Strange broadband problems

Hoping I can pick eveyones brains on a strange broadband problem I've got. Sorry in advance for the long explanation.

I originally had a draytek 2800 connected through a wound up extension lead, connected to a self installed phone extension, spured off another self installed phone extension that connected through this little box junction box to join two wires together. My sync speed was about 4000kbps but ping times and download speeds were stable.

After a friend of mine moved his router to the master socket and noticed great improvements I decided to do the same to see what if I could improve sync speed. I'm now synced at 7648 kbps, which suprised me as despite the poor quality extension wiring I didn't expect to see such a jump.

Things were okay at first with download speeds around 500kBps. Unfortunately the download speeds have now dropped to around 300kBps, but I can live with that.

The problem is I'm seeing occasional very slow downloads around 9 - 12kBps and ping times of around 150ms. When the ping problem occours the trace route times to zen are always okay, it's just after that point they increase to around 150ms. Also, when the download speed problems occour, it can be okay from one computer but not from another. Now I understand that would imply a problem with one of my computers but the problem 'moves' between multiple laptops and desktops. I'm currently using a NETGEAR DGFV338 but I've tried the draytek again and I see the same issues. I can't remember where I checked, but I used one site to check the VP status and it was apparently okay on my exchange.

Any troubleshooting suggestions welcome! I think the hardest part is that the problem is intermittent. Still, my usual ping times are around 60ms. Would anyone else consider that high? I seem to remember getting ping times around 30ms on 1meg broadband. I've applied for interleaving to be turned off. It hasn't completed yet but I think I might be barking up the wrong tree so thought I'd try here.

I'm an IT techncian at a Zen Platinum partner, so I kinda know what I'm doing/should be able to work this out but this has stumped me. I've probably missed something really obvious so I'll be pretty embarrassed. I just need a fresh head on the subject. Thanks for reading this far!

Does your new router tell you about errors on the line?

If not, can you put the DrayTek back on and see what that says?

In reply to:

---

When the ping problem occours the trace route times to zen are always okay, it's just after that point they increase to around 150ms.

---

Any particular applications being used? You mention that the problem occurs on different machines, are we talking about the same application on those machines or different apps?

Are you using NAT? If so, is it 1-many or 1-1?

Might also be handy to supply some of the traceroutes that show this drop in performance to sites. Is it all sites that are affected, or just some, or just some at particular times of the day?

Thanks for the responses and sorry for the late reply.

The main problem for me has been gaming, namely COD4 on the Xbox. The game doesn't give ping details as such, just a 'signal bar' meter. Appart from that though, the ping times and trace routes from the laptop and desktop to various sites (google, thinkbroadband, bbc etc ) can be high so I've been concentrating on that for troubleshooting. Problems in a game could be just 'transient network conditions', an american host or poor skill!

I'm using NAT and it's one to many.

When the ping times or download speeds are high they're high for all sites. Bear in mind it can be one or the other or both.

I'm in work at the moment but I've performed a trace route from the router to bbc.co.uk and the times are fine:

traceroute to 212.58.224.138 (212.58.224.138), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 gandhi-dsl1.wh.zen.net.uk (62.3.83.5) 18.280 ms
2 erazmus-ge-0-0-1-3.wh.zen.net.uk (62.3.80.197) 19.414 ms
3 leibniz-so-0-1-0-0.te.zen.net.uk (62.3.80.45) 25.751 ms
4 lorenz-xe-2-0-0-0.te.zen.net.uk (62.3.80.41) 25.626 ms
5 82.71.254.134 (82.71.254.134) 157.306 ms
6 212.58.238.153 (212.58.238.153) 25.007 ms
7 virtual-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.138) 25.605 ms

Interleaving has now been turned off so I'll see how things go over the next few days. I've only really tested at night so I'll make some more tests during the day.

Thanks

Thanks Sandgrounder. I think putting the draytek back on is a good idea. I don't think I gave the draytek enough testing previously. Most of the equipment involved has nearly been destroyed in frustration! It's hard going back to dial up speeds!

No unfortunately the Netgear doesn't go into that kind of detail (although I do feel it has a better quality ADSL modem than the Draytek).

I'll swap the DrayTek back in tonight and leave it on for a week or so. I've had to avoid the draytek because the wireless signal has a shorter range than the Netgear.

One thing I have noticed is that the DGFV338 has an AR7 chipset. I've read through the AR7 problems thread and that seems to relate more to disconnects. Is that problem specific to the DG834? Either way, I have the latest firmwares for the router. Should I expect a firmware update for the DGFV338 due to the AR7 problems?

Edited by deleted (Tue 11-Nov-08 14:53:36)

The DrayTek 2800 series was not as good as the 2600 series for line stability. However, I believe the latest series is much better.

Sorry, can not help with your question about the DGFV338. - I use DrayTek (2600).

I have a Vigor 2820 (the new series) and it is superb

I've got access to all three (perk of the job?) and the 2820s are better than the 2800s. Just wish they'd put them in a 5510 box!

Incidentally, since the interleaving has been turned on I haven't seen any problems! Fingers crossed.

The 2800 series got a shot in the arm for long line use with the latest firmware 2.8.2

available from

http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/downloads.html