ADSL in bursts?

As a newcomer to ADSL, I've noticed that my connection occasionally seems to
operate in a series of bursts. So, for example, when downloading emails, it
will often appear to pause periodically for a few (or more) seconds and then
continue downloading.

I have found that if during one of these pauses I select a new webpage or
something else that puts a demand on the connection, then the downloading
process starts again.

Am I imagining all this, or is it simply the way ADSL works? Is there
anything I can do to make things run more smoothly?

Thanks.

On Fri, 5 Nov 2004 23:32:56 -0000, "Vivian Dunn"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>As a newcomer to ADSL, I've noticed that my connection occasionally seems to
>operate in a series of bursts.
....
>Am I imagining all this, or is it simply the way ADSL works?

Its just life. Probably other people on your DSLAM are eating up some
bandwidth, and your existing sessions get timesliced or something.

>Is there anything I can do to make things run more smoothly?

Buy a dedicated leased line? :-)

"Vivian Dunn" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:418c4566$(E-Mail Removed)...
> As a newcomer to ADSL, I've noticed that my connection occasionally seems
> to operate in a series of bursts. So, for example, when downloading
> emails, it will often appear to pause periodically for a few (or more)
> seconds and then continue downloading.
>
> I have found that if during one of these pauses I select a new webpage or
> something else that puts a demand on the connection, then the downloading
> process starts again.
>
> Am I imagining all this, or is it simply the way ADSL works? Is there
> anything I can do to make things run more smoothly?
>
> Thanks.

I have noticed that as time goes along broadband gets slower and slower, the
more people the more BTs network creaks.

Of course ADSL itself is only 3years + out of date, it was last years
technolgy when BT announced to us all its better than sliced bread, but hey
its cheap or so we are led to believe.

Vivian Dunn wrote:

> As a newcomer to ADSL, I've noticed that my connection occasionally seems
> to operate in a series of bursts. So, for example, when downloading
> emails, it will often appear to pause periodically for a few (or more)
> seconds and then continue downloading.
>
> I have found that if during one of these pauses I select a new webpage or
> something else that puts a demand on the connection, then the downloading
> process starts again.
>
> Am I imagining all this, or is it simply the way ADSL works? Is there
> anything I can do to make things run more smoothly?

Are you using a device which lets you display your line attenuation and
Signal to Noise Ratio? If the SNR is marginal say about 3-4db it could be
that there is to much noise on the line for the modem to send any data, or
if you are using a router, it could be losing Sync and then auotmatically
restarting.

Michael Chare

On Fri, 5 Nov 2004 23:32:56 -0000, "Vivian Dunn"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>As a newcomer to ADSL, I've noticed that my connection occasionally seems to
>operate in a series of bursts. So, for example, when downloading emails, it
>will often appear to pause periodically for a few (or more) seconds and then
>continue downloading.
>
>I have found that if during one of these pauses I select a new webpage or
>something else that puts a demand on the connection, then the downloading
>process starts again.
>
>Am I imagining all this, or is it simply the way ADSL works? Is there
>anything I can do to make things run more smoothly?
>
>Thanks.
>

Sounds like contention at work - as per ADSL design!

But a few seconds? That's quite a lot of contention, more than I've
ever seen.

I notice your connection goes through Telefonica, so it's more than
likely to be Datastream-based, which could be where the large
contention is creeping in. Try migrating to an IPStream-based
provider, if that would be a practical thing for you to do.

On 06 Nov 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Jake P wrote:

>Telefonica, so it's more than likely to be Datastream-based, which
>could be where the large contention is creeping in.

Seems like you have seen something negative about Datastream rather than
Telefonica, ICBW. Anyway, any supporting reports to suggest Datastream's
worse than IPstream for contention problems, or based on suspicion about a
few overloaded exchange links (perhaps Bulldog, or Internet Central, one of
the ISPs was criticised here some months ago, from memory, about how their
setup was leaving some customers unhappy - perhaps the potential of 50:1
is a touch more likely, and noticeable with Datastream, but from where I'm
sitting it can run full pelt with no problems :-)

Peter M (on Tiscali's Datastream service through my ISP, not Tiscali :-)

--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 11:54:05 +0000, Peter M <us-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Anyway, any supporting reports to suggest Datastream's
>worse than IPstream for contention problems, or based on suspicion about a
>few overloaded exchange links

there have been a steady flow of "I'm paying for 1M and only getting
xx kbits/s" type complaints from users of datastream services. They
may well be restricted to small exchanges, like the infamous Bulldog
2M backhaul to an exchange where the first 2M custoemr got 1.8M and it
was all downhill after that.

