Hi, Can you give me some advice about my router please? I have had quite slow internet speeds for some time. To make things worse my BT line has been terrible. Which became unusable over last Christmas. A BT engineer repaired my line and now the phone works fine. The wires came apart due to water getting into the outside BT box. But the engineer advised me to call my isp as my broadband speeds were terrible. So I did and this leads up to my question. On ringing virgin, they agree and initially say my broadband is slow and start a fix. To cut a long story short, they messed me about big time. Finally they admitted that my line was slow, but now it has a sync problem which causes the disconnection. Later this week they call me back and are now saying broadband is in perfect working order and nothing is wrong at virgin...they say its my router? For me nothing has improved. My speeds can be slow, sometimes fast and disconects - its all random and there is no pattern to the problem. I disagree and in the end after complaining etc: they call back and are trying to help me. But they still say its my router and I have heard this several times when ringing them before. They are quick to blame others and i don't trust them because of this. But on the other hand and to be fair, my router could be finished? I have had it since the Xbox 360 was launched, so for about 5 years? I have had no real problems until recently. Note my slow net speeds have been going on for years. So my question. Is there anyway I can test the router to see if it is faulty? Check its not hacked and so on. I don't have another router to use to check. I'm going to reset to factory this weekend and re set up too. As advised by virgin. My set up: BT phone line Virgin intenet (not cable) Netgear wireless ADSL modem DG834GT Netgear wireless pc adapter WG311T (I think - will have to double check) ADSL filter (new) My wireless access: 1no Xbox 360 (upstairs) 2nd HTC desire phones Laptop Desktop (with wireless adapter card) My wired access: 1no Xbox 360 (downstairs) My router is located downstairs. The desktop pc is upstairs and at the opposite side of the house to the router. Thank you
The first thing I would do is take your laptop and do a speed test, then hook it up directly to the router and do another one, then hook it up to the modem. If there are enormous disparities in speed, it'll give you a better indication of whether it's the router or modem at fault. If it's neither, then it's at the exchange.
Hi, thank you. Ok I will try that over the weekend and post the results. I have been using speedtest.net. Sorry i should of said, its a wireless ADSL modem router. So I think I can only do two tests, wired and wireless - unless I misunderstood your reply? Thank you
Slightly off topic but Virgin adsl along with sky connect are two of the worst adsl providers to be with, you would be better going with either BT/Plus Net/Zen etc basically any decent adsl provider as you will likely have a better service. What options are on your exchange or is it just BT, use sam knows and post back. http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search
Yes, lately I have been reading they are not good and from my recent experiences it proves this! I was thinking of moving to sky... From the link you sent I am on the Hardwicke exchange. Apparently there is no cable in my area, which is mad as I live on a new housing development! I have always been a bit cautious if BT broadband as a family member had it a while back and it was terrible too. To be honest I think all isp's are as bad as one another
Sorry I didn't add: On that exchange the providers are virgin, sky and talk talk. Seems a bit limited to me unless I'm looking at the wrong thing?
Use the BT line checker http://www.speedtester.bt.com/beta/ And post up your results for wired & wireless. Nb. That site also has a proper line quality checker http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ Sent on my CM10 JB powered i9100 by TapaTalk 2
Virgin ADSL is beyond words for awful. If you can change sky would be my choice out of those few, tho I know folk on talktalk and its ok tbh.
Okay on your exchange their is Virgin cable in a few areas, their is no 21CN so the only providers that can offer asdl2 and asdl+2 are Talk Talk and Sky, their are a few resellers of TT wholesale such as Vivacity and ASDL24. FTTC is also avalaible in parts of your exchange, coverage depends on a cabinet having a fibre twin and your line not being EO (Exchange Only) but if you can get it then you can expect to see up to 80/20 download/upload- its distance dependent from the cabinet. With the checker below can you post back what it says- delete your number. https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/adslchecker.welcome
NEVER GO BT. If you can help it. Even their business support seem to be unaware of basic TCP/IP. Some of the operatives had never even heard of Cisco... and didn't support it. I understand not wanting to support it, but come on BT; don't tell me that my connection isn't doing what I want as I'm not using your shitty business hub that breaks every ten minutes anyway. (Seriously they must have a log that shows the most problems they have link back to their business hub routes) There are few companies out there worth their salt.... the only one I can think of is www.aa.net.uk as I'm not in the market for it at the moment. You get unfiltered internet with these guys... I've heard good things about gigler also but have not checked it out.
