Neighbour gets 2x bandwidth

[#1]

Hi Jojo - that would be great.  I've actually now plugged in the Netgear router to the test socket.  Getting a faster sync speed now of 2464kbps, but strangely a worse attenuation of 58dB. Worth trying to recalibrate now though you think?  How long would it take - can't live for long without the phone line!

[#2]

Hi swinfen,
Just to let you know I'm here and doing a few checks at the moment.
Jojo

[#3]

Hi swinfen,
ok, sync rate is looking good. The thing is, if I reset the SNR and you reintroduce the extensions, and they are what's causing the interference then the noise ratio will probably just go up again. Do you definitely suspect it to be the extensions? Because I can't keep resetting the SNR as a troubleshooting method. If you're not sure if they are the cause then I'm happy to give it a go. It normally takes about 30 mins to take effect once I've placed the request.
Awaiting your reply...
Jojo

[#4]

Hi Jo.  That's fine - I can leave them off tonight.  Please go ahead.

[#5]

Hi swinfen,
That's done for you now, should be reset shortly
Jojo

[#6]

Ok, that's down to 6 now and the sync rate is up, we just need to wait for the profile to lift

[#7]

Quote from: swinfen

Thanks for the feedback.  I don't believe I've been upgraded to ADSL2, but as you say the DrayTek is supposed to be compatible so if/when it happens, it should presumably take advantage - unless it's true it isn't great at ADSL2!  The exchange appears to be upgraded to 21CN at least.  I did actually buy a Sky DG934G router the other day, but screwed up the firmware upgrade - the software crashed and bricked it!  So might just go buy a 834 and try that.

Quick comment on that.  Bricking means the device is "dead" and cannot be fixed without a hammer and some sticky back plastic, maybe a bit of Voodoo too.  Netgear have a recovery utility that will flash a router back to default firmware even if the firmware is corrupted.  AFAIK it only works on Windows XP but there should be ways of recovering your router (I totally blew the firmware on my DG834 and the recovery utility fixed it).  It's just a matter of downloading the software and running it, selecting the network card your Netgear is connected to, the software then somehow connects to the router (even with corrupt firmware) deletes the old firmware and sticks on the repaired firmware.  As long as a light comes on the router, it's fixable!

[#8]

Hi David W,
Looks like a useful tip there, thanks.
Jojo

[#9]

HI swinfen,
Hmm, thought we'd cracked it last night, managed to get the profile up to 2500 but it's gone down to 2000 now and the noise ratio is back up to 10
Looks like it could be those pesky extensions!
Jojo

[#10]

Hi Jo,
Yeah - well, I ran a few bandwidth tests last night as well.  The BT one (which I understand bypasses you - the ISP) was hitting about 1700kbps.  But the over-ISP ones were still only getting ~1Mbps.  I haven't changed the configuration at all.  The extensions are still unplugged.  Still don't understand why my neighbour's router is reporting such a high margin yet still syncing at ~3.5Mbps.  Clearly a huge distinction between his line and mine.
Is there any way that I could persuade BT to switch to another copper pair?  Do I have grounds to request that?!

[#11]

Hi swinfen,
In the event of no service or severely restricted service and after much investigation they may change the pair, but for a slow speed issue they probably would not. Are the extensions still disconnected or did you plug them back in?
Jojo

[#12]

Hi Jo,
Sorry for the slow response - day of meetings...  Yes still disconnected.

[#13]

HI swinfen,
That's stumped me then, so it must be something else causing the noise ratio to have increased. It's a shame you closed that fault as apart from raising it again I've used all my cards
Jojo

[#14]

Quote

AFAIK it only works on Windows XP but there should be ways of recovering your router (I totally blew the firmware on my DG834 and the recovery utility fixed it)

i couldn't get my dg834g v4 to recover like that when i tried a year or 2 ago, but on there site they do say it only works with v2's and below or v3
@OP
have you tried running routerstats or dmt tool with your router to plot the bit tones and see if there is any major gap in the tones used, if there is such a gap try turning off as much of the elcy gear you have in the house like fridges ect and the try a resync and if the gap disappears then try switching on a batch of 3-5 elcy items back on and then resync if the gap reappears then you have likely found the faulty goods emitting interference
just be careful not to resync to many times

[#15]

I have been doing extensive alterations to maximise sync,as well as reducing intererence.
My line attenuation is 62.5db,so things could go pear shaped quite easily !
First thing i did was replace the faceplate for a xt-2005 version,and use a short 50cm rj11 lead to the router.
This above gave me better snr on 1mb than before on 0.5mb !
But i still noticed the snr fluctuating by 7db,router stats over 5 days showed no fixed pattern,so i looked further.
I soon came to the conclusion that my dg834gv3 was the problem (ar7 chipset),it was not optimsizing with the dslam properly.
I then changed it for a dg834gt (broadcom chipset),this was far more stable,always stayed within a 2db margin !
Now i decided to change to the dreaded adslmax,and the first day we had thunder and lightning here,sent it haywire!
I switched off the router for several houres,then fired it back up,it all ran ok after that
Then i plugged the dect phone in to the face plate,this sent the sync down,as this is a fully filtered face plate,this should not happen.
Anyway i put the dect base in the loft on an extension from the face plate filtered out connections,when i powered the dect base unit in the loft,my stats took a dive,especially on the upstream !
I tracked down the problem,it was the switched mode plug type power supply for the dect phone!
The biggest joke is that the dect phone system inc power supply is a BT model,Bt elements to be precise.
I replaced this psu foir a linear one (transformer type),this cured the problem.
This power supply was obviously creating rf trash in to it's own lead as well as the mains.
Like a previous poster said,dmt tool is a very good tool for seeing interference on individual tones,but i wonder if you are getting intermittent interference causing loss of sync rather than constant interference which would cause constant reduced sync speed ?
Have you run routerstats for several days to see if you get a pattern when things go down hill?
What also is important is how tones are allocated,If i switch the router on during the day,my higher tones around 520-540khz are used,but when the evening hits these slowly fall away due to increased noise on these tones,and then they are not used.
With the router left on the next day these higher tones are not re used,it takes a re sync for these to be used again before they again follow the same pattern.
Also what i found interesting is i have just bought a used dg834pn router to try the increased wifi range (compared to my gt version).
What was a surprise is that this router shows very low snr on tones 82/83/84 with corresponding low bit use,as the other router shows no such problem,this must be a problem of inteference within the router itself !
All interesting stuff,
Paul.