upc 20mb is next to useless

expatoz

hi i'm in limerick and for the last 3 days my 20mb connection is pathetic, down to 3mb and one time down to 1mb. rapidshare seems to blocked, utorrent won't connect, dc++ times out. all i can do is browse the web and check emails and even then its slow. tech support say everything seems ok from their end.
anyone else having the same probs?
can i ask for a reduction on my bill
where to now? i changed from bt because of the lousy cap, 30gb and 3mb speed (at least with them everything wasn't throttled) but if this keeps up i'm changing to someone but i'm not sure who,
anyone got any recommendations
cheers

tman

Are you using the free netgear wireless router by any chance?

No problems in Galway, it kind of looks like they've blocked uploading to rs, but downloads work fine... Torrents definitely aren't capped either.

expatoz

hey tman
i'm using the netgear router, at the moment i'm plugged straight into the cable modem but thats no good when i want to use wireless
any recommendations on router, i'm willing to buy one if that can sort things out. torrents usually work pretty well but it seems as if they block the upload so the ratio can't be kept up. dc++ won't connect at all and soulseek forget it. the dc++ hub i use is out of print soul stuff so piracy isn't an issue but its still blocked

tman

I have the Linksys WRT54GS myself and would consider it the wisest upgrade that I've ever done. (had a netgear freebie beforehand and it gave me no end of headaches)
I'd say go for pretty much any Linksys router you can afford, but I'm sure others will have more suggestions

Uploads on torrents seem to work fine on mine, they normally max out the upload speed anyway. If you have it set to unlimited upload speed, perhaps try changing it to 80K or so
For soulseek, disabling the upnp option seemed to work for me iirc (think it's the very last one in the settings screen)

Stone

expatoz,

I had severe issues with the Netgear 614 myself / disabling the Statefull Inspection firewall helps on this, but is obviously not a real solution.
So I bought a Linksys WRT54G2 (€ 41 from komplett.ie) which works like a REAL charm ....
Problem btw is
a) The limited processing power if the Netgear
b) The Netgear has way too bad Wan-to-Lan throughput .... see http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/ for a good contemporary list

Hope this helps,
Stone

PS. Needless to say - but never connect using USB .... always use ethernet !

Stone

Sorry tman - you were posting your reply while I was writing mine (didn't want to doublepost)... however seems we offer good advice since it is similar

Liamario

I'm in dublin and i'm having the exact same problems with my 20mb. The spped download wise come 7 o eight o'clock drops to 1-3 mb. That being the case, it's unlikely that the problem is with my router (which is also a WRT54GS). I don't know what ntl/upc are up to, but it's impossible to get through to them. There phones were down today for chrissakes :mad:

expatoz

thanks for the quick replies tman and stone, i was actually looking at a linksys at www.dabs.ie the other day, looks like i'll give that a try, have to buy an external hard drive also
at the moment my rapidshare d/l (premium account is dowm to 25kbs)
arrgh!

cahirhennessy

expatoz wrote: »

hi i'm in limerick and for the last 3 days my 20mb connection is pathetic, down to 3mb and one time down to 1mb. rapidshare seems to blocked, utorrent won't connect, dc++ times out. all i can do is browse the web and check emails and even then its slow. tech support say everything seems ok from their end.
anyone else having the same probs?
can i ask for a reduction on my bill
where to now? i changed from bt because of the lousy cap, 30gb and 3mb speed (at least with them everything wasn't throttled) but if this keeps up i'm changing to someone but i'm not sure who,
anyone got any recommendations
cheers

The connection is absolutely cat today. It's normally very bad(a 20 meg "ultra" connection,lucky if I get 4/5 meg in the evening),but this evening I'm getting the princely download speed of 965 kpbs. Just phoned them and to my shock there was nobody available to talk to me. Abysmal.

jimmycrackcorm

For anyone with a WRT54GS, I'd strongly reccomend updating the firmware to DD-WRT. It makes a huge difference on 20mbps, escpecially if you want to use torrents and try surf at the same time. Alos it has way more features.

cahirhennessy

connection completel y gone now. I might have to talk to a real person. not good.

tman

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

For anyone with a WRT54GS, I'd strongly reccomend updating the firmware to DD-WRT. It makes a huge difference on 20mbps, escpecially if you want to use torrents and try surf at the same time. Alos it has way more features.

Cool, I've been meaning to try some custom firmware for ages now. Just stuck that on it myself, seems pretty cool so far
Bit of a scary upgrade process though, especially when you use the MINI firmware instead of the MICRO and think you've just bricked your router:p

watty

Not all linksys are the same HW, or goodness.
OpenWRT with X-WRT GUI is better than DD-WRT
Check OpenWRT HW guide before buying (also make sure it's not an ADSL only Modem + Router).

dub45

watty wrote: »

Not all linksys are the same HW, or goodness.
......................

