DSL Connection drops ... a LOT

[mvbighead]

Over the past 3 years, I have had intermittent connectivity issues. Thinking I had a modem problem, I ended up buying a few different modems ($20 or so a piece) that I continue to swap between, but I always experience intermittent drops.

Last week, I reached out to support again, and a tech game out, checked lines, and determined that my DSL line was running through every line in my house, causing signal loss. He re-wired, tested at the port again, and noticed considerable signal quality improvement (26kpbs attainable versus the 8-11 it was getting prior). Here I'm thinking... YES YES YES, my Internet troubles are finally over.

I set up a script to basically ping google and write a log (after this repair was done) if it is unable to reach google. Sure enough, over a few days, the logs starts seeing entries. I'm thinking... maybe it was just a google thing, as it was seeming like my Internet was more reliable.

Well, this morning, I connect from my laptop for some early morning browsing, and I see 3 separate drops across a 5-10 minute span. Check the router, no WAN IP again. After a few reboots, it works again, but only for a few minutes before dropping.

At this point, i am ready to spend about $40 on a used Cisco 877 modem to see if that will at least provide useful logging to help me pinpoint the issue.

Thoughts? I would assume other DSL users out there have a relatively always on Internet connection. I can deal with a drop or two, but it's getting very frustrating. I more or less expect the Internet to drop every time I start using it.

 

[Gryz]

I've been on ADSL for 12 years now. The line is maintained by our old national PTT (KPN). I buy "internet service" from a daughter company (xs4all.nl). But underneath it is KPN's copper/ADSL network.

There have been times where my line was pretty unreliable. It seems almost magic to figure out why stuff isn't working well. KPN's technical people have certainly never been able to tell me anything useful.

In 2005 or so, my line was completely unstable. I used a router/modem that I was given by my ISP. It was an Speedtouch (mabe by Alcatel). In my country ISPs give you a router when you subscribe, you don't need to buy one yourself. In fact, I think KPN will wave all responsibility if you have problems and don't use the official router. KPN came to my house, couldn't find a problem. They replaced my router twice. No solution, constant drops.

I did the opposite of using the recommended router. I went and bought some random cheap ADSL-router. (I believe it was a Belkin). Problem solved. Swapping back the official Speedtouch/Alcatel router would introduce problems immediately.

Three years ago I switched from "Internet by xs4all, but POTS and ADSL from KPN" to "xs4all only". Underneath it's still KPN's network. But you only deal with xs4all. But the biggest difference is, no more POTS, voice is over VoIP now. I needed a new router (with voip), so xs4all gave me a Fritzbox. Worked fine for a few months, until KPN switched me from ADSL1 to ADSL2+. Constant disconnects. Switching back the old Belkin (which could also do ADSL2+, but not VoIP) gave me again a stable connection.

So my reasoning is: if the old Belkin can do ADSL without problems, why can't a newer, more expensive, more feature rich Fritzbox not deal with the problem ? My ISP kept telling me "ADSL2 is more sensitive". Which is bullshit. If the Belkin can deal with it, there is nothing sensitive in the signal, copperwire, etc. It's just the Fritzbox that can't deal with it.

However, I did make it work with the Fritzbox. I had a 2-wire cable run from the phone-line entry-point to my desk (about 12-15 meter, underground, I laid it there myself). I also had cat-5 UTP running next to it. I changed my cabling so that my Fritzbox was directly attached to the phone-line entry-point. And then used Ethernet over my cat-5 to my desk. Basically just what your did recently. It solved my problems. The Fritzbox was now (pretty) stable. I still think that something in the Fritzbox sucks. Either the chip they use for their ADSL, or the driver for the ADSL interface, or something else. If the Belkin could run well with that copper wires, the Fritzbox should be able to do that as well.

So that taught me that not all routers/modems/adsl-hardware is the same. You could try another (brand) router, and see if that one works better.

