Connection Dropping

[bluetipex]

Hi all, I wonder if someone has a similar problem to the following, or can suggest a solution:

I trade from home every day, and have a Netgear router on my BT ADSL line. From time to time, whilst I'm watching my CMC prices and ESignal charts a "Cable Unplugged" message appears at the bottom of the screen, then 1 or 2 seconds later, "Cable Reconnected" appears. When this happens my data feeds stop, the green light on my router changes from green to orange.

Even though the connection drops only for a few moments, it seems to affect my data feeds for 1 or 2 minutes each time. Very, very annoying as you can imagine.

This may sound strange but it occurs most when there's stormy weather in the area!!!!

BT say that it could be something to do with my filter, but I've changed this and the problem still occurs.

Any ideas anyone?

Blue

 

[Anonymous]

Similar to my ADSL internet connection, it gets cut off often for no apparent reason. It may be common.

But that's not the only problem, at times my computer reboots automatically while I'm trading. The mouse arrow moves vertically up or horizontally across for no reason. While I am filling in the price the cursor jumps to the quantity area, like when a website refreshes automatically it appears at the front suddenly.

It may not be just annonyance, it is something to be taken into consideration when planning trading strategy.

 

[rossored]

my first thought would be the router.

I've encountered no end of problems with netgear equipment lately, particularly their DG834 wireless router. Try the netgear forums for help - not sure of the URL off the top of my head.

 

[shano]

update the firmware?

Hi Blue,

I have a Netgear DG834G wireless router which had the same problem as yours a while ago, the problem went away after upgrading the firmware.

Shano

 

[Racer]

Since getting broadband just over a year ago now I have had numerous BT engineers here.
On the majority of occasions they initially tried say there was nothing wrong or to blame my computer/router/filter/internal wiring. At one time they even wanted to charge me £200 after repairs to some internal wiring when I had told them it had been checked very recently and was not faulty.
It has only been consistent complaint on my part that I have had a considerable amount of wiring, poles and BT equipment replaced and also refunds on my bills for the last year.
It has been a complete nightmare to say the least, but what has been most annoying is when they say there is no fault on the BT network or they have fixed the fault when they have not.. they can start off a new fault and minimise the compensation. On all occasions faults (and at times lots and lots of them) have then subsequently been found!

 

[a320]

HI bluetipex?

Have you recently had a speed up grade on your ADSL ???

Check your Line Attenuation & SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) in the ADSL settings normally found on your routers main page.

The Line Attenuation needs to be less than 43db for a consistent 2mb speed connection.

BT normally only test the attenuation for you ADSL line rating but the SNR is just ( if not more important) for a constant connection.

The SNR needs to be above 10db otherwise you get synic problems. The easiest way to increase the SNR is to reduce any other loads ,like sky connectors & other devises.

Here's a brief overview of the Attenuation/SNR levels

Line Attenuation
Measure of how much the signal has degraded between the DSLAM and the modem. Maximum signal loss recommendation is usually about 60dB. The lower the dB the better for this measurement.
20dB and below is outstanding
20dB-30dB is excellent
30dB-40dB is very good
40dB-50dB is good
50dB-60dB is poor and may experience connectivity issues
60dB or above is bad and will experience connectivity issues

Noise Margin (AKA Signal to Noise Margin or Signal to Noise Ratio)
Relative strength of the DSL signal to Noise ratio. 6dB is the lowest dB manufactures specify for modem to be able to sync. In some instances interleaving can help raise the noise margin to an acceptable level. The higher the number the better for this measurement.
6dB or below is bad and will experience no sync or intermittent sync problems
7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions
11dB-20dB is good with no sync problems
20dB-28dB is excellent
29dB or above is outstanding

If you have a high Attenuation & low SNR you might want to pester BT for a NTE Master face plate..

http://www.adslnation.com/phpapps/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=90

Hope this helps

 

[bluetipex]

Similar to my ADSL internet connection, it gets cut off often for no apparent reason. It may be common.

