ADSL sync rate gradually decreases over several days

My girlfriend's ADSL connection (Tiscali, using a Netgear DG834PN router)
gradually syncs at a slower and slower speed if the router is rebooted and
then left for a couple of days.

After a reboot, it gets around 2500-3500 kbps. Over the course of several
days, if I check the router's stats, the sync speed falls gradually: on one
occasion it might be 1500, on another 1000. The worst case is when it falls
as low as 160 kps (!).

The line stats look good:

Attenuation 39.0 20.5
Margin 18.1 19.0

after a reboot

and very similar even when the speed has fallen to 160.

The router's Up Time and the log file entries "Inistialise LCP", "CHAP
authentication success" show that the router remains connected even over the
time when the sync rate decreases: it's not (apparently) disconnecting and
then reconnecting at a slower speed.


The real problem is that by the time one of us notices, the exchange
equipment has adjusted the IP profile to a speed that matches the sync
speed, so even when the router is rebooted and gets a high sync speed once
more, it takes several hours to get back a high data throughput speed (as
measured by www.speedtest.net) once the IP profile has been reset to the
exchange.


Tiscali thought they had improved things by "increasing the gain on the
line" but that only seemed to bring about temporary improvement and could
have been coincidence.

I've not yet tried a different router. Is it plausible that it could be a
router problem? Is it worth me getting a different router to try?

"Harry Stottle" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:sbUan.36061$(E-Mail Removed) m...
>
> "Mortimer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> My girlfriend's ADSL connection (Tiscali, using a Netgear DG834PN router)
>> gradually syncs at a slower and slower speed if the router is rebooted
>> and
>> then left for a couple of days.
>>
>> After a reboot, it gets around 2500-3500 kbps. Over the course of several
>> days, if I check the router's stats, the sync speed falls gradually: on
>> one occasion it might be 1500, on another 1000. The worst case is when it
>> falls as low as 160 kps (!).

>> I've not yet tried a different router. Is it plausible that it could be a
>> router problem? Is it worth me getting a different router to try?
>
> Try checking the version of firmware installed versus the latest available
> from Netgear. I recently cured a different problem with that model by
> updating it. Even though the router was only a couple of months old, the
> firmware had moved on by three minor versions.
> http://kb.netgear.com/app/products/model/a_id/2332

I'll try that some time. I've just set up a BT Voyager 2091 router as a
temporary replacement, so I'll see how that fares over the next few days.