Another thing that I learned is that actually ADSL is not a standard specification. It's actually a collection of standards. Every country in the EU has their own standard. Or at least its own little quirks. My Fritzbox has configuration options for which country you are in. Even which copper/adsl-network you are on. They have even released country/isp-specific firmware. It also matters to what brand DSLAM you are connected. KPN uses two (or more) different brands of DSLAMs (Alcatel and Huawei, I think). Behaviour is different depending on which DSLAM you are on. Different brands of home-routers work better or worse with certain brands of DSLAM. It's a mess. And it seems the compatibility testing information does not exist, or is kept hidden by ISPs and vendors.

So my advice is:
1) attach your router directly to the entry-point of the phone-line.
(You already did this).
2) try to figure out compatibility issues between your ISPs DSLAM and home routers.
(Probably impossible to do).
3) try random different routers and see if it makes a difference.
(Not the high-tech solution. But there's nothing else).

 

[JackMDS]

DSL runs on the regular Tel. copper line.

These line are very noisy (electronically). It getting worse by the time because the Telcos do minimum support work on these lines. They actually want to get rid of them cause there is no place for such technology in the age of Wireless and Fiber.

DSL Modem has special filter/circuits inside to try clean out as much noise as possible. The newer DSL Modems are better off in doing so.

Locally you can try to Run a dedicated line from the Telco entry box (NID) that goes directly to the Modem and put the DSL Filter centrally on all the other Tel. line that run into the house.

That said, it is possible that there is nothing that can be done about this problem and you have to switch to other type of Internet connection (or live with the current until something else is available).

 

[VirtualLarry]

He re-wired, tested at the port again, and noticed considerable signal quality improvement (26kpbs attainable versus the 8-11 it was getting prior). Here I'm thinking... YES YES YES, my Internet troubles are finally over.

You sure about those speeds? 26Kbit/sec is dialup speeds. Remember, dialup over v.92 models could reach about 53Kbit/sec. I have a hard time believing that DSL is slower than dialup.

 

[mvbighead]

You sure about those speeds? 26Kbit/sec is dialup speeds. Remember, dialup over v.92 models could reach about 53Kbit/sec. I have a hard time believing that DSL is slower than dialup.

Shoot... mbps. I pay for 10mbps down and 1 mbps up, which the most I can subscribe for.

Definitely some good information in here. My question I guess is whether a different modem would handle noise or whatever better. I have two TP-Link modems (8817 and 8816 I think) and one Trendnet that I bought on whim thinking a different brand might behave better.

My thought was to buy something like: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-877-R...?pt=US_Enterprise_Routers&hash=item2ed8709568

At that point, it's a business grade device and not some run of the mill consumer grade stuff. As pointed out, most Internet service has moved away from these lines, and as such there are not a lot of good options for DSL modems these days as most companies have stopped making DSL modems.

At this point, i figure the true Cisco modem would either give me a log to report problems to my ISP, or perhaps have less issues with dropping out.

As for finding a different ISP, it simply isn't an option. Satellite Internet might be the only other possibility, but I don't think the speeds will be sufficient for what I need. I may need to get another service call with a tech, but I'd figure if his device suggested I could get 26mbps, I wouldn't figure it should have such a hard time maintaining a 10mbps connection.

 

[mvbighead]

DSL Modem has special filter/circuits inside to try clean out as much noise as possible. The newer DSL Modems are better off in doing so.

I'm told I don't need a filter, but I had tried at one point and it didn't make much of a difference. I may try again for grins, but pretty much everything I've crossed off the list before I may need to try again as they 'corrected' the wiring in my house which should have resolved the issue.

 

[mvbighead]

I've been on ADSL for 12 years now. The line is maintained by our old national PTT (KPN). I buy "internet service" from a daughter company (xs4all.nl). But underneath it is KPN's copper/ADSL network.

There have been times where my line was pretty unreliable. It seems almost magic to figure out why stuff isn't working well. KPN's technical people have certainly never been able to tell me anything useful.

In 2005 or so, my line was completely unstable. I used a router/modem that I was given by my ISP. It was an Speedtouch (mabe by Alcatel). In my country ISPs give you a router when you subscribe, you don't need to buy one yourself. In fact, I think KPN will wave all responsibility if you have problems and don't use the official router. KPN came to my house, couldn't find a problem. They replaced my router twice. No solution, constant drops.