Your router should tell you what upstream or downstream speeds it is achieving in the info pages, on it's html admin portal, for the connection. Then you can measure against those speeds. Also, I hate to be the barer of bad news, but those netgear DG834GT routers are awful. I've had one and been present on the scene of others and they really are a p.o.s. I changed to billion for normal use for a while and it was much better. No wifi dropouts or failures to connect when another device is busy on the network.
Hi, Thanks for the help. I did some tests this morning and will post them in the next series of posts to make it easier for reading. I wasnt able to get a cable connection to my router, not that it failed - just that i couldnt get it to hook up (probably my fault). I didnt have time to sort it out as my daughter needed her laptop for homework. So all my results are from wireless. I did however notice that the laptop was very quick via wireless, although i was sat a few feet away from the router. The speeds do seem quicker? Maybe its because i complained the sh!t out of virgin to them via phone, email and hand writing. I have had this before with virgin, complained and then all of a sudden the net speeds up? At this very moment in my household i have connected to the net: Desktop pc (wireless - upstairs) Smart phone (wireless - upstairs) 1 No xbox 360 (wireless - upstairs) 1No xbox 360 (wired - downstairs - next to router) All are running fine with no slow downs or disconnections so far. Last night when updating Battlefield via the xbox was quick too? The only thing that is listing as a poor - fair (2 - 3 bars) connection is my desktop pc, with its wireless card. But then this is located upstairs and at opposite ends of the house. Perhaps getting one of those plug in range extenders would help? Personally i dont think its the router, think its virgin f@cking me about and the fact i complained about it? next posts are results:
Ok, speed testing (ran two tests each): NOTE: results in bold are from my desktop (2No xbox's, smart phone and desktop running at this time) Note that there is no cable in my area at the moment. laptop / wireless (only laptop was running): From speedtest.net http://www.speedtest.net/ Ping 45ms (43) Download speed 5.42mbps (5.1) upload speed 0.38mbps (0.31) Ping 35ms 41 Download speed 5.54mbps (4.51) Upload speed 0.38mbps (0.29) From BT speed tester lite (beta) http://www.speedtester.bt.com/beta/ Downspeed 5.32 mbps (5.36) Upload speed 0.35mbps (0.27) Ping latency 39.00ms (40.00) Downspeed 5.31 mbps (5.14) Upload speed 0.39mbps (0.29) Ping latency 43.00ms (39.63) From BT wholesale broadband performance http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/ Downspeed 5.32 mbps (4.87) Upload speed 0.38mbps (0.30) Ping latency 37.13ms (39.75) Downspeed 5.31 mbps (4.38) Upload speed 0.38mbps (0.29) Ping latency 42.50ms (42.13) From the above and the additional diagnostics page Best effort test: Download speed: 5.32mbps (7.15mbps max achievable) (4.38 / 7.15max) Download speed achieved during the test was - 5.32 Mbps (4.38) For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 0.6 Mbps-7.15 Mbps (0.6 - 7.15) Additional Information: Your DSL Connection Rate :6.34 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.45 Mbps(UP-STREAM) (6.4 down / 0.45 up) IP Profile for your line is - 5.5 Mbps (5.5) Line checker (From laptop only) https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput Telephone Number ----------- on Exchange HARDWICKE is served by Cabinet 28 Available Products: Downstream Line Rate(Mbps):/ Upstream Line Rate(Mbps):/ Downstream Range(Mbps):/ Availability Date: Featured Products: WBC FTTC:Up to 54.8 / Up to 15.7 / -- /31-Mar-13ADSL Max:Up to 3 / -- / 2 to 5.5 / AvailableWBC Fixed Rate:1/ -- / -- / AvailableFixed Rate:1 / -- / -- /Available Other Offerings: Fibre Multicast: -- / -- / -- / 31-Mar-13 Thanks