Handy article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series

celticfan32

Im in Limerick city and have the 20mb package. My download speeds are absolute rubbish. At the moment my download speed is running at about 70-100kb,s and my upload is about 120kb. Im not well up on this but i think those speeds are not correct for the 20 mb package. I have gone on to speedtest and it says my downloads are nearly 20 mb and my upload is nearly 1.5. When im downloading anything my speeds seem to go very slow. Anyone else with this problem?

paulm17781

celticfan32 wrote: »

Im in Limerick city and have the 20mb package. My download speeds are absolute rubbish. At the moment my download speed is running at about 70-100kb,s and my upload is about 120kb. Im not well up on this but i think those speeds are not correct for the 20 mb package. I have gone on to speedtest and it says my downloads are nearly 20 mb and my upload is nearly 1.5. When im downloading anything my speeds seem to go very slow. Anyone else with this problem?

It depends where you are downloading from. The servers hosting the files may not be capable of faster. I've been getting slow speeds on rapidshare lately but other sites I often get much much higher.

celticfan32

Right now im downloading from Pirate bay. Speeds still the same.

vibe666

www.linksysinfo.org is a great resource for linksys routers.

stick with an older wrt54g or gs router and make sure it can take a 3rd party firmware, not all of them can. some ofthe newer ones might be able to, but you can't beat the old black and blue wrt's.

expatoz

thanks for all the router advice, i've found this one at dabs can someone have a look and advise if it is the right one. seems a good price
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=38DV

CiaranC

celticfan32 wrote: »

Right now im downloading from Pirate bay. Speeds still the same.

You are downloading from a public torrent tracker. Speeds are generally slow. Its not a bottleneck on your end, you could have a 100MB connection and you would still get those speeds.

Download via http from HEANET and you'll see what your connection is really like.

Too many people who dont understand the internet just automatically blame their ISP when things dont happen lightening fast everywhere.

celticfan32

Thanks Ciaran,illtry that out..

CiaranC

When you are done with that go register with a private torrent tracker, I get 1Mb/Sec easily off them.

celticfan32

Ciaran, whats the exact website for heanet,all im getting is some irish education site

CiaranC

celticfan32 wrote: »

Ciaran, whats the exact website for heanet,all im getting is some irish education site

lol

heanet is an irish education website

try this

http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso

Blindpew

CiaranC wrote: »

When you are done with that go register with a private torrent tracker, I get 1Mb/Sec easily off them.

CiaranC is right, I can download a 700mb file is under 5 min from a private wrestling site, but yet from a public tracker it could take two days for the same file. If you have the right source UPC can deliver their part.

Freddie59

vibe666 wrote: »

www.linksysinfo.org is a great resource for linksys routers.

stick with an older wrt54g or gs router and make sure it can take a 3rd party firmware, not all of them can. some ofthe newer ones might be able to, but you can't beat the old black and blue wrt's.

I ordered this one from Komplett.ie the other day. Fed up with Netgear. Opinions anyone? Seems to have gotten good reviews.:)

vibe666

part of the difficulty in getting a decent linksys router is that there are so many different models and there's no way of telling which one is which when you buy from an online retailer like dabs or komplett as they all 'look' the same externally and it's normally just a stock photo and most suppliers won't see any difference when selling them.

the only way really to be sure is to grab one from somewhere like PC world where you can check the serial number on the box, or buy one off ebay and ask the seller before you bid/buy what the serial is.

all the relevant info about available 3rd party firmwares and hardware revisions is available on the wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrt54g

oh, and the HEANET server you want is the FTP one, not the HTTP one.

ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/

just pick a decent sized linux distro to download and see how quick the speed is.

this one would do it: ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu-cdimage/dvd/current/intrepid-dvd-i386.iso

bk

expatoz wrote: »

thanks for all the router advice, i've found this one at dabs can someone have a look and advise if it is the right one. seems a good price
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=38DV

I wouldn't get that one, the newer versions of it have less memory and aren't linux firmware compatible.

I'd go for this one:
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3YRT&CategorySelectedId=11177&NavigationKey=11177&ExposedRefinement=11005

WRT54GL, the L means it has more memory and is Linux firmware compatible (but not with the mega version firmware which has all features).

the WRTSL54GS would be even better, it has 8mb of flash memory, therefore compatible with the most feature rich linux firmwares.

expatoz

bk wrote: »

I wouldn't get that one, the newer versions of it have less memory and aren't linux firmware compatible.