I did the opposite of using the recommended router. I went and bought some random cheap ADSL-router. (I believe it was a Belkin). Problem solved. Swapping back the official Speedtouch/Alcatel router would introduce problems immediately.

Three years ago I switched from "Internet by xs4all, but POTS and ADSL from KPN" to "xs4all only". Underneath it's still KPN's network. But you only deal with xs4all. But the biggest difference is, no more POTS, voice is over VoIP now. I needed a new router (with voip), so xs4all gave me a Fritzbox. Worked fine for a few months, until KPN switched me from ADSL1 to ADSL2+. Constant disconnects. Switching back the old Belkin (which could also do ADSL2+, but not VoIP) gave me again a stable connection.

So my reasoning is: if the old Belkin can do ADSL without problems, why can't a newer, more expensive, more feature rich Fritzbox not deal with the problem ? My ISP kept telling me "ADSL2 is more sensitive". Which is bullshit. If the Belkin can deal with it, there is nothing sensitive in the signal, copperwire, etc. It's just the Fritzbox that can't deal with it.

However, I did make it work with the Fritzbox. I had a 2-wire cable run from the phone-line entry-point to my desk (about 12-15 meter, underground, I laid it there myself). I also had cat-5 UTP running next to it. I changed my cabling so that my Fritzbox was directly attached to the phone-line entry-point. And then used Ethernet over my cat-5 to my desk. Basically just what your did recently. It solved my problems. The Fritzbox was now (pretty) stable. I still think that something in the Fritzbox sucks. Either the chip they use for their ADSL, or the driver for the ADSL interface, or something else. If the Belkin could run well with that copper wires, the Fritzbox should be able to do that as well.

So that taught me that not all routers/modems/adsl-hardware is the same. You could try another (brand) router, and see if that one works better.

Another thing that I learned is that actually ADSL is not a standard specification. It's actually a collection of standards. Every country in the EU has their own standard. Or at least its own little quirks. My Fritzbox has configuration options for which country you are in. Even which copper/adsl-network you are on. They have even released country/isp-specific firmware. It also matters to what brand DSLAM you are connected. KPN uses two (or more) different brands of DSLAMs (Alcatel and Huawei, I think). Behaviour is different depending on which DSLAM you are on. Different brands of home-routers work better or worse with certain brands of DSLAM. It's a mess. And it seems the compatibility testing information does not exist, or is kept hidden by ISPs and vendors.

So my advice is:
1) attach your router directly to the entry-point of the phone-line.
(You already did this).
2) try to figure out compatibility issues between your ISPs DSLAM and home routers.
(Probably impossible to do).
3) try random different routers and see if it makes a difference.
(Not the high-tech solution. But there's nothing else).

I really appreciate your entire post. Thanks!

I thought I might be stupid to consider buying yet another modem, but it's the only thing I can control. And at this point, the amount I pay for service monthly far exceeds the amount spent on all three modems I have.

At this point, what I might consider (other than the Cisco device) is a DSL modem / router combination that will at least give me the ability to see what the modem function is doing when the Internet drops. At this point, all I see is that my WAN IP has dropped and after a releasing/renewing the lease, I eventually get a connection again.

Only trouble is finding a DSL modem/router that is well regarded these days is a bit of a problem. But if I can throw money at some device somewhere and get this issue put to rest, I'll do it.

 

[JackMDS]

I've crossed off the list before I may need to try again as they 'corrected' the wiring in my house which should have resolved the issue.

I had a similar situation, I had a feeling that the provider is willing to do what is easy for them rather than dealing with the real problem.

I went to my NID (the box that all the wires comes into the house).

I disconnected every thing there and at the spot with a very short Tel. wire connected the Modem and 1ft wire to a Laptop Ethernet jack.

No change I was suppose to get 8Mb/sec. (Premium DSL) and was getting variable speed around 1Mb/sec.

At that point the provider admitted that something wrong with the neighborhood wire system but refuse to correct it. I suffered for a while until FIOS arrived to the neighborhood and now I get 15Mb/sec. Up and down for just a little more than the ""Glorious 1Mb/sec. Premuim DSL"".

YMMV but I hope that it will work you. :biggrin:

 

[mvbighead]

I had a similar situation, I had a feeling that the provider is willing to do what is easy for them rather than dealing with the real problem.

