Livebox cabling advice

[Jason56d]

My 2 oldest boys live with my ex (enough said really!) and are having problems with connection speeds from their Orange livebox. They used to get about 8mb, but now it struggles to 1.3mb.

I believe it is the telephone wiring in their house. It's old. very tatty and I can make head nor tail of how it's done, or where it runs to....

Before I attempt to run a new telephone extension line to their bedroom, would this be better to start with?

Plug the livebox into the master telephone socket, which is in their mum's bedroom next door to their room, and run a 10m RJ45 cable to the PC and another to their PS3 which are in their bedroom?

Have ordered a couple of RJ45's in anticipation.

My ex will not spend any money getting the telephone wire checked.

If anyone has any other suggestions, fire away!

Thanks.

 

[Amran]

Hi,

did you try opening the master socket face plate and try testing it in the test socket to check if the speed is better or slow. Also speed can be slow due to interference on line due to microwave, radio, tv, speaker etc. these can cause speed loss. Last not least are you testing the speed using wireless if you are did you try changing wireless channel because wireless channel can interfer with neighbour channel if your on same one as them. And what speed do you get if you using ethernet cable ?

here a software that you can use to check neighbour channel and change it to a free channel that is not in use.
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

mac:
http://www.istumbler.net/

 

[Jason56d]

No, have not checked the speed from the master socket yet. The router is currently plugged into a telephone extension lead an used to be when try used to get 8mb.

Speed test was done by Ethernet, not wireless.

Been thinking about it and everything is the same as before, so either my tight wad of an ex has gone for a lower speed package or there is a problem with the extension lead.

Moving the router to the master socket and using longer rj45's should tell me for certain though shouldn't it?

 

[beerhunter]

Plug the livebox into the master telephone socket, which is in their mum's bedroom next door to their room, and run a 10m RJ45 cable to the PC and another to their PS3 which are in their bedroom?

Have ordered a couple of RJ45's in anticipation.

Yes but you don't need two cables. Just run one from the router and put a cheap Ethernet switch at the other end.

However, I would also check out the internal telephone wiring as well.

 

[EndlessWaves]

The first thing to do is to actually check the problem is that side of the router.

Log into the router control panel (IIRC the Livebox is http://192.168.1.1) and check that the sync speed has dropped from ~9000 to ~1500. If it's still syncing above 8000 then there's probably no point in fiddling around with the telephone wiring to begin with.

 

[Amran]

Did you try changing the micro filter ? this can cause speed loss. Also if you have spare router try and see if speed improve if it does then it might mean router is faulty.

 

[Jason56d]

The first thing to do is to actually check the problem is that side of the router.

Log into the router control panel (IIRC the Livebox is http://192.168.1.1) and check that the sync speed has dropped from ~9000 to ~1500. If it's still syncing above 8000 then there's probably no point in fiddling around with the telephone wiring to begin with.

Thanks for that. Not sure where to look though, so I logged into their PC remotely and had a look at the configurations and saw this. Is this what you mean? If not, can you explain in thicko terms where I need to look!

Does the attainable figure mean they are only on a 2mb package?

 

[Jason56d]

Did you try changing the micro filter ? this can cause speed loss. Also if you have spare router try and see if speed improve if it does then it might mean router is faulty.

Yup, changed to a brand new one and a brand new ADSL cable.

Could I get any router to work? They do not have another livebox, but I may be able to get hold of a Sky Netgear or old BT router?

 

[EndlessWaves]

Does the attainable figure mean they are only on a 2mb package?

A 448Kbps upload means it is an ADSLMax package and not a fixed rate 2Mbps package (the old style of ADSL that's still available on the network but not offered by many ISPs).

It may be capped by Orange but I believe that connections capped like that are done through a forcing a lower rate, which should make the noise margin much higher. As 7 is around what you'd expect from an ADSL connecting
syncing as fast as it can I don't think it's that.

