Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Chopsdad]

What's wrong with my PC?

Previously signed up with AOL but it wouldn't connect properly and they wanted me to pay BT to check the land line as they suspected a fault.  So I packed in first attempt at broadband & stayed on dial up for 6m. Anyway, I got fed up and recently upgraded to Virgin Broadband.

No problems loading drivers, little boxes plugged in all the right places and off we go.  Until about 4pm till 8pm daily, then it flags up ' cannot connect to server, checked modem etc'.  That's why I sign in so late usually, as I reckon it's all the little kiddies coming home from school and jumping on the internet instead of kicking a football around in the fresh air.

Would my theory hold any water if the land lines are unable to cope with all this extra internet traffic? And more importantly can I do anything about it?  :-?

[Taxi_Driver]

Yes, complain to Virgin.....in the first place
Your adsl connects to Virgin......so its them that could have a problem.
Yes it could be extra 'traffic' at this time that is causing you a prob.

As you had probs with AOL as well.....it could well be a BT prob.....so see what Virgin come up with.

Generally the further away you are from your local BT exchange the slower the ADSL connection will be

[Chopsdad]

Yes, complain to Virgin.....in the first place
Your adsl connects to Virgin......so its them that could have a problem.
Yes it could be extra 'traffic' at this time that is causing you a prob.

As you had probs with AOL as well.....it could well be a BT prob.....so see what Virgin come up with.

Generally the further away you are from your local BT exchange the slower the ADSL connection will be

Thanks TD I live on a recently built estate on the outskirts of town that's ever expanding - that's why I suspect busy BT line.  It's ok right now cos all the teenagers are still in bed  

[Taxi_Driver]

Yes, complain to Virgin.....in the first place
Your adsl connects to Virgin......so its them that could have a problem.
Yes it could be extra 'traffic' at this time that is causing you a prob.

As you had probs with AOL as well.....it could well be a BT prob.....so see what Virgin come up with.

Generally the further away you are from your local BT exchange the slower the ADSL connection will be

Thanks TD I live on a recently built estate on the outskirts of town that's ever expanding - that's why I suspect busy BT line.  It's ok right now cos all the teenagers are still in bed  

If Virgin blame the BT line as well, then report it as a fault to BT....as BT have enabled ADSL on you phone line, they should be guaranteeing a minimun speed of 1M at all times  

[TheBoy]

Do not report ADSL fault to BT, they won't accept it. You have to report to ISP, and if necessary ISP will report to Openreach.  ISP may want to know if it starts going wrong when the streetlights come on.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Yes, complain to Virgin.....in the first place
Your adsl connects to Virgin......so its them that could have a problem.
Yes it could be extra 'traffic' at this time that is causing you a prob.

As you had probs with AOL as well.....it could well be a BT prob.....so see what Virgin come up with.

Generally the further away you are from your local BT exchange the slower the ADSL connection will be

Thanks TD I live on a recently built estate on the outskirts of town that's ever expanding - that's why I suspect busy BT line.  It's ok right now cos all the teenagers are still in bed  

Well it wont be a busy BT line......

Given its a new estate then it should be good quality cable etc.....

What you have to remember with ADSL is that the line quality can vary but, this is minimal with underground cabling (worse on overhead as the tamp varies quite a bit and they are more prone to noise pickup).

The phone line will be terminated in probably a juction box(es) and then an access mux at which point the voice and data will be split. The data will be sent to a BRAS (this does the broadband billing and login etc before forwarding to an edge router), this will most likely belong to Virgin/NTL (who bought Virgin 6 months ago).

What most people overlook is that slow operation is most often an overloaded server or router with a large number of connections......and very rarely the line. What makes it worse is that Ethernet is priority and que based and I wouldn't be surprised if those on a base package are given a lower priority than those on higher packages. When networks get busy, packets (data) gets ditched in priority order......

If you can, login into your modem and take a note of the line attenuation readings when its working and failed....this will give you a clue if its the line/termination kit or BRAS....

As a guide, here is a snap shot of my line status (note, mine are pretty good as my install is designed to optimise it)

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	1152 kbps	288 kbps
Line Attenuation	49 db	15.5 db
Noise Margin	16 db	26 db

[TheBoy]

Given its a new estate then it should be good quality cable etc.....

You're assuming a new E side was laid. Not always the case....  ....in fact frequently not the case now.

[TheBoy]

ADSL Link	Downstream	Upstream
Connection Speed	1152 kbps	288 kbps
Line Attenuation	49 db	15.5 db
Noise Margin	16 db	26 db

And for comparison, here are my 2 lines (I am about 3.5km (cable length) from exchange):

2Mb fixed line
System up:   139 days 7 hours 53 minutes
Line up:     138 days 15 hours 39 minutes
Attenuation:
        Local:  35.5 dB
        Remote: 17 dB
Noise Margin:
        Upstream:       24 dB
        Downstream:     29.5 dB
Xmit Power Level:       11.93 dBm

MaxDSL line (currently sync'd at 6.1Mbps
System up:   6 days 5 hours 13 minutes
Line up:     0 days 1 hours 29 minutes
Attenuation:
        Local:  35.5 dB
        Remote: 18 dB
Noise Margin:
        Upstream:       17 dB
        Downstream:     7.5 dB
Xmit Power Level:       11.93 dBm

[Taxi_Driver]

Do not report ADSL fault to BT, they won't accept it. You have to report to ISP, and if necessary ISP will report to Openreach.  ISP may want to know if it starts going wrong when the streetlights come on.

My neighbour had probs with his adsl.....he reported it to BT.....but i think he told them was getting crossed lines on his phone (tho he wasnt!) Dunno what BT did, he said they never came to his house, but within days it was fixed! I assume he did have a line fault and BT fixing that cured his ADSL problem.

