NTL gone to hell?

Roen

I've been lucky so far....but right now I'm getting appalling speeds. Tried downloading a Linux distro from Heanet ftp server and it settled at about 26KB/sec
Ping -t to Boards.ie and Jolt.co.uk are averaging around 100ms with 12% packet loss.
Anyone else in the sh*te?

christophicus

Post the link to the distro and ill try and download it now.

Actually yeah im getting really crap speed aswell, the video on youtube keeps stopping every ten seconds or so to buffer some more!!

someone in my house said that the internet wasnt working earlier on. I just assumed the modem needed to be reset but maybe there was a problem?

Roen

Kablammo

Try that one for size, cheers Christophicus, I know you had more than your fairshare of problems in the past.

christophicus

Yeah i shure have ,although recently I have been getting somewhere close to what i should be getting ,although only on torrents for some reason.

Ok it seems to be staying at between 20 and 25 KB/s off of that file, although i just turned on my toorent and i still gett the same speed on that file whil downloading from the torrent,but im only getting around 50KB/s from the torrent, i should be getting alot more.

Roen

Cheers, looks like there is a problem so. I'll head to the pub and see what happens when I get back.

deisemum

I had a phone call from NTL this evening to see if I want their broadband. I do want broadband (wireless) but would like peoples opinions on best option. Are NTL worth going with or do you have other recommendations?

Aquos76

I also tried that link you posted and I am getting less than 20KBps here on ntl in waterford also. Its was fine earlier on as I was downloading stuff from Heanet @370KBps

Roen

Everything seems back to normal, maybe they were working on it last night.
@ Deisemum, I would actually recommend NTL, but of course YMMV. Incidents like last night are few and far between, but again for some people that seems to be the norm rather than the exception.

peepsbates

yea last nite was pretty crap for me too, most of the nite the speeds were rubbish

Gadgie

The speed has been a bit of a joke the past couple of nights, dropping to ISDN speeds on the 3 meg package. I know the connection is shared and I'll never get the full whack to myself, but the speeds I've been getting are very poor.

Seems better tonight though.

AdMMM

Please bear in mind that they are in the middle of a merger which could have some effect on performance as UPC overhaul their internal systems and integrate their own hardware.

Dougals Daddy

They have just switched over to the UPC servers and their may be a few teething problems.I know the new modems have been giving a bit of trouble. Name change shortly for Ntl and Chorus to UPC. These guys are serious players in the Global BB market and will spare no money getting the system up to top spec so they can provide all their future services at high speed. The previous owners (NTL)spent very little on the network in the last few years so they inherited a pig. Watch this space though its going to get very competitive with 10meg plus on the way. DSl will be history in a few years.
http://www.lgi.com/europe.html

jmcc

deisemum wrote:

I had a phone call from NTL this evening to see if I want their broadband.

Got the same phonecall from NTL. It was sort of brief. The salesperson claimed that NTL was offering an unlimited service. So I asked about the download limits. The salesperson quickly found out that my definition of unlimited access involved no download restrictions.

Are NTL worth going with or do you have other recommendations?

It depends on the end use. It is cheap. It is available. I think that DSL is available for most of this area and if you are on Eircom, it might be worth keeping it all on one account. It your line passes for DSL, you have other options as well.

Regards...jmcc

Roen

NTL seems to be good during the day but drops away to nothing during the nights and evenings. It's reoprting in as a 2.95Mb line at the moment, but later on I bet it will be in or around ISDN speeds. I wonder do they work on it during the evenings and nights?

jmcc

Roen wrote:

NTL seems to be good during the day but drops away to nothing during the nights and evenings. It's reoprting in as a 2.95Mb line at the moment, but later on I bet it will be in or around ISDN speeds. I wonder do they work on it during the evenings and nights?

Warez dudes and troughers cause contention problems. When they are at work/college/school in the day time, there is little usage and d/l speeds are good. As soon as they get home, the contention ratio goes to hell and you have 20 - 50 people fighting over the bandwidth (or whatever NTL's contention ratio is).

Regards...jmcc

Roen

jmcc wrote:

Warez dudes and troughers cause contention problems. When they are at work/college/school in the day time, there is little usage and d/l speeds are good. As soon as they get home, the contention ratio goes to hell and you have 20 - 50 people fighting over the bandwidth (or whatever NTL's contention ratio is).

