Can someone explain signal noise to me?

[#1]

... in words of one syllable?
I am trying to get to the route of a connection problem (lots of disconnects/resyncs over the weekend that lead to a reprofiling of the line by BT), but that's not (really) important right now ... (BT engy coming in during the next 2 weeks)
What I have done is make sure that all comms come through my master socket, so I just have one phone currently and the router connects there. I have installed Routerstats and I need some guidance about the results.
Sync speeds are good and constant (well, it's not the weekend), but Transmit and Receive noise margins are all over the place. One minute the Receive rate is around the 15db mark, next minute it peaks at 30db and then falls to 0db.
Upstream noise is between 5 and 10db with the occasional peak to 30db.
For the record, my profile has reset to 5000kbps today (after the weekend slowdown) and I'm syncing at 5856/448.
I'm not looking for a definitive answer, but am just interested to find out about noise and what would make it jump around like that ...
Thanks!

[#2]

Hi there,
Can I ask if it is possible for you to borrow a friends router and see if you still notice these fluctuations?  It could be a dodgy router or a line issue.  Fluctuations in noise could be caused by either of those, or alternatively by dodgy wiring, filtering, etc.
Apologies for multisyllablisation. And sesquipedalianism.
*hides*

[#3]

Quote from: echoecho

... in words of one syllable?

Signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is.
Taken from - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratio
As db is a logarithmic unit of measurement a SNR of 3db would be the signal is double the strength of the background noise
(its been a long time since I studied this stuff so I hope I have got it right)

[#4]

http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/12

[#5]

Thanks both ...
Not sure, but I think it might have been user error in me not setting up Routerstats ...
(Runs away and hides in shame)  

[#6]

... and thanks Peter. I just about followed that; I really should have paid more attention during those physics classes all those years ago!

[#7]

Quote from: James

Apologies for multisyllablisation. And sesquipedlianism.

a?

[#8]

Thanks God

[#9]

Peace be with you James...
sesquiped(a)lianism...
Is there a spell check option in the forum software?
Blimey.... pre-emptive editing..two can play at that! And is there any checker.... I haven't found it so far?

[#10]

Yeah, I got your point and had changed it before you had posted.

[#11]

Me neither... I tried to register as Tod.