But that's not the only problem, at times my computer reboots automatically while I'm trading. The mouse arrow moves vertically up or horizontally across for no reason. While I am filling in the price the cursor jumps to the quantity area, like when a website refreshes automatically it appears at the front suddenly.

It may not be just annonyance, it is something to be taken into consideration when planning trading strategy.

Anon

Your problem sounds like a virus. Everone has their own favourite virus protection software, but I swear by Bitdefender. It's awesome. For spyware, malware etc, lavasoft is also excellent. After using Norton at first, Bitdefender found loads of viruses that it had missed!!!

 

[bluetipex]

HI bluetipex?

Have you recently had a speed up grade on your ADSL ???

Check your Line Attenuation & SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) in the ADSL settings normally found on your routers main page.

The Line Attenuation needs to be less than 43db for a consistent 2mb speed connection.

BT normally only test the attenuation for you ADSL line rating but the SNR is just ( if not more important) for a constant connection.

The SNR needs to be above 10db otherwise you get synic problems. The easiest way to increase the SNR is to reduce any other loads ,like sky connectors & other devises.

Here's a brief overview of the Attenuation/SNR levels


If you have a high Attenuation & low SNR you might want to pester BT for a NTE Master face plate..

http://www.adslnation.com/phpapps/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=90

Hope this helps

Thanks for that a320. Yes, I've recently had an increase in line speed from 512 to 1MB (although the performance is exactly the same). The problem occured (less frequently) before the upgrade. The router is a normal wired one, DG834. Two laptops attached. (one is a backup in case my main one has a problem).

Interestingly the BT helpline guy asked if I had Sky etc, but I haven't. He asked if how many phone points I have, and whether I have cordless phones!! I have 3 phone points and two cordless phones. I'll check out that web link you suggested. I'll also check out my router's home page from the IP address given in the installation guide.

What does the attenuation need to be for a 1MB connection?

I'm interested if anyone experiences problems in stormy whether, especially lightning and thunder????????


Thanks again for that information a320.

Blue

 

[Racer]

And I had 3 drops in connection today, weather here okay

and yes I have frequently found problems on bad weather days, not so bad lately after all the repairs but before that it was terrible

 

[a320]

The limit for 1MB is 60DB attenuation, and for 2MB is 43DB attenuation (also known as loop loss - the loss of signal in db from the exchange to your house) These figures are what BT base their decision on, but are only a guide to the line quality.

Its a very common problem after upgrades to have these problems ( so i'm told by my BT guy)

 

[bluetipex]

The limit for 1MB is 60DB attenuation, and for 2MB is 43DB attenuation (also known as loop loss - the loss of signal in db from the exchange to your house) These figures are what BT base their decision on, but are only a guide to the line quality.

Its a very common problem after upgrades to have these problems ( so i'm told by my BT guy)

Just seen this on the Net gear..

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware/reviews/2004/q2/netgear-dg834.asp

A320

Just checked the settings on my Netgear router ( I assume only the downstream readings are relevant):

Line Attenuation: 47db
Noise Margin: 4db

Now according to your table, my Line Attenuation is good, and Noise Margin terrible. Now, there's no storm tonight in north London, and I'm running neither ESignal nor CMC data feeds. I presume these readings are different when I'm trading during the day, as my connection has not dropped at all today.

Sounds like I'll have to check out the BT faceplate thingy...


Why is life so complicated?????????

 

[a320]

Theirs your problem on the SNR

Is that the level on a light load , with everything unplugged except the router??? With everything out except the router you can normally squeeze it to 10db ish..

If it is then its time to pester BT :cheesy:

 

[bluetipex]

Theirs your problem on the SNR

Is that the level on a light load , with everything unplugged except the router???

If it is then its time to pester BT :cheesy:

This is the reading without unplugging anything (I missed that part of your post).

Maybe it's not a bad idea to unplug my phone whilst I'm trading anyway, don't need any interruptions!!!!

Will this BT faceplate also maintain performance in stormy weather?

Blue

 

[a320]

You should be able to get 9 or 10db with just one phone & the router plugged into your master phone port

If you carn't then you'll need BT to sort out either some form of master plate or worst case re grade the line back down to 512K.

