D620 slow

[JohnathanStein]

My internet speed should be 10 mbps but varies considerably, from 2.5 to about 8.

The semi-English speakers at CenturyLink tell me it's the modem's fault, it should be factory reset, it's not from THEM, et cetera ad nauseum.

The settings they say to look for are:

TRANSPORT TYPE:  LCTL NETWORK ADSL2

VPI/VCI:  8/35

ENCODING:  IPOE

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

--Johnathan

[michaelkenward]

Make that D6200.

Did you find this?

D6200 FAQs | Answer | NETGEAR Support

[JohnathanStein]

Thanks for the reference, I'll bookmark it.

Current settings are correct.

CenturyLink has checked connections, both at home and (allegedly) at wherever the other end is.

The "Link Rate" ALWAYS shows the right speed (see attached), but "SpeedTest.net" varies from 2.5 to 8 mbps.

[michaelkenward]

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@JohnathanStein wrote:
The "Link Rate" ALWAYS shows the right speed (see attached), but "SpeedTest.net" varies from 2.5 to 8 mbps.

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That's par for the course for an ADSL connection, especially if you are using speedtest on a wifi link.

[JohnathanStein]

Why does the LinkRate not match -- or even come close -- the SpeedTest results?

Centurylink swears everything is wonderful, while I'm seeing 2.5 mbps!  Why can't they see the slowdown?

FYI, I mainly used the PC to check, which is hardwired.

Checked with SpeedTest on Android -- sometimes, the WiFi gave better results, although that could just be variation...

[michaelkenward]

You said you got speeds between 2.5 and 8 Mbps. I took this to mean that your download speed wobbled between 2.5 an 8 Mbps.

The LinkRate, not a term that Netgear seems to use for ADSL connections, probably measures the speed that you are connected at. Not the speed that you will receive.

Think of it like a highway. It may have a 70 mph speed limit but when the roads are busy you may be luck to do 30 mph, not matter what the sign says.

Have you tried to find a pattern in the speeds you see? When I had ADSL I could see that everything slowed down when everyone was on line.

These days I don't see that, but my VDSL connection is >70 Mbps.

[JohnathanStein]

>> It may have a 70 mph speed limit but when the roads are busy you may be luck to do 30 mph, not matter what the sign says.

Yeah, I get that, but...if I'm PAYING for 10 mbps, I kinda expect to GET 10 mbps.  The technical wizardry to make it happen is the ISP's problem.  I'm in the country, and that is the highest they offer -- at TWICE the price charged in the city (45+min away), about $55/month.

>>my VDSL connection is >70 Mbps.

I hate you.  Nothing personal, but you'll get no Xmas cards from ME, sir!  (Especially virtual ones!)

[michaelkenward]

Do you know what other people in the neighbourhood get?

With a promised 10 Mbps, I'd expect to get a maximum of 9 Mbps, depending on local conditions. I would not expect it to fall to 2 Mbps that often, especially if I sometimes get 8 Mbps. To me that smells strongly of an ISP that is shortchanging customers.

The bad news is that there isn't much that your modem can do about it. That you get 8 Mbps, albeit briefly,  tells me that it is doing its best. If it were a modem thing, you shouldn't see that variability.

When I was on ADSL I did see that sort of variation., It turned out that the cover had fallen of a junction box about 80 metres away. Rain got in and the speed plummeted  when it got wet. Took me months to convince the ISP to send someone out. They took about 10 minutes to spot the problem and an hour to fix it.

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JohnathanStein wrote:

>>my VDSL connection is >70 Mbps.

I hate you.  Nothing personal, but you'll get no Xmas cards from ME, sir!  (Especially virtual ones!)

---

Sorry about that, my on-line computing started in the dial-up days, when speeds were .000300 Mbps, rising to a staggering .001200 and then .002400.

[antinode]

> The LinkRate, not a term that Netgear seems to use for ADSL
> connections, [...]

   Not really.  Around here (D7000, V1.0.1.50_1.0.1) for example,
ADVANCED > ADVANCED Home : Internet Port > Show Statistics says things
like:

         ADSL Link      Downstream    Upstream
         Link Rate      7168 Kbps     896 Kbps
      Line Attenuation   27.5 dB      18.0 dB
        Noise Margin      8.2 dB      19.0 dB

   My speedtest.net results are generally close to 5.7Mb/s and 0.75Mb/s.
In my experience, CenturyLink tends to be satisfied with anything within
20% of the link rate(s).  I don't check frequently, but I don't recall
seeing much variation in those results.  If the line were the problem,
then I'd expect the DSLAM (their end) and modem (your end) to negotiate
a lower link rate.

   I wouldn't expect much, but you might check into the usual
suggestions for router sloth (QoS, access control, ...).

[JohnathanStein]

>>my on-line computing started in the dial-up days, when speeds were .000300 Mbps, rising to a staggering .001200 and then .002400

Heh.  Yeah, back when FidoNet and CompuServe were in vogue and I had a monster 10 mb hard drive.  Now, my kids get ticked off when the MineCraft server they're playing on lags.  My sympathy is somewhat limited...

I don't hate you QUITE as much as a buddy of mine in PA, who complains about Steam download times on his twin 150 mbps lines, which he has for his QuakeLive game servers.

He doesn't get Xmas cards from me, either...

[JohnathanStein]

>>I wouldn't expect much, but you might check into the usual
suggestions for router sloth (QoS, access control, ...).

