*&!%ing Linkdead

[keludm]

For tha last two days I have had dramas with going linkdead, Im using 56k modem dial up over bT openworld unlimited time package.

Have played half life over same connection with no probs - is anyone else having similar probs because this is driving me up the wall and seriousl yaffecting my game - char keeps getting killed when i go dead.

Any help at all much appreciated.

Dougie - Cleric on Excal

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Bad news: it could be just about anything, and not just at the GOA/Wannadoo end. Unless its a mass LD its not likely to be the GOA servers or the routers and connections leading directly to them. You can usually spot this by the number of peeps on the server dropping to near zero.

However, some things to check. A lot of it you'll probably already have thought of or checked but I've just chucked in everything that came to mind.

The BT Openworld unlimited time package has a 2 hour kickout on it which they forget to tell people about? Have you checked how far apart your LDs are?

When I've used the BT Openworld connection I found I got a more solid connection by getting rid of modem compression since it seems to make the connection less suseptible to line quality problems and it seemed to help DAoC

Ask BT to turn up the gain on your line if you're still having general internet connection problems.

Make absolutely sure you're not running stuff like MSN Messenger in the background (in case someone else has enabled it) and make sure Windows isn't attempting to automatic update. Also check Virus applications for same. MSN Messenger is appalling for sucking out bandwidth on the quiet sometimes.
Realplayer and its ilk also like to quietly steal bandwidth, get rid of them when playing.

Run the Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and see what is running in background, check for any internet capable apps that might be hogging your bandwidth, causing DAoC to LD and taking your connection down with it. If they are kicking in at startup you can use the System Info app on your System Tools menu to disable them. Be careful, this is a good way to mess up your PC if you get it wrong by disabling the wrong app

Run a command prompt when online, and do a ping to the server you play on (Can't remember IP Address, you should be able to get it somewhere though) and do tracert <IP Address> - this will give you an idea of any networking bottlenecks are occuring. Unless it huge delays occur at the last stage (GOA/Wanadoo) then the problem is either with your ISP or your connection to the internet.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, hope it helps.

 

[Myshra]

Originally posted by Roo Stercogburn

When I've used the BT Openworld connection I found I got a more solid connection by getting rid of modem compression since it seems to make the connection less suseptible to line quality problems and it seemed to help DAoC

Ask BT to turn up the gain on your line if you're still having

i could be wrong, but im pretty sure modem compression aint on bto, as it was never available to any of their 24/7 packages before.

 

[Cadire]

Below is a traceroute to a game server. As you can see, problems really begin around the opentransit node. Funny thing is, although I have problems (BT ADSL) other people don't. I guess it's down to the route from your provider.

================================================
=== VisualRoute report on 25-Jul-02 13:28:26 ===
================================================

Report for 193.252.123.33

Analysis: '193.252.123.33' was found in 22 hops (TTL=235). But, problems starting at hop 4 in network "BT-MIDBAND" are causing IP packets to be dropped. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Hop | %Loss | IP Address      | Node Name                                | Location          | Tzone  | ms  | Graph      | Network                            |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0   |       | 10.0.0.7        | desktop                                  | ...               |        |     |            | (private use)                      |
| 1   |       | 217.32.62.161   | -                                        | ?(United Kingdom) | *      | 18  | x          | BT-MIDBAND                         |
| 2   |       | 217.32.62.161   | -                                        | ?(United Kingdom) | *      | 18  | x          | BT-MIDBAND                         |
| 3   |       | 217.32.62.130   | -                                        | ?(United Kingdom) | *      | 16  | x          | BT-MIDBAND                         |
| 4   | 10    | 217.32.62.238   | -                                        | ?(United Kingdom) | *      | 18  | x          | BT-MIDBAND                         |
| 5   |       | 62.7.251.193    | inh2cs01-604.imsnet2.btopenworld.com     | ?(United Kingdom) | *      | 36  | x----      | BT-Digital Infrastructure          |
| 6   | 10    | 213.120.62.145  | btfl01-gig7-4.imsnet2.btopenworld.com    | ?(United Kingdom) | *      | 20  | x          | BT-IMSNET                          |
| 7   |       | 213.120.207.217 | -                                        | ?(United Kingdom) | *      | 21  | x-         | BTnet Subinterfaces Infrastructure |
| 8   |       | 62.6.197.137    | core2-pos4-2.bletchley.ukcore.bt.net     | Bletchley, UK     | *      | 27  | x--        | BTnet Infrastructure               |
| 9   |       | 62.6.196.222    | core2-pos13-3.ilford.ukcore.bt.net       | Ilford, London    | *      | 25  | x-         | BTnet Infrastructure               |
| 10  |       | 194.72.20.230   | transit1-pos4-0.ilford.ukcore.bt.net     | Ilford, London    | *      | 20  | x-         | BTnet Infrastructure               |
| 11  |       | 194.72.20.138   | transit1-pos3-0.tufnell.ukcore.bt.net    | -                 |        | 20  | x          | BTnet Infrastructure               |
| 12  |       | 166.49.209.13   | t2a4-p9-0.uk-lon2.concert.net            | London, UK        | *      | 20  | x          | Concert Communications Co.         |
| 13  |       | 166.49.176.43   | t2c1-ge7-0.uk-lon2.concert.net           | London, UK        | *      | 22  | x          | Concert Communications Co.         |
| 14  |       | 166.49.208.122  | t2c3-p0-0-0.uk-lon1.concert.net          | London, UK        | *      | 36  | x---       | Concert Communications Co.         |
| 15  |       | 166.49.135.50   | t2a2-ge8-0-0.uk-lon1.concert.net         | London, UK        | *      | 22  | x          | Concert Communications Co.         |
| 16  | 30    | 195.66.224.83   | london.opentransit.net                   | -                 |        | 318 |       -x   | London Internet exchange (LINX)    |
| 17  | 20    | 193.251.154.225 | P13-0.PASCR1.Pastourelle.opentransit.net | ?---              |        | 316 |       -x-- | France Telecom Long Distance       |
| 18  | 30    | 193.251.241.118 | P4-0.BAGCR3.Bagnolet.opentransit.net     | Bagnolet, France  | +01:00 | 313 |       -x   | France Telecom Long Distance       |
| 19  | 50    | 193.251.241.145 | P1-0.BAGBB1.Bagnolet.opentransit.net     | Bagnolet, France  | +01:00 | 303 |       x-   | France Telecom Long Distance       |
| 20  | 20    | 193.251.251.58  | WanadooPortails1.GW.opentransit.net      | -                 |        | 302 |       x-   | France Telecom Long Distance       |
| 21  | 20    | 193.252.123.70  | -                                        | ?(France)         | +01:00 | 290 |       x-   | Wanadoo Portails                   |
| 22  | 20    | 193.252.123.33  | -                                        | ?(France)         | +01:00 | 292 |       x-   | Wanadoo Portails                   |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roundtrip time to 193.252.123.33, average = 292ms, min = 277ms, max = 328ms -- 25-Jul-02 13:28:26