Regards...jmcc

I don't think contention is the problem here, time of day has never affected my speeds and QOS before, maybe my line is oversubscribed now. A few people are reporting difficulties so I doubt it though.

jmcc

Roen wrote:

I don't think contention is the problem here, time of day has never affected my speeds and QOS before, maybe my line is oversubscribed now. A few people are reporting difficulties so I doubt it though.

It could also be self-connectors? Sometimes you get people who decide to try and get cable for free and they can mess up the connection for subscribers if they don't know what they are doing.

Regards...jmcc

AdMMM

I doubt it would be downloaders. Most downloaders would leave their pc on overnight and if anything would download (and upload) less during the evening when they thsmselves are more likely to use the internet for their own personal use

Our man in Havana

Do NTL have any form of cap on their service?

christophicus

Yes they do . on the 6Mb pack its 40 GB

Bards

Just got off the phone to NTL as I am experiencing very slooooow downloads etc. they are sending someone out even though I told him that this problem was being reported by several people and more than likely it was their network at fault.

Roen

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/10/upc_broadband_numbers_rise/

Makes for some interesting reading.

christophicus

Getting really slow speeds tonight again.

Roen

Gone to sh*te this evening :mad:

C:\Documents and Settings\Meself>ping -t ftp.heanet.ie

Pinging ftp.heanet.ie [193.1.193.64] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=368ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=394ms TTL=52
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=379ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=376ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=382ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=409ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=374ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=418ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=396ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=383ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=371ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=357ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=368ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=363ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=579ms TTL=52
Request timed out.
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=434ms TTL=52
Request timed out.
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=392ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=418ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=424ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=370ms TTL=52
Request timed out.
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=433ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=468ms TTL=52
Reply from 193.1.193.64: bytes=32 time=389ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 193.1.193.64:
    Packets: Sent = 29, Received = 23, Lost = 6 (20% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 357ms, Maximum = 579ms, Average = 401ms

And worse to other servers, download speeds of about 4kbps.
Strong words over the phone tomorrow I think!

Bards

I was the same last night...upload spped of 23K and download speed around the 96K mark....

I would be better off with a 56K modem... costsing me 45 per month as I don't watch Cable TV as I have SKY HD

Going to tell them either fix it or I'm gone

christophicus

LOl. It was rediculouse, I was trying to post here for 30 mins, and it just wouldnt work.

I got less then 2000 packets in 13 MINS!!!! thats rediculous!!

dlofnep

My speeds are terrible lately. I'm maxed out at 30K from esat trying to get debian. Normally I get 600 - 700KB/s from heanet and esat.

Roen

I called them today, and try as I might I just can't be a bollox to some poor soul on the other end of a phone.
Anyway, a broadband tech head will give me a call "sometime within the next twenty four hours."
And then pigs will fly.

Trotter

Roen wrote:

I called them today, and try as I might I just can't be a bollox to some poor soul on the other end of a phone.
Anyway, a broadband tech head will give me a call "sometime within the next twenty four hours."
And then pigs will fly.

Yep.. Same here. Still waiting for that technician.. 2 weeks now!

Bards

I sent them an e-mail.. if I don't hear back by the end of the week I am going instigate a formal complaint to Comreg and the advertising standards agency...

I am not getting the service I am paying for

mickger

Bards wrote:

I sent them an e-mail.. if I don't hear back by the end of the week I am going instigate a formal complaint to Comreg and the advertising standards agency...

I am not getting the service I am paying for

Sent them an email too:mad: The problem is widespread in Waterford as i can gather. Was talking to 5 people today in work with NTL and they all are have dire speeds. At least if they admitted there was a general problem we might have a chance of getting it fixed.

christophicus

Roen wrote:

Anyway, a broadband tech head will give me a call "sometime within the next twenty four hours."
And then pigs will fly.

In all fairness they told me one friday that they would get back to me by the end of the day. They didnt do that , but they did get back to me the following monday, which i was quite pleased with.

Aquos76

All the staff out on the cork road were suppose to have walked out last week. When I rang Tech support tonight, I was put through to Limerick and it was explained to me, that at very short notice the Chorus customer call centre were told that they would be handeling NTL calls from now on. They have no database to work from as of yet, but they do hope to have it up and running my tomorrow morning. So all they can do for the moment is log all our calls.

Broadband support will now be done from Dublin

thund3rbird_

Aquos76 wrote:

All the staff out on the cork road were suppose to have walked out last week.

dunno where you heard this.:rolleyes:
they are still there. I know some of the people in the place.

Aquos76 wrote:

They have no database to work from as of yet, but they do hope to have it up and running my tomorrow morning. So all they can do for the moment is log all our calls.

