Unstable Internet issues

  • Thread starter Shoogar
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Shoogar

Premium
637
Australia
Melbourne
Sweet-Shoogar
Hey guys, I recently upgraded my internet from ADSL2+ to Cable and I have a couple of questions;

#1: My friend around the corner has the exact same plan as we do, but he gets 100MB/s download and 2.2MB/s upload, on wired and wireless, I only receive about a third of that, I get a fluctuant 22-30MB/s down and a stable 1-1.1MB/s up. How come his is so much faster than mine?

#2: My PS3 seems to receive slower download speeds (4-5MB/s download) but it can maintain a steady upload (800kb/s-900kb/s) but it is really unstable when it comes to PSN, for example, i've been playing games online for a couple of hours now, i've been booted from 3-4 lobbies just due to my internet cutting out on the PS3 (Works on the computer still), and I get signed out of PSN every hour or so. This tends to happen more around 7-8PM AEST (GMT+10).

#3: When I host lobbies on games like Call of Duty, I get really random connection spikes, where it gives everyone poor connection for a few seconds, this is probably why I get kicked from other games as well, then goes back to its normal speed.

How come it's so unstable?

I have a Netgear CG3100D-2BPAUS EuroDOCSIS 3.0
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EDIT:

For future references
 
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Check your ping using www.pingtest.net , see what it says. If you're getting anything besides an A or B rank, contact your ISP. What might have happened, and this is actually really common with DSL connections, the lines in your house may be too old to actually fully support the speeds you're getting. As a result, it'll suffer horribly. Call your ISP and tell them you'd like a technician to be dispatched to your house.
 
Check your ping using www.pingtest.net , see what it says. If you're getting anything besides an A or B rank, contact your ISP. What might have happened, and this is actually really common with DSL connections, the lines in your house may be too old to actually fully support the speeds you're getting. As a result, it'll suffer horribly. Call your ISP and tell them you'd like a technician to be dispatched to your house.

We had to dig a trench in the side of the house so they could come and lay the cables, my original thought on why it was slower was due to it being wireless, but I tested my speed out on a wired ethernet cable and got the exact same results.

As for the ping test,
 
How are the cables inside the house, your wall sockets and such?

Or is everything new up to the modem?
 
How are the cables inside the house, your wall sockets and such?

Or is everything new up to the modem?

Everything up to the modem is brand new.

I would rather fix the stability over the speed though, as the speed is fine for what I need and i'm sure fixing it is only a phone call away.
 
You need to call your ISP, they probably can log into your modem, and then they can spot if there is anything wrong with the signal, or maybe even the modem/router itself.
 
You need to call your ISP, they probably can log into your modem, and then they can spot if there is anything wrong with the signal, or maybe even the modem/router itself.

I can view all that myself, if any tech guru wants to jump on Skype or something and screen-share with me. Otherwise it looks like i'm going to have to call my ISP and sit on hold for an hour. :sly:


Called my ISP, I was given the usual "Turn your router on and off" - which seemed to make the problem even worse. I can't even sign in to PSN now. I was then told that they would send a technician around next weekend. This is the third time i've had one come around. I must say, i'm disappointed considering I'm paying almost double what I was and i'm not receiving the promised '10x faster speed'
 
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Maybe your ISP is holding back the speed on peak hours? They used to do this in the Netherlands..

Doesn't explain your other problems though.

These are my modems signal specs :
Downstream:
Power Level: Signal to Noise Ratio:
Channel 1: -4.4 dBmV 37.9 dB
Channel 2: -4.6 dBmV 37.9 dB
Channel 3: -5.1 dBmV 37.3 dB
Channel 4: -5.5 dBmV 37.2 dB

Upstream:
Channel 1: 48.7 dBmV

Maybe it helps you, I don't know if that kind of information works on different modems and such.
 
Maybe your ISP is holding back the speed on peak hours? They used to do this in the Netherlands..

Doesn't explain your other problems though.

These are my modems signal specs :
Downstream:
Power Level: Signal to Noise Ratio:
Channel 1: -4.4 dBmV 37.9 dB
Channel 2: -4.6 dBmV 37.9 dB
Channel 3: -5.1 dBmV 37.3 dB
Channel 4: -5.5 dBmV 37.2 dB

Upstream:
Channel 1: 48.7 dBmV

Maybe it helps you, I don't know if that kind of information works on different modems and such.

