More NTL/UPC Speed Upgrades UPTO 20MB..MegaThread

podgeandrodge

johndanielmoore wrote: »

What's the name of the download manager you used?
Thanks.

It's "internet download manager" - free trial available on its website.

www.internetdownloadmanager.com

johndanielmoore

podgeandrodge wrote: »

It's "internet download manager" - free trial available on its website.

www.internetdownloadmanager.com

Thank you.

podgeandrodge

Ok..I have used the heanet file download via 3 channels

1) Direct Modem Connection (no router) - 2.27MB/sec

2) Netgear Wireless Router using Windows download - 1.05MB/sec

2) Netgear Wireless Router using Internet Download Manager - 2.5MB/sec

From the above, unless I am missing something, the Netgear Wireless Router throttles ordinary downloads unless using a download manager which brings things back up to direct modem connection speeds.

Screenprints below:

From Modem directly
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/direct.jpg
Using the Netgear Router
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/windowsthroughrouter.jpg
Using download manager through router
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/InternetDownloadManager.jpg


so what is the Netgear doing? Can anyone using same setup compare?

Moriarty

Guys can we stick to linking large images instead of putting them directly in the thread? It helps people on low bandwidth connections and generally keeps the thread less cluttered

Cheers.

cahirhennessy

Has anybody in the dublin 1 area(city centre) notice that download speeds and ping have greatly improved in the past week with NTL? I'm hoping it's not just my overactive imagination...

MartMax

cahirhennessy wrote: »

Has anybody in the dublin 1 area(city centre) notice that download speeds and ping have greatly improved in the past week with NTL? I'm hoping it's not just my overactive imagination...

Nope, IFSC here pings worst before my upgrade from 20ish to 70ish. There were modem loss of signals couple of times during last week, sometimes DHCP issues. Probably it's just me too imagining things!

guil

just bein on the phone to bb support and the guy told me they plan to double their packages by x-mas

Jilm

guil07 wrote: »

just bein on the phone to bb support and the guy told me they plan to double their packages by x-mas

That would blow a lot of competition out of the water, however the support guy might have just been blowing smoke.

guil

yeah maybe, ah well see what happens

Stone

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Ok..I have used the heanet file download via 3 channels

1) Direct Modem Connection (no router) - 2.27MB/sec

2) Netgear Wireless Router using Windows download - 1.05MB/sec

2) Netgear Wireless Router using Internet Download Manager - 2.5MB/sec

From the above, unless I am missing something, the Netgear Wireless Router throttles ordinary downloads unless using a download manager which brings things back up to direct modem connection speeds.

Screenprints below:

From Modem directly
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/direct.jpg
Using the Netgear Router
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/windowsthroughrouter.jpg
Using download manager through router
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/InternetDownloadManager.jpg


so what is the Netgear doing? Can anyone using same setup compare?

Hiya,

got a lot of problems with my Netgear WGR614 (frequent freezes and low dl speeds) ... however all resolved when I disabled the "SPI Firewall" - just wanted to let ya all know this could be an option (although it is never a good idea to disable security features - but re. SPI there are a lot of different oppinions whether it is actually worth the extra CPU power it zaps out of a router ... google it for details). I.e. it is a problem with the router and not the BB connection (as connecting directly to the WGR614 with a cable also alleviates all issues I had).
Otherwise I am impressed with UPCs BB package as well as their phone option.

Cheers,
Stone

matrim

cahirhennessy wrote: »

Has anybody in the dublin 1 area(city centre) notice that download speeds and ping have greatly improved in the past week with NTL? I'm hoping it's not just my overactive imagination...

I'm in City Center and my speeds seem to have increased. I haven't had a chance to check the evening speeds but during the day I'm now getting full 20Mb speeds where before I was getting around 10 - 12Mb.

Ping also seems to be slightly better but I haven't tested in the evening yet. I hope to get around to it tonight so I'll post an update later.