I went to my NID (the box that all the wires comes into the house).

I disconnected every thing there and at the spot with a very short Tel. wire connected the Modem and 1ft wire to a Laptop Ethernet jack.

No change I was suppose to get 8Mb/sec. (Premium DSL) and was getting variable speed around 1Mb/sec.

At that point the provider admitted that something wrong with the neighborhood wire system but refuse to correct it. I suffered for a while until FIOS arrived to the neighborhood and now I get 15Mb/sec. Up and down for just a little more than the ""Glorious 1Mb/sec. Premuim DSL"".

YMMV but I hope that it will work you. :biggrin:

Well, I do feel that the tech that came out did a very thorough job. Didn't give me grief about not using their modem, and tested wires and connections and when he found the problem, I really thought I was done with all the trouble.

At this point, I am going to step away from the Trendnet/TPLink products and try one more consumer grade product in the Linksys X2000. At least at that point I'll be able to access the DSL modem from the router GUI to see what it's up to. Hopefully some of the user review are accurate:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R321ZSI...R321ZSIZW9BV0F

At this point, when my Internet works, its fine. But the fact that it can drop 2-3 times in 15 minutes at times gets terribly annoying. Especially when working remote, on a conference call, and then I have to wait 3-5 minutes for my Internet to come back up.

And my usual Linksys experiences have been fine, so i hope that continues with this device. I've not had problems with most Trendnet/TPLink stuff, but at this point, I just need to try one other thing before I go extreme Cisco grade whatever.

 

[Gryz]

You should be able to connect to your router, either via http (web) or ssh/telnet. Then you should be able to look at more numbers. E.g. see the speed at which your router syncs. (Syncing is the word used for when the router and the DSLAM test the line, and determine at which speed they should run with a minimal amount of bit errors).

If your line trains at 16 Mbps, but you pay only for 10 Mpbs, you could ask them to set the speed to 10 Mbps. Slower speed, but when there is distortion, the lower speed might prevent the disconnect and resync.

I was told by my ISP that the problem is often in the upstream connection. People usually focus on download-speeds, and people are more likely to experiment with download-speeds to see if they can swap speed for stability. But then they forget about upstream. You might not be able to get stability at 10 Mbps/down+2Mbps/up, but it might run fine at 20 Mbps/down+1Mbps/up.
Upstream speed shouldn't be an issue for most people (unless it drops under 512Kbps). But if you do video-conferencing, and want people to see your face, you might need more than 512Kbps.

If you find a way to look at stats, you might see bit-errors (critical and non-critical) per hour, upstream/downstream signal-to-noise ratios, etc. These numbers could give an indication in which direction the problem lies.

Here's an example of statistics on my home router.
<link to example deleted>
You can see the configured max speeds (first 2 lines, 8 Mbps up and 776 Kbps down).
The speed that the router and the DSLAM synced at (6.5Mbps).
And then the speed at which the line really runs (6.5 Mbps).
Signal-to-noise is important (should never be lower than ~6).
Line attenuation is an indication on how far you are from the DSLAM (I am ~ 3.5km).
If your line attenuation is higher than the real distance, you know there is extra distortion on the line. Might be a clue.
You can see that my upstream is low. I pay for 1 Mbps, the line is still configured for 776Kbps. But it also seems that the max attainable speed is not much higher. Weird, as my upstream-SNR is 26.

There can always be errrors. No problem at all. Only when you see huge numbers, you should worry.

I think all routers are able to display information like this. My Alcatel/Speedtouch(s) could. My Belkin could. And my Fritzboxes could. The only way to really figure out what is going wrong is to look at real numbers.

One more thing: DSLAMs are configured with certain parameters. But when they operate, they adjust the parameters on the fly to gain more stability. E.g. if they see a lot of resyncs, they will adjust speeds downwards. And maybe other parameters too. If you mess a lot with your router (unplugging phoneline, rebooting the router), the DSLAM sees all of those as loss of signal. And re-adjusts its parameters. You might wanna disconnect your router, and keep it disconnected for 20-60 minutes. That will cause the DSLAM to lose all history it had about the line. If you reconnect after 20-60min, the DSLAM will handle your line as if you are a totally new and fresh customer. I don't think it will make a difference in your case, but it might be worth a try.

