Modem next to PC tower?

I have a Tiscali Sagem 800 broadband modem with its own telephone line
giving a published 152 kbps, in practice about 100 kbps, on a good day.
Latency on my first hop is around 100%. I am a mile as the crow flies from
the exchange

I am resedarching the many reasons for this lack of performance. One of
these is that
the siting of the modem could be a contributing factor. The modem connects
to the tower via a USB cable about 3' long at most. The tower is at one end
of the study workbench surrounded
by various cables going into the back of it. It would be v difficult for me
to site the modem 3 or 4' away from the tower and thus any electricals at
the other end.

Sagem are not responding. The modem instructions refer to 'not do's' ( not
near heat, etc..,), but there is no reference to other electricals.

Comments/advice??

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:02:52 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I have a Tiscali Sagem 800 broadband modem with its own telephone line
>giving a published 152 kbps, in practice about 100 kbps, on a good day.
>Latency on my first hop is around 100%. I am a mile as the crow flies from
>the exchange

didn't notice any bad effects with my modem sat on top of the tower,
Alcatel speedtouch 330 USB.

Tiscali provide a connection to the exchange that I think is 2 Mbit/s
- does your modem driver indicate connected speed. If not it will be
512k as BT simply don't provide a 152 kbps connection for anyone to
resell.

Tiscali provide the cheap low speed services by limiting the data flow
after the DSLAM in the exchange. For example they might have a 2Mbit/s
connection to the exchange (an ATM virtual pipe) and you will be
arguing over that with other users.

It is probably the device that referees this argument that is causing
problems, if 20 of you are on line trying to get 150 kbit/s and there
is only a 2M pipe then you have to be cut back to 100k/s each and the
efficiency of this process may be lacking.

I don't know what contention ratio Tiscali sell the 150k service at,
but I'm sure it is contended so you can contractually expect to see
some reduction in speed.

The first hop is beyond the exchange, probably in Tiscali land, so it
need not be your modem or the DSLAM. Try a tracert to www.bbc.co.uk,
mine is:
Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.125]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 20 ms 21 ms 47 ms lns-1.managedbroadband.co.uk
[217.79.96.209]
3 22 ms 21 ms 23 ms f0-0.core1.tchx.lon.uk.griffin.com
[217.79.96.1]

4 21 ms 21 ms 21 ms rt-linx-a.thdo.bbc.co.uk
[195.66.224.103]
5 24 ms 21 ms 21 ms www25.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.125]

Phil

Thanks

My tracert to ww.bbc.co.ouk showed * * * timed out 18 times, then on the
19th 55ms 46ms 47ms (I can't work out how to use print screen)

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:02:52 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> I have a Tiscali Sagem 800 broadband modem with its own telephone
>> line giving a published 152 kbps, in practice about 100 kbps, on a
>> good day. Latency on my first hop is around 100%. I am a mile as
>> the crow flies from the exchange
>
> didn't notice any bad effects with my modem sat on top of the tower,
> Alcatel speedtouch 330 USB.
>
> Tiscali provide a connection to the exchange that I think is 2 Mbit/s
> - does your modem driver indicate connected speed. If not it will be
> 512k as BT simply don't provide a 152 kbps connection for anyone to
> resell.
>
> Tiscali provide the cheap low speed services by limiting the data flow
> after the DSLAM in the exchange. For example they might have a 2Mbit/s
> connection to the exchange (an ATM virtual pipe) and you will be
> arguing over that with other users.
>
> It is probably the device that referees this argument that is causing
> problems, if 20 of you are on line trying to get 150 kbit/s and there
> is only a 2M pipe then you have to be cut back to 100k/s each and the
> efficiency of this process may be lacking.
>
> I don't know what contention ratio Tiscali sell the 150k service at,
> but I'm sure it is contended so you can contractually expect to see
> some reduction in speed.
>
> The first hop is beyond the exchange, probably in Tiscali land, so it
> need not be your modem or the DSLAM. Try a tracert to www.bbc.co.uk,
> mine is:
> Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.125]
> over a maximum of 30 hops:
>
> 1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
> 2 20 ms 21 ms 47 ms lns-1.managedbroadband.co.uk
> [217.79.96.209]
> 3 22 ms 21 ms 23 ms f0-0.core1.tchx.lon.uk.griffin.com
> [217.79.96.1]
>
> 4 21 ms 21 ms 21 ms rt-linx-a.thdo.bbc.co.uk
> [195.66.224.103]
> 5 24 ms 21 ms 21 ms www25.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.125]
>
> Phil

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 14:46:50 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>My tracert to ww.bbc.co.ouk showed * * * timed out 18 times, then on the
>19th 55ms 46ms 47ms (I can't work out how to use print screen)

(right mouse, select mark, drag over interesting bit, press enter,
paste)

what speed is you modem showing the link to the exchange at ?

