Problem with wi-fi (very odd)

[SteveR]

Hi all, I wonder if anybodfy can help with a very odd problem that I am unable to trace.

Recently I purchased a new BiPac7800N to replace a failed Netgear. Set up absolutely fine and all
the many devices in the house (laptops, PCs, phones, ipods etc) have been absolutely
fine....except for my main PC which did not exhibit any of the following problems before on the
old Netgear.

It works perfectly for 70% of the time under DHCP on the wi-fi (N).
The other 30% of the time the PC exhibits the following behaviour, on a seemingly random basis...

For 28% of this 30% my PC simply cannot see the web or even the router admin pages. You can
request a page and sometimes it eventually downloads the page after 2 or 3 minutes of a blank
screen or the browser times out. Almost as though the wi-fi/broadband has been reduced to a very
very slow speed. During all this time Windows reports that the wi-fi strength, conenctivity to the
internet is all fine (wi-fi never gets below 90Mb/s as reported by Windows) and all my other
devices in the house can browse fine.

The other 2% of the 30% Windows reports that internet connectivity has been lost - yet the wi-fi
is reported to be fine. Although I still cannot browse the admin pages of the router. And again
nothing else in the house if affected and works fine.

It feels like my wi-fi is being throttled big time by something!

Then after 30-45 mins it sorts itself out by itself and all is well again for a few hours or a day
or so.

I am a little baffled. Clearly the router is OK but there must be something that my PC does that
conflicts with how the router is configured. It's a really basic router set up - just the very
basics re wi-fi WPA2 security and the rest left as default.

Router is firmware 1.06e, hardware version Annex A.
PC is a new Corei7, 8Gb, Win7 x64. The adapter is an Edimax EW-7612PIn Wireless PCI-e

I have tried the following:
Resetting the router.
Removing the adapter device, drivers, the windows network etc and re-instating.
Using the Win7 network troubleshooter (I do find that works great sometimes!)
Disconnecting and re-joining the wi-fi.
Although my other devices are fine, I have ensured that my wi-fi is broadcasting in clear channels from the neighbours and all that!

I wonder if anybody has any ideas as to what I might try next?

Really appreciate any help.
Many thanks, starting to drive me insane
steve

[Tomken]

Not really sure what it could be but does it still do this when the pc is wired and/or with just the pc switched on.

You could try assigning a Static IP to the pc to see if that resolves the issue (?)

Have you checked in telnet to see what the error count is ?

[SteveR]

Thanks Tomken, have just set it up with a static IP so we will see how we go - working at moment!

I am not sure how to look in telnet, I will have a Google to see!

Thanks
Steve

[Tomken]

Telnet isn't default switched on in Win7.

To activate it, go to Start >> Control Panel >> All Control Panel Items >> Progs and Features : In the left panel click on Turn Windows Features on or off.

Wait until they load then scroll down and tick the Telnet Client box.

To access Telnet go Start >> type telnet 192.168.1.254 >> Enter and at the Login prompt type admin >> Enter then admin >> Enter again (if you haven't changed the password).

While you will be able to see admin at the Login prompt, it remains blank for the password.

At the next prompt type adsl info --stats >> Enter

To close telnet type logout You don't need to return to its prompt for this, it auto enters it there.

[SteveR]

Well with a static IP the problem seems to remain

I have now produced the the telnet info as follows (thanks for the help with this) - no idea what most of it means though!! Certainly can see some CRC errors on there - is that what we are looking for?

Thanks
Steve



> adsl info --stats
adsl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 1
Max: Upstream rate = 1088 Kbps, Downstream rate = 8640 Kbps
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 448 Kbps, Downstream rate = 7616 Kbps

Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
TPS-TC: ATM Mode
Trellis: OFF
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 6.7 23.0
Attn(dB): 19.0 13.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.7 11.9
G.dmt framing
K: 239(0) 15
R: 16 16
S: 1 8
D: 16 2
Counters
SF: 9223410 9223506
SFErr: 81 119
RS: 627191926 78398798
RSCorr: 319041 43
RSUnCorr: 725 0

HEC: 71 0
OCD: 4 120
LCD: 0 2
Total Cells: 2816374431 0
Data Cells: 47592383 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 286 0
SES: 96 0
UAS: 115 115
AS: 156800

INP: 0.50 0.94
PER: 1.75 1.75
delay: 4.00 4.00
OR: 32.00 32.00

Bitswap: 26686 1

Total time = 1 days 18 hours 22 min 40 sec
FEC: 3551122 0
CRC: 5631 0
ES: 286 0
SES: 96 0
UAS: 115 115
LOS: 5 0
LOF: 45 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 7 min 40 sec
FEC: 1133 0
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
FEC: 2097 0
CRC: 2 0
ES: 1 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
Latest 1 day time = 18 hours 22 min 40 sec
FEC: 152826 0
CRC: 12 0
ES: 7 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
Previous 1 day time = 24 hours 0 sec
FEC: 141374 0
CRC: 66 0
ES: 26 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
Since Link time = 1 days 19 hours 33 min 19 sec
FEC: 319041 43
CRC: 81 119
ES: 36 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
>

[Tomken]

This site http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php is very informative and should answer your questions regarding line stats, errors etc. Also read up on the MTU section as that can affect browsing.

The current page it's set on is to give you some idea of the speeds you should be getting in relation to your Downstream Attenuation and I'm puzzled as to why you are on G.Dmt with that Attenuation, as G.Dmt is as a more stable alternative for those with longer lines and your 19dB (Downstream Atten./13.81), puts you only about 1.4kms from the exchange and should sync okay on ADSL 2+, allowing you to select all modes in the router.

