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Consistent 3 year problem connection.

chaoticmess
Grafter
Posts: 69
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎12-12-2007

Consistent 3 year problem connection.

I’m not sure if I should have put this in the speed section or not but here goes anyways.
Ever since I moved to this new house in 2005 I’ve had problems with my internet connection. It is less to do with speed and more to do with connection I feel. The connection of the router does not drop but the data sent from it to the internet and back seems to ‘halt’ quite often.
The problem became worse I think it was about a year and a bit ago now when we noticed that we could hear our neighbours talking on the telephone and a BT repair guy got sent out to fix the fault. When that was done things went back to normal as such it is, but I still wonder if that fault was perhaps something of a larger problem.
To get to the heart of the problem is this. I’ll be viewing a website, click a link and it will go load as fast as it possibly can do, then I click another link and it just sort of hangs, sometimes it just takes a few mins for the site to initiate a connection then it will load in the seconds as it should and other times I get a ‘this page can not be found’ message and on some occasions I get nothing at all the page just does not load and nothing happens and iexplore keeps moving its little E icon in the top right stating its still trying to load when it is not or a blank screen eventually appears, I know the link works and is there as if I try again it works fine and loads instantly like it should do, its not like its always a site with flash or some other sort of multimedia loading on it, can happen just trying to go to google.co.uk, nor is it a set site or any other discernable pattern.
I’m a bit of a night owl and am wake most nights and morning, so I would like to think that I’m avoiding a ‘peak time’ congestion problem. I’m less convinced it’s a speed problem as I can achieve very high speeds of about 750-800KB/s and the upload is rock solid 24/7. However on frequent occasions I will download a file of significant size say 500MB and the speed will start off maxing the connection then completely stop and go to 0KB/s 3 seconds later it will resume at 100KB/s then steadily climb back up to the max then it can repeat numerous times throughout the download. Other times it does the whole thing at max with no problems and on infrequent but more then I feel should occur occasions, it will start downloading at the max then just stop all together and the download will just hang or it will eventually say the server was reset which I don’t believe.
I’ve had a broadband connection since 1997 (through various providers) and I’ve had these problems before but they were the exception that made it a problem as a one off and never again, I get that the internet is not perfect and many things affect it every second of everyday but the current results I’m getting for a very long time now are consistent and I’m convinced part of a larger problem in of themselves.
I’ve tried to run a BT speed test at: http://speedtester.bt.com/ during peak, midday and early morning, but it consistently fails.
I have restarted my router many times throughout the last 3 years and updated its firmware and its made little difference.
I just received another 3 min wait of trying to download something and it hanging on me and I had nothing else to do at 5am so thought I would make this post and see if there is anything I’m missing to do or try.
This is what the router stats attached to the plus net connection looks like:
jim:green link removed see post further down - replaced by picture mod:end
My other concern is, is this a normal type of behaviour?
As I said I’ve had broadband connections since 1997  and in a comparative time of 10 years + I’ve not had this type of constant problem before these last few years, is this how adslmax connections are and am I just to used to how things were before hand or is there something actually not quite right?
Any comments welcome.
15 REPLIES 15
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

dont worry your not going insane. defo sounds like you.ve got a fault/problem some where.
is it since you upgraded to max? if so maybe a tweak of your mtu and rwin settings are in order.
i will let some one else advise on how to get the right settings as iam on vista and it auto sets your rwin to the best value. all i did was make sure my pc and router was using the same mtu.
if your on xp there is a program to help you get the right rwin value i think its drtcp or somthing like that dont know as i havent had much to do with xp i use to have apple mac's b4 vista.
im sure a bright spark or pn staff will be along soon to help.
i can rember around 10-15 years ago i use to be having a call with some one and all a sudden a random person would start speaking. just randomly connected a third line on to my call. it was allways someone with in my area same first two digits not area code. BT for you i guess.
edit: have you tried another router may be lend one of a friend if you cant plusnet will send you one to test with.
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

I'd suggest making sure your MTU and rWin are optimised and also making sure your modem/router is plugged into the master socket of your premises.
See if that improves the connection and whether you can sustain longer downloads after that.
With regards to the pages not loading occassionally, have you specified DNS servers manually in your connection settings? If so try allowing them to be collected automatically and see if that makes a difference.
Can you still hear any noise/crosstalk on the line after it was fixed?
Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

Can I ask the OP to note that using imageshack.us for posting images is no longer a good idea as it has started to produce popups and dodgy banner ads if the correct blockers aren't in place.
These popups have been known to include scamware and sexual related links - the present one is a gambling site.
It is preferable to use the additional options tag as shown below and attach the picture directly
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

