Continuous broadband

My broadband connection drops out a number of times each evening. It then
reconnects automatically - at a different speed - at continues. These
breaks in continuity are rather annoying when I'm trying to listen to a
radio programme.

I was under the impression that a broadband connection should be continuous
and that any change of connection speed should be seamless. Am I correct or
do I have a connection problem?

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway

On 5 Feb 2007, "Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I was under the impression that a broadband connection should be continuous
>and that any change of connection speed should be seamless. Am I correct or
>do I have a connection problem?

Have you recently had the switch from 2 Mbps to "up to 8 Mbps" ? Do you have
a router or USB modem ? If you have a router, you ought to be able to find
some stats about the connection - something showing line attenuation and
SNR (signal to noise ratio) - getting the daytime and evening figures might
help others comment a bit more. On "up to 8 Mbps" the speed of your link is
pushed up, either to the limit (8128 kbps) or stops when SNR reaches 6 db.

In the day that's fine, but in the evening, people often see lower levels of
SNR, and the connection can become unstable. I have found different routers
will sometimes be more affected than others - in particular, some models that
use the Conexant chipset (Origo, Safecom, DabsValue, PTI) seem to connect OK
even at the max speed, but may disconnect several times a day. However when
I tried a Zyxel unit (under 25 quid) it was far more stable and didn't drop
the connection in the evenings or overnight.

In general I have few probs listening to radio - some players allow you to
set a long buffer period so a brief disconnection doesn't affect the
audio at all.

"NoNeedToKnow" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 5 Feb 2007, "Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>I was under the impression that a broadband connection should be
>>continuous
>>and that any change of connection speed should be seamless. Am I correct
>>or
>>do I have a connection problem?
>
> Have you recently had the switch from 2 Mbps to "up to 8 Mbps" ? Do you
> have
> a router or USB modem ? If you have a router, you ought to be able to
> find
> some stats about the connection - something showing line attenuation and
> SNR (signal to noise ratio) - getting the daytime and evening figures
> might
> help others comment a bit more. On "up to 8 Mbps" the speed of your link
> is
> pushed up, either to the limit (8128 kbps) or stops when SNR reaches 6 db.
>
> In the day that's fine, but in the evening, people often see lower levels
> of
> SNR, and the connection can become unstable. I have found different
> routers
> will sometimes be more affected than others - in particular, some models
> that
> use the Conexant chipset (Origo, Safecom, DabsValue, PTI) seem to connect
> OK
> even at the max speed, but may disconnect several times a day. However
> when
> I tried a Zyxel unit (under 25 quid) it was far more stable and didn't
> drop
> the connection in the evenings or overnight.
>
> In general I have few probs listening to radio - some players allow you to
> set a long buffer period so a brief disconnection doesn't affect the
> audio at all.

Thanks for your response. I can't seem to find any stats about my router
(Orange Livebox). Where should be looking please?

Orange has suggested that reducing the connect speed from 7.1 would resolve
the problem. Would this be this be a step in the right direction?

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway

On 12 Feb 2007, "Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Thanks for your response. I can't seem to find any stats about my router
>(Orange Livebox). Where should be looking please?

Hmmmm. Any idea what router has been badged as the Livebox?

>Orange has suggested that reducing the connect speed from 7.1 would resolve
>the problem. Would this be this be a step in the right direction?

Until you've seen the stats, it won't be that easy to know. The odds are
that if you're getting a high sync speed, you are relatively close to the
exchange, but so far I've seen little in the way of advice about how one
could get a higher SNR (without getting it permanently changed at the
BT exchange end, or without having some specific router in use) to force
the connect speed down... Some might suggest a long extension lead would
give you speed reductions (which may work) but if there's something else
causing the problem (eg the router reboots a lot, dropping your connection
several times a night) then you've not solved it.

Does that router offer wireless access, and is someone else using it with
no permission from you (some routers can be affected by traffic loads and
a teenager running peer-to-peer might give you grief if your Livebox has
not been secured from a bandwidth thief!)

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:35:19 -0000, "Bill Ridgeway"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Thanks for your response. I can't seem to find any stats about my router
>(Orange Livebox). Where should be looking please?

If it's an Inventel one, enter 192.168.1.1 in your favourite web
browser in the usual way, then click the orange coloured line of text
that says "Access to the configuration pages...". The default name and
password are both "admin" (Don't enter the quotes). Click "System
Information" and scroll down. The stuff about speed and levels is all
in the first block.

Rod.

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:17:45 +0000, NoNeedToKnow
<(E-Mail Removed)> mused:

>Hmmmm. Any idea what router has been badged as the Livebox?
>
Inventel DV4210 AFAIAA.

--
Regards,
Stuart.