I'd go for this one:
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3YRT&CategorySelectedId=11177&NavigationKey=11177&ExposedRefinement=11005

WRT54GL, the L means it has more memory and is Linux firmware compatible (but not with the mega version firmware which has all features).

the WRTSL54GS would be even better, it has 8mb of flash memory, therefore compatible with the most feature rich linux firmwares.

hi bk
thanks for the advice, i've gone for this one WRT54GL, will be running 3 computers off it, xp, ubuntu and server 2003, plan to upgrade my networking skills. i hope it sorts my upc probs tho i suspect a lot has to do with traffic shaping

bk

expatoz wrote: »

hi bk
thanks for the advice, i've gone for this one WRT54GL, will be running 3 computers off it, xp, ubuntu and server 2003, plan to upgrade my networking skills. i hope it sorts my upc probs tho i suspect a lot has to do with traffic shaping

Either way it is one of the best routers around and it will serve you well no matter who you are with.

Davo D

vibe666 wrote: »

just pick a decent sized linux distro to download and see how quick the speed is.

this one would do it: ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu-cdimage/dvd/current/intrepid-dvd-i386.iso

I'm on the 20MB package (Dublin 3 area) and I'm downloading the file above at the moment and getting 150KB/s, earlier on today i was getting 1.5MB/s for the same file. This has been happening for the past few weeks now. UPC are denying that there are any problems.

Has anybody got any ideas as to why there are some people getting crap download speeds at night time? It was down to 17KB/s last night. Not good.

celticfan32

What were u downloading?

Davo D

celticfan32 wrote: »

What were u downloading?

I was downloading the heatnet file that I quoted in my post. It's downloading at about 900KB/s now. It will rise up to about a speed of 1.50MB/s during the day and then fall back down again at night.

Is it simply a contention issue?

Ricky91t

Good download test too is d/l something from microsoft while in the uk was getting 2.3mb download speed from it

Tazzle

I'm using UPC in Cork City, getting full download and upload speeds on the 20mb package. Only current issue is some of UPC's peering. I'm not sure why it feels the need to route via New York & Italy for some British networks.

Denisoftus

Very slow tonight, getting 1.5Mbs instead if 20. Never been affected by contention when I was on 6Mb. If that's going to continue I'd preffer to go back to 6Mb.

Geff

Just moved home to my folks house today between moving into a new apartment and my mother recently got 10meg Chorus installed. I set up my machine upstairs. Using my wireless USB dongle I've used with Eircom services previously and the speeds are nothing near 10meg. I'm lucky to get 300/350k sec.

At the start using RS links I got the full speed but it dropped after 10 mins. No other machines on the connection and nothing downloading in the background. I was thinking of getting UPC in my new apartment (20meg) but from what I've read here it doesn't seem like a good idea here in the Midwest (I'm in Shannon Co. Clare). Going to stick with Eircom 8meg instead.

IsThatSo?

I had an N*L engineer out yesterday to deal with a tv issue. I mentioned about the majorly cr*ppy speeds, gave a brief rundown and he reckoned it was a contention issue......................:rolleyes:

I can understand a company wanting to increase market share blah blah blah, but doing it at the expense of current customers can surely only do harm in the long run.

A prospective UPC customer googling for info would be a lunatic to sign up after reading some of the threads here :eek:

ROC1977

Right. I'm living in Limerick and have had UPC 20meg for about 2 weeks. For the first 3 or 4 days I was getting 2.5MB/s dl speeds and 1200kbps up. That was torrents on a private tracker. Same for RS links. My download speed test showed 20meg.Then torrents got throttled, now max about 200kbps dl and 1-10kbps. Ran speed test now only getting between 2 and 7meg at best for the past week or so. Rapidshare getting 720kbps which is on par with 6meg. Funny thing is my upload is still 1200kbps (speed test)???
I've a friend working for Chorus in IT in limerick. He said that he doesn't know anything about torrent throttling, but he said he try find out from senior management. 20 mins later and YES chorus are throttling torrents. FACT!!!!
Which doesn't really bother me to be honest. Rapidshare is way better. But I'm only getting 6 meg and not 20. So for 2 hours yesterday I was on to chorus about my speed. The girl talking to me didn't seem to know anything about IT, and I could he her supervisor in the back ground telling he things like " he's downloaded 50gig in a week" and nothing is wrong with his connection. So I had to disconnect router "netgear" and direct connect from the modem. Still no diff. Then they tried to tell me it was my PC settings. But its not, then they said it was my torrent software messing it up. But that was turned off.
I've come to the conclusion that my speed has been reduced coz I dl'd 50gb in a week. Which is stupid as I've no cap.