Note: Internet over Satellite sucks. Big time. Delays are so huge, it's gonna be noticeable on everything you do. Even when you do simple web-surfing (downloading one "page" is actually often downloading multiple objects. Objects are downloaded in parallel, but you still require multiple RTT (round-trip times) for a single page. When your RTT is 500ms, even simple pages can take seconds to download and display. And the real joke ? Only downstream is over satellite. You still require DSL/phone to transport upstream data.

You mention that your ISP's support guy fixed your wiring. Do you use POTS ? (Plain old telephone service). Or do you use some form of VoIP, or maybe you only use a cellphone ? The reason that I am asking that for the best ADSL, the copperwires that enter your house should only go into your adsl-router. There should be no side-branches ! Especially no side-branches without devices at the end. Those "lose ends" will cause distortion (I believe it's just called echo). Which has a really bad effect on ADSL. Also, if you only use ADSL, you don't need a filter. But if you use ADSL and POTS, you do need a filter.

I really appreciate your entire post. Thanks!

Well, I had some really irritating conversations with my ISP. Support is basically clueless, besides the standard stuff they do. (Which is: (1) please reboot your PC, 2) we'll send you a new router, 3) reformat your HDD and reinstall windows). I had to figure it all out by myself. If my posts can help you, I'll be happy.

 

[mvbighead]

You should be able to connect to your router, either via http (web) or ssh/telnet. Then you should be able to look at more numbers. E.g. see the speed at which your router syncs. (Syncing is the word used for when the router and the DSLAM test the line, and determine at which speed they should run with a minimal amount of bit errors).

If your line trains at 16 Mbps, but you pay only for 10 Mpbs, you could ask them to set the speed to 10 Mbps. Slower speed, but when there is distortion, the lower speed might prevent the disconnect and resync.

I was told by my ISP that the problem is often in the upstream connection. People usually focus on download-speeds, and people are more likely to experiment with download-speeds to see if they can swap speed for stability. But then they forget about upstream. You might not be able to get stability at 10 Mbps/down+2Mbps/up, but it might run fine at 20 Mbps/down+1Mbps/up.
Upstream speed shouldn't be an issue for most people (unless it drops under 512Kbps). But if you do video-conferencing, and want people to see your face, you might need more than 512Kbps.

If you find a way to look at stats, you might see bit-errors (critical and non-critical) per hour, upstream/downstream signal-to-noise ratios, etc. These numbers could give an indication in which direction the problem lies.

You can see the configured max speeds (first 2 lines, 8 Mbps up and 776 Kbps down).
The speed that the router and the DSLAM synced at (6.5Mbps).
And then the speed at which the line really runs (6.5 Mbps).
Signal-to-noise is important (should never be lower than ~6).
Line attenuation is an indication on how far you are from the DSLAM (I am ~ 3.5km).
If your line attenuation is higher than the real distance, you know there is extra distortion on the line. Might be a clue.
You can see that my upstream is low. I pay for 1 Mbps, the line is still configured for 776Kbps. But it also seems that the max attainable speed is not much higher. Weird, as my upstream-SNR is 26.

There can always be errrors. No problem at all. Only when you see huge numbers, you should worry.

I think all routers are able to display information like this. My Alcatel/Speedtouch(s) could. My Belkin could. And my Fritzboxes could. The only way to really figure out what is going wrong is to look at real numbers.

One more thing: DSLAMs are configured with certain parameters. But when they operate, they adjust the parameters on the fly to gain more stability. E.g. if they see a lot of resyncs, they will adjust speeds downwards. And maybe other parameters too. If you mess a lot with your router (unplugging phoneline, rebooting the router), the DSLAM sees all of those as loss of signal. And re-adjusts its parameters. You might wanna disconnect your router, and keep it disconnected for 20-60 minutes. That will cause the DSLAM to lose all history it had about the line. If you reconnect after 20-60min, the DSLAM will handle your line as if you are a totally new and fresh customer. I don't think it will make a difference in your case, but it might be worth a try.

