Does this seem odd?

I've had Tiscali Broadband (512k) for about 18 months. About 4-5
months ago I started getting problems such as not being able to
connect at all in the evening - great for the kids doing homework!

I tried all the obvious, and having replaced the filters, modem (with
router) and PC (333Mhz PII running W98SE with new PC). Spoke to
Tiscali, paying premium prices for the phone call, a few times. They
had nothing useful to say but the DSL connection worked fine for a few
days after each contact with them....

Currently the situation is this. If, like this afternoon the router
sits there with the DSL light flashing permanently, the easiest
solution is to turn it off. Unreel the extension lead to the old PC
and plug in the Speedtouch modem. The DSL lamp goes solid green
instantly (although the PC cannot connect). If I then disconnect and
switch on the router it gets DSL connection fine. the only thing I
found today was that POP mail dowloaded quickly, but IMAP and web
pages were not available for some time.

Is this just the price I have to pay for living so far from a
telephone exchange?

(Message posted from Google groups as Tiscali groups server has not
been talking to the rest of the world since March)

"Rob." wrote:

> I've had Tiscali Broadband (512k) for about 18 months. About 4-5
> months ago I started getting problems such as not being able to
> connect at all in the evening - great for the kids doing homework!

Have you considered changing ISP ?


> Is this just the price I have to pay for living so far from a
> telephone exchange?

How far ? What are your connection statistics ?

Graham

On 9 Apr, 18:35, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> "Rob." wrote:
> > I've had Tiscali Broadband (512k) for about 18 months. About 4-5
> > months ago I started getting problems such as not being able to
> > connect at all in the evening - great for the kids doing homework!
>
> Have you considered changing ISP ?

Definitely. However I want to be sure that I won't have the same
problems.

>
> > Is this just the price I have to pay for living so far from a
> > telephone exchange?
>
> How far ? What are your connection statistics ?
>
> Graham

1.42 miles as the Google Earth crow flies. When I signed up I was not
able to get better than 512 from any supplier. What other statistics
are useful, and where do I find them?

Thanks

Rob. wrote:
> On 9 Apr, 18:35, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>> "Rob." wrote:
>>> I've had Tiscali Broadband (512k) for about 18 months. About 4-5
>>> months ago I started getting problems such as not being able to
>>> connect at all in the evening - great for the kids doing homework!
>> Have you considered changing ISP ?
>
> Definitely. However I want to be sure that I won't have the same
> problems.
>
>>> Is this just the price I have to pay for living so far from a
>>> telephone exchange?
>> How far ? What are your connection statistics ?
>>
>> Graham
>
> 1.42 miles as the Google Earth crow flies. When I signed up I was not
> able to get better than 512 from any supplier. What other statistics
> are useful, and where do I find them?
>
> Thanks

Some routers (my BT Voyager 2091 would, but my new Linksys WAG54GS
dosn't) will show you your line statistics, such as Line speed up/down,
attenuation up/down, noise margin etc., etc. If you can get these, post
them here and we may be able to help you.

Also assuming you're on a BT line, dial 17070 and then option 3, 1, 2, 2
and that should test the line and at the end of the announcement will
give you your line length.

John

On 9 Apr, 19:46, John <j...@nfhecibncb.com> wrote:
> Rob. wrote:
> > On 9 Apr, 18:35, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@hotmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >> "Rob." wrote:
> >>> I've had Tiscali Broadband (512k) for about 18 months. About 4-5
> >>> months ago I started getting problems such as not being able to
> >>> connect at all in the evening - great for the kids doing homework!
> >> Have you considered changing ISP ?
>
> > Definitely. However I want to be sure that I won't have the same
> > problems.
>
> >>> Is this just the price I have to pay for living so far from a
> >>> telephone exchange?
> >> How far ? What are your connection statistics ?
>
> >> Graham
>
> > 1.42 miles as the Google Earth crow flies. When I signed up I was not
> > able to get better than 512 from any supplier. What other statistics
> > are useful, and where do I find them?
>
> > Thanks
>
> Some routers (my BT Voyager 2091 would, but my new Linksys WAG54GS
> dosn't) will show you your line statistics, such as Line speed up/down,
> attenuation up/down, noise margin etc., etc. If you can get these, post
> them here and we may be able to help you.
>
> Also assuming you're on a BT line, dial 17070 and then option 3, 1, 2, 2
> and that should test the line and at the end of the announcement will
> give you your line length.
>
> John

System up Time: 2:35:30
CPU Load: 5.48%

WAN Port Statistics:
Link Status: Up
Upstream Speed: 288 kbps
Downstream Speed: 576 kbps

17070 3, 1, 2, 2 seems to have changed. It just does a call back
and just says "thanks". No strength or distance info.