I've set my main machine to highest level under QOS.  Haven't played with access control.

If you have any specific suggestions, I am all ears.

[JohnathanStein]

>>When I was on ADSL I did see that sort of variation., It turned out that the cover had fallen of a junction box about 80 metres away. Rain got in and the speed plummeted  when it got wet. 

Funny you should mention that -- when it rains, speed seems to drop.  <sigh>I'll see about tracking that in a spreadsheet...

>>I would not expect it to fall to 2 Mbps that often, especially if I sometimes get 8 Mbps. To me that smells strongly of an ISP that is shortchanging customers.

Yeah, but...how do I prove either that -- or a rain issue?

[michaelkenward]

You will find no mention of the word "linkrate" in any of Netgear's documentation. At least, not the 495 documents that I have on file.

[michaelkenward]

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JohnathanStein wrote:Now, my kids get ticked off when the MineCraft server they're playing on lags.   

---

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You have my sympathy.Truculent kids must be a nightmare.

Can we join up and hate the people who turn up here with complaints about their gigabit internet service? So fast that we have to tell them to turn off QoS as an unnecessary feature.

Here in the UK, the Internet service providers would find themselves pilloried if they supplied the sort of speed you see. Then again, our government has thrown money at them to fix the issue. Partly because slow internet speeds can push down the price of housing. (First world problems?)

Likewise, in Australia an expensive government initiative (NBN) has caused much grief.

PS My first email address was 100015.1021@compuserve.com. Those were the days.

[JohnathanStein]

>>Can we join up and hate the people who turn up here with complaints about their gigabit internet service?

If you start a club, count me in.  Doubt I'll ever see anything close, out here in the country, where the roads are a mile apart...don't even get cable.  Phone company DSL is the only choice.  Except for satellite, but ping is way too high.

>>PS My first email address was 100015.1021@compuserve.com. Those were the days.

Heh.  Mine was 76576.470@compuserve.com, but of course, didn't need the domain if you used TAPCIS.

[JohnathanStein]

>>You will find no mention of the word "linkrate" in any of Netgear's documentation

Uh, it's on the screen when you click SHOW STATISTICS from the INTERNET PORT box on the ADVANCE menu...

[michaelkenward]

Do keep up. On that page I see no mention of the word "linkrate".Of even "link rate", which Netgear uses to describe speeds between Powerline plugs.

But let's not forget that we are here to help people to solve problems, not to prove how clever we are.

On that page I see references to connection speed, downstream, and upstream.

Show Statistics

System Up Time 5 days 04:25:45

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time WAN ADSL Link 19006749 34790891 0 4921 6674 5 days 04:23:15 LAN1 10M/Full 34800208 21078638 0 7816 5974 5 days 04:24:45 LAN2 1000M/Full 3 days 01:35:22 LAN3 1000M/Full 11:42:28 LAN4 1000M/Full 5 days 04:24:45 2.4G WLAN b/g/n 300M 1896389 1073575 0 2747 579 5 days 04:24:42 5G WLAN a/n/ac 1300M 1270575 430611 0 1400 111 5 days 04:24:42

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream Connection Speed 79999 kbps 16199 kbps Line Attenuation D0( 14.5) D1( 37.9) D2( 58.8) dB U0( 5.3) U1( 30.1) U2( 47.2) U3(N/A) U4(N/A) dB Noise Margin D0( 9.1) D1( 5.6) D2( 5.7) dB U0( 6.2) U1( 6.3) U2( 6.3) U3(N/A) U4(N/A) dB

Apologies to @JohnathanStein for rubbing salt into the wound.

I mentioned the word originally because using it can confuse the issue of the speed at which someone connects to the Internet versus the download speeds that they experience. I wanted to get to the bottom of that, to try to understand if it was an ISP thing, or something that a better modem might fix.

My conclusion, based on that and past experience with crummy ADSL links, is that in this case it is an ISP thing, but I also suggested ways of trying to pin that down, like asking other customers what they see.

[JohnathanStein]

Is that page from a manual, or your 6200 router?  It's different than mine.

Mine says "Link Rate"; I assume that is connection speed.  Have attached screen-shot.

[antinode]

> Mine says "Link Rate"; I assume that is connection speed.  Have
> attached screen-shot.

   Just like my D7000, from which I copied the stuff I posted.  It's the
raw DSL speed.  I guess that neither of us is able to keep up.  Perhaps
we both need a factory reset.

[JohnathanStein]

>> I wanted to get to the bottom of that, to try to understand if it was an ISP thing, or something that a better modem might fix.

>>but I also suggested ways of trying to pin that down, like asking other customers what they see.

The modem is 1 1/2 years old; I got it shortly after I upgraded my service from 3 to 10 mbps.

I appreciate your effort.  I understand what you're getting at, but the fluctuation is random, and if there is no objective way of testing and pointing out the variation to the ISP, it will avail nought, based on my experience dealing with them.  The experience of their online and phone technical support people is low-level at best -- they seem to read out of a manual.

[michaelkenward]

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@JohnathanStein wrote:

Is that page from a manual, or your 6200 router?  It's different than mine.

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Copied and pasted from the browser interface.

If your connection speed, or whatever you want to call the speed at which your modem connect to the network, remains constant, but you see changing download rates, that almost certainly means that your ISP is overloaded. When everyone goes on line they have to share the available capacity.