New BT Router / Slow Connection

Hi,

I've got a couple questions please.

1) I've been with BT Broadband since about 2001 and I've had my DSL upgraded from 512 to 2048 to 8192.

It has been very reliable and up until recently, I've been extremely pleased with it. The performance has been very good and I live about 1/3 mile from the local exchange in the middle of town.

Over the last month, I have noticed that the performance has dropped off dramatically and the speed is very variable. Now, I understand all about over-subscription and usage, but unless they just connected a massive amount of users at the same time last month, I think I might have an intermittent problem (aren't they the best sort!).

I noticed that my wireless router reloaded about 10pm last night (I suspect BT were doing an upgrade), so I've only got settings for the last 12 hours. Otherwise, the device is on all the time.

Can you please tell me if these look ok (and point me to a reference for the stats, if one exists). I'm surprised that my FEC is high, but the box doesn't seem to record how many frame have been sent/received, I can't compare it!!!:

Uptime: 0 days, 12:43:52

Modulation: G.992.1 annex A

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 448 / 8,096

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 15.42 / 44.57

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.5

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 14.5 / 27.0

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 22.0 / 10.5

Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / TSTC

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 / 10,911

CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 65

HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 41

Line Profile: Interleaved

Software version: 6.2.6.E


2) I had the original BTHomehub (which was a country mile better than my old Netgear router), but I've just been sent a new one and I'm considering swapping them over.

However, I'd prefer to keep the settings the same and don't want to change the devices over without good reason.

Can someone please tell me what the difference between the 2 boxes and specifically, has the wireless range improved?

Thanks,
GD

I presume your talking about hub 1.0 and 1.5? Differences well their isn't any really.

As for your drop in speed looks like their has been some instability on your line which is indicated by the slightly lower than 8 meg sync this is because interleaving is turned on.

Do a BT speedtest @ http://speedtester.bt.com and post back the results.

Hi,

Many thanks for the reply. I tried that test previously and I found that doesn't work under Safari. I tried it again under Firefox and after a short delay, I've had the following:

Results Image not loaded

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 7000 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8096 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 5941 kbps

If you wish to discuss these results please contact your ISP.

If you are experiencing problems with specific applications, servers or websites please contact your ISP for assistance.

Your test has completed please close this window to exit the performance tester.

Now my laptop is connected wireless at the moment, so I don't think that the almost 6MB at layer 3 is that bad?

Layer 3?? I presume your talking about Layer 3 of the OSI model? Not sure your using it in quite the right context there.

What the test shows is that your IP profile is fine the 6meg throughput shows that their isn't much exchange congestion getting in the way either.

Do a few speedtests around the net e.g. http://speedtest.bbmax.com and the one here on thinkbroadband and see what they come up with. Could be shaping but I cant see that being likely on HTTP traffic, or the websites your using are maybe slow in general.

I've done a bit more investigation and I'm suspecting that it might be related to my wireless.

I thought IP profile was talking about Internet Protocol, ie. 6Mbps at layer 3, so presuming a slight overhead for framing, it doesn't appear to be that bad. What does IP profile stand for?

IP profile is the max throughput you will get from your connection. 3500 = 3.5MB broadband essentially. It's standard on all IP Stream connections.

If you want a fuller explination just asked.