With 32 attenuation I'd certainly expect a much higher speed than 2Mbps, for comparison my connection has 29 attenuation and I'm syncing at 7.6Mbps so I wouldn't expect your to be very much less (more attenuation is bad as you'd expect, ADSL keeps working up until 70 or so).

 

[Jason56d]

A 448Kbps upload means it is an ADSLMax package and not a fixed rate 2Mbps package (the old style of ADSL that's still available on the network but not offered by many ISPs).

It may be capped by Orange but I believe that connections capped like that are done through a forcing a lower rate, which should make the noise margin much higher. As 7 is around what you'd expect from an ADSL connecting
syncing as fast as it can I don't think it's that.

With 32 attenuation I'd certainly expect a much higher speed than 2Mbps, for comparison my connection has 29 attenuation and I'm syncing at 7.6Mbps so I wouldn't expect your to be very much less (more attenuation is bad as you'd expect, ADSL keeps working up until 70 or so).

So, if I am reading it correctly, you believe that they should be receiving more than they are now? In theory, up to their old 8 mb speed?

So could be a problem with the router?

 

[Jason56d]

Managed to get hold of a netgear router and a Virgin wireless router to try. Will I be wasting my time, or worth a go?

 

[EndlessWaves]

Managed to get hold of a netgear router and a Virgin wireless router to try. Will I be wasting my time, or worth a go?

Some ISPs will require a specific router, I'm not sure about orange. The router may be the problem.

And yes, I am saying it looks like their line is capable of 6Mbps or so (or double that if they have Orange ADSL2+).

I'm not sure what the two figures in the Livebox profile are, I'd expect two figures to be the sync speed (the speed your line is connected at) and the IP Profile (the maximum speed you can download at, slightly lower to avoid problems), however, IP Profile can only be certain numbers and neither of the numbers listed are there. Hopefully someone who knows something about the Orange Livebox can enlighten us.

A couple of others things to look at:

1. Have you checked all in use phone sockets have a microfilter and that they're all working? It's not just the one connected directly to the router that can affect this.

2. If you have access to a windows computer connected to the network during the evening then it might be worth installing routerstats lite to monitor the connection speed and noise margin. This is particularly useful for spotting a noisy connection as that should cause disconnects (the connection speed dropping to zero and/or reconnecting at a slightly different speed) and the noise margin average to hover around 0.

I had this problem myself and after opening the phone socket I discovered I had an extra loop of wire connected just to the house side of the phone wiring (the old bell wire) that was picking up interference and interfering with my connecting. After disconnecting it in the socket the router was using my connection no longer disconnects and the sync speed jumped from 5000 to 7600.

 

[Jason56d]

EndlessWaves, thanks again for all your help. I want this sorted out for my boys as I know what a pain a bad connection can be like. That's why I have literally (15 mins ago) just ordered BT Infinity at my house and its being installed next Thursday!

Last night, my eldest called me to say that the connection keeps dropping as well now.

Anyway, as it's my ex's house, I didn't hunt round too much to save on arguments, my boys told me the master socket is in her bedroom and has a micro filter, a telephone extension lead runs from that to their room and has a micro filter.

But, now you mention about another socket not having a mf, I seem to remember that behind the TV looks like there used to be another telephone socket for the Sky box that now looks like it has been taken out as there are exposed wires on view! Could this be the problem? And do you think fitting another socket and adding a mf would solve it?

 

[Amran]

Hi,

did you try this to check the connection ? check out the video.

 

[EndlessWaves]

But, now you mention about another socket not having a mf, I seem to remember that behind the TV looks like there used to be another telephone socket for the Sky box that now looks like it has been taken out as there are exposed wires on view! Could this be the problem? And do you think fitting another socket and adding a mf would solve it?

Usually the recommendation is only to filter the sockets in use.

 

[buckle247]

As above, you only need a MF installed if the socket is being used. If the wires are exposed though, just insure there are no bare ends in contact with each other.