Broadband drop outs

Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem with
my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find it drops
out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of days without
a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect automatically it is a
nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway

On Thu, 9 Oct 2008 07:58:30 +0100, "Bill Ridgeway"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem with
>my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find it drops
>out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of days without
>a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect automatically it is a
>nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Bill Ridgeway
>

My connection does the same. I don't monitor it but I notice the
status changing on the connection icon. It usually happens when a
phone is ringing. Everything has been checked/replaced but the problem
continues.

Steve

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Bill Ridgeway wrote:
> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem with
> my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find it drops
> out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of days without
> a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect automatically it is a
> nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Bill Ridgeway
>
>
Yes. Burst of noise can knock it off its perch: Broadband - especually
ADSL MAX - sails as close to the SNR wind as it can. Sometimes it ends
up 'in irons' that's all.

Bill Ridgeway wrote:
> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a
> problem with my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my
> connection to find it drops out up to three times a day (and
> sometimes goes for a couple of days without a drop out). Although it
> always seems to reconnect automatically it is a nuisance. Is this
> "usual" behaviour?
> Thanks.
>
> Bill Ridgeway

Mine does it every evening Bill. I run all day with a synch rate aroud 6800
kbps, then sometime between 19-00 and 23-00 it can drop out a couple of
times with a subsequent fall in synch rate to around 6300 kbps, and
occasionally lower.
--
Heard melodies are sweet, but those Unheard are sweeter
(E-Mail Removed) FN 2°°8 +, Mungo Brandybuck of Buckland

"Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:gcka24$i25$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem
> with my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find
> it drops out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of
> days without a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect
> automatically it is a nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Bill Ridgeway

Mine did this frequently until a few months ago when the speed dropped as
well, and things got unacceptable.
This prompted me to take the following actions:
1. Bin my old "frog" USB modem.
2. Install a new ethernet modem-router.
3. Fit new, professional-quality phone-filters
4. Install a BT I-plate
5. Having sorted things out at my end, then get on to my ISP and ask them to
check out the SNR margin with BT, which they eventually did, which brought
the speed back up.

Result: Rock-solid connection ever since. No great improvement in speed but
back to where it was before the problems and no drop-outs or speed
fluctuations.

As I see it, my problems were due to:
Interference from internal phone wiring - cured by the new filters and
I-plate.
Using an old USB modem.
Long line from the exchange, which probably deteriorated enough to result in
a speed drop. (Not much that can be done about this apart from some gentle
SNR-margin tweaking until an optimum speed/reliability is achieved.)

Hope that helps,

George

John Livingston wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> Bill Ridgeway wrote:
>>> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a
>>> problem with my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my
>>> connection to find it drops out up to three times a day (and
>>> sometimes goes for a couple of days without a drop out). Although it
>>> always seems to reconnect automatically it is a nuisance. Is this
>>> "usual" behaviour?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> Bill Ridgeway
>>>
>> Yes. Burst of noise can knock it off its perch: Broadband - especually
>> ADSL MAX - sails as close to the SNR wind as it can. Sometimes it ends
>> up 'in irons' that's all.
>
> More an uncontrolled gybe, I'd say. Mind yer head ...

well, possibly.;-)

Really its designed to simply rate adapt down till it finds a place that
is stable and settled. Which probably means no worse than 1-3dB SNR in
the worst conditions. And typically 3-7dB in better times.


I get patches of instability, followed by periods of calm.

Right now still on 4000, at 5.5dB



>
> John

"Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:gcka24$i25$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem
> with my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find
> it drops out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of
> days without a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect
> automatically it is a nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Bill Ridgeway
Thanks for all your responses. I was concerned that the drop in connection
and the automatic reboot of the router may be sympomatic of a problem bu it
seems to be usual - if rather annoying.

Bill Ridgeway

Bill Ridgeway wrote:

> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem with
> my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find it drops
> out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of days without
> a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect automatically it is a
> nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?

Is it a router ? Can you access the diagnostic log. It will tell you lots of
stuff. Typically those USB modems aren't as helpful this way.