The Downstream SNRM is fine at 6dB as this is deemed the minimum for a stable connection, but depending on the router's chipset, can be lower/lowered to give a higher speed and still stable connection. The Upstream SNRM looks quite high but I've seen that in another example on the forum without any (as far as I know) detrimental effect.

You may not know yet that the 7800N has a hidden page for tweaking the Downstream SNRM and this is accessed by logging into the router then entering 192.168.1.254/snr.html

The Value should be set to -1 (Default) but on mine when I first went into it, it was showing as zero and whenever you change it, will effect a resync.

This site http://www.spaldwick.com/broadband/billion-7800n provides the values you can use if you want to try some tweaking by lowering the SNRM. A reduction of 3dB will increase the speed by approx 300kbs and if you want to increase the SNRM, should you need to for stability as a temporary measure, rather than contacting your ISP, then entering a value of 150 will increase it by 3dB from your default setting and a value of 200 will increase it by 6dB respectively.

The Downstream FECs look a little high for the sync time and the CRCs are neglible so stability shouldn't be a problem. The UAS seems high though and these, for me occur within the first 47 seconds of initial sync and on mine are usually about 34. When I get them as high as you have, I tend to experience some lag and pending disconnect.

If you navigate through the Kitz site :- Line Stats/Stats Explanation then Stats Errors will give you some understanding of what Telnet has produced.

Enabling Trellis (see Kitz for explanation), provided it's used at both ends and I believe that's the norm, will further assist your browsing but the puzzler is still why your main pc lags so much and the others don't, so this may help with that.

To enable Trellis go back into Telnet and after you've logged in, at the cmd prompt type adsl configure --trellis on >> Enter

Entering adsl --help will display all of the telnet cmds.

You didn't answer if the pc reacts the same way when it is wired.

I can't think of anything else at the moment so see how you get on with those adjustments.

[SteveR]

Thanks Tomken, for the great advice and great link - the 'kitz' website is excellent isn't it.

I have moved the router near to the PC (5m away). I am able to do a physical connection but I am going to give it a day or so to see if the problems I get change in nature. I am wondering if this is a wi-fi thing....with the router in the intial place in the house I always got a good signal strength but (according to Windows) it could vary up and down between 90 and 120Mbs frequently. I wonder if my wi-fi adapter on the PC struggles to adapt with this variation - when it fluctuates I wonder if this stalls my wi-fi for a bit - don't know why but it might fit in with the apparent randomness of this problem.

Where the router is now provides a consistent wi-fi strength and I will try it like this for a bit to see how it goes. If it fixes the problem then guess it's a wi-fi issue. The router probably needs to go back to it's original location but I'll pick up a powerline thing to conenct my PC through the house powerlines which will sort it.

If it doesn't then I cable it up and see from there.

I will keep you posted, thank you very much for your help. I will head off shortly and investigate the ASDL setting you spoke of as well, looks interesting!

Thank you again
Steve

[Tomken]

Hi Steve,

Yes, I've always found the Kitz site to be a great source of reference but my memory tends to a bit selective these days, when it comes to retaining the technical decriptions/definitions so it's sufficient that I am aware of them and if need be, go back for a refresher

I'll look forward to your update.

Tom

[tinytim]

The current page it's set on is to give you some idea of the speeds you should be getting in relation to your Downstream Attenuation and I'm puzzled as to why you are on G.Dmt with that Attenuation, as G.Dmt is as a more stable alternative for those with longer lines and your 19dB (Downstream Atten./13.81), puts you only about 1.4kms from the exchange and should sync okay on ADSL 2+, allowing you to select all modes in the router.

The Downstream SNRM is fine at 6dB as this is deemed the minimum for a stable connection, but depending on the router's chipset, can be lower/lowered to give a higher speed and still stable connection. The Upstream SNRM looks quite high but I've seen that in another example on the forum without any (as far as I know) detrimental effect.

You may not know yet that the 7800N has a hidden page for tweaking the Downstream SNRM and this is accessed by logging into the router then entering 192.168.1.254/snr.html

The Value should be set to -1 (Default) but on mine when I first went into it, it was showing as zero and whenever you change it, will effect a resync.

This site http://www.spaldwick.com/broadband/billion-7800n provides the values you can use if you want to try some tweaking by lowering the SNRM. A reduction of 3dB will increase the speed by approx 300kbs and if you want to increase the SNRM, should you need to for stability as a temporary measure, rather than contacting your ISP, then entering a value of 150 will increase it by 3dB from your default setting and a value of 200 will increase it by 6dB respectively.

SteveR is on an 8meg ADSL Max connection (clue is the 448kbps upstream) so will always be on ADSL1/G.Dmt. With such a connection there's not a lot of point trying to tweak the SNRM as he's already getting the best possible speed.

[SteveR]

Just posting a quick update....

After moving the router next to my "problem PC" the issue dissapeared completely. So obviously something odd with my PC with a varying or weaker signal - which wasn't an problem with a crappy old G Netgear. Mmm....anyway cut my losses (life is too short) and bought some powerline adapters - installed easy and everything is now hunky dory Backing up to my NAS at 185Mbs (it's a 200Mbs powerline) so quite cool. Even got my network canon inkjet to work reliably with a wired connection on a poweline adapter - was useless on the wi-fi! Have to say wired netrworks you cannot beat for ease!

So thanks for the help but we're cooking with gas now!

regards
Steve