upc 20mb is next to useless

Dr Bolouswki

/weeps

cdb

Does anyone know what is going on with UPC Broadband. So much for 10Mb down & 1 up.

niallk

Just got upc ultra on Friday. i have yet to see 20mbs on speedtest.net. In fact I rarely get over 10mbs. Anyway my main problem is that the broadband interferes with the TV signal. Below is a diagram I have prepared: :cool:
<IMG>http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=demomi9.jpg</IMG&gt;
The TV is going into the old cablelink port and the the router is on the other side of the room. Why am I getting interference on the tele? Is there a new cable available as the UPC port on the left doesn't take those old white tv cables?

ROC1977

Speedtest.net isn't a great speed test. I think the magnet one is the best. I find when my speed is bad, reboot the router and modem normally helps. Netgear router is crap.

UPC is a very up and down service at the moment. But magnet was the same when they were the first with 8meg. I find even with speed test when only getting 10meg on a 20meg service when I download with IDM I'm still getting over 2mbps. So I'm happy with that.

niallk

niallk wrote: »

s there a new cable available as the UPC port on the left doesn't take those old white tv cables.

Can someone answer this please?

ROC1977

niallk wrote: »

Can someone answer this please?

what is an old white tv cable???? Question isn't too clear mate.

niallk

ROC1977 wrote: »

what is an old white tv cable???? Question isn't too clear mate.

the normal tv cables (usually white) with the male needles. But the UPC thing they installed the other day doesn't take these. It takes a similar (white) cable with a much thinner needle.
this picture thing doesn't seem to be working for me
http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=demomi9.jpg

HungryJoey

I'm getting stupid speeds myself at the moment rendering it useless for downloading, gaming is just a joke and sites timing out.


See ya later UPC, i've had enough at this stage.:pac:


Joke of a company. I'm going back to DSL.

ROC1977

you mean the cable that comes into your house then into the spliter, one goes into your digibox and the other for the modem. The one for your modem isn't fitting? Just go to maplin, homebase, etc and get the screw in connection for about 2 euro. Cut the old one off and stick the new one on. Or you can buy a new cable with the correct connections. But your cable to modem should be a screw in connection.
Thats if we are talking about the same thing.
Then again UPC should have done all that for you.

dub45

ROC1977 wrote: »

you mean the cable that comes into your house then into the spliter, one goes into your digibox and the other for the modem. The one for your modem isn't fitting? Just go to maplin, homebase, etc and get the screw in connection for about 2 euro. Cut the old one off and stick the new one on. Or you can buy a new cable with the correct connections. But your cable to modem should be a screw in connection.
Thats if we are talking about the same thing.
Then again UPC should have done all that for you.

You should be able to get little adapters which will avoid the need to cut any cables.

Aquos76

My speeds seem fine down here in Waterford. I'm on 10meg

DisasterIRL

I got onto Ntl yesterday, and they informed me that I have excess noise in my line.

To me that sounds like total BS, if that where the case then my cousin on the same connection living a couple of killometers away shouldn't affected. The result of the phone call is that the tech guys are on it but it may take up to 2 week to get fixed.

There troubleshooting is a joke, I have been telling people about the great NTL offers, but I will be bringing that to a very abrupt stop!

Freddie59

I'm in Waterford. 20 Megs. No probs.

HungryJoey

Speeds seem to be back to normal now, I'm getting 20mb again.

Vendetta

Im still getting less than 6mb no change. Anyone elses back?

DisasterIRL

I've got more stability in my line now, but the speed especially with torrents are still low

niallk

ROC1977 wrote: »

you mean the cable that comes into your house then into the spliter, one goes into your digibox and the other for the modem. The one for your modem isn't fitting? Just go to maplin, homebase, etc and get the screw in connection for about 2 euro. Cut the old one off and stick the new one on. Or you can buy a new cable with the correct connections. But your cable to modem should be a screw in connection.
Thats if we are talking about the same thing.
Then again UPC should have done all that for you.

I have the upc box on one side of the room with the modem and a spare socket. The TV is on other side of the room with the old socket. Interference is happening. I'd like to know if there is a "screw-in" cable I can get to connect to the tv or should they have given me one or what?

ROC1977

niallk wrote: »

I have the upc box on one side of the room with the modem and a spare socket. The TV is on other side of the room with the old socket. Interference is happening. I'd like to know if there is a "screw-in" cable I can get to connect to the tv or should they have given me one or what?