There is a probability of contention that is higher with datastream
than IPstream. Both may be contended at 50:1 (although BT operate much
lower than this) the scale is different so the IPstream users might be
sharing 10M or more but datastream users sharing 2M. The probability
of filling up a 2M connection is quite high as it needs only 4 users
at 512k each doing a download or indeed 1 user at 2M.

Datastream will work fine if its VP is big enough, contention low
enough or if you have a prioritised service. Its reputation thus far
hasn't been good, largely IMO due to small capacity VPs and limited
availability.

Phil
--
spamcop.net address commissioned 18/06/04
Come on down !

On 06 Nov 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Phil Thompson wrote:

>Datastream will work fine if its VP is big enough, contention low
>enough or if you have a prioritised service.

Since mine is not the last of those, one or both of the former must
be working in my favour. Perhaps the reputation of Tiscali is just
off-putting enough to keep loading low and there's no-one else here
on their service...

>Its reputation thus far hasn't been good, largely IMO due to small
>capacity VPs and limited availability.

I remember there being a delay before Telefonica was rolled out to
a number of exchanges for the Claranet trials of 1000 kbps service
but if most Tiscali users have gone for lower speeds, maybe their
VP capacity is being taken disproportionately by those of use on
higher speeds, and we 'cause' the complaints from some of their
other users - having said that, the father of a client is using
the Tiscali 256 kbps service without complaint, apparently.

There is only one aspect I dislike, which is the number of hops between
me and London even... around 10, leading to a small concern about the
chance of a UK-based fault in Tiscali's network causing me to have
downtime. It might have already happened for all I know (with music on
my other connection, I might not notice it, unless in the middle of some
telnet/ssh/VNC session at the time. My Plus.Net link carries mostly the
radio streaming I listen to and doesn't get affected by heavy downloading
or other activities on my 1000 kbps link... seems solid all the time



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 11:54:05 +0000, Peter M <us-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On 06 Nov 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Jake P wrote:
>
>>Telefonica, so it's more than likely to be Datastream-based, which
>>could be where the large contention is creeping in.
>
>Seems like you have seen something negative about Datastream rather than
>Telefonica, ICBW. Anyway, any supporting reports to suggest Datastream's
>worse than IPstream for contention problems, or based on suspicion about a
>few overloaded exchange links (perhaps Bulldog, or Internet Central, one of
>the ISPs was criticised here some months ago, from memory, about how their
>setup was leaving some customers unhappy - perhaps the potential of 50:1
>is a touch more likely, and noticeable with Datastream, but from where I'm
>sitting it can run full pelt with no problems :-)
>
>Peter M (on Tiscali's Datastream service through my ISP, not Tiscali :-)

Datastream isn't inherently worse than IP Stream, but it can be made
worse by the ISP who has finer control of the variables. Service
quality could vary from very poor to excellent, whereas IP Stream
based services should be more predictable in their performance.

ISTM that with Datastream products the user experience is down to luck
of the draw.

"Vivian Dunn" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:418c4566$(E-Mail Removed)...
> As a newcomer to ADSL, I've noticed that my connection occasionally seems
to
> operate in a series of bursts. So, for example, when downloading emails,
it
> will often appear to pause periodically for a few (or more) seconds and
then
> continue downloading.
>
> I have found that if during one of these pauses I select a new webpage or
> something else that puts a demand on the connection, then the downloading
> process starts again.

sounds wierd - TCP can deliver data in bursts if there is congestion between
you and the other end of the connection, but seconds sounds too long for the
cycle.
>
> Am I imagining all this, or is it simply the way ADSL works? Is there
> anything I can do to make things run more smoothly?

1st thing is test it to see if it is a connection issue, or related to your
link.

Set up some pings between your PC and some "local" and "remote" resources,
and see if the round trip times change when you have a break in transfers.
If they do, then it is probably your link, or your local ISP.

If not it may be upstream somewhere, and destination related.
>
> Thanks.
--
Regards

Stephen Hope - return address needs fewer xxs