DSL Optimization Help

[Pseudopro7]

Hello all,

I live in a rural southern town with poor data infrastructure. As many of you experience, I'm getting about 1/3 of the speed that is advertised. It's an ATT DSL connection run through a TP-Link TD-8616 modem to a Linksys EA6350. Basically one task can be run at a time and if someone else tries to do something on the internet it bottoms out. I know there are settings I can adjust but whether that'll help, I don't know. Anything I can do to optimize my connection would be ideal. Thanks in advance for any assistance. 

[Donut417]

12 hours ago, Pseudopro7 said:

Hello all,

I live in a rural southern town with poor data infrastructure. As many of you experience, I'm getting about 1/3 of the speed that is advertised. It's an ATT DSL connection run through a TP-Link TD-8616 modem to a Linksys EA6350. Basically one task can be run at a time and if someone else tries to do something on the internet it bottoms out. I know there are settings I can adjust but whether that'll help, I don't know. Anything I can do to optimize my connection would be ideal. Thanks in advance for any assistance. 

Nothing really can be done. My guess is the copper coming to your house is shit. Dont expect AT&T to fix it. They are walking away from the copper on the poles and the favor of Fiber in profitable areas and wireless every where else. You might be better off looking at an LTE connection or seeing if you can find a WISP in your area. 

[Pseudopro7]

That's unfortunate.  I keep hearing about "Channels" but doesn't that just apply to cable internet?

[Donut417]

8 hours ago, Pseudopro7 said:

That's unfortunate.  I keep hearing about "Channels" but doesn't that just apply to cable internet?

Cable internet has frequencies broken up in to channels. Depending on how many channels the modem support, depends on what speed you can get. 

 

This is a time a 4g provider might be something to look in to. Or you can move to the city. 

[Mornincupofhate]

I had the same problem. Believe it or not, all they did was factory reset the AT&T modem and I was suddenly getting 50/10 (My advertised speed). 

Try it.

[Pseudopro7]

16 hours ago, Mornincupofhate said:

I had the same problem. Believe it or not, all they did was factory reset the AT&T modem and I was suddenly getting 50/10 (My advertised speed). 

Try it.

Thanks. I'll give it a shot

[redanalog]

What is your router sync speed?

[Pseudopro7]

3 hours ago, redanalog said:

What is your router sync speed?

Not sure. How do I find this ?

[NZLaurence]

Do you have a dedicated DSL jack installed in your house? How old is the internal wiring? DSL can be hugely affected by the internal wiring in the house especially if the wiring was only done for voice.

[mynameisjuan]

I can assist. First, there is almost nothing you can do from your side. Whats happening is either your bandwidth is getting capped or your EC (error corrections) are out of control. That all has to do with physical line quality.

 

There are a few things you need to call your ISP and ask them to do. They can do it. I know, I am a tier 3 DSL tech.

1. Ask you ISP for your speeds and your MARGIN. They need to adjust them until margin is at least 6db. Period. This might mean you will lose speeds.

2. If you speeds are about 15mbps AND margin is about 7db, ask them to set your connection from interleaved to fast. This gets rid of EC as the modem just passes them through. This can affect stability but this elimates lag due to line quality. Also watch your pings hit single digits. 

 

 

DSL relies on hardware and distance. We can optimize it but it has its limits. 

[redanalog]

On 9/7/2017 at 10:38 PM, Pseudopro7 said:

Not sure. How do I find this ?

Best link I could find

http://www.tp-linkhome.com/tp-link-adsl/td-8616/how-to-see-statistics-of-tp-link-td-8616-adsl2-modem/

 

8 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

I can assist. First, there is almost nothing you can do from your side. Whats happening is either your bandwidth is getting capped or your EC (error corrections) are out of control. That all has to do with physical line quality.

 

There are a few things you need to call your ISP and ask them to do. They can do it. I know, I am a tier 3 DSL tech.

1. Ask you ISP for your speeds and your MARGIN. They need to adjust them until margin is at least 6db. Period. This might mean you will lose speeds.

2. If you speeds are about 15mbps AND margin is about 7db, ask them to set your connection from interleaved to fast. This gets rid of EC as the modem just passes them through. This can affect stability but this elimates lag due to line quality. Also watch your pings hit single digits. 

 

 

DSL relies on hardware and distance. We can optimize it but it has its limits. 

 

 

Dude, any ISP can do it but the folks on the phone (Teir 1) probably won't know and allow DLM to work and if sync speed is within expected margins, it ain't hitting teir 3.

It sounds like EU bandwith expectations to me. Due to his mentioning of channels, sounds like wireless.

