Sorry, another OT post on an ADSL subject - if anyone has some suggestions of decent technical ADSL lists or forums please let me know.
One of our customers migrated from one ISP to another, from a reasonable speed (3-4Mbps we think, it as never an issue so they never made a note of what it was), which immediately on migration dropped down to silly figures - their BT speedtest results hover between 100kpbs and 200kbps and their most recent result was 40kbps!
Despite numerous faults to BT via the ISP, little has changed to date (the migration was in May!); apparently they changed the linecard yesterday and it seems to have been that the change to the linecard is what has given the end user the record low speed of 40kbps. The IP profile for the line is 7150Kbps, and their sync speed is over 7Mbps, and their upload speed is around 800kpbs. (Bandwidth figures for the connection tie in with this data, so it's not as if there's some underlying data transfer that's tying up the connection somehow.)
We've changed the end user kit and filters (although bear in mind the original kit was working fine pre-migration) to no avail. Speed tests using different accounts (eg test accounts at the ISP, or bt_test@startup_domain, etc) all give similar results.
I need to find someone who has seen something similar and has some sensible suggestions as to what to try next. (Is the fault likely at BT or the ISP?)
Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote:
Sorry, another OT post on an ADSL subject - if anyone has some suggestions of decent technical ADSL lists or forums please let me know.
ISP forums, router forums, http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/ http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ http://www.broadband-help.com/forums/
One of our customers migrated from one ISP to another, from a reasonable
Both BT-based or Local Loop Unbundled? Which ISPs?
[...]
I need to find someone who has seen something similar and has some sensible suggestions as to what to try next. (Is the fault likely at BT or the ISP?)
I think I've had similar problems at one step during my sequence of http://mjray.ukgovoss.org/2009/10/05/betting-on-british-broadband-bugfixing/ problems with an Opal-based LLU service, but it was rare compared to the others. I'd put a Linux-based router in there (yay back on topic) and get decent debugging information out of it to see where to point the finger. Look at the ADSL negotiation, the various line stats (SNR, attenuation, and so on) and watch the PPP negotiations by starting pppd from the commandline with the debug option or sending it a USR1 signal (which toggles the debug option) soon after start.
Good luck!
MJ Ray wrote:
ISP forums, router forums, http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/ http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ http://www.broadband-help.com/forums/
When I've looked at those in the past they've all seemed a bit too consumer-level, and I don't want to go through several more rounds of checking filters etc unless there's a specific reason to think that they might be causing our specific problem. (Not least because the end user is fast running out of patience and getting him to try apparently random and pointless changes at this stage will push him over the edge!) I'll look again at the above and see which looks most likely to be able to go to a technical level quite quickly.
Both BT-based or Local Loop Unbundled? Which ISPs?
I believe both BT based, not LLU. Certainly the current ISP (Enta) is BT-based. This has the advantage that I can see the BT fault reports on the account directly and can pass information back at a technical level rather that dealing with end-user facing tech support.
I'd put a Linux-based router in there (yay back on topic) and get decent debugging information out of it to see where to point the finger.
I've lost track of which router they've got but we usually use Linux-based ones. Unfortunately the customer isn't local (Chipping Norton), and getting information remotely isn't easy. I would just go to site if I thought that would help, but realistically it would mean running some tests, handing the results back to BT, waiting, then going back a day or too later to run some more tests.
I might see if I can configure a router using RouterTech firmware to generate suitable logs and then send it to them to swap in, that way I'd only need to talk them through viewing the logs after the connection is up.
Look at the ADSL negotiation, the various line stats (SNR, attenuation, and so on) and watch the PPP negotiations by starting pppd from the commandline with the debug option or sending it a USR1 signal (which toggles the debug option) soon after start.
Good things to try, I'm just going to have to see if I can find a way to do them remotely! I can try most of them on our spare ADSL line in the office though.
Mark Rogers wrote:
I believe both BT based, not LLU. Certainly the current ISP (Enta) is BT-based. This has the advantage that I can see the BT fault reports on the account directly and can pass information back at a technical level rather that dealing with end-user facing tech support.
Is your fault logged with enta themselves or the reseller, and have you seen evidence in your enta control panel (if available) that enta are dealing with the problem themselves.
Another thing you could try if you have one available, on the enta network the broadband login is not bound to a specific line instance. So if you know of another enta connection you can swap login details and confirm that it isn't some account or address bound problem...be aware that it is the login that determines which IP address you are assigned when you test this. Also don't swap with an account that is currently connected as the routers will enter a login fight. It's even possible to use accounts that have been recently (as in the last 3 months) ceased for this test.
Normally (as an enta reseller myself) I have a spare active but unused account kicking about but unfortunately it is in use at this time.
Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Is your fault logged with enta themselves or the reseller, and have you seen evidence in your enta control panel (if available) that enta are dealing with the problem themselves.
We're the reseller, yes I can see the fault logs and know it's been passed to BT (and can see the results coming back from BT, eg: [23-11-2009 17:52:49] 15 - Reset line card/Port
Another thing you could try if you have one available, on the enta network the broadband login is not bound to a specific line instance. So if you know of another enta connection you can swap login details and confirm that it isn't some account or address bound problem...be aware that it is the login that determines which IP address you are assigned when you test this. Also don't swap with an account that is currently connected as the routers will enter a login fight. It's even possible to use accounts that have been recently (as in the last 3 months) ceased for this test.
We've tried this: they've given us their own agent accounts to log in with which haven't resulted in different throughputs (but did get different IP's, confirming the account details had definitely changed), as well as another account that bypasses all their traffic shaping and which again showed no change.
Normally (as an enta reseller myself) I have a spare active but unused account kicking about but unfortunately it is in use at this time.
We have an Enta line ourselves and can always use those login details if we need to (albeit losing our Internet connection for the duration).
I asked customer services if they could do an internal migration to a new account (ie basically set everything up again) and that is an option, although the fact that other logins have made no difference so far means I'm not at all confident it would have any effect.
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Mark Rogers -
MJ Ray -
Wayne Stallwood