> I've had Tiscali Broadband (512k) for about 18 months. About 4-5
> months ago I started getting problems such as not being able to
> connect at all in the evening - great for the kids doing homework!
> Currently the situation is this. If, like this afternoon the router
> sits there with the DSL light flashing permanently, the easiest
> solution is to turn it off. Unreel the extension lead to the old PC
> and plug in the Speedtouch modem. The DSL lamp goes solid green
> instantly (although the PC cannot connect). If I then disconnect and
> switch on the router it gets DSL connection fine. the only thing I
> found today was that POP mail dowloaded quickly, but IMAP and web
> pages were not available for some time.

Try getting the line stats per this page:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/alcatel/3_Troubleshooting

> Is this just the price I have to pay for living so far from a
> telephone exchange?

No, but Tiscali are not the most highly rated provider out there :-}

> (Message posted from Google groups as Tiscali groups server has not
> been talking to the rest of the world since March)

....I was saying...

Per your other post, 1.42 miles away isn't too bad, but it depends on
how far your phone line goes before it gets to you :-} (that's where
your line stats come in handy)

To give you an idea, I moved to Sky last week, and i'm connecting at
around 3680kbps with a downstream attenuation of 50dB and noise margin
of between 6-8dB (my connection speed varies from ~3400 to 4800kbps)

A slight decrease in attenuation to low 40's seems to frequently give
people 8Mbit connections without too much of a problem, but the noise
margin can make a difference (the higher the better)

> Try getting the line stats per this page:
> http://www.dslreports.com/faq/alcatel/3_Troubleshooting

Apologies, that probably won't work with the Speedtouch USB, but a
quick trawl of the net found this:

SpeedTouch USB / SpeedTouch 330 USB

Install the program Dr Speedtouch from driver CD or the Speedtouch
website and run "Diagnostics".

Right click the Dr Speedtouch icon in your system tray and go Advanced
- Write Log file to disk.

Now open the log file in IE (its in .xml format so you may have to set
IE to open it).
You should now be able to see your line stats amongst a lot of other
information.

The stats you are looking for are:-

ReceiveAttenuation_dB=
ReceiveMargin_dB=
SendAttenuation_dB=
SendMargin_dB=

On 9 Apr 2007 12:49:30 -0700, "Rob." <(E-Mail Removed)>
mused:


>17070 3, 1, 2, 2 seems to have changed. It just does a call back
>and just says "thanks". No strength or distance info.

Hasn't given line length info for years as some yoghurts kept giving
out the BT test number on newsgroups.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

"Lurch" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 9 Apr 2007 12:49:30 -0700, "Rob." <(E-Mail Removed)>
> mused:
>
>
>>17070 3, 1, 2, 2 seems to have changed. It just does a call back
>>and just says "thanks". No strength or distance info.
>
> Hasn't given line length info for years as some yoghurts kept giving
> out the BT test number on newsgroups.
> --
> Regards,
> Stuart.

Not sure why line length seems to come under the Official Secrets Act, but
when I tried it just now the nice lady said I had a loop resistance of 3.04
k ohms.

Trev

Rob. wrote:
> On 9 Apr, 18:35, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>> "Rob." wrote:
>>> I've had Tiscali Broadband (512k) for about 18 months. About 4-5
>>> months ago I started getting problems such as not being able to
>>> connect at all in the evening - great for the kids doing homework!
>> Have you considered changing ISP ?
>
> Definitely. However I want to be sure that I won't have the same
> problems.
>
>>> Is this just the price I have to pay for living so far from a
>>> telephone exchange?
>> How far ? What are your connection statistics ?
>>
>> Graham
>
> 1.42 miles as the Google Earth crow flies. When I signed up I was not
> able to get better than 512 from any supplier. What other statistics
> are useful, and where do I find them?

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm

Kind Rgds,

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