Here's mine for example. But there are no errors on it at the moment. You'll see
them if they're there though. They should be obious enough for you to fathom.

1/1/1970 0:0:0> Ethernet Device 0 Detected
1/1/1970 0:0:0> ATM: Detected
1/1/1970 0:0:0> ATM: Setting up vcc0, VPI=0, VCI=38
1/1/1970 0:0:0> Dynamic NAPT is enabled
1/1/1970 0:0:0> CfgMgr: 'Shtm.dlz' module loaded.
1/1/1970 0:0:0> CfgMgr: 'Washer.dlz' module loaded.
1/1/1970 0:0:0> Washer - washer_reg called!
1/1/1970 0:0:13> ATM Connected
1/1/1970 0:0:13> ATM layer is up, cell delineation achieved
1/1/1970 0:0:13> ADSL connected
1/1/1970 0:0:13> PPP1 PPPoA Connected
1/1/1970 0:0:16> PPP1 CHAP Authentication success
1/1/1970 0:0:16> PPP1: PPP IP address is xxx.xx.xx.xxx
1/1/1970 0:0:16> PPP1: PPP Gateway IP address is xxx.xx.xx.xxx
1/1/1970 0:0:16> PPP1: DNS Primary IP address is xxx.xx.xx.xxx
1/1/1970 0:0:16> PPP1: DNS Secondary IP address is xxx.xx.xx.xxx
1/1/1970 0:0:16> NAT/NAPT Session Start: interface ppp1, WAN IP is
xxx.xx.xx.xxx
1/1/1970 0:0:16> Initialized Dynamic NAPT.
1/1/1970 0:0:16> No Static Session Information is defined.
1/1/1970 0:0:16> PPP1 Session is up.
10/9/2008 0:47:59> Received time from Time Server 128.138.140.44

Graham

Ato_Zee wrote:
>>> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem
>>> with my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find
>>>
>>> it drops out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of
>>>
>>> days without a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect
>>> automatically it is a nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?
>
> With some modems you can use DMT tool to set your target SNR,
> as well as graph your SNR and get error stats for the last 3 days.
> Dropping my target SNR margin I went from 2.528 to 3.808, and
> stable.
> If you are suffering from noise burst dropouts you can set a higher
> margin with the target SNR slider, this should give fewer or no
> dropouts, but with the downside that your line may (but not
> necessarily) run a bit slower.
> I have 2 modems that support DMT tool, an old BT240 and a
> Netgear WAG54GS (for the latter you do need to lean
> on Netgear support for the flash that supports DMT tool).
> DMT tool when running also puts a hover over icon in your
> system tray, the on hover shows your speed down, up, and
> current SNR.
Bear in mind that the actual BRAS, which is the ultimate limit on
download speeds, is set quite a lot below raw synch speeds. Mine on a 4M
connection is set to 3.5. running any higher than 4Mbps wont actually
improve anything unless I can reliably synch a lot faster, which I cant.


Whereas multiple resynchs - mainly when I had a power problem, DID cause
the bras to drop..

So I have decided that its slightly better to leave it trundling away at
whatever the last decent rate it could support was, than try and jack it
up higher.

In message <gckt6l$12l$(E-Mail Removed)>, Bill Ridgeway
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>"Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:gcka24$i25$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Broadband is described as an "always on" service. Following a problem
>> with my ISP I've been monitoring the continuity of my connection to find
>> it drops out up to three times a day (and sometimes goes for a couple of
>> days without a drop out). Although it always seems to reconnect
>> automatically it is a nuisance. Is this "usual" behaviour?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Bill Ridgeway
>Thanks for all your responses. I was concerned that the drop in connection
>and the automatic reboot of the router may be sympomatic of a problem bu it
>seems to be usual - if rather annoying.
>
>Bill Ridgeway
>
>
Bill,

I you have one of the routers that it supports (or have the time and
inclination to fiddle) then RouterStats

http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm

is a very useful monitoring tool. I will graph most of the statistics
that your router offers. I find watching the noise margin and the error
seconds the most instructive.

Regards
--
Peter R Cook