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, redanalog said:

Best link I could find

http://www.tp-linkhome.com/tp-link-adsl/td-8616/how-to-see-statistics-of-tp-link-td-8616-adsl2-modem/

 

 

 

Dude, any ISP can do it but the folks on the phone (Teir 1) probably won't know and allow DLM to work and if sync speed is within expected margins, it ain't hitting teir 3.

It sounds like EU bandwith expectations to me. Due to his mentioning of channels, sounds like wireless.

No hes on AT&T DSL. AT&T isnt interested in DSL or Phone service any more. They are now wanting to go LTE and FIber in select areas. They have rewrote several laws in several states so they can walk away from the Copper on the poles. 

[redanalog]

Just now, Donut417 said:

No hes on AT&T DSL. AT&T isnt interested in DSL or Phone service any more. They are now wanting to go LTE and FIber in select areas. They have rewrote several laws in several states so they can walk away from the Copper on the poles. 

Damn US DSL. I'm UK Teir 3 for ADSL/VDSL/Mesh networking/Mobile?(I basically don't have a fucking clue here haha)

[mynameisjuan]

10 hours ago, redanalog said:

Best link I could find

http://www.tp-linkhome.com/tp-link-adsl/td-8616/how-to-see-statistics-of-tp-link-td-8616-adsl2-modem/

 

 

 

Dude, any ISP can do it but the folks on the phone (Teir 1) probably won't know and allow DLM to work and if sync speed is within expected margins, it ain't hitting teir 3.

It sounds like EU bandwith expectations to me. Due to his mentioning of channels, sounds like wireless.

All my tier 1s know how but I train them. If its within expected margins or not if a customer explains exactly what he wants we are more than happy to make a change. This should be able to be changed at tier 2 level at least. 

 

Its worth a shot. He can just pull the "its not stable and is down all the time" card and they have to resolve it. 

[Donut417]

4 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

All my tier 1s know how but I train them. If its within expected margins or not if a customer explains exactly what he wants we are more than happy to make a change. This should be able to be changed at tier 2 level at least. 

 

Its worth a shot. He can just pull the "its not stable and is down all the time" card and they have to resolve it. 

Or they claim the line cant support the speeds and cut down the speeds the OP can get. 

[redanalog]

1 minute ago, mynameisjuan said:

All my tier 1s know how but I train them. If its within expected margins or not if a customer explains exactly what he wants we are more than happy to make a change. This should be able to be changed at tier 2 level at least. 

 

Its worth a shot. He can just pull the "its not stable and is down all the time" card and they have to resolve it. 

We have tools over here that show session length, data downloaded, data uploaded, line health, FECs, HECs, CRCs, SNR Margin, DLM target SNR, Actual target SNR (and so on...)

 

Your approach wouldn't work over here unless there is an actual issue with the line.

[mynameisjuan]

20 minutes ago, redanalog said:

We have tools over here that show session length, data downloaded, data uploaded, line health, FECs, HECs, CRCs, SNR Margin, DLM target SNR, Actual target SNR (and so on...)

 

Your approach wouldn't work over here unless there is an actual issue with the line.

You mean tools that every platform natively have? So you should know that line statistics dont always correlate with actual real world use right? Statistics help in troubleshooting DSL but only experience and guessing can resolve most DSL problems.

 

Main point is hes not getting his speeds due to either target margin being too high, maybe pairs need to be cleaned up or there is so much noise on the line that the tones are turning off. I gave him what he needs to ask support and they usually will help with the request, especially if you request a specific feature, like fast, which takes literally 5 secs to do, not including retrain. 

 

As he needs to ask support if SRA is enabled if its due to noise.

[Pseudopro7]

On 7/9/2017 at 8:55 PM, NZLaurence said:

Do you have a dedicated DSL jack installed in your house? How old is the internal wiring? DSL can be hugely affected by the internal wiring in the house especially if the wiring was only done for voice.

The house was built in the 60s. Would I need ATT need to come out and update it?

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Pseudopro7 said:

The house was built in the 60s. Would I need ATT need to come out and update it?

Yeah, if you want to pay for them to do it. They wont do it for free. Internal wiring is generally the customers responsibility. 

[NZLaurence]

Best to get a price from them, and/or to talk to your local sparky if you have a good one. In New Zealand there was a fixed price of NZ$168 to get a dedicated jack put in from the ISP (I don't know if that still applies). That often worked out the cheapest way. I had seen DSL syncs go from <10mbit to >15mbit by fixing/removing crappy internal wiring.