Jim cant you remove that link, I was not amused at the Popup, or PM then to do what you as a Mod said
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

As you requested - have done.
Why don't you get a decent browser - Firefox 3 with popup windows blocked stopped it  Grin
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

I have, but not being able to see the image, I clicked on it
chaoticmess
Grafter
Posts: 69
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎12-12-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

Firstly thanks for the replies, its nice to know it’s not just me. Secondly my apologies about the image, I’ve always used imageshack to post pics to forums never really considered about the popups as most sites these days have popups and in the past my experience with forums allowing images to be attached has not gone well. Seems it’s already been taken care of though so thanks to jim the mod for that as well.
I have in the past tried fiddling with a number of settings in XP and the router with little affect but then I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing in that regard. I should point out that its not just 1 PC I have issues with, I have 5 PC’s and a laptop all with the same problem and I have over the years gone through a, Linksys WAG54GS, Vigor 2800G and its currently on a Netgear DG834N.
I’ve used the Drtcp before but admittedly was never exactly sure what ‘optimum’ meant and that link was helpful to a point till the maths came along then it all fell apart and I went to make a coffee instead. This is hopefully a link of that DSL report page: http://www.dslreports.com/tweakr/block:56d6fc6?service=dsl&speed=8000&os=winXP&via=pppoA
Does that look right and this recommendation seems a bit of a wide guess ‘Choose RWIN between 75504 and 200376’ that’s a lot of room to choose from, what should I enter?
I can’t remember if I have done the master socket thing before or not, where is it? I have 3 telephone lines coming into the house, the white box on the wall is the only access point for that telephone line there is no extension or splitter going into another room or anything like that, there 3 separate telephone lines with a separate number each. I’ve tried removing the cover that houses the socket to plug into and behind that I found another socket that the first one just plugged into, I tried using that socket for a while but nothing improved.
I do use manually specified DNS, but always the ones the router gains automatically when it connects, have also tried it in the past for a few months with them automatically set and it made no difference.
After the line was fixed the voices stopped, my psychiatrist was pleased but the internet did not improve at all.
artificer
Grafter
Posts: 1,850
Registered: ‎11-08-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

would you be willing to download, install and try firefox?  it's open source, fast and has masses of plugins, including adblock, noscript, chromatabs and thousands more that you'll probably never use.  if that behaves as badly as iexploder, that will help to confirm that it's some kind of fault that needs fixing.
chaoticmess
Grafter
Posts: 69
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎12-12-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

I tied using Firefox and Opera and I also once tried setting up a Linux Red hat 7.2 system just because i was curious about what it was like compared to windows so I also tried its web browser for a time too. Though I forget what it was called now. They all have the same problem when accessing the web no matter the browser. I found Firefox to be the worst or perhaps the most sensitive to the issues I have, particularly with file downloads hanging.
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

The tweak test you ran at DSLreports looks pretty good. I suggest you use DrTCP to set RWIN=128480 and increase MTU to 1500, values I find satisfactory (my results). Also check that MTU on your router is 1500.
I haven't seen the value of GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize queried before in a test result. The value on my system is 513920 (in 3 places), which is 4 times 128480, though that isn't something I set. Perhaps DrTCP does it automatically.
David
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

3 telephone lines. hum bt have trouble giveing people a good exprince on 1 line never mind 3 at once. i would raise a fault with PN and they will do a line test and see if that comes up with anything. dont be scared by BT flexing there muscles saying theres a 125ish pounds charge if the fault lies past the master socket as i belive you have tested at the test socket and tried diffrent routers ect and have no extension wires. so if there uis a fault i would think it lies bt side.
Have you had pn do a line test before?
chaoticmess
Grafter
Posts: 69
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎12-12-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

Nope, I do not believe I have.
That seems like a flawed payment plan, if they find nothing wrong they charge me £125? Gosh i wonder how many faults they find? :S
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

i think the main reason bt say they will charge you that amount if they find the fault is on your side of the line is so the the customer does every thing they can do to find the fault them selfs.
otherwise people with a true fault on bt's side of the line would be waiting for bt enginer for years due to them being busy with people running extension cables all round the house past as many things as they could that would cause interference and the likes.
if you have tried everything you can to solve the problem i would start a fault ticket with PN and see if they come up with anything you will need to do 3 speed tests at  http://www.speedtester.bt.com    all thoe your problem isnt a speed issue more an interment connection issue the test will not be that important but you still have to do them. i think its a 3 hour gap before you can run another test after running a succesful one.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Consistent 3 year problem connection.

Hi Chaoticmess,
Have you tried setting your rWin settings as per spraxyt's advice?  It might be worth a go as a starting point before trying other measures, such as internal wiring and hardware.