If you can get around 10db the weather wont have any effects

 

[bluetipex]

Bad News

You should be able to get 9 or 10db with just one phone & the router plugged into your master phone port

If you carn't then you'll need BT to sort out either some form of master plate or worst case re grade the line back down to 512K.

If you can get around 10db the weather wont have any effects

Bad News

I've just checked that web site, and I'm positive I already have the face plate!! It's on my main BT socket. From there I have a long extension (15 metres) to my Netgear router. I then have two long cables (10m each) to each laptop. The cables are looped because all the equipment is actually all in close proximity. It's just in case I decide to take the laptops upstairs if I get too lazy to come dowstairs. The cables actually reach every room in the house once untied!!

Looks like I'll have to downgrade back to 512. No worries. The performance wasn't any better on 1MB anyway...

and I'll just have to stand aside in stormy weather!!! I recall the Dow sold off heavily last week during a storm here in London... and no doubt future big moves will occur during stormy weather...

As a last resort I could always resort to that old fashioned method of placing trades by phone!!!

 

[a320]

Ever thought of wifi rather than all those wires :?:

( hope rosso is taking note of all these post on t2w ))

 

[Racer]

You live in London and have problems with 1? I have that now, can't get 2 though cos local exchange not enabled for more than 1
I have few neighbours but all the available options are used for each neighbour, and the overhead cables are thrown around in the wind, tree damage, shotgun damage, electric fence noise.
But, I disconnected sky, have one phone (not wireless) and one connection to my router less than 2 metre from BT socket with one filter, an outside bell.
I then use long cables from my router for 5 computers with wireless enabled for laptop

After lots of complaints as I posted earlier, BT did a lot of repairs to my line and it is completely different. today yes I had 3 disconnects but that is not bad because I have had about 5 in the last month... it hasn't happened for some time now and far superior. If the disconnects get much worse I will be phoning BT again to repair my line yet again!

 

[bluetipex]

You live in London and have problems with 1? I have that now, can't get 2 though cos local exchange not enabled for more than 1
I have few neighbours but all the available options are used for each neighbour, and the overhead cables are thrown around in the wind, tree damage, shotgun damage, electric fence noise.
But, I disconnected sky, have one phone (not wireless) and one connection to my router less than 2 metre from router with one filter, an outside bell.
I then use cables from my router for 5 computers with wireless.

After lots of complaints as I posted earlier, BT did a lot of repairs to my line and it is completely different. today yes I had 3 disconnects but that is not bad... it hasn't happened for some time now and far superior. If the disconnects get much worse I will be phoning BT again to repair my line yet again!

Like you, my exchange can only give 1MB maximum.

Do you think that a wireless connection would solve the problem???????

If so I'll go and buy the relevant equipment on Tuesday!!!

When I last looked into wireless it still had security issues, i.e people in the vicinity could either use your connection or see the same screen you're viewing as you, or both. Occasionally my Sony Viao says that a wireless connection is available to connect to. Obviously my neighbour is using his wireless connection, but when I tried to connect it wouldn't let me. Obviously his security is good, otherwise I could have used his connection!!

Maybe I should re-visit the wireless concept, as the technology may have improved...

 

[Racer]

I don't have any problems with neigbours accessing my wireless network because I have very few in a square mile!! But you can set it to secure anyway.
I have lots of long network cables

I have a Netgear DG834G wireless firewall router

 

[a320]

if you can get a stable SNR around 10db with just the router & phone in the master socket I would look into it..

If you have to have a 15m cable make sure its a high speed gold one like the Belkin for example
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProd...nt_Id=&Section_Id=15&pcount=&Product_Id=70836

As for routers the most stable ones ( according to my PC guy ) are the conexant based chip sets.

I use this one , nothing fancy ( it was recommend by they guy would runs a wifi pc shop & builds my base stations) Its rock solid & its been running constant for nearly a year, with a solid signal thought my house. I've lost count how many times people have said stear clear of the main brands ect..And its not worth paying the premium for the models.

http://specialreserve.co.uk/Etec-Wireless-ADSL-B_4526_r.html