EsatBT - 3MB line - LAG LAG LAG

KoKane

I'm an avid gamer, so I've had my patience tested manys a time.
Lately however, I've been getting a little annoyed with my best friend (geek joke lol), my broadband.

I've never really had problems before and speeds have always been absolutely brilliant.
Example:
Pinging 20 - 30 to game servers in England when the rest of the people on the server, who are living in Enlgand, ping higher. :P


But lately my pings seem to soar / connection seems to slow down.
Servers where I ping 30, raise to 340+ for example.

Is anyone on the EsatBT network experiencing slower connections lately??

It seems to be from 7pm onwards.

I've been thinking of a number of possible reasons why this is happening, and then ruling them out.


I have 2 laptops and two pcs connected to the internet via my router, actively. All of them connect wirelessly, this PC, my one... Is connected physically. The router is secure and only these 4 machines can use it.
I don't think this is the reason because I have had this lag when they are all switched off / not connected.

Someone else might be accessing my router -
But like I said above, it's secure. and only my machines can use it.

I guess the only thing I can do is phone them asking about it.

I doubt theres too many people filling up the contention ratio on this 3mb line. Could be wrong though but I sincerely doubt it.
The problem is too inconsistent for that.

OfflerCrocGod

I am Blanch exchange it's a bit of a pain tbh but I'm just hoping it's short term.....

KoKane

Hmm... well in the last few minutes something has happend that hasn't before..

I think I'm entering the twighlight zone =/




My router just randomly reset! A quick reset, then it establishes connection etc etc.

I check my game servers favourites list just out of curiousity...

EVERYTHING IS NORMAL.

Then, the DSL / PPP light goes out. (this seems to always happen before the problem occurs)

So the router begins re-establishing the connection... When it does, and the DSL / PPP light stays on and orange... what do you know... my pings have gone back up to 200+


I'm baffled...


The pings stayed perfect for a few minutes and I even began to connect to a server.. then I notice the connections lost, I close the game, wait for it to re-establish and the pings are **** again.




Can anyone even shed light WHY this is happening? What could it be?

OfflerCrocGod

Eircom must be doing something to the network in Dublin and it's affecting pings and browsing - all you can do is wait and hope it's over soon.

dylanpp

I have the exact same problem. I'm using the Sutton exchange. which exchange are you on? or where do u live

matt-dublin

quite possible you have a heave downloader in your contention area. could be slowing up lines.

Sizzler

The last 2 nights my BB has gone belly up, the phone line is working fine but he DSL light has shown red on the router, but yet the laptop on wireless thinks hes connected to the router but the router aint connected to the net. Anybody else in this boat

notahappycamper

Not sure if this is related but I'm on Esat BB and have a 3mb connection but on the router page it give the upload/download as 2048/256! It used to show the correct 3072/384.

Anyone else who has a Esat BB connection with 3mb who lives in the Swords area of Dublin notice this?

JNive

if the upload is set to 256, it strongly suggests that your have been downgraded to 2mbps.

If it was radsl affecting your service, it woul dbe more likely to show 2548/384 or 2548/300 , and NOT exactly the specs of the 2mbps package for both down & up lol.

Boston

JNive wrote:

if the upload is set to 256, it strongly suggests that your have been downgraded to 2mbps.

If it was radsl affecting your service, it woul dbe more likely to show 2548/384 or 2548/300 , and NOT exactly the specs of the 2mbps package for both down & up lol.

Should be the other way around The upload frequencies are lower then the downloaded frequencies, as such it's the higher (download) frequencies which are affect more by distance. That said They can shift the download frequencies on to the upload ones if they want to keep download speed constant.

Anyway, yea notahappycamper you've been downgraded.

Andore

EsatBT pings are never reliable enough normally but for the last week or so in the evening they've been horrible. I hate loading up a game and then as soon as i start getting into it my pings jump to 500.

Praetor

Hello

KoKane

There was a routing issue with BT's ballymount BAS that was sorted one week ago.

If you are experiencing similar symptons please post your tracert here to those servers so we can determine what's happening.

Notahappycamper

If your router connection speed is 2048/256 you should call Tech Support so they can check if you are indeed on 2 mb (as it seems) or if it is just something wrong with both ATUs.

