Downstream Connection Speed

[scooby_snax]

I have a problem I wonder i someone can help me with please.
For the last month I have had a downstream spped of 128Kbs occassionally it goes up to 1.4Mbs for a few days then drops away. BT tell me it is a line fault.Today they came out and ran their test which showed they got a downstream speed of about 3.8Mbs. Conclusion it is not a line fault but probably a modem fault.
So I go and purchase a Netgear DG834G as recommended in here.
When I do a speed test i am still getting a 128Kbs downstream speed either by Ethernet or USB connection but is shows in the Netgear Settings page
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 3456 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 448 kbps

I am totally confused
Can anybody help me .......pleeeeeeeeeeeeease

[bogie]

their service is rate adaptive...it takes about 10 days for the modem and their end (DSLAM at the exchange) to sort themselves out - see FAQ here: www.farina1.com/bookmark/000004/2005/02/27/00020260.HTM

I know for a fact that all Netgear ADSL modems have passed BTMax testing so its doubtful theres anything wrong there...and as the modem is reporting a line synch speed of >3Mbps then thats what it and the DSLAM think they are connecting at...if you still cant get any more than 128Kbps down of real throughput then theres something else wrong at the BT end

[scooby_snax]

Thanks Bogie...have just been reading postings on the ADSL guide and looks like I am not alone.
I have had 2 no show engineer appointments, then they turn up this morning without one...whats worse than an engineer not turning up..one that gives you cr*p analysis

[GreenV8S]

Make sure you try three or four different speed tests in case the one you're using is skewed. Also can you confirm all those figures are bits? If any of them were actually showing Bytes that would make a huge difference.

[scooby_snax]

Download Speed: 127 kbps (15.9 KB/sec transfer rate)...cut and pasted
I have tried 3 different testers
I have also tried connecting via ethernet and USB
and also wireless to my laptop...same results everytime

[GreenV8S]

scooby_snax said:

and also wireless to my laptop...same results everytime

Does that mean you're getting identical results on two different PCs now? Tht's quite important, it means you can probably rule out TCP/IP configuration faults and other sillies at the PC.

You mentioned that you've got the nominal connection speed from the modem - can it tell you anything else, such as error rates?

[scooby_snax]

GreenV8S said:

scooby_snax said:

and also wireless to my laptop...same results everytime

Does that mean you're getting identical results on two different PCs now? Tht's quite important, it means you can probably rule out TCP/IP configuration faults and other sillies at the PC.

You mentioned that you've got the nominal connection speed from the modem - can it tell you anything else, such as error rates?

Thanks for your input here;
Yes
Prior to changing the router I was also getting similar download speeds on both my desktop and laptop. Normally the desktop is ethernet connected to the router and the laptop is a wireless connection.
So have changed the router from Linksys to Netgear and the same appears

I have done a Ping test
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.0/1.2/5.0 ms

Where would I find information about error rates?
Thanks for your time in trying to resolve this (the BT engineer has been back on the phone and is now baffled but is going to the exchange to 'check something'

[scooby_snax]

Perhap i should have added in all this time the upload speed has remained roughly constant at about 370kbs

[GreenV8S]

I think your ping test must have been to a local machine - pinging a machine over a wide area network you'd expect to see response times of the order of 100 ms.

I suggest you try pinging a well known web site, and use more than 4 pings. For example:

ping -n 20 www.google.com

to get an average over 20 pings.

Also just leave the ping running:

ping -t www.google.com

while you run the load test and see what the impact is. You should find the response times get worse, a factor of two or three slower wouldn't be unusual, but you shouldn't see any errors.

Edited by GreenV8S on Saturday 2nd December 20:07

[scooby_snax]

I ran the ping test from the diagnostics section of Netgear setup page
How do you do the pings you suggest.
Will this tell us anything relating to the speed?

[GreenV8S]

scooby_snax said:

How do you do the pings you suggest.

Open a command prompt window and type in the commands I gave you.

[scooby_snax]

Results of the ping test
The 20 packet one produced an average of 37ms
The unlimited one produced results between 36-38 and not getting worse as the time progressed, between successive pings there was never more than 1ms variance

[GreenV8S]

What happens to the ping result when you run the load test?

[scooby_snax]

Sorry not up to speed with the terminology...I thought the load test was when you left it running....as mentioned that part doesnt get any worse.
I if need to do something different for the load test can you please advise
many thanks