We were told Channel 6 would be the best for our modem, so we changed to that and it seemed to have a bit of an impact on the speed, but since calling them the only thing that's happened is me losing some speed.

 
You can change the channel of your modem? Are you sure they weren't talking about the wireless signal?
 
I meant best wireless channel for our modem. Sorry.

So, call your ISP, let them check your modems signal. Not the router part of your modem.

Or someone with a bit more knowledge about the specs I posted earlier should pop in.
 
So, call your ISP, let them check your modems signal. Not the router part of your modem.

Or someone with a bit more knowledge about the specs I posted earlier should pop in.

Im on the phone with them again now.

Well, after much deliberation with the man on the phone he has come to the conclusion that our plan, although it was initiated two weeks ago, had been put through on a pending note on Thursday. So we're on the lower plan, even though we're paying for the higher one. We have to wait until next week for the plan to go through and for them to activate the full speeds of our plan.

They're also sending out a technician to come and fix the stability of our router.

Still can't access PSN. :(
 
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This may be way off the mark but try to determine what other sockets in your house share the same circuit as the one your router is on. If you have any high current appliances which turn themselves on and off (like a fridge, for example) on the same line then there may be fluctuating voltages on the router's power supply which could cause problems. Also make sure it's plugged directly into the wall and not a power strip or surge protector or anything like that. I found a forum discussing a similar issue to yours except the router in question was that hateful piece of crap known as a 2wire 2700 so maybe it doesn't apply here, but it could be worth thinking about.

Edit: my connection is about as unstable as a connection can be before it can be legally declassified from 'ADSL2+' to 'yogurt pots and string' so I can definitely feel your pain, except we've been told that we're not getting fibre optic here for years and we're just too far from the nearest exchange to have an acceptably low amount of noise.
 
my connection is about as unstable as a connection can be before it can be legally declassified from 'ADSL2+' to 'yogurt pots and string' so I can definitely feel your pain, except we've been told that we're not getting fibre optic here for years and we're just too far from the nearest exchange to have an acceptably low amount of noise.

Yeah, the guy on the phone was like:
"Well, you're getting between 18MB/s and 30MB/s, and the minimum we supply for your plan is 6.8MB/s, so you are actually not having any problems." I had to hold back the "Are you 🤬 serious?" remarks.

What's even worse is the fact that they didn't even realise we were on the top plan. They're supplying us with a lower package, without notification or anything.

Now all I have to do is wait until Friday to see if my bundle request has gone through, thus fixing out plan. Still can't believe it took them two weeks to put forward our bundle plan.
 
Yeah, the guy on the phone was like:
"Well, you're getting between 18MB/s and 30MB/s, and the minimum we supply for your plan is 6.8MB/s, so you are actually not having any problems." I had to hold back the "Are you 🤬 serious?" remarks.

What's even worse is the fact that they didn't even realise we were on the top plan. They're supplying us with a lower package, without notification or anything.

Now all I have to do is wait until Friday to see if my bundle request has gone through, thus fixing out plan. Still can't believe it took them two weeks to put forward our bundle plan.

Good for holding back the anger. I had trouble with my router when we upgraded out net, and was getting 6 out of 12Mbps download, and was getting a partially full upload speed from my router. It turns out, the line in our kitchen was terribly old, but the line in my fathers room was brand spankin new. A technician came by, did the whole thing for free, tuned the lines up, and after that, everything was fine.

The thing to remember about tech support though.. Is when you're not getting anywhere with one person, don't fight it and think they can help you if you know they can't, just tell them you'd like to be elevated to the next level of support. If they tell you they're the only level, and it takes them a minute to respond to you with a cookie cutter response, they're lying to you. Ask again, and if they say the same thing, ask to speak to their supervisor, or hiring manager, and ask for their employee number. :sly: If they don't move you along after that. They're pretty much useless and it'd be better to call back again and get a different person. I've dealt with my ISP over the phone many times now and with our current internet plan, I've actually been put onto the account as someone who can make decisions if necessary. All ISP's are basically the same though, just talk to them the right way and you'll get all the help you need and more.
 
Just thought i'd give you guys an update. I am really disappointed.

EDIT: I can't even get the forum link, I have to screen shot.



I've also disabled internet access to my PS3 to see if it changes the result.. I ended up with this.



I've used 4% of my 500GB. Really really disappointed with my ISP.
 
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