 

[keludm]

Cheers for all that - had most covered except the compression thing which ive tried.

How do I go about having the gain turned up on the line and what does this actually do?

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Increasing the gain increases the signal strength on the line, and helps limit the effects of 'noise' on the line too. It can make a big difference. All you have to do is phone BT and they can do it easily for you.

 

[madferrit]

Bout BT and increasing gain (not just my experience btw)... just be aware they get rather 'arsey' about doing it, they will try to fob you off with all sorts of excuses, and can/will refuse to do it!

They nerfed me

 

[Jupitus]

Originally posted by Roo Stercogburn
Increasing the gain increases the signal strength on the line, and helps limit the effects of 'noise' on the line too. It can make a big difference. All you have to do is phone BT and they can do it easily for you.

Hey Roo - do you know if this is likely to affect the results of a line test for adsl compliance? My lines have both failed several times for adsl (but only just each time) so I'm stuck at 56k

Cheers,
Jup.

 

[keludm]

OK folks - heres the direct line if you need to get gain turned up (saves talking to a machine for hpours on 151)

0800 679843

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Jup, ADSL has probs once you get too far from the local telephone exchange I think. I bet you're about on the borderline of one of the areas. I honestly don't know if it would make a difference to increase gain on the line. Its probably more to do with the distance to the local exchange. (Not really an expert on ADSL)

Might be easier just to move your whole home brick by brick a few feet nearer the local BT telephone exchange

 

[keludm]

apparently theres a new flavour of DSL coming out that can go further from the exchange - if you havent spoken to BT for a while ask them and see ifthey can do anything. Sorry to be vague but its just somethign I skimmed over recently ina paper.

 

[Jupitus]

Yep- its distance, and I am in fact very close to an exchange as the crow flies but sadly the line I have goes in the opposite direction to a different exchange for some stupid reason.

BT did extend the range by introducing variable uplink speeds (ie the reduce your uplink speed to improve reliability of transmission) and this brought me in range, but then my line failed the quality test due to 'noise'.

Bah, I said, and I ordered a 2nd line so that at least we could still natter on the phone and use the internet. This 2nd line actually passed the first test for ADSL so I thought great, Iits gonna be installed. When the engineer arrived, he did a local ('whoosh') test on the line and it failed that .

That's all fine and understandable, BUT the guy also tested my original line at the same time, and that passed, but because the order was on my 2nd line he still couldn't install me

Right now I am in a cycle of asking different ISPs for adsl so they keep on testing my line repeatedly, in the hope that one warm day I might get lucky with the noise .... in fact I have and ADSL router and filters at home, unopened, from Pipex and I am typing this as I sit on hold waiting for their installs team to tell me I have failed yet again.

UPDATE: Support woman arrived on the phone.... I have '55.5 Dbs' where the limit is 55 of noise so I have to send back that router and filters with a headed letter...



Does anyone know if this would be improved with more 'gain'?

 

[Jupitus]

UPDATE:

Rang that number and the guy I spoke to was amazingly helpful... KUDOS and BIG UP to BT for at least some of their support staff

He's increased the gain for me on both my lines anyway just in case it makes a difference.

Off to try to get through to PIPEX to reorder using line #2 now....

Cheers gang...

 

[keludm]

Sounds like youre having a nightmare with telephones - for what is worth BT reckon theres a fault on my line and are digging up the street as we speak!!

That dept is good - I chatted up the girl on 151 and got that number out of her

PS Whats your guild like Jup? - lots of prats keep inviting me in and I cant stand half the crap that flies round their guild channel so I leave immediately.

 

[Jupitus]

Hope your line gets sorted, and thanks for the number - I hope you enjoyed getting it in the first place

Phoenix Legion? We're a happy bunch... I wouldn't say we're uber in any way, although we do now have a bunch of players heading through the 40's and a few level 50's on board. Basically we have fun, we are nice to one another and enjoy the game. We are not a roleplay guild, although some of us do, and we are quite active in RvR as and when necessary.

Have a look at our slightly-dated-looking-and-due-for-an-overhaul-soon website (link in siggy) to learn a bit more and message me ingame if you have any questions. Please bear in mind that I am pretty crap at fighting and chatting at the same time, so the answers may be a bit disjointed, as many an advicee has found recently

Jup.

On Topic - I'll post here to let you know if upping the gain on a line seems to help with the adsl tests.....