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Noise Margin

shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Noise Margin

I've been trying to figure out why I seem to get intermittent problems most evenings, and I've been told by a "man in the pub" that I should make sure my noise margin is within acceptable levels.  It's all Greek to me.  From the stats below is the Noise Margin decent?
System Up Time 51:30:16
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 950165 886576 0 1638 11111 20:15:19
LAN 10M/100M 402989 280961 0 2008 316 51:30:12
WLAN 11M/54M/108M 4403161 3986960 0 2901 2599 51:30:08
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7616 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 12.0 db 7.0 db
Noise Margin 10.4 db 23.0 db
all help and advice gratefully received Smiley
83 REPLIES 83
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Noise Margin

Yes it is - what problems are you getting
Reading your other posts it seems to be with Xbox
Are you actually seeing any connection drops
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin

Hi Oldjim,
thanks for the quick reply.  My problems have improved tremendously in the last few days, though whether that's down to me replacing the Technicolor router with my old Netgear DG834PN, or Plusnet putting interleaving on my line, it's hard to say. I'm inclined to say the former as things started to improve almost as soon as I changed routers, but that could be just wishful thinking.
However, I still seem to get some annoying lag on Xbox Live, particularly in the evenings.  Again, it's nowhere near the levels it was a few days ago but it's still enough to be noticeable (i.e. I'm a killing machine on Black Ops 2 during the day but largely cannon fodder in the evenings ;D).  I also suffer with Skype video calls, although I will need to test that with another party just to be sure that it's not the person I'm calling who is contributing most to the video issues.  I just wondered whether there are any tweaks i could do to improve things and Noise Margin was suggested to me as something to check
edit: didn't answer your questions properly. I get kicked off Xbox Live a few times but judging by the router stats it's still kept the connection overall, so not sure what that could be down to.  I will say that I have open nat during the day but this seems to switch to moderate in the evenings.  Have no idea why.
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin

update.  Just getting upload speed of 0.04 according to BT speedtester site, which can't be good >:(.  Also getting ping of 152.5, which would explain why my gaming is so pants.
ho hum...
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin

getting some very odd readings now:
Download speed: 4.92
Upload speed: 0.09
Ping 0.00
edit: and a few minutes later:
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin

anyone from support reading this?  Any reason why I'm showing such poor stats in the evenings?
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Noise Margin

Assuming that your router still has the same sync there are a few possibilities I can think of
The first is that someone is piggybacking onto your router in the evenings - unlikely as you have tried two routers
Someone on your connection has P2P running
The errors on your connection are so bad it is killing your speed
I would suggest trying Routerstats http://vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm with your Netgear then this page would be very informative - see picture
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
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Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin

will give it a try, thanks
AndyH
Grafter
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Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Noise Margin

Quote from: shure

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7616 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 12.0 db 7.0 db
Noise Margin 10.4 db 23.0 db

You have a fault somewhere if you are only getting that connection speed with a 12dB line. I used to get that with 48dB!
Edit: Unless you are on 20CN still...
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Noise Margin

This is what happens to my line when the noise margin drops too low (2.5dB in this case - note the earlier result was with a noise margin of 3.5dB)
AndyH
Grafter
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Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Noise Margin

@ shure
How does your sync speed compare with the BT estimate?
Are you running everything wired or wireless?
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin

Hi Andy,
my sync speed hovers around the 6.5Mbps mark, while the BT estimate was 7.15 I believe, so not too different.
My speed seems OK by and large; it's the quality which concerns me.  As posted elsewhere I seem to have issues with Skype  where I can't hold video successfully, and I suffer some lag on games (although admittedly not as bad as it was last week, and this seems to occur most in the evening for some reason).
The PC which runs the test (and Skype!) is wired direct to the router, while everything else, including Xbox, is wireless.  I'm connected directly to the BT Master socket.
Oh, and in answer to your earlier post I should be on ADSL2+, since according to the Plusnet user tool my exchange supports it.  How can I tell whether I have it?
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin

routertstats image attached:
Anotherone
Champion
Posts: 19,107
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Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Noise Margin

Can you post a screen grab of the information output from http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/
Make sure you don't post anything with your phone number on it.
shure
Grafter
Posts: 509
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Noise Margin