AOL/TalkTalk weird speed stuff

Asking this on behalf of a friend.

He lives near Banbury and speed checkers indicate he should be getting somewhere in the range of 2mb to 6mb. However, he's been getting abysmal speeds (half a meg etc.)

He's using a Netgear router but recently, he tried reconnecting his old USB modem which seemed to show that the line had synced at c. 6mb. However, a speed test showed only half a meg again so he switched back to the Netgear.

Suddenly he's seeing speeds of around 6mb.

This worked fine for a couple of weeks until there was a brief powercut in the village. After this, the speed dropped back to the familiar half-meg.

Last night, he thought he'd try connecting the old USB modem again. It again showed a sync speed of c. 6mb but, again, a speed test showed only 0.5mb. So he switched back to the Netgear and... he's back up to over 6mb.

Any ideas what's going on?

Edited by deleted (Fri 14-Mar-14 11:12:30)

They need to dig out the router stats from the Netgear
i.e. http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/stats/routers.html#netgear

If the connection speed is low, but noise margin is high, then a reboot of the router, will make it renegotiate.

Probably what is happening is a noise burst is forcing the line speed to a slow speed, but due to the way modems work, they slow down when they cannot maintain the signal, but do not speed up if the line can go faster automatically.

Why? Because noise fluctuates a lot, and if it speed up and down all the time it would probably spend several minutes every hour changing the speed (a speed negotiation phase can take 20 to 30 seconds)

He's rebooted the router loads of times and it's never fixed the problem. It's only connecting the USB modem that seems to fix the problem.

Needs to grab the router stats before and after, since that will report the connection stats.

In reply to a post by nadampski:

It's only connecting the USB modem that seems to fix the problem.

You've no evidence for saying that!

Both USB modem & Netgear result in a throughput of about 0.5 MEg.

The USB modem reports a sync of 6 Meg, but you have no connection stats from the Netgear, so you don't know what that is syncing at.

You really need to get the Netgear router stats.

The evidence is this:

Restarting the Netgear makes no difference - running speed tests or just using the internet results in the same dire connection speed.

It's only after connecting/disconnecting the USB modem and returning to the Netgear that the speeds climb way up again - both in testing and in actual usage.

Which as you say is very odd. However, instead of restarting the Netgear, what happens if you just turn it off, in fact unplug it from the mains, and leave it off for 20 minutes?

Hi Roberto,

I suspect that's effectively what happened during the powercut the other day which resulted in the poor connection speed being restored.

Thanks!
Nick

That could be coincidence. It can't do any harm to try what I suggest, next time the speed has dropped. It can only delay getting full speed by a short time and might rule out the USB modem being relevant.

Thanks, I'll suggest that to him.