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Technical News & Discussion => Broadband, Internet & General Computer News & Discussion => Topic started by: Tacitus on Jun 30, 2011, 11:01:01

Title: Best time for reboot
Post by: Tacitus on Jun 30, 2011, 11:01:01
Anyone here know the best time of day to reboot in order to get maximum sync speed?

I know it's to do with medium wave propagation and it varies according to the time of the year.   Somebody knowledgeable should do a chart showing the best time of day when MW interference is at its least for the time of the year :)

Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: Glenn on Jun 30, 2011, 11:07:33
Generally early in the morning for max sync, late in the evening for max stability, I believe.
Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: Lance on Jun 30, 2011, 11:10:12
:iagree:

Best thing to do would be to run routerstats for 48 hours and look at the graphs to see when you hit max or min noise margin.
Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: Steve on Jun 30, 2011, 11:10:22
That's correct it's due to the changes in the Ionsphere that occur after sunset which allow the AM waves to propagate through the sky (skywave) there a graph and explanation on wiki which shows the change

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionosphere

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave
Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: Bill on Jun 30, 2011, 11:19:01
It's not that simple, unfortunately.

Yes, medium wave interference is a factor for some, but it depends how far you are from a transmitter. And it doesn't have to be medium wave only- if you're close to a transmitter on a different band it can still inject enough noise into the line to upset the modem.

There's also cross-talk, which is affected by the number of other people on your line and their usage patterns- business users will have a different pattern to domestic, and domestic users vary their patterns depending on the number of children in the house, whether they're at school or at home, and whether they turn the router off when they're not using it!

The best time for me used to be mid to late morning... for others it varied.

Best way to find the optimum time is to open a browser tab on the stats page and periodically have a look at SNR, that'll give you an idea how it varies over the day/week etc and hence when it's likely to give a good speed.

When I was on ADSL2+ I could often squeeze an extra couple of Mbps out of the line by judicious timing, although it was amazing how often it picked a speed just below the value which would have put me into the next profile band >:(


edit- I forgot about RouterStats, can't run it on a Mac.
Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: Tacitus on Jun 30, 2011, 11:52:39
Quote from: Bill on Jun 30, 2011, 11:19:01
The best time for me used to be mid to late morning... for others it varied.

That used to work for me, but after the recent thunderstorms it didn't so I thought I must have got the timing wrong.  The storm was well gone but the time I reconnected.

Quote from: Bill on Jun 30, 2011, 11:19:01
edit- I forgot about RouterStats, can't run it on a Mac.

No problem Bill, I have a PC as well but I'm not sure if RS works with a 2700 v6 - I'll have to take a look.

Thanks for the advice folks :)

Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: atsw on Jul 03, 2011, 22:19:54
I'm currently re-booting my router (DG834Gv4, ADSL2+) at 6:30am each morning.  Been something of an experiment, as I used to just leave the thing on 24/7, but having moved from ADSL1 to ADSL2+ a little earlier this year, I started experiencing what I can only describe as a 'stallled' connection after between 5-10 days uptime.  Router was still in sync, IP still showing, Gateway and all other details fine, but absolutely no routing to/from the Internet.  Re-booting the router immediately fixed the problem, full connectivity restored for another 5-10 days. Slightly annoying, but I put up with it.  Then the interval fell to around 48hrs.  That became a pain.  I switched to using two other routers (different makes and models), same thing happened.  Line then checked by BT and all fine (in fact much better than fine, my estimated speed is 2Mb, I usually get a solid 5Mb, with no FEC errors or the like).  So, given all stays fine for 24hrs I took a different tack.  Re-installed DG834Gv4 and a timer.  Power down at 6:15am, back on at 6:30am.  No stalled sessions since, and what's more my sync is now 7630 each morning and I have a 6.5Mb profile! :D.  All a bit odd, but with a silver lining.

Andrew
Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: jm_paulin on Jul 05, 2011, 07:41:36
Quote from: Glenn on Jun 30, 2011, 11:07:33
Generally early in the morning for max sync, late in the evening for max stability, I believe.
For me it was mid-day.... Around 11-12 for me winter time, and 12-13 in summer... Never understood why. If you can monitor the SNR Margin over the day, you will find the best time to reboot is when it is at its highest. The router will always target a SNR Margin of 6dB to sync with...
Title: Re: Best time for reboot
Post by: Polchraine on Jul 07, 2011, 14:36:02
Quote from: Tacitus on Jun 30, 2011, 11:52:39
That used to work for me, but after the recent thunderstorms it didn't so I thought I must have got the timing wrong.  The storm was well gone but the time I reconnected.

No problem Bill, I have a PC as well but I'm not sure if RS works with a 2700 v6 - I'll have to take a look.

Thanks for the advice folks :)



Yes Router Stats does work with a 2700 v6

To get max sync speed I would use Router stats to get a 48 hour plot and then knowing my 2700 would sync with a 3dB margin (but most will have a 6dB) I would choose a time when the current margin was 3.5dB above the minimum recorded.   So, if the minimum was 4.5 dB, I would initiate a sync when the SNR was at 7.5dB which would then give me a new sync at around 3.5dB - that would allow the noise to increase overnight and dropping my SNR to near 0 dB with the modem would hold.    There would tend to be a time just after dawn and another late in the evening.