If I was you, ring them get them over to fix your problem. Why should you have to do it yourself. Your paying for a service which isn't working correctly. Its onw thing having speeds going up and down, but to have a crap Tv picture now thats anorther thing! lol

Your old line isn't what you want your TV connected to. Connect it with the screw in type cable to the spliter next to your modem. You can get the screw in cable anywhere.
The old line your using is the analog line by the sounds of things. Which are rubbish, might as well be tapping in to the line with a needle like the good old days! lol

DingDong

niallk wrote: »

I have the upc box on one side of the room with the modem and a spare socket. The TV is on other side of the room with the old socket. Interference is happening. I'd like to know if there is a "screw-in" cable I can get to connect to the tv or should they have given me one or what?

You probably need a new outlet box for better isolation on the old point or you old point could need the cable replaced. Like ROC said give them a call a get them out to fix the problem.

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

ROC1977

prob UPC/NTL acting up. wouldn't be the first time.
I found that leaving the IP as dynamic and setting up my own DNS has fixed all my problems. Torrents, gaming and speeds seem fine now. Although torrents aren't going full 2.5mbps, I'm getting about 1.7mbps which I'm happy with.

vibe666

well, just got my ntl in yesterday, but it's grand so far.



upload could be better, but I'll see how it is over the next few days. I tried it again later on and the download was about 17,500kb/s so not sure if that was my connection, my pc or the speedtest site causing the bottleneck.

suspect it's my crappy old pc tbh tho.

torrenting is working fine tho (on well seeded torrents) which was one thing i was worried about.

Vendetta

Im lucky to get 2 megs a second on a 20mb connection. I hope they know its a problem and will fix it soon.

Aquos76

Vendetta wrote: »

Im lucky to get 2 megs a second on a 20mb connection. I hope they know its a problem and will fix it soon.

And what speeds per second are you expecting to get?

Vendetta

Aquos76 wrote: »

And what speeds per second are you expecting to get?

Sorry should be 20 megabits download and it was tested with speedtest.net and magnet.

Aquos76

My speeds are still pretty stable here in Waterford. I am om the 10meg package

niallk

Aquos76 wrote: »

And what speeds per second are you expecting to get?

obviously on a 20 mbs connection you expect to get 20 mbs.
I'm in the same boat. Floating around 2/2.5 mbs plus my tv signal is gone to ****e

needhelpguy

niallk wrote: »

obviously on a 20 mbs connection you expect to get 20 mbs.
I'm in the same boat. Floating around 2/2.5 mbs plus my tv signal is gone to ****e

You do realise that a 20mb connection is not actually 20mbps download? The correct download speed, in mb, equates to roughly one tenth of your connection speed. So you are actually getting the max speed for your line. At 2.5mbps it is actually excellent.

AlmightyCushion

needhelpguy wrote: »

You do realise that a 20mb connection is not actually 20mbps download? The correct download speed, in mb, equates to roughly one tenth of your connection speed. So you are actually getting the max speed for your line. At 2.5mbps it is actually excellent.

You're going to confuse people here. 20Mbps is 20Mbps (megabits). It is also 2.5MBps (megabytes). If you are getting 2.5MBps then you are fine, if you are getting 2.5Mbps then there is a problem.

Vendetta

The point is that its 2-2.5 megabits and nowhere near the 20 megabits we have paid for.

Aquos76

Vendetta wrote: »

The point is that its 2-2.5 megabits and nowhere near the 20 megabits we have paid for.

Do me a favour, download part of this file and then post up the exact transfer rate you are getting and I think you will find that you are indeed getting MB/sec

I am on their 10meg package and I am getting a transfer rate of 1.2MB/sec, which is the max I could be getting from a 10meg connection.

bk

Vendetta wrote: »

The point is that its 2-2.5 megabits and nowhere near the 20 megabits we have paid for.

I think the point everyone is trying to make is that 2.5 Megabytes is in fact exactly 20 megabits.

There are just different ways of saying the same number.

There are 8 bits in 1 byte, so:

2.5MB/s x 8 = 20mb/s

Where MB (uppercase) means Megabyte and mb (lowercase) means megabit.

If you are getting 2.5mb/s, then you have a problem, but if you are getting 2.5MB/s then it is working perfectly and you are getting the full advertised download speed.

niallk

Who talks in megabits in relation to download speed? Obviously I am talking megabytes. At last test I am getting 2452kb/s. The highest I have gotten since it was installed last Friday was about 15000kb/s. I have yet to achieve 20mb/s.

Praetor

niallk wrote: »

Who talks in megabits in relation to download speed? Obviously I am talking megabytes. At last test I am getting 2452kb/s. The highest I have gotten since it was installed last Friday was about 15000kb/s. I have yet to achieve 20mb/s.

just wondering...

Where did you get those 15000 kbps from?

I mean, was it downloading a file or was it from speedtest or similar site?

Do you get 2452 kbps from a speedtest site or from where?

vibe666

niallk wrote: »

Who talks in megabits in relation to download speed? Obviously I am talking megabytes.

there's your problem right there.