Sixaside

Hi, I'm using Chorus/UPC broadband in Limerick also. I have the 6MB package and everything is great as long as I'm connected to the internet. Problem is For the last few weeks I keep losing my connection. At weekends it's particularly bad but it's happening with more frequency during the week also.

When I reboot the connection is usually ok again.......until the next time it goes. I rang Chorus and they reckon it's a problem with my PC and suggestied I contact their PC helpdesk - A premium number!!! Didn't bother as I don't believe that's the problem. Anyone else have similiar problems?

Ronan Raver77

IsThatSo? wrote: »

A prospective UPC customer googling for info would be a lunatic to sign up after reading some of the threads here :eek:

Whoopsie I recently changed over from Digiweb to n*l broadband as we have the n*l tv etc.Speeds were fine for the first week or two now especially with torrent sites(plenty of seeders) dl speed is muck:(

I had no problems what so ever with Digiweb but the package n8l were offering was faster and no up or dl limit.I went for the Broadband Ultra pack 20mg speed 1.5mg upload speed and unlimited dl ul.

Just did a speed test on blacknight dl is 309kbps ul is 1.38mbps.I must ring them tomorrow but they will say nothing wrong or contention during peek hours.

J-blk

I've had NTL/UPC for 3 years and I've pretty much had it since these "upgrades". On Sunday night, my speeds had dropped to 54Kbps, which is below dial up :mad:. I've written them a couple of days ago because I am not going to sit on hold forever for this crap and still no reply. I'm probably gonna ditch them (both BB and TV) and move over to Smart instead...

MrTrebus

anyone having any issues with online gaming with UPC ???
I got the 20mb package isntalled after MAJOR issues last week, but am finding my PS3 COD4 speeds are crap.
worse is, if I host a match then the majority of people leave cause the game runs so badly !
happening to anyone else ?

ROC1977

Sixaside wrote: »

Hi, I'm using Chorus/UPC broadband in Limerick also. I have the 6MB package and everything is great as long as I'm connected to the internet. Problem is For the last few weeks I keep losing my connection. At weekends it's particularly bad but it's happening with more frequency during the week also.

When I reboot the connection is usually ok again.......until the next time it goes. I rang Chorus and they reckon it's a problem with my PC and suggestied I contact their PC helpdesk - A premium number!!! Didn't bother as I don't believe that's the problem. Anyone else have similiar problems?

I get the same problem if I am downloading and streaming video from my PC to xbox 360 at the same time. The Netgear router is a pile of ****e. If it drops connection power cycle the router and modem instead of your PC. I'm going to change my router with another as soon as I get a chance.

ROC1977

Ronan Devitt wrote: »

Whoopsie I recently changed over from Digiweb to n*l broadband as we have the n*l tv etc.Speeds were fine for the first week or two now especially with torrent sites(plenty of seeders) dl speed is muck:(

I had no problems what so ever with Digiweb but the package n8l were offering was faster and no up or dl limit.I went for the Broadband Ultra pack 20mg speed 1.5mg upload speed and unlimited dl ul.

Just did a speed test on blacknight dl is 309kbps ul is 1.38mbps.I must ring them tomorrow but they will say nothing wrong or contention during peek hours.

Torrents are throttled since last week. I've a friend in Chorus.
I only got chorus in last Monday week. Had 2.5Mb/ps on rapidshare and full speed on test for the first 3 days. Now most I get is 6meg. I think Chorus have slowed mine down coz the amount I dl'd in a week. Rang them and they told me everything was fine on their end, but the did say I've downloaded alot. And that its probably my Pc thats slow. Ya right.

Elessar

Any update here? How are the speeds now?

stanley1

Tonight 6mb on 20mb connection, useless.

Vendetta

The most i get is 3mb the last few days, its usually 2mb. Was anyone onto UPC about this and what was there response.

DisasterIRL

I am having terrible trouble, I am on th 6mb package and for the last while I have been getting 70kbs max down on torrents.

I put that to the back of my mind, I then started to lost connection mid way through Call of Duty matches, but games eat speed, so I let that go, but I am now loosing the connection while browsing every 10 minutes or so.

I also had a cousin over who is also on the same package as me, he found it hilarious the problems I was having, but today he started to get the connection cutting out during games.

ROC1977

same here bud. Connection time outs all the time. I went and set up a static IP and made up my own Prim and secondary DNS. Problem solved.
If you don't know how to do this. www.portforwarding.com has guides for all versions of windows.

DisasterIRL

Ha, no I've done that a few times now, was working wonders a couple of months ago but back to the old grind now