Bicephale
join:2005-09-24 | reply to corkyy
Re: From the ground up!
Hi Corkyy,
Thanks! It must be possible to find a 'KOffice' module
for the Slax Linux Live CD so i'll check with that one.
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to corkyy
Hi Corkyy,
I've tried 'KSpread' (the 'KOffice' SpreadSheet application) on
three different Linux Live CDs including 'KOffice v1.6 Live CD'
and it's consistently slow: each column filling would make it
too busy to respond for the next twenty minutes or so at max.
resolution (a fifteen seconds interval means over five thousand
samples per day)! The Linux flavours were KUbuntu, Fedora and
SlackWare so the environment isn't really a determining factor.
I found 'GNUmeric' installed on the 'PureOS-Light' Live CD but
this one got a French-European keyboard layout which was a
pure nightmare... I'd hate having to install MicroSoft's 'Excel'!
Maybe i need to reduce the file size by cutting a few columns. |
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to Bicephale
'Scientific Linux DVD v5.2' vs SS4200+'DMT v9.01' |
'OpenOffice Calc v2.3.0' from 'Scientific Linux Live DVD v5.2'
didn't display the same bug as that which i observed using its
late Windows version: i can add/fill the required columns and
produce a suitable graphic representation under this Live DVD,
including the DSsnr column which was being corrupted before. |
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| 
Linux solutions: 'OpenOffice Calc' vs 'GNUmeric' |
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
|  .GIF/thumb.jpg "130631 bytes")
Click here to zoom in! |
This six days .GIF animation shows how clueless SNR Margin curves
can be. It's also demonstrating the power of long-term averaging...
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| %20.GIF "23122 bytes")
VelCom - Cooking Hour Syndrome 2 (2008-Nov, 9-17) | 
VelCom - Noise Induction Path |
1) SNR Margin is still relatively clueless
2) Noise Induction Path now confirmed
3) Cooking Hour Syndrome is revealed!
The Noise Induction Path was ten feet
long and it's now practically reduced to
zero by moving the line away from that
nasty PVC power conduit. The old wire
with paint on it is mine, at least i didn't
get the one with a loop... Oh lucky me!
If one must trouble-shoot i recommend
using long-term noise curve averaging.
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
1 edit | %20.GIF "44068 bytes")
VelCom - Thomson ST5x6 9 Days Average Curve (2008-Nov, 9-17) | 
VelCom - Siemens SS4200 10 Days Averaged Curves | %20.GIF "118531 bytes")
VelCom - Thomson ST546 vs Siemens SS4200 (2008-Nov) | %20.GIF "83016 bytes")
VelCom - SS4200 Cooking Hour Syndrome (2008-Nov, 19-28) |  Siemens vs T···ov) .ZIP 485,882 bytes
Siemens vs Thomson (2008-Nov) | | |
I'm posting a revised version of a previous
graphic to account for its error rate scale;
resolution being fifteen seconds it means a
level equal to 15 is equivalent to one error
per second... The three other illustrations
are resulting from an analysis of my lastest
'DMT' "Diagnosis" log file with the Siemens
SpeedStream 4200 on-line. The 3rd set of
curves is particularily interesting because
it compares it with my SpeedTouch 546v6.
The 4th picture is to shead light on what i
call the "Cooking Hour Syndrome", i've used
graphic editing tricks to bring focus on the
most significant part of the curves, mainly
the Rx (middle) section. I would have liked
to include daily error rates on the graphics
but it appears static numbers are misleading
at best: MoDems react differently to resets
and the false error counter readings upset
the daily error rates quite unpredictably...