Broadband support will now be done from Dublin

both the ntl & chorus call centres are getting new systems.
that's why they were not able to do anything over the past few days.

BB support are still in Waterford as well.

Waterford CC is not closing til the end of Dec

Aquos76

thund3rbird_ wrote:

dunno where you heard this.:rolleyes:
they are still there. I know some of the people in the place.

From the girl on the end of the 1800234234 number which I called tonight. I was surprised to hear this also.

both the ntl & chorus call centres are getting new systems.
that's why they were not able to do anything over the past few days

I can only repeat what she told me so don't shoot the messenger.

BB support are still in Waterford as well.

Waterford CC is not closing til the end of Dec[

That's funny, because when they called me back last Wednesday, it was a Dublin guy on the phone, and he definitely said that he was based in Dublin.

Like you, I was also under the impression that they would all be kept on until the end of the year.

thund3rbird_

my pistols never left their holsters

nice to see that those running the show now don't know what's going on in the other call centre

bodes well for the future :rolleyes:

Roen

Talking to a mate in sales there and he was given a finish date of last week, they could well be gone by now. Maybe there's just a skeleton staff there.

Roen

Gone beyond a joke now, they either fix their **** or I'm off, UPC my hole.

SeanieM

Roen wrote:

Gone beyond a joke now, they either fix their **** or I'm off, UPC my hole.

Have you got AOL on line there?, it might be a lot cheaper because the lines will be shorter!:rolleyes:

christophicus

its gone ****e for me againn. Worse then 56k speeds, Is it that bad for everyone else in waterford?

Trotter

Yep.. pathetic again for me too. I was hitting almost my 2mb connection over the past 24 hrs but Im down to around 240kbps now.

christophicus

Its gone back to normall for me now. ( although normall is only getting 2Mb on a 6Mb line!!!) Although the pings are still unusally high,which is really annoying, I cant play cs when its like this!!

Roen

I asked them to escalate my call on Friday...I wait with baited breath for Monday when the mighty wheels in NTL customer support start turning and my every broadband dream comes true.

Trotter

Roen wrote:

I asked them to escalate my call on Friday...I wait with baited breath for Monday when the mighty wheels in NTL customer support start turning and my every broadband dream comes true.

I'm amazed you got through.. how long did you have to wait? Did you get anywhere with them when you asked for the issue to be escalated?

JPA

I know NTL are rubbish lately but I swear I'm never waiting more than 5 minutes when I call them up. I must be just lucky.

mayordenis

mines horrendous also, happy to see this thread though, at least its not just me.

Roen

Trotter wrote:

I'm amazed you got through.. how long did you have to wait? Did you get anywhere with them when you asked for the issue to be escalated?

I waited only about 2 minutes from when it actually started ringing an operator til she answered.
No, my request for escalation has fallen on deaf ears I'm still waiting, and am likely to wait for some time to come.

Freddie59

Roen wrote:

I waited only about 2 minutes from when it actually started ringing an operator til she answered.
No, my request for escalation has fallen on deaf ears I'm still waiting, and am likely to wait for some time to come.

Looks like things are back to normal. Checked speeds now (9:00pm) on www.speedtest.ie and www.irishisptest.com and both sites show I have 1.95 Megs down and 200k up.:D Quality of service 99%.:D At last!

Roen

Nowhere near normal for me I'm afraid. 2.80Mb on Irishisptest....but a mightily unimpressive 15KB/sec for this iso

Also other http transfers are going dog slow and normal browsing is painfully slow too.
Oh well I live in diminishing hope.

christophicus

Not quite. Im on the 6 Mb package and am opnly getting 1.5 Mb down but my upspeed is 513 Kbps which is around what it should be . QOS = 66%.



Im getting the same speeds on that Iso as you Roen. Although if you look at the NTL thread in the BB forum you will see that apparently downloading from sites outside of Ireland is ok.

Freddie59

Roen wrote:

Nowhere near normal for me I'm afraid. 2.80Mb on Irishisptest....but a mightily unimpressive 15KB/sec for this iso

Also other http transfers are going dog slow and normal browsing is painfully slow too.
Oh well I live in diminishing hope.

Roen - I just checked Heanet and speeds are dire from that site (could be an internal issue). I've checked www.apple.com/itunes along with www.speedtest.ie and everything is 100%. Checked with two friends who were also affected and they're back up as well.

Dump the Heanet link and try the other two.