ThaMasta

Just curious, but are any of you big downloaders?..have exceed the usage limits for this month?

Little-Devil

Sizzler wrote:

The last 2 nights my BB has gone belly up, the phone line is working fine but he DSL light has shown red on the router, but yet the laptop on wireless thinks hes connected to the router but the router aint connected to the net. Anybody else in this boat

I think your wireless will always show its connected to the router regardless of a connection or not between the router and BT server.

dylanpp

Yet another night with a 200 ping. Great. At least this time it isnt dropping the connection every 30 seconds.


C:\Documents and Settings\user>tracert www.boards.ie

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 182 ms 181 ms 179 ms bas503.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.239]
3 196 ms 194 ms 202 ms vlan501.rt502.cwt.esat.net [193.95.137.125]
4 189 ms 190 ms 191 ms vlan52.rt001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.130.145]
5 183 ms 182 ms 179 ms ge0-0.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.4]
6 190 ms 190 ms 204 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
7 193 ms 196 ms 192 ms 89.234.66.107

Trace complete.



ADSL Line Type GDMT
ADSL Line Coding INTERLEAVED
Line Attenuation (Down):53 (Up):31
Noise Margin (Down):8 (Up):16
Total Output Power (Down):0 (Up):0
Current Rate DownStr: 3072(K) UpStr: 384(K)
ADSL Line Status UP
FEC(FAST) (Near):680 (Far):0
FEC(INTERL) (Near):0 (Far):0
CRC(FAST) (Near):14 (Far):0
CRC(INTERL) (Near):0 (Far):9327
HEC(FAST) (Near):0 (Far):15783
HEC(INTERL) (Near):0 (Far):0
Showtime last(sec) 1177847522
ADSL_FW_Version 0.49
ADSL_Board_Type Annex A

peterpiper

It's happening to me too, a load of ****e. I've just had to retype this post! I have 3mb BT in Swords area. I've been having lots of probs lately with pings in games, reseting of router, e.t.c. I'm not happy! A test page from Eircom indicates speeds from less than 1mb to 1.5Mb!!! I had considered buying a new ADSL Router thinking that was the problem, but now I wonder otherwise??

Auvers

its really bad for me in swords as well tonight :mad: pings of 200+

Ratchet

same here on 2mb Eircom(blanch). Since last Friday week pings are 300 and drop to 45 around 11.00pm. Never had a problem before

dylanpp

The problem must not be at the exchange if people are affected over a wide area!

im on the sutton exchange - nowhere near blanch or swords

notahappycamper

peterpiper wrote:

It's happening to me too, a load of ****e. I've just had to retype this post! I have 3mb BT in Swords area. I've been having lots of probs lately with pings in games, reseting of router, e.t.c. I'm not happy! A test page from Eircom indicates speeds from less than 1mb to 1.5Mb!!! I had considered buying a new ADSL Router thinking that was the problem, but now I wonder otherwise??

I'm also in Swords and have noticed on the router info. page that my speed has dropped to 2048/256. I'm meant to have a 3mb package with BT and it was fine up until last week. Has your speed dropped to the same as mine on the router info. page too? I got on to BT and they are sending an Eircom engineer to the Swords exchange but won't be back to me for a week or so!

Ciarán_R

since the 20th of April my ping has been going up to 200-500 from 7pm-11pm or later. im with eircom in swords. i don't know what to do, the tech support guys don't seem to know what latency/ping is when you talk to them lol

peterpiper

Router indicates right speed? try this link... http://homepage.eircom.net/~leslie/testpage/testlrge.htm

Ratchet

Ciar&#225 wrote: »

since the 20th of April my ping has been going up to 200-500 from 7pm-11pm or later. im with eircom in swords. i don't know what to do, the tech support guys don't seem to know what latency/ping is when you talk to them lol

same here.

but looks like utv internet doesn't have this problem

Praetor

dylanpp wrote:

Yet another night with a 200 ping. Great. At least this time it isnt dropping the connection every 30 seconds.


C:\Documents and Settings\user>tracert www.boards.ie

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [89.234.66.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 182 ms 181 ms 179 ms bas503.cwt.esat.net [193.95.136.239]
3 196 ms 194 ms 202 ms vlan501.rt502.cwt.esat.net [193.95.137.125]
4 189 ms 190 ms 191 ms vlan52.rt001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.130.145]
5 183 ms 182 ms 179 ms ge0-0.br001.cwt.esat.net [193.95.129.4]
6 190 ms 190 ms 204 ms to-inex-dub-deg-gw.digiweb.ie [193.242.111.20]
7 193 ms 196 ms 192 ms 89.234.66.107

Trace complete.



ADSL Line Type GDMT
ADSL Line Coding INTERLEAVED
Line Attenuation (Down):53 (Up):31
Noise Margin (Down):8 (Up):16
Total Output Power (Down):0 (Up):0
Current Rate DownStr: 3072(K) UpStr: 384(K)
ADSL Line Status UP
FEC(FAST) (Near):680 (Far):0
FEC(INTERL) (Near):0 (Far):0
CRC(FAST) (Near):14 (Far):0
CRC(INTERL) (Near):0 (Far):9327
HEC(FAST) (Near):0 (Far):15783
HEC(INTERL) (Near):0 (Far):0
Showtime last(sec) 1177847522
ADSL_FW_Version 0.49
ADSL_Board_Type Annex A

Hi!

Ok that makes sense

Look at your attenuation and SNR Margin...

53 db and 8 db is really bad.

Look also at your HEC, your line is not clean at all.

you need to do 2 things, Make sure you dont have anything else connected to the telephone line, no extensions, nothing... and get reading again.

for what I can see you should be on no more than 2 mb, that will explain why you have intermittent connection problems.

Your tracert shows slowness from the very first hope and it doesnt seem to be a routing problem.

Just test it again without any devices connected to any phone socket and remove extensions if any and check the readings again. If you have an spare modem replace it and see.

dylanpp

thanks for your reply. however, the possible faults and solutions u may have detailed fail to attend to one issue;

why can my internet perform PERFECTLY for say 2 weeks or any other random duration? Suddenly the problems arise only during peak times etc etc. Tonight the stuff was **** hot again

modem/extensions/devices cannot be the problem. all of these factors remain constant.

is it not a routing problem? is it not the 1st server hop from my modem to my exchange? surely herein lies the problem!

FNG

I'm a BT customer on the Blanchardstown exchange paying for a 2mb broadband line. Like some of you on this thread I'm a keen CSS player. Or at least I was. For the last two weeks I haven't been able to get a strong enough peak time connection to stay on a server for more than 2 minutes without getting booted off for ridiculously high latency. I use MySpeedPC, a free download from VisualWare to measure the quality of my broadband connection. Between 1am and 5-6pm I typically get a download speed of 1.71mb, about 85% of what I'm paying for, which is OK by me, along with an upload speed of about 212k and can ping VisualWare's London server in about 20-40ms. The quality of service score I get is in the high 90%'s between these hours, indicating how good the line is at maintaining the speed of connection. However, after 6pm that's all she wrote. My download speed rapidly drops to 500-600k before 7pm, pings climb to 200-400ms and quality of service falls to 30-40%. Any of you gamers will know that a ping rate
like this means you won't be admitted to any server.

This has been going on for 2 weeks solid now and this evening I couldn't connect to the internet at all between 7.30pm and 10pm. I had to resurrect my 56k voice modem, thought I'd seen the back of that thing...silly me!
As I write this its now 1.15am and my download speed is back to 1.71mb, upload 213k, round-trip ping to London 39ms and quality of service 99%. So I'd encourage anyone to subscribe to BT's broadband service who doesn't mind being restricted to using it between 1am and 6pm. My experience and that of others in this thread clearly indicates an inability on the part of the Eircom WAN servers in the exchanges to handle the volume of business being sold to broadband buyers. As I understand it, the lack of local loop unbundling means that the equipment in the exchanges all belongs to Eircom and is maintained by them. Eircom is a byword for poor investment and maintenance of telecom infrastructure.
My recent experience isn't unique. I've been a BT broadband customer since August 2006 and had similar service all through January and again in early March. When I call their technical helpline I'm left holding for at least 40 mins to an hour before I get through to someone and then get put through the same nonsensical run-around that others have reported here. Their last port of call is to check what the hell is going on at the exchange.
At this stage I'm heartily sick of poor service from BT. Blaming everything on Eircom just isn't good enough. DOES ANYONE KNOW OF A RELIABLE BROADBAND PROVIDER WHO DOESN'T CHARGE THE EARTH???

dub45

FNG wrote:

I'm a BT customer on the Blanchardstown exchange paying for a 2mb broadband line. Like some of you on this thread I'm a keen CSS player. Or ............................. Between 1am and 5-6pm I typically get a download speed of 1.71mb, about 85% of what I'm paying for, which is OK by me, along with an upload speed of about 212k and can ping VisualWare's London server

Far be it from me of all people to defend BT but you are not paying for a 2Mb broadband line - you are paying for a product which gives up to 2Mb - it is contended and it is subject to line problems etc etc.

dub45

dylanpp wrote:

thanks for your reply. however, the possible faults and solutions u may have detailed fail to attend to one issue;

why can my internet perform PERFECTLY for say 2 weeks or any other random duration? Suddenly the problems arise only during peak times etc etc. Tonight the stuff was **** hot again

modem/extensions/devices cannot be the problem. all of these factors remain constant.

is it not a routing problem? is it not the 1st server hop from my modem to my exchange? surely herein lies the problem!

Unfortunately line quality can vary very quickly - I have a dodgy line myself and increased speeds such as your 3Mb puts a lot of pressure on the line.

Have a read here and you will see that your line stats are just not up to 3Mb.


http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats.htm

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm

cast_iron

dylanpp wrote:

modem/extensions/devices cannot be the problem. all of these factors remain constant.

That doesn't necessarily matter.
Fact is, your operating at a low level. Under low load conditions (off-peak), your system can tolerate the low signal. But under high loading, your system has to work harder to work well, and it can't due to the low level of your signal. If you had a good signal to start with, your setup would probably not be to susceptible to high loading problems.

So whilst your modem, phones, etc are constant, the network isn't, so unolug all unnecessary connections and redo the tracert.

FNG

dub45 wrote:

Far be it from me of all people to defend BT but you are not paying for a 2Mb broadband line - you are paying for a product which gives up to 2Mb - it is contended and it is subject to line problems etc etc.

I know about ADSL contention, typically 50:1 for a residential line, but this kind of service is just ridiculous. It might interest you to know that nowhere in BT's terms and conditions is the word "contention" even mentioned.
In my telephone conversation with BT's sales people before I signed up I enquired what the contention ratio was because I was considering NTL's cable service. BT tried to convince me that there was no contention on their service and I would have exclusive use of a 2mb pipe to the internet with any shortfall from 2mb depending on my distance from the exchange!

dub45

FNG wrote:

I know about ADSL contention, typically 50:1 for a residential line, but this kind of service is just ridiculous. It might interest you to know that nowhere in BT's terms and conditions is the word "contention" even mentioned.
In my telephone conversation with BT's sales people before I signed up I enquired what the contention ratio was because I was considering NTL's cable service. BT tried to convince me that there was no contention on their service and I would have exclusive use of a 2mb pipe to the internet with any shortfall from 2mb depending on my distance from the exchange!

I am not defending BT in any way - I have long had reservations about the way the product is advertised by all the isps - but if you are aware of contention etc why do you state that you are paying for a 2Mb line when you know that you are not?

BT Broadband - Contention Ratio
Question
What are the contention ratios for BT Broadband?
Answer

The contention ratios for BT Broadband are as follows:

BT Broadband Option 1 and 2 - 48:1 (At any one time, there may be up to 47 other users using the DSL line)

BT Broadband Option 3 -24:1 (At any one time, there may be up to 23 other users using the DSL line)

The download speeds you get on BT Broadband will vary depending on the volume of traffic being carried at the time you are logged on. If a large number of people are sharing the available bandwidth with you, the contention ratio (or ratio to which the available bandwidth is shared between users) is higher and your connection will be slower. Less traffic means lower contention ratios and faster network speeds.

And what kind of service exactly is ridiculous? No isp afaik makes any promises about pings.

If you cannot connect to the net at all then of course you have legitimate grounds for complaint.