I conclude that the best method to compare
DSL devices is through curve supperposition
considering that static numbers alone might
prove to be relatively useless. A set of 'DMT'
captures is provided to the attention of any
reader who's curious enough to attempt his
own separate analysis. |
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tertech
join:2008-04-12
Ottawa, ON
| said by Bicephale  :I conclude that the best method to compare DSL devices is through curve supperposition considering that static numbers alone might prove to be relatively useless. A set of 'DMT' captures is provided to the attention of any reader who's curious enough to attempt his own separate analysis. I've found it difficult to use any captured statistics to compare two modems or even to compare different firmware versions on the same modem. Noise tends to be random for me. Sure, there's the predictable 'cooking hour' noise surge; but I've also seen the 'morning shower hour' noise surge and even the 'midnight madness' noise surge. Some weeks the stats are worse than average, some weeks they are better. I believe that even the weather plays a part in the performance of the modem. Unless there were a way to hook up two modems to the same line at the same time - how can we be sure that the statistics we collect for each unit under test were taken under the exact same conditions? |
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| %20.GIF "63056 bytes")
VelCom - SS4200 Long-Term Analysis (2008-Nov, 19-28) | 
VelCom - Siemens SpeedStream 4200 MoDem Reset | 
VelCom - 'DMT v9.01' Capture (End of Test) |
Oh... I didn't think of the MidNight MadNess Syndrome
but most people would use batteries for that, after all!
Well, i do remember that your error rate was significant
(if not severe) so maybe when you observe instabilities
it just might be the case, actually. I wouldn't pretend i
follow laboratory-grade methodology here but i feel that
averaging fifty-thousand-six-hundred samples (one per
fifteen seconds for ten days) as i've done lately should
help to reject marginal events... The most potent ones
can still be equivalent to millions of CRC errors per day
so a few of these will contaminate a curve all right but
they tend to be quite brief and they're easy enough to
recognize anyway. The animated .GIF shown above was
made after marginal events were removed as 'GNUmeric'
won't display the curve's most significant part otherwise:
large numbers completely upset its auto-scale feature as
i explained in a previous post. The rest was done using a
graphic editor (no fancy trick)... My 2nd illustration isn't
well detailed but we can see the counter values may fall
in the four digits range if a MoDem Reset event occurs...
There must be a way to filter out contaminating events
in a spreadsheet but i don't know how to do that. What
we have here is a simple approximation, some educated
guess one might say. The 'DMT' capture was suggesting
an error rate of about 1978 CRC Errors per Day, which is
37 % higher than my estimated 1238 CRC Errors per day,
possibly because of contamination. This pleads in favour
of long-term averaging curves instead of static numbers
once again, in my opinion.
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| N.B.:
The 'PureOS-Light' Live CD with 'GNUmeric'
installed on it is available as an English CD:
'PureOSlight 0.3 beta 1 EN' (Torrent) |
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| %20.GIF "82399 bytes")
VelCom - Thomson ST516v6-2 (2008, Nov-30 to Dec-10) | 
VelCom - Thomson ST516v6-2 vs SS4200 |
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
|
Here's the original 'DSL_StatScope' data with a graphic capture:
%20.GIF)
Click here to enlarge!
The picture is from this thread:
TekSavvy Forum, Yet Another Modem Statistics tool, Bicephale, 2008-Dec-14 |
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
1 edit | Have a nice 2009 year everyone...
Looking at this old post i just noticed how the "Sweet Spots" differ:
%20Gif%20Animation%20.GIF)
From the ground up!, Bicephale, 2008-Aug-26
Tones: Register '00' = #40)h
DownStream Bitrate & RCO: Register '00' = #80)h
DownStream SNRM: Register '00' = #C0)h
Of course, the absolute values for Register '00' depend on local conditions...
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| 
'RouterStats v4.8' Setup for GNet GBB2060-Xi (real-life tutorial example) |
I revisited 'RouterStats' lately, it's most regrettable
we don't see it being more popular and especially in
the cases where the MoDem seems to be orphaned
by all of the other 3rd-party trouble-shooting tools!
Isn't it?!...
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to Bicephale
%20.GIF "37189 bytes")
GNet BB0060B Averaged Noise Curves (2009-Jan, 10, 12 & 14 to 26) | GNet BB0060B···26) .ZIP 332,378 bytes
GNet BB0060B .CSV Record (2009-Jan, 10, 12 & 14 to 26) | | |
I wanted to publish this one for quite a while but that's
a set of fifteen days averaged curves so the time never
seemed right. Finally, here it is and not too soon!... This
will be followed by some commented comparisons later.