I don't think you are talking about what you think you are.

nobody (well, nobody around here or t'internet in general (or ISP's for that matter)) refers to megabytes per second in relation to the speed of a network.

here, this might help.

Kbps kilobits per second 1,000 bits per second
KBps Kilobytes per second 8,000 bits per second
Mbps Megabits per second 1,000,000 bits per second
MBps Megabytes per second 8,000,000 bits per second

Old Standard
bit b 0 or 1
byte B 8 bits
kilobit kb 1000 bits
Kilobyte (binary) KB 1024 bytes
Kilobyte (decimal) KB 1000 bytes
Megabit Mb 1000 kilobits
Megabyte (binary) MB 1024 Kilobytes
Megabyte (decimal) MB 1000 Kilobytes

unfortunately there's a new standard now which changes things slightly (just in case you weren't already confused).

IEC Standard
bit bit 0 or 1
byte B 8 bits
kibibit Kibit 1024 bits
kilobit kbit 1000 bits
kibibyte (binary) KiB 1024 bytes
kilobyte (decimal) kB 1000 bytes
megabit Mbit 1000 kilobits
mebibyte (binary) MiB 1024 kibibytes
megabyte (decimal) MB 1000 kilobytes

although they're not all catching on as quickly as the IEC would like for some bizarre reason. :rolleyes:

stupid advertising buzzwords like 'megs' and 'gigs' that are used in relation to everything from ram & hdd sizes to network speed really don't help clear things up either.

sorry if I'm making things more confusing, but I'm just trying to illustrate that what you're talking about isn't necessarily what everyone else is talking about, there's a whole lot of room for misinterpretation and misundersanding.

here is a simple test to try.

find a file of a certain size online and download it and time how long it takes.

then once you've done that, put the file size in this little calculator yoke here and see how you measure up. http://www.numion.com/Calculators/Time.html

there's also a pretty good speed tester on the site which will most likely give you a more accurate measurement of your 'real world' connection speed than most other speed test sites will.

http://www.numion.com/YourSpeed3/index.html

let us know how you get on with that and we can take it from there once we all know we're singing from the same hymn sheet.

if you're talking about what we think you're talking about it's like you arguing that you only got 1m of rope when you paid for 100cm.

of course the other thing to consider is what are you downloading from where?

for example, say I have a web server at home (and I do ) and I put a file there for you to download off me. I have a 20mbps connection, but the upload is only 1.5mbps so even if my line is perfect and you've got your 20mbps connection, it's still going to download on your pc at a max speed of 1.5mbps due to the limited speed that I can upload the file to you which means the absolute fastest I can send you a 100mb file (under perfect conditions, which you'll never get anyway) is 08m38s (based on the numion estimate not taking overheads into account).

TheDoc

interesting thread.

I'm living in swords and got a leaflet through the post saying i could get 20mb BB for 46 euro a month.

I currently give eircom 55 euro a month for a 2mb line. I have to say its a decent line for gaming, but downloads is horrendous, i rarely get over 150 k/bs a second.

I'm strongly considering getting upc. I know i wont get 20mb download, buts its the possability. I live close to the exchange so i generally get high speeds.

For 46 euro a month, its cheaper then what i pay for a faster service with no caps.

I generally download a heap load of stuff, play world of warcraft and surf the net. But download speed is my main concern.

What do we think folks? Should i do it?

I'm more concerned with dublin posters, helpful if near my area. A mate of mine got it in, has it gonig 6 weeks now and says its the bees kneews.

He lives 5 doors up and ive witnessed the speeds of 6-7 mb a second. (We live extremely close to exchange)

But hes not tech savvy, doesnt game, jsut downloads.

Some info would be great Solid reliable info aswell please. Im pretty in touch with tech stuff, and I know every provider has been having horribly lately.


Eircom isnt bad, just they are a rip off for a higher package, 250 a month for 20 mb, no thanks.

niallk

Praetor wrote: »

just wondering...

Where did you get those 15000 kbps from?

I mean, was it downloading a file or was it from speedtest or similar site?

Do you get 2452 kbps from a speedtest site or from where?

Yes I am getting these speeds from speedtest.net.

Aquos76

niallk wrote: »

Yes I am getting these speeds from speedtest.net.

Have you tried downloading the file I linked to in my above post and if so, what kind of transfer rate are you getting?

niallk

Aquos76 wrote: »

Have you tried downloading the file I linked to in my above post and if so, what kind of transfer rate are you getting?

100-150kb/s

Praetor

niallk wrote: »

100-150kb/s

Then you are right... sorry but it was getting very confusing for all of us... look as if you were right, very slow speeds...

Thanks for clearing that out

Hellrazer

Just a quick one--Is UPC really that bad.As per another thread here Im having terrible problems with Eircom and a supposed 7.6 meