Poor 1MB DSL vs Satellite ?

long_b

Have a "just about" DSL connection that's syncs at anything from 300 to 700 kbps
Would people stick with this or go for Tooway satellite?
Had a guy around yesterday from a fixed wireless provider (fecking trees ) - he reckons satellite only gets about 1.5 Mbps usually?

Sponge Bob

bad as that is it probably beats peak hours satellite. How far are you from the exchange, those metrics indicate 4 miles or so.

lucernarian

Are the trees a problem that can be dealt with using a chainsaw? It's an awful shame to miss out on proper fixed wireless broadband for the sake of a few branches;)

If your line is struggling to meet 1 mbps, you should get in touch with eircom or especially a linesman working in the area or someone you know who works in eircom and get a filtered master socket fitted. They're called NTE5 sockets in the UK and can help connection speeds in marginal conditions.

Satellite has big issues with usage limits. There'll be little room for even regular youtube viewing when there is a limit of 4GB/month or less on many of the affordable subscriptions...

long_b

Sponge Bob wrote: »

bad as that is it probably beats peak hours satellite. How far are you from the exchange, those metrics indicate 4 miles or so.

3.1 miles by road to the Exchange

Unfortunately the trees aren't on my property - they'd be long gone otherwise
The rolling caps on the satellite are off putting alright.

galait

Sorry Just hijacking this thread ,

I have had a trouble free 1 Mb DSL connection for 2 yrs , I Live 2.6 miles from the exchange in a rural area ,

Since last weekend my Broadband has becom progressively slower , To-day it is only syncing at 160kb , I have changed DSL Modem/Router , Cable , Splitter etc and no change ,

Vodafone logged a call with Eircom who say everything checks out ,

I cant survive with basically an ISDN connection ,

Any advice on how to proceed

lucernarian

If they say everything checks out, complain again and say your speed's been restricted to 160 kbps and it's unacceptable. If Vodafone still don't do anything, complain officially and tell ComReg that eircom are apparently unwilling to fix your line on behalf of Vodafone.

Can you give the DSL line statistics from the modem please?

Sponge Bob

160k is eircom test mode, tell them to take you out of test mode for starters.

Sponge Bob

Plenty get 2mbits at 3.1 miles line length, especially if it is overhead line. Things to do at home are disconnect everything like a sky box and dect phone( turn that off ) and even turn off wireless for a while and use network cable only and any video senders/security cameras.

Do any of these make a difference ??

long_b

We don't have anything plugged in (phones etc) but there's an extra ringer somewhere in the attic .. Would that be worth chasing up ?
From looking at the stats I know one of the figures is 63 db on the download but much less on the upload - is that normal ?

lucernarian

The attenuation value being reported by the modem is maxed out at 63.5dB. I expect the modem is reporting upstream attenuation as 31.5dB which is also the maximum the modem will report for upstream.

That extra ringer in the attic must plug into the line somewhere. Anywhere there's a possible joint or connection once the line enters the house should be looked at. What you want is an unbroken single cable coming from the outside probably along with a junction box where the outside wiring meets an ordinary internal phone wire. There should only be one wire going from this junction box to the main socket, normally in the hallway. Anything else can cause problems. If you have disconnected everything beyond the main socket (like any extension sockets connected to the main socket) then eircom need to send out a linesman to check what's happening with the line.


Could you post the rest of the DSL statistics from the modem? I.e. the signal margin numbers? There is something wrong with the line beyond the 160k mode, assuming it is indeed set by eircom in troubleshoot mode and not coincidentally the rate that the modem can work at with this line fault.

long_b

Here she is

Line Mode G.DMT Line State Show Time
Latency Type Interleave Line Up Time 00:04:24:23
Line Coding Trellis On Line Up Count 2

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 768 Kbps 128 Kbps
Noise Margin 7.1 dB 18.0 dB
Line Attenuation 63.5 dB 31.5 dB
Output Power 15.5 dBm 6.0 dBm

Thanks you guys !

lucernarian

Yeah I was thinking eircom haven't actually switched on that 160kbps mode yet.

It's as simple as this, there is a fault affecting this line and if Vodafone don't insist that eircom do something about it then I would be off to ComReg about this issue.

long_b

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Yeah I was thinking eircom haven't actually switched on that 160kbps mode yet.

It's as simple as this, there is a fault affecting this line and if Vodafone don't insist that eircom do something about it then I would be off to ComReg about this issue.

I reckon the thread jumper has confused things ... I'm the OP with the 0.5 Mb, he/she's the Vodafone customer with the 130 kpbs

lucernarian

long_b wrote: »

I reckon the thread jumper has confused things ... I'm the OP with the 0.5 Mb, he/she's the Vodafone customer with the 130 kpbs

Indeed I am confusing the two of ye! Apologies. But my troubleshooting steps still apply:D

You should report a fault with the line and see what can be done with improving the line. Those filtered master sockets can help quite a lot. The extra ringer in the attic won't be helping the signal and if it was disconnected from where it meets the line, it would be better. It's eircom's responsibility to maintain the line as far as the master socket anyway.

My folks' line is 4 miles long and still gets a solid 1 mbps. I got a filtered socket off a linesman and that did improve the signal margin by a couple of dB but the line is more than able to handle the 1 mbit anyway. Eircom and the resellers refuse to provide 2 mbps on it.

Sponge Bob

The internal wiring should be in series not in parallel. Each socket should lead to the next, they should not branch off in parallel to each other.

What you do first is ensure a direct cable from the outside to the first socket which should be the eircom one and with no branching off before then. If necessary disconnect all internal wiring from that first socket and revisit that later.

Plug modem straight into that with NO filters and see if the DB levels drop off the ceilings of 63 down and 31 up.

Specs and diagrams here

http://www.reci.ie/Portals/0/RECIDocuments/technicalinfo/eircominterface.pdf

Remember that eircom must provide a working line to this single point at their socket , the external wiring terminates IN this box. The internal wiring starting from here is your problem. Filtered master sockets are new.

Crackling, echos and funny noises on the line are an eircom problem and should be reported and repaired.

lucernarian

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The internal wiring should be in series not in parallel. Each socket should lead to the next, they should not branch off in parallel to each other.

What you do first is ensure a direct cable from the outside to the first socket which should be the eircom one and with no branching off before then. If necessary disconnect all internal wiring from that first socket and revisit that later.

Plug modem straight into that with NO filters and see if the DB levels drop off the ceilings of 63 down and 31 up.

Specs and diagrams here

http://www.reci.ie/Portals/0/RECIDocuments/technicalinfo/eircominterface.pdf

Remember that eircom must provide a working line to this single point at their socket , the external wiring terminates IN this box. The internal wiring starting from here is your problem. Filtered master sockets are new.

Crackling, echos and funny noises on the line are an eircom problem and should be reported and repaired.

SB has put it much better than myself. Making sure there are no extension wires or branches off to ringers etc before the main socket is crucial in all of this. Junctions are the plague on good, reliable internal wiring.

Sponge Bob

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Junctions are the plague on good, reliable internal wiring.

Exactly, and junctions at a distance from the exchange an even greater plague...and a spider nesting in a junction box is a curse

bigpaddy2004

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Exactly, and junctions at a distance from the exchange an even greater plague...and a spider nesting in a junction box is a curse

Tooway Satellite are about to bump up their speeds up to 10Mb in the coming weeks with larger caps.

roast

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

Tooway Satellite are about to bump up their speeds up to 10Mb in the coming weeks with larger caps.

Good to know. Shame the latency will still be lacking.

long_b

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

Tooway Satellite are about to bump up their speeds up to 10Mb in the coming weeks with larger caps.

Hmmm interesting ... Any details on the caps ?

roast

long_b wrote: »

Hmmm interesting ... Any details on the caps ?

Tooway don't specify - its all down to an FUP, which they don't give details for (at least, publicly, its not on the website FAQ).
If its exceeded, then you're throttled.

long_b

roast wrote: »

Tooway don't specify - its all down to an FUP, which they don't give details for (at least, publicly, its not on the website FAQ).
If its exceeded, then you're throttled.

And how bad is the throttled speed ?
Hate to have it cut out in the middle of a working day

roast

long_b wrote: »

And how bad is the throttled speed ?
Hate to have it cut out in the middle of a working day

Not sure! It doesn't seem to be specified on their website either.
I doubt they would cut the connection completely, I reckon they would just throttle the sh!t out of it.

long_b

roast wrote: »

Not sure! It doesn't seem to be specified on their website either.
I doubt they would cut the connection completely, I reckon they would just throttle the sh!t out of it.

Jaysus - here are the usage limits from a UK site
http://www.bentley-walker.com/tooway/pop_tooway5.html

roast

long_b wrote: »

Jaysus - here are the usage limits from a UK site
http://www.bentley-walker.com/tooway/pop_tooway5.html

ugh.....

Sponge Bob

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

Tooway Satellite are about to bump up their speeds up to 10Mb in the coming weeks with larger caps.

Only off the Ka Sat Paddy and for NEW customers or realigned ones. They have no transponder space elsewhere...eg 23E

And they will still have hourly / daily / weekly step throttles that their greaseball cnut resellers in Ireland often fail to disclose.

long_b

I have to run the cable from the master socket and about 15 feet to the Dsl router - should I be using a specific type of cable? ATM I'm just using a generic cheap telephone extension cord

roast

long_b wrote: »

I have to run the cable from the master socket and about 15 feet to the Dsl router - should I be using a specific type of cable? ATM I'm just using a generic cheap telephone extension cord

An El Cheapo cable could possibly cause some issues.
The shorter the cable, the better, to reduce interference.

Do you have a spare, short cable that you can test with?

burrentech

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Are the trees a problem that can be dealt with using a chainsaw? It's an awful shame to miss out on proper fixed wireless broadband for the sake of a few branches;)

If your line is struggling to meet 1 mbps, you should get in touch with eircom or especially a linesman working in the area or someone you know who works in eircom and get a filtered master socket fitted. They're called NTE5 sockets in the UK and can help connection speeds in marginal conditions.

Satellite has big issues with usage limits. There'll be little room for even regular youtube viewing when there is a limit of 4GB/month or less on many of the affordable subscriptions...

You can buy these at B&Q, they come with two sockets, one for the DSL, and one for the phone. The only downside is that the phone socket is the UK format, so renders the phone socket unusable, unless you can make up a special adapter yourself. All I did was add another standard Irish socket next to it to handle the phone connection.

All the socket does is remove the need for the plug in filter that comes with your 'free' DSL modem.

long_b

Unfortunately there's no power where the master socket is and with kids I can't leave the router defenseless in the hall. I have another long lead I can try.

I was going to get this - would that be sturdier than a telephone cable ?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/broadband-adsl-modem-cable-36282

I may have a look in B&Q but Argos and Maplins are closer.

burrentech

long_b wrote: »

Unfortunately there's no power where the master socket is and with kids I can't leave the router defenseless in the hall. I have another long lead I can try.

I was going to get this - would that be sturdier than a telephone cable ?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/broadband-adsl-modem-cable-36282

I may have a look in B&Q but Argos and Maplins are closer.

LOL, Maplin also do the Master Filtered socket, and will probably about the same price as B&Q's one. That's not a bad price for the cable.