Note: Internet over Satellite sucks. Big time. Delays are so huge, it's gonna be noticeable on everything you do. Even when you do simple web-surfing (downloading one "page" is actually often downloading multiple objects. Objects are downloaded in parallel, but you still require multiple RTT (round-trip times) for a single page. When your RTT is 500ms, even simple pages can take seconds to download and display. And the real joke ? Only downstream is over satellite. You still require DSL/phone to transport upstream data.

You mention that your ISP's support guy fixed your wiring. Do you use POTS ? (Plain old telephone service). Or do you use some form of VoIP, or maybe you only use a cellphone ? The reason that I am asking that for the best ADSL, the copperwires that enter your house should only go into your adsl-router. There should be no side-branches ! Especially no side-branches without devices at the end. Those "lose ends" will cause distortion (I believe it's just called echo). Which has a really bad effect on ADSL. Also, if you only use ADSL, you don't need a filter. But if you use ADSL and POTS, you do need a filter.


Well, I had some really irritating conversations with my ISP. Support is basically clueless, besides the standard stuff they do. (Which is: (1) please reboot your PC, 2) we'll send you a new router, 3) reformat your HDD and reinstall windows). I had to figure it all out by myself. If my posts can help you, I'll be happy.

Again... awesome and just, WOW.

At this point, all three modems I have support some routing function, but I use a Linksys router (running DDWRT) for the routing/firewall/wireless and just leave the modems to connect me to DSL and provide my router with a WAN IP. Because of this, the only way I get to see what is going on with the DSL modem is by bypassing the router and thereby losing wireless. I took a day or two and messed with settings here or there, but by and large there are so many devices that we use that need wireless that it was difficult to do any extending testing.

For that reason, I went ahead and ordered the X2000 which allows me to leave everything in place when adjusting modem settings. I may just use the other router as an AP and place it in my office which is a bit more central to the rest of the house. I went ahead and paid the extra for priority shipping via Amazon, so I am supposed to have it tonight. Once I get the kiddo to bed, i'll start working on setting it up and checking more of the numbers you've shown above.

I will say that the installer did run the direct line while he was at the house, and it appeared to resolve the attainable situation as I was supposed to be able to get 10mbps, but occasionally was seeing 7 or 8. Once he wired direct, 26mpbs was achievable, but 10 was the configured rate. I would figure that any marginal amount of decline in rate would never drop below 10 as it would take a very significant drop to get there. However, you may be right about the up link and I have no idea if there is a configured maximum for that. For me, I am most concerned with download as I do very little on the upload side. About the most I do is a Google Voice OBi device for a pseudo land-line.

The lines in my house are POTS lines, and the only VOIP I do is with Google voice.

Honestly, when I saw the before and afters on his testing device, I thought this headache was done. But sure enough, when I check my WAN connection uptime, it's usually less than 2-3 hours. My script has logs indicating that my hardwired PC was unable to reach google several times a day, and I experience those drops usually 2-3 times a week while actively doing something.

 

[Gryz]

The lines in my house are POTS lines, and the only VOIP I do is with Google voice.

In that case you need a "splitter". A splitter is basically an electronic filter. It sends out audible frequencies on one line, to your phone. And all other frequencies go to the other line, where you should connect your adsl-equipment. Without a splitter your phone can disrupt adsl service. I suspect the mechanic that came by to redo your wiring must have installed one. If you don't use POTS (so no plain voice signal over the wire, just adsl) then you can remove the splitter.

ordered the X2000 which allows me to leave everything in place when adjusting modem settings. I may just use the other router as an AP and place it in my office which is a bit more central to the rest of the house.

Sounds like a plan.

I will say that the installer did run the direct line while he was at the house,

You mean he connected a router and a laptop directly to the copperline where it enters your house ? Or did he have a special device that measured stuff (like Signal-to-Noise Ratios). That would be better than what tech-support here have.

and it appeared to resolve the attainable situation as I was supposed to be able to get 10mbps, but occasionally was seeing 7 or 8.

This makes me curious. Do you mean you did speedtests of some sort ? (like e.g. http://www.speedtest.net/ ?) Because ADSL runs at a fixed speed. When the line is brought up, both sides do some testing (syncing aka training). Once they determine a certain optimal speed, they stick with those speeds for the remainder of the session. Only when the connection gets "broken" (e.g. because of too many errors), they will restart the syncing/training, and determine new optimal speeds. This is what the end-user sees as a "disconnect".

Once he wired direct, 26mpbs was achievable, but 10 was the configured rate. I would figure that any marginal amount of decline in rate would never drop below 10 as it would take a very significant drop to get there.

Test like speedtest.net are completely meaningless, when you troubleshoot your ADSL line. There are so many other factors involved, that the number you see on your screens means nothing regarding ADSL. Your ISPs network, speedtest.net's ISP's network, a transit provider in between, the peerings between them, and your local LAN (e.g. WiFi) all have impact on those numbers. The only real number that shows the speed of your ADSL-line is the numbers reported by your router.

For me, I am most concerned with download as I do very little on the upload side. About the most I do is a Google Voice OBi device for a pseudo land-line.

If you do video-conferencing, and you have a camera at home, your upstream video might be more than you expect.

Honestly, when I saw the before and afters on his testing device, I thought this headache was done. But sure enough, when I check my WAN connection uptime, it's usually less than 2-3 hours. My script has logs indicating that my hardwired PC was unable to reach google several times a day, and I experience those drops usually 2-3 times a week while actively doing something.

I had the same thing. The weird thing was that drops happened more frequently between 18:00 and 23:00. I suspected that could be because of more people in my area using their phones, or maybe also ADSL. Causing cross-talk in the wire-bundles. Of course that's impossible to figure out yourself. And my ISP wasn't interested. In any case, as I said, placing my router directly at the entrypoint solved most issues for me.

 

[mvbighead]

In that case you need a "splitter". A splitter is basically an electronic filter. It sends out audible frequencies on one line, to your phone. And all other frequencies go to the other line, where you should connect your adsl-equipment. Without a splitter your phone can disrupt adsl service. I suspect the mechanic that came by to redo your wiring must have installed one. If you don't use POTS (so no plain voice signal over the wire, just adsl) then you can remove the splitter.

The phone line for VOIP comes from a device that plugs into ethernet. The only thing using the phone wiring in my house is the DSL.

Here's what it is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833617001

Ethernet goes to a switch, phone line from the device goes to my wireless headset base.

Sounds like a plan.

You mean he connected a router and a laptop directly to the copperline where it enters your house ? Or did he have a special device that measured stuff (like Signal-to-Noise Ratios). That would be better than what tech-support here have.

This makes me curious. Do you mean you did speedtests of some sort ? (like e.g. http://www.speedtest.net/ ?) Because ADSL runs at a fixed speed. When the line is brought up, both sides do some testing (syncing aka training). Once they determine a certain optimal speed, they stick with those speeds for the remainder of the session. Only when the connection gets "broken" (e.g. because of too many errors), they will restart the syncing/training, and determine new optimal speeds. This is what the end-user sees as a "disconnect".

Test like speedtest.net are completely meaningless, when you troubleshoot your ADSL line. There are so many other factors involved, that the number you see on your screens means nothing regarding ADSL. Your ISPs network, speedtest.net's ISP's network, a transit provider in between, the peerings between them, and your local LAN (e.g. WiFi) all have impact on those numbers. The only real number that shows the speed of your ADSL-line is the numbers reported by your router.

His device he plugged into the line in my house that is configured for DSL (the only one that will allow my modem to link up). He rewired that port from where it enters the house direct to that port, as before it was looped through all the house wiring.

His device tested 'attainable' speed I believe, so it showed 26mpbs could be achieved at that port, but the rate I subscribe for showed as the 10mbps. He said he was also able to get 26mpbs at the 'box' outside the house where the line is run to. In short, I would be able to get 26mpbs if they made that possible on their end.

His device was similar to a tablet, only thicker and when plugged in it checks and displays many of the numbers you listed above. Once he wired that port direct and tested, he was confident I wouldn't have any more issues.

If you do video-conferencing, and you have a camera at home, your upstream video might be more than you expect.

