIDer is an excellent tool for checking what is around. It might be an idea to try that first. Unless you are using a Mac. You'll see that each connection spans four channels.

In reply to a post by TLM:

I'm still a lady.

Even when soused?

Have you double checked another cable and/or network port on the existing router (if there's more than one), or even another RJ-45 port on the PC, if available. It might be something along those lines.

Right, just found the long-disused cable, and it improved things immediately. So the problem IS with wireless. Will try the tool you've linked, and see if someone's started broadcasting on a channel that might interfere. Whatever's messing it up is recent. Might also explain why it seems to get better at times - might coincide with times they're not using their internet. I tend to leave my router connected all the time, but I guess some power down at night.

Sorry, didn't read the bit about wired/wireless.

Great

Hi TLM,

It might be worth taking a look at wireless issues to see how you can get improvement.

There is a couple of links to a tools program that will possibly help identify what channel you should use.(Wifi Stumbler and inSSIDer)

Keep me posted on how you're getting on.

Thanks Chris,

Haven't tackled it again yet (OU assignment needs finishing! ) - running wired for the time being, as a temporary workaround. Will report back if/when I discover anything of interest. RobertoS already recommended inSSIDer elsewhere in this thread. Will have a dabble in due course.

T.