The follwing ping and trace tests are as advised by the Virgin engineer. To be honest i have no idea what the numbers mean? From Laptop / wireless: ping www.google.co.uk Pinging www.google.co.uk [173.194.66.94] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 173.194.66.94: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=44 Reply from 173.194.66.94: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=44 Reply from 173.194.66.94: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=44 Reply from 173.194.66.94: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=44 Ping statistics for 173.194.66.94: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 42ms, Maximum = 46ms, Average = 43ms tracert www.google.co.uk Tracing route to www.google.co.uk [173.194.66.94] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1 2 42 ms 34 ms 32 ms brhm-bam-3.network.virginmedia.net [194.145.148. 66] 3 33 ms 32 ms 32 ms brhm-core-2a-xe-1110-2.network.virginmedia.net [ 82.0.242.45] 4 33 ms 43 ms 33 ms brhm-bb-1a-ae8-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253 .174.73] 5 148 ms 34 ms 33 ms brhm-bb-1c-ae6-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253 .174.98] 6 37 ms 37 ms 36 ms brnt-bb-1c-ae8-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253 .174.125] 7 101 ms 36 ms 42 ms brnt-bb-1b-ae7-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253 .174.33] 8 37 ms 54 ms 36 ms brnt-tmr-1-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10 5.159.50] 9 37 ms 38 ms 37 ms telc-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253. 185.74] 10 42 ms 38 ms 81 ms 212.43.163.174 11 38 ms 38 ms 38 ms 209.85.255.76 12 41 ms 40 ms 39 ms 209.85.253.196 13 68 ms 45 ms 47 ms 66.249.95.173 14 47 ms 46 ms 48 ms 209.85.251.231 15 * * * Request timed out. 16 43 ms 44 ms 45 ms we-in-f94.1e100.net [173.194.66.94] Trace complete. From desktop / wireless: ping www.google.co.uk Pinging www.google.co.uk [173.194.67.94] with 32 bytes of data: Request timed out. Reply from 173.194.67.94: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=46 Reply from 173.194.67.94: bytes=32 time=51ms TTL=46 Request timed out. Ping statistics for 173.194.67.94: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 51ms, Maximum = 52ms, Average = 51ms tracert www.google.co.uk Tracing route to www.google.co.uk [173.194.67.94] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 4 ms * 7 ms 192.168.0.1 2 39 ms * 43 ms oxfd-bam-1.network.virginmedia.net [194.145.148. 252] 3 49 ms 39 ms 39 ms oxfd-core-2a-xe-1111-2.network.virginmedia.net [ 82.0.242.237] 4 43 ms 42 ms 41 ms brhm-bb-1c-ae4-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10 6.244.65] 5 * 47 ms 51 ms brnt-bb-1c-ae8-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253 .174.125] 6 * 45 ms * brnt-bb-1b-ae7-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253 .174.33] 7 49 ms 49 ms 48 ms brnt-tmr-1-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10 5.159.50] 8 47 ms 47 ms 46 ms telc-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253. 185.74] 9 116 ms 121 ms 109 ms 212.43.163.170 10 * 60 ms * 209.85.255.78 11 50 ms 52 ms 56 ms 209.85.253.94 12 57 ms 57 ms 57 ms 72.14.232.134 13 54 ms 55 ms 103 ms 209.85.250.163 14 * * * Request timed out. 15 62 ms 60 ms 55 ms wi-in-f94.1e100.net [173.194.67.94] Trace complete. An awfull lot of numbers, he also got me to do a test of the above for the BBC web site - but i havent added them
Hi Harlequin, Yes, i know - i just could not get it to set up. I must have been doing something wrong and will try again later. Just tried again to connect via wired and it just not doing it, i must be doing something wrong? Cheers.
Ok having looked into your line test you can see that you are connected to an old cabinet box (28) that was marked for upgrade and then halted due to lack of demand. This unit has never been upgraded in recent times hense the slow overloaded line speed. See here : http://www.kingsway-villagers.co.uk/news/bt-infinity-in-kingsway/ Virgin can not solve your issues only BT. Sent on my CM10 JB powered i9100 by TapaTalk 2
shouldn't need to set anything up - just plug in the cable ususally and as long as the drivers are installed for the nic it should auto connect