Phil

I'm not sure what you mean, but if this is shown in the status window (rt
click little tv screens), it is connected at 2,326,528.

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 14:46:50 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> My tracert to ww.bbc.co.ouk showed * * * timed out 18 times, then on
>> the 19th 55ms 46ms 47ms (I can't work out how to use print screen)
>
> (right mouse, select mark, drag over interesting bit, press enter,
> paste)
>
> what speed is you modem showing the link to the exchange at ?
>
> Phil

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 18:42:58 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I'm not sure what you mean, but if this is shown in the status window (rt
>click little tv screens), it is connected at 2,326,528.

aha, a 2M ADSL connection. Thanks.

Phil

So, where does this take me???

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 18:42:58 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure what you mean, but if this is shown in the status
>> window (rt click little tv screens), it is connected at 2,326,528.
>
> aha, a 2M ADSL connection. Thanks.
>
> Phil

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:02:27 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>So, where does this take me???

in my opinion it leaves you looking at a congestion / contention
problem inherent in the Tiscali product. Unless you can find records
of retrains, CRC errors and the like in your modem software it would
appear that you have a perfectly functional 2M adsl link over which
Tiscali are supplying you a restricted service.

I believe your beef is with Tiscali, you should be probing them about
the number of users on your exchange and how big the connection is.
Finding others on your exchange with the same problem would be good.
Traceroutes and pings to some standard destinations like the beeb may
be useful evidence to nag Tiscali with.

Run the adslguide speedtest at different times of day to collate more
evidence.

In the highly unlikely event that the ADSL link is the issue you
should ask to be reporovided at 512k where any line issues will be
tolerated much more. This would only be appropriate if you know the
modem is dropping out. If your modem doesn't tell you these things you
might want to borrow / buy a router or a modem that does.

Phil

Thanks, good stuff

What is a router, what does it do, would one improve my situation, and what
do they cost?

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:02:27 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> So, where does this take me???
>
> in my opinion it leaves you looking at a congestion / contention
> problem inherent in the Tiscali product. Unless you can find records
> of retrains, CRC errors and the like in your modem software it would
> appear that you have a perfectly functional 2M adsl link over which
> Tiscali are supplying you a restricted service.
>
> I believe your beef is with Tiscali, you should be probing them about
> the number of users on your exchange and how big the connection is.
> Finding others on your exchange with the same problem would be good.
> Traceroutes and pings to some standard destinations like the beeb may
> be useful evidence to nag Tiscali with.
>
> Run the adslguide speedtest at different times of day to collate more
> evidence.
>
> In the highly unlikely event that the ADSL link is the issue you
> should ask to be reporovided at 512k where any line issues will be
> tolerated much more. This would only be appropriate if you know the
> modem is dropping out. If your modem doesn't tell you these things you
> might want to borrow / buy a router or a modem that does.
>
> Phil

My research appears to show that routers are for home networking - I have
one PC.

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:02:27 -0000, "Vibes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> So, where does this take me???
>
> in my opinion it leaves you looking at a congestion / contention
> problem inherent in the Tiscali product. Unless you can find records
> of retrains, CRC errors and the like in your modem software it would
> appear that you have a perfectly functional 2M adsl link over which
> Tiscali are supplying you a restricted service.
>
> I believe your beef is with Tiscali, you should be probing them about
> the number of users on your exchange and how big the connection is.
> Finding others on your exchange with the same problem would be good.
> Traceroutes and pings to some standard destinations like the beeb may
> be useful evidence to nag Tiscali with.
>
> Run the adslguide speedtest at different times of day to collate more
> evidence.
>
> In the highly unlikely event that the ADSL link is the issue you
> should ask to be reporovided at 512k where any line issues will be
> tolerated much more. This would only be appropriate if you know the
> modem is dropping out. If your modem doesn't tell you these things you
> might want to borrow / buy a router or a modem that does.
>
> Phil