In reply to a post by kr236rk:

What is a 6 dB Target NM - NetGear tells me I have a Downstream of 2 db. Is Downstream the same as NM please?

1st of all concentrate on the Downstream figures only for the mo' That's where your issues are.

One thing I omitted to say was that the ISP sets the Target NM at the moment that you sync with exchange. The NM then wanders about, slightly we hope, while the speed stays constant, until the next re-sync when it all kicks off again.

The Netgear says you have a Downstream Noise Margin (the intersection of the column and the row) of 2dB. It has wandered down to this value from either 6 (I believe for AOL) or 3 db since the last sync.

In reply to a post by kr236rk:

Also, what is potentially wrong with a downstream of 2 db ?

I repeat: the lower the NM the more unstable the line which means more prone to disconnect.

I don't think I can explain it any more clearly than that!

Yes, just remembered! No harm will be done! Facts trump speculation!

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

There's nothing wrong with the 27dB upstream .

That's the first good bit of news I've received about streaming in the last 7 days.

As XRaySpeX says in a post he made while you were typing your reply to me, the downstream setting at sync time is 6dB for most ISPs, though most on BT Wholesale connections, (that's all except LLU ones), now find it can adjust automatically down to 3dB on very good lines.

Yours is probably LLU though. To check that, if you try the BT Wholesale Performance test, does it recognise your number and run? If it does, it isn't LLU, so please continue to the Further Diagnostics at the bottom of the results page. Then copy and paste the full contents of the text box holding the downstream result.

The initial test gave the following:

Download Speed (Mbps): 12.76
Upload Speed (Mbps): 0.34
Ping Latency (ms): 37.00

There were several attempts at Further Diagnostics but the BT page was having none of it.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Did you read that post I last linked you to? Here it is again:

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Look at the label on the underneath of the DG834G for a version (v) number. Then see if you can run: http://www.kitz.co.uk/routers/netgeardg834_interleav... for your version and post full results.

Also can you see if this runs: http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/ ? I think it shouldn't but it might. Just wanna know.

The version is v3. Am sorry - this diagnostic testing is now beyond what I can safely do without tying my router up in knots, I am also having severe difficultu in navigating the posts for this thread. :-|

In reply to a post by kr236rk:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

There's nothing wrong with the 27dB upstream .

That's the first good bit of news I've received about streaming in the last 7 days.

No, it isn't! Streaming hardly uses upstream.

In reply to a post by kr236rk:

There were several attempts at Further Diagnostics but the BT page was having none of it.

That's good! It proves you are on LLU and therefore it is most likely AOL's Target NM is 6dB and you have lost 4dB NM since last re-sync.

Now that BT Speedtest shows you have a reasonable Download Speed, please retry http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics and report the results (top block only).

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 19-Mar-13 02:05:06)

In reply to a post by kr236rk:

Am sorry - this diagnostic testing is now beyond what I can safely do without tying my router up in knots,

The diagnostic testing on that Kitz page will not harm your router or even change it; it is just pulling out some figures stored in it.

Oh, well, we tried to help you.

"Target NM (Noise Margin)" is the term often used to mean the setting applied by the ISP at the time you connect. That setting being explained in my page.

If AOL are setting it at 3dB, which we may find is possible if the BT Wholesale Test runs, then 2dB is fine as it won't have changed a lot. But if they are setting it to 6dB that means it is changing a lot after connection and that can sometimes but not often be because of a fault.

BT Wholesale Test ran with thanks and the results were posted. The further diagnostics test would not run.

I do not understand how to run the 'debug' thingamy for the v3 router - there are too many stages to go through all at once, it will probably result in me scrambling NetGear - maybe I should come back to this later - I have done an awful lot of stats tests this evening, my head is starting to spin.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

The Netgear says you have a Downstream Noise Margin (the intersection of the column and the row) of 2dB. It has wandered down to this value from either 6 (I believe for AOL) or 3 db since the last sync.

In reply to a post by kr236rk:

Also, what is potentially wrong with a downstream of 2 db ?

I repeat: the lower the NM the more unstable the line which means more prone to disconnect.

Thanks - so this could be an issue. How can I ascertain the DNM for AOL please? If we have that figure - in light of the thread - it will function as a control.

In reply to a post by kr236rk:

How can I ascertain the DNM for AOL please?

Really only by asking them or searching this forum for other AOL users' stats.

You might catch it if you take the router stats immediately after rebooting router.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Now that BT Speedtest shows you have a reasonable Download Speed, please retry http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics and report the results (top block only).

There is something very odd going on here.

BBC Speed Test

Here is the test of 24 hours ago

BBC Test 18 March

We had a power cut here 7 days ago - the appalling online video behaviour dates back to that evening.