When I was on to support a couple of weeks ago they had mentioned upgrading the backend as there were too many people on the same UBR (?), and it would take 2 - 3 weeks to sort so maybe they have done this upgrade now.

matrim

I've just run a test now, and I'm getting full download speeds of around 2MB/s. Ping is also around 50ms to boards.ie

Kintarō Hattori

Is anyone else finding fluctuating speeds? I've never hit close to the 20MB mark yet. Last night speedtest results were showing 5MB, this morning it's 12MB the other night it was less than 5MB. The fastest I've gotten yet is 14MB a few nights ago.

Has anyone else had this issue? Did getting onto UPC solve the problem?

Moriarty

Don't rely on speedtest sites, they can under-report your speed pretty badly. Use a direct ethernet connection to your ntl modem when testing your connection bandwidth - using wifi will slow it down. Try downloading a large file off http://ftp.heanet.ie to get a true representation of your bandwidth.

BendiBus

I find speedtest.net to be utterly useless. The magnet speedtest, or downloads from heanet show me getting my full 10 megs, whereas speedtest.net never shows more than 6.

Try speedtest.magnet.ie

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks sir, I'll give that a whirl when I head home for lunch.

lambchops

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Ok..I have used the heanet file download via 3 channels

1) Direct Modem Connection (no router) - 2.27MB/sec

2) Netgear Wireless Router using Windows download - 1.05MB/sec

2) Netgear Wireless Router using Internet Download Manager - 2.5MB/sec

From the above, unless I am missing something, the Netgear Wireless Router throttles ordinary downloads unless using a download manager which brings things back up to direct modem connection speeds.

Screenprints below:

From Modem directly
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/direct.jpg
Using the Netgear Router
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/windowsthroughrouter.jpg
Using download manager through router
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f344/podgerodge/InternetDownloadManager.jpg


so what is the Netgear doing? Can anyone using same setup compare?

The only step I haven't repeated is using a download manager but I get the exact same otherwise.
On wireless using the Netgear router I get anything from 5 to 12Mb/s. Thats even with my laptop sat right next to the router. As soon as I connect directly to the modem via ethernet I get average 19Mb/s.

I personally have never liked the netgear routers in fact in a previous job we had one to cover a small area for meeting rooms and the signal barely got through a simple partition wall.

podgeandrodge

lambchops wrote: »

The only step I haven't repeated is using a download manager but I get the exact same otherwise.
On wireless using the Netgear router I get anything from 5 to 12Mb/s. Thats even with my laptop sat right next to the router. As soon as I connect directly to the modem via ethernet I get average 19Mb/s.

I personally have never liked the netgear routers in fact in a previous job we had one to cover a small area for meeting rooms and the signal barely got through a simple partition wall.

I used a Linksys compact router and the SAME issue is occuring. The routers seem to be unable to throughput full speed UNLESS you use a download manager. Weird. Hope someone can explain.

PAU

Some dude rang me from Chorus,said im entitled to an 10mb speed but on their website it says,also do you just get the speed automatically or do they have to send someone out?

Cheers.

silvine

Do I still need to use a download manager to get faster speeds even if I am using Firefox?

Marlow

BendiBus wrote: »

I find speedtest.net to be utterly useless. The magnet speedtest, or downloads from heanet show me getting my full 10 megs, whereas speedtest.net never shows more than 6.

Try speedtest.magnet.ie

Well, odd enough. Magnet's speedtest and speedtest.net are the SAME speedtest in different look.

It really depends, if the provider you are testing against and your provider have fast enough speeds inbetween eachother.

So first of all, which server on speedtest.net are you testing to ? What is the traceroute from your machine to that provider ?

If it's UPC you are using, be aware, that they are peering with very few irish ISPs directly. They peer with Magnet, but for most others, your traffic goes via UK or Amsterdam.

/Martin

BendiBus

Marlow wrote: »

If it's UPC you are using, be aware, that they are peering with very few irish ISPs directly. They peer with Magnet, but for most others, your traffic goes via UK or Amsterdam.

