I upgraded to Pipex 2Mb ADSL some 4-5 months ago. At first all was fine,
with only an occasional (eg weekly) reboot of the router, a Netgear DG814
running firmware V4.10 (the latest I believe).
About 4-5 weeks ago the router started to repeatedly lose sync in the
evenings and overnight. Mostly the connection was unusable at night, but
fine during the day. I reported the problem to Pipex who ran various tests
(requiring me to login to a BT test server) and agreed that there was a
problem with 'packets being dropped'; they passed the problem on to BT. A
few days later things improved slightly but have deteriorated over the past
week.
Today a BT technician visited my house (during the day, of course, not at
night when the problems occur!) and ran a series of tests, the results of
which are as follows (my terms may be incorrect):
loop insertion loss at master socket 38dB
loop insertion loss at extension socket/router 39dB
SNR at extension socket 22.1dB
The above was using his modems (one USB modem and one Siemens modem/router).
However, the SNR figure using my Netgear DG841 modems (2 different ones!)
was 7dB. Consequently he blamed the problem on my 'faulty' router. Whilst
I can't dispute his readings, I find it difficult to believe that I have two
faulty modem/routers, both exhibiting the same problem. I think it more
likely that there is some kind of equipment incompatibility. I have found a
few rather inconclusive references in newsgroup to incompatibilities between
the DG814 and some exchange equipment and others that indicated problems
'after dark' with Pipex connections, but nothing concrete.
Can anyone shed any light on what my problem might be? I am considering
purchasing a new wireless modem router, so replacing the kit is not too much
of an issue if that is the solution. However, I would like to determine the
source of the problem so that I don't hit it again with the new hardware.