Worth also noting if you want faster than 1M download......its worth getting BT to check that this is possible on your phone line first. I upped my speed with my ISP to 2M......when it was still at 1M two weeks later i complained about it to my ISP.....they said they had changed my account to 2M and i should be getting 2M download......after going round in circles for about a week.....it turns out i live too far away from my local exchange for 2M to work   And thats only about 2 miles as the crow flies!
Going on that if i wanted 8M.....i would have to move next door to the exchange!!  

[TheBoy]

Going on that if i wanted 8M.....i would have to move next door to the exchange!!  

I am 3.5km (cable length), about 3km via road, and sync at between 6.1Mbps and 6.8Mbps

[Taxi_Driver]

Going on that if i wanted 8M.....i would have to move next door to the exchange!!  

I am 3.5km (cable length), about 3km via road, and sync at between 6.1Mbps and 6.8Mbps

Guess it depends how new the cable is..... :-/ You live on a fairly new estate Jaime....my house is over 100 years old and probaby the cable is as well  

[Chopsdad]

Ok. I know as much about computers as I do the internal witchcraft of an engine.  Which buttons do I press to obtain the ASDL speed data & why do the streetlights matter?  :-?

[nixoro]

Yes, complain to Virgin.....in the first place
Your adsl connects to Virgin......so its them that could have a problem.
Yes it could be extra 'traffic' at this time that is causing you a prob.

As you had probs with AOL as well.....it could well be a BT prob.....so see what Virgin come up with.

Generally the further away you are from your local BT exchange the slower the ADSL connection will be

Thanks TD I live on a recently built estate on the outskirts of town that's ever expanding - that's why I suspect busy BT line.  It's ok right now cos all the teenagers are still in bed  

If Virgin blame the BT line as well, then report it as a fault to BT....as BT have enabled ADSL on you phone line, they should be guaranteeing a minimun speed of 1M at all times  

The usual from BT gauranteed is usually 512k only where I live the maximium is 512k and I live about 4miles from the nearest exchange.

[Omega-MV6]

AHEM.
With cable, in Milton keynes, everyone thought ADSL would work a treat until it was realised the BT put Aluminium cables in instead of Cooper on most of the new estates.

The thing with line noise is that it happens all the time, and the line is always crap, it's doesn't tend to come and go, it's either there or not, and doesn't fluckuate very much....unless the conduit gets flooded or something..

With Intermitant Problems, you will find it can depend on what's actually going on at BT, and whats going on at the ISP, often not a great deal, but here is a good way to test.
With ADSL (Broadband) you have two servers that Authenicate you.
You have a BT one, and an ISP one.
Your username will look something like; blahblah@isp.com
Ok, the simplified Proccess in order then.
Your Modem/Router from your ISP will talk with the BT Authentication Server first (RADIUS normally) and that server will look at your "@isp.com" bit of your username. This then tells the big AS Series ATM Routers at BT to route you traffic to your ISP (Virgin.net)
Then Virgins job is to Identify the "blahblah" bit of your username (Using RADIUS Again).
Only when that is done will you get you IP Address for the Internet, and be allowed to surf.

How does this help you?

Well you can often find out where the problem lies by doing a bit of testing.
Change your Username to BT_User@Startup_Domain.
Password Blank or Password. (Sorry it's a long time since I worked on the Broandband Helpdesk)
You will NOT be able to browse the internet witjh this, but you WILL be able to log in.
If you cannot log in, the problem is with your Line, either at the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) not unheard of to have ports just die to be honest (especially in Fujitsu DSLAMS), or the line card at the Exchange, again not that uncommon....
If you can login, this proves that the Line is fine, and the Connection to the BT side of the Network is fine.
Disconnect and change your usename to BT_User@<isp.com>
Password Blank or Password - Virgin may have changed the password, so it might be worth asking them what it is.
If this fails your Problem is with Virgin Internet RADIUS Server, probably over subscribed (by 45% normally, hence those lame arse download limits and DPD kill signals)
I suspect the first one will fail, if you try it while you are having problems.
From what you have said, it seems as though the DSLAM is not handling the load very well, and it may need replacing with a real one....From Cisco... not Fujitsu..!!!

Cheers.

Matt

[supermop]

What's wrong with my PC?

Previously signed up with AOL but it wouldn't connect properly and they wanted me to pay BT to check the land line as they suspected a fault.  So I packed in first attempt at broadband & stayed on dial up for 6m. Anyway, I got fed up and recently upgraded to Virgin Broadband.

No problems loading drivers, little boxes plugged in all the right places and off we go.  Until about 4pm till 8pm daily, then it flags up ' cannot connect to server, checked modem etc'.  That's why I sign in so late usually, as I reckon it's all the little kiddies coming home from school and jumping on the internet instead of kicking a football around in the fresh air.

Would my theory hold any water if the land lines are unable to cope with all this extra internet traffic? And more importantly can I do anything about it?  :-?

Virgin and ADSL in general is a steaming pile of shite. I'm with virgin and my connection speed is ridiculous. I've had faster dial-up!! I'm supposed to be on 8meg and i've never seen my speeds reach anywhere near that. Thing is with ADSL and Virgin is they try to pack as many customers as possible on small crappy, insufficient and old exchanges. This lowers the contention ratio to an unacceptable level meaning your speeds and connection latency suffers massively. Unfortunately, there's bugger all you can do about it, except switch to a decent broadband service like cable  (NTL rock on this one). You can join forces with me and boycot virgin or harass their support team, but I doubt that would accomplish much.