I had the same thing. The weird thing was that drops happened more frequently between 18:00 and 23:00. I suspected that could be because of more people in my area using their phones, or maybe also ADSL. Causing cross-talk in the wire-bundles. Of course that's impossible to figure out yourself. And my ISP wasn't interested. In any case, as I said, placing my router directly at the entrypoint solved most issues for me.

And for me, I do very little with webcams or anything that uploads data. Most of my uploading traffic is a moving mouse cursor and typing in an RDP session across a VPN.

 

[Gryz]

OK, so I wasn't clear enough. POTS (plain old telephone service) is the old fashioned phone-signal over 2 copper wires, with nothing extra or special. As it was 100 years ago. So you don't have POTS. And thus you won't need a splitter.

Interesting device. I haven't heard of those before. Should make troubleshooting a lot easier for the support guys.

You pay for 10 Mbps, you get 10 Mbps. Simple. In the DSLAM your provider configures the max speed. It appears they set it at 10 Mbps. But the line is good enough to do 26 Mbps. This is an indication that there might be no problem with the wire itself. The signal must be very clear when they run at half the attainable speed. If your upstream is indeed 1 Mbps, that that is so low that it is also unlikely that your upstream is causing problem.

As a comparison: I have a 8 Mbps subscription. As you can see in the screenshot I linked, the DSLAM tells me it allows 8 Mbps. But during sync/training they discover that 6.5Mbps is the max attainable speed. So the link is set at 6.5Mbps.
Running at the max can cause stability issues. As you are so far below your max, there must be something else going on. Sorry, no idea what that could be.

 

[mvbighead]

Well, I've experienced some drops with this modem. I did update the firmware right away just to get that done. I will say that the last drop was at 10:24 last night, so it has been up a solid 12+ hours which could mean something (it also could not).

I am disappointed that the DSL functions offer very little information nor adjustment. I've tried changing between ADSL, ADSL+, ADSL +M and such, but at the times I was testing, it was still dropping. Not sure if the lack of a drop in the last several hours means that it has learned something and is sticking to a particular setting, but I'll just wait it out and see.

 

[lif_andi]

I have replaced a no-name ADSL router with line problems, with a Cisco box that then had no problems. Might well be the box.

 

[mvbighead]

I have replaced a no-name ADSL router with line problems, with a Cisco box that then had no problems. Might well be the box.

When you say Cisco box... do you mean Cisco Cisco or Linksys Cisco? The box I have right now is Linksys Cisco, which ought to be a step up from TrendNet/whatever the other one is. If I have similar issues with this Linksys device... I may be inclined to give a real Cisco device a whirl. But I know there is a lot more to those bad boys.

 

[lif_andi]

Not saying that this will fix your issues, just saying that it might. It was a Cisco 887 box if I recall correctly. Linksys are pretty much same as other consumer devices. Cisco boxes are mostly enterprise, even the "cheaper" ones. Can make a difference.

 

[Emulex]

Why don't you use a modem the telco recommends that way they can keep up to date with the firmware and dsl profile to match your line conditions.

Here our cat3 is so old, I get a solid 25/3 except when there is moisture, heavy rain gets in the wires and makes it unusable at any profile! Heavy FEC corrections after the rain for about a day to clean it up. It is quite usable except in torrential rainpour due to the uverse modem having a 2nd core for handling FEC errors on the fly!

 

[mvbighead]

Why don't you use a modem the telco recommends that way they can keep up to date with the firmware and dsl profile to match your line conditions.

Here our cat3 is so old, I get a solid 25/3 except when there is moisture, heavy rain gets in the wires and makes it unusable at any profile! Heavy FEC corrections after the rain for about a day to clean it up. It is quite usable except in torrential rainpour due to the uverse modem having a 2nd core for handling FEC errors on the fly!

I've really only considered doing that if they refuse to look at further issues. But, they are charging $75 for a DSL modem that is basically the same type I have been buying for $25 or so. I had problems before, but that was before they ran the line direct.

I will say, the linksys has been very reliable so far. Only one drops that was more than a day ago. Only trouble is I was getting the area cleaned up and inadvertently flipped the switch on the power strip so now my uptime starts over.