Interesting indeed. speedtest.net gives much better results from London than from Dublin, and the best ping from Maidenhead.

But the best result yet is from Galway!



But Dublin?



magnets speedtest still gives the best result though.

Marlow

BendiBus wrote: »

But the best result yet is from Galway!



magnets speedtest still gives the best result though.

Galway is us, and the path from UPC to us and the Limerick server would be via Smart directly. As I said, Magnet is directly peered with UPC (if i recall right) and as for the Dublin speedtest server, that's located in a hosting center in Dublin and I don't think has the best peering to UPC.

It always depends on how friendly your ISP is to it's neighbors.

/Martin

Blindpew

I just downloaded a 700mb file in 5 minutes with a UPC supplied router using utorrent. Never seen anything download so fast before.

nohopengn

that's pretty impressive... I've ordered BB from NTL 3 times now, each time I'm told to wait at my apt. They don't turn up and when I complained nothing happened...

Two friends of mine used to work in NTL and apparently it is well-known that some of the field staff do as little as possible.


Sounds to me like it's more of a management problem, that are letting the staff get-away poor customer service.

The_Conductor

Its not necessarily NTL staff- they have outsourced most of the support calls to 3rd parties who have a habit of double booking themselves on the assumption that a very large proportion of people who book appointments are not at home when the engineers call. Regularly the double bookings are a problem.

paulm17781

smccarrick wrote: »

Its not necessarily NTL staff- they have outsourced most of the support calls to 3rd parties who have a habit of double booking themselves on the assumption that a very large proportion of people who book appointments are not at home when the engineers call. Regularly the double bookings are a problem.

It's the management. All the problems are the management. If they'd only do something to fix these things, contractors should not get paid if anyone doesn't get their install. Complaints to customer care should be addressed. etc.

When I say I have issues with UPC Customer care I don't mean the staff, they're just unlucky enough to have an awful job. It's whoever in management allows / advises them to work that way is the problem.

The_Conductor

Its a race to the bottom though- we demand cheaper and cheaper broadband (and other services) and in return the service they provide to us deteriorates. I'm not trying to excuse them- I've lost track of the number of engineers I've had out- simply recognising what the problem is. Personally I think they should charge a reasonable fee for the initial install and activation- sufficient to get their callouts up to speed and ensure that people are up and running- and then drop the monthly charge (which costs them minimal anyhow). Then again- would you pay EUR100 for an install, when some other crabby company will do it for nothing (and most likely not turn up, as currently is the case)?

paulm17781

It's a good point. That said, I don't *think* I've ever had an install problem or a no show. I'm more annoyed that in the (rare) times I do have issues, I get such help as "You need an technician" when I don't. I don't blame the guy at the end of the phone, it's whatever cretin further up the ladder thought this would help people.

You're right though, as we expect more for cheaper this sort of thing will happen. I suppose UPC need to look at whether they're better with bad CS and good products or would good CS speed up take up. It's widely know why people don't like UPC and if they'd only address these things they could be a far better company. Sadly they seem to like having their customers hate them.

I still absolutely love my 20Mb BB and am looking forward to whatever else they can do.

PauloMN

paulm17781 wrote: »

It's a good point. That said, I don't *think* I've ever had an install problem or a no show. I'm more annoyed that in the (rare) times I do have issues, I get such help as "You need an technician" when I don't. I don't blame the guy at the end of the phone, it's whatever cretin further up the ladder thought this would help people.

You're right though, as we expect more for cheaper this sort of thing will happen. I suppose UPC need to look at whether they're better with bad CS and good products or would good CS speed up take up. It's widely know why people don't like UPC and if they'd only address these things they could be a far better company. Sadly they seem to like having their customers hate them.

I still absolutely love my 20Mb BB and am looking forward to whatever else they can do.

+1, couldn't agree more with this post.

Never had a no-show from them I must say, but the customer support could be better.

Good products, if the support was better they'd have the whole market sewn up.