Line Stats

Your DSL modem continuously monitors the quality of your DSL service. You can obtain line statistical information from your modem to assess the quality of your line and service.

Bell is responsible for the quality of your line and it is worth noting that most of your monthly payment to NCF goes to Bell to provide DSL service on your line.

How to obtain the line stats from your modem

SpeedTouch 585 or 516v6

Line stats displayed on a SpeedTouch 585v6 modem interface (Speedtouch 516v6 is similar)

1. Log into the web interface of your modem (how to log in)
2. In the left column, click on 'Broadband Connection'
3. In the left column, click on 'DSL Connection'
4. In the top-right area, click on 'Details'

Depending on your modem model and configuration, the numbers may be displayed with commas and periods in the European manner, which is the reverse of what is common in North America. For example: 1,000.12 for 'one thousand decimal 12' may be displayed as '1.000,12'.

SpeedTouch 516v5

Line stats displayed on a SpeedTouch 516v5 modem interface

1. Log into the web interface of your modem (how to log in)
2. In the left column, click 'Advanced'
3. Below that click 'Diagnostics'
4. Above click the + sign beside 'Expand All'
5. Scroll down to the section 'Wan' ... 'Dsl'

TP-Link 8816, 8901G or 8951ND

Line stats displayed on a TP-Link 8901G modem (8816 and 8951ND are similar)

These models of TP-Link modems all have similar interfaces:

1. Log into the web interface of your modem (how to log in)
2. Click on 'Status'
3. Click on 'Device Info'

TP-Link 8950ND

Line stats displayed on a TP-Link 8950ND modem

1. Log into the web interface of your modem (how to log in)
2. Click on 'Device info'
3. Click on 'Statistics'
4. Click on 'ADSL'

SmartRG 505N

Line stats displayed on a SmartRG505N modem

1. Log into the web interface of your modem (how to log in)
2. Click on 'Device info'
3. Click on 'Statistics'
4. Click on 'xDSL'

Your NCF stats

You can see your stats as seen by NCF here. Note the date on that page that says when they were collected.

How to interpret the line stats

Line Operational Status			613-xxx-xxxx (DSL phone number, may or not be your Bell #)
Line Status:	In Service (preferred) Out of Service (trouble!)		UpTime:		(not a useful field, usually not populated by Bell)
Line Profile Name:	Example: al1_d6016-384_u800-256		Last State Change: (last time the Line Profile was provided)		mm/dd hh:mm:ss (last time the Line Profile was provided)
DLM State: (Dynamic Line Manager, a process on the DSLAM)	Active or OPERATIONS – preferred state	PENDING – new line activation	Disabled – manual handling of Line Profile	Failed – DLM can’t set a Line Profile	Unstable – DLM is unable to set a LP		Equipment Type: (DSLAM)		Example: 7330_REM There are many types of DSLAMs deployed by Bell in the field. The above was built by Newbridge/Alcatel-Lucent, today Nokia
2017-05-25	office scripts python	dslMember.jsp bell_portalAutomate.py NCF/Billing/DSL.py	[Billingpalooza] Automatic invoicing for moves, changes, service revivals (Part A)
2017-05-15	office python python	invoiceMgr.jsp ncfBillingServer.py NCF/Billing/*	[Billingpalooza] New invoice manager in place (Initial demo went live on 2017-05-10, alongside the old invoice manager)
2017-02-08	donate	ccOnline.jsp	[Billingpalooza] If the motivation is "Renewal", automatically renew the account
2017-01-06	office	dslAdmin.jsp	"Sign-up/awaiting activation" table: "Plan" and "Method" columns
2017-01-03	registration	signup.jsp	Changes for new Community Access Fund (CAF) CC transaction failure is handled more gracefully
2016-11-11	spamFilter	spamFilter.c processMsg.c	processMsg() "reply" argument This function used to return a local pointer (out of scope immediately; unsafe). Sadly, this didn't fix the problem of wrongly-delivered yellow/red mail.
2016-11-07	scripts	dslAudit.py	Cash audit and refactoring
2016-10-21	scripts	cbcAggregator.py	News story abstracts appear if enabled
2016-10-20	nagios	rt-checkticket	Voicemail monitoring fixed (deprecated code commented out)
2016-10-19	scripts	getTac.sh	Broken links fixed on "Office Tools" system status overview
2016-10-06	home	findMember.jsp	Wildcard searches (uses SQL wildcards: %, _) DSL street name search
2016-10-06	glennj	nph-scanLogClient.pl	"Website" searches in the auth log work now
2016-10-04	office	factbox.jsp	Hardware balance in the factbox (upper-right corner of some office tools)

Bandwidth

It is expected for download speed (measured as Mbps or Mb/s) to be faster than upload speed. You can confirm this number by doing a speed test.

Line Attenuation

Attenuation is a measure (in dB) of how far you are from the Bell equipment (DSLAM). Note that Lower is better as it indicates a shorter cable length.

Attenuation	Rating
0 to 40 dB	Excellent
40 to 50 dB	Good
50 to 60 dB	Fair
>60 dB	Poor

Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR or SN Margin)

Signal-to-Noise Ratio is a measure of how much electrical noise exists on your line. Too much noise can affect the DSL signal. Higher is better as it means you have more signal than noise.

Signal-to-Noise	Rating
> 20 dB	Excellent
10 to 20 dB	Good
6 to 10 dB	Fair
0 to 6 dB	Poor

Errors

The error figures are an indication of how many packets had to be re-transmitted because they contained an error and may be caused by line noise. Error counts are cumulative since the time DSL sync was last obtained. To reset the error counts, do a software restart of your modem, or power cycle your modem, or disconnect your DSL line for a minute or two.

The significance of error counts is unclear and may be meaningless. Some modems may misreport errors and even with errors, your service may be fine.

See also

• DSL speed