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| 
GNet vs Siemens vs Thomson - DownStream SNR Margin & Rx CRC |
I wondered about this one for a long time. Something
told me my GNet could compare with my SpeedStream
in terms of noise but it's DownStream SNR Margin was
not expected to beat those of my Siemens SS4200 &
of my Thomson ST546 altogether. The mix of optimum
SNR Margin and of Noise performance may result from
lower Attenuation levels - which could relate with the
input stage design. Should it be true, the Attenuation
levels observed while evaluating different DSL MoDems
may happen to be an important parameter for persons
trying to decide which product to buy! There are other
criterias to consider than noise performance alone but
it seems possible Attenuation level variations between
products might be more significative than i suspected.
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| 
GNet GBB2060-Xi - Superposed vs Averaged Noise Curves | GNet GBB2060···-2) .ZIP 638,724 bytes
GNet GBB2060-Xi Analysis (2009, Feb-16 to Mar-2) | | |
I had one large capture gathered this winter which
remained to be parsed... It's an interesting sample
for me because i've noticed a "bias" effect after my
record was separated into two sets: one which has
nicely aligned time-stamps and another where those
hour marks reveal some "jitter". See what happened
when i decided to superpose the curves instead of
averaging them as usual!... In my opinion, it's partly
due to the rejection of marginal "sparkle" events: it
defines/flattens a curve when those aren't allowed
to contaminate it. As a consequence, this suggests
i'll need to pay more attention to the duration of my
future tests (if i decide to go on) in order to make
sure that each curve undergoes a same amount of
filtering, hence removing the same amount of bias...
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| Now lets put some curves on top of each other to ease comparisons...
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to Bicephale
 .GIF/thumb.jpg "184201 bytes")
VelCom - TP-Link TD-8841, 'DMT v8.07' Tweaks1 (2009-May-20) | %20.GIF "225384 bytes")
VelCom - TP-Link TD-8841, 'DMT v8.07' Tweaks2 (2009-May-20) |
I sent a 57.37 $ postal money order via eXpressPost
to Premier Computer Canada on May 15 at 12:33 and
my brand new TP-Link TD-8841 (A) v2.2 arrived thru
UPS "domestic" (19.65 $) on May 20 at 8:35 (Monday
was Victoria Day). I paid 34.99 $ (no taxes included)
for the item itself, the grand total cost was 73.03 $...
Here are my 1st tweak evaluations using 'DMT v8.07':
»/testhistory/1267354/b1adc
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Bicephale
join:2005-09-24
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| %20.GIF "129891 bytes")
TP-Link TD-8841 GUI (2009-May-20, 9h00) | %20vs%20'OrbMT%20v3.38'%20.GIF "85810 bytes")
TP-Link TD-8841 (A, FW v2.2) vs 'OrbMT v3.38' |  .GIF/thumb.jpg "42048 bytes")
TP-Link TD-8841 - ADSL Cfg Tone Tweak (GUI) | %20.GIF "92757 bytes")
TP-Link TD-8841 - ADSL Cfg Tone Tweak ('DMT') |
With these images i personally confirm features which
justified my purchase in the 1st place. If we can trust
sources like some old D-Link DSL-2320B thread where
it was shown that 'RouterStats' was compatible with a
very similar GUI outline then it becomes reasonable to
expect the same level of compatibility with the TP-Link
TD-8841 HTTP GUI - although this would be of limited
use considering that 'DMT' and 'OrbMT' work just fine.
I've played with Spectral Shaping on the UpStream side
and the altered spectral response is clearly displayed in
my 'DMT v8.07' capture, future experiments will have to
include the DownStream side in presence of disrupting
noise: i must verify the usefulness of Spectral Shaping
in the TP-Link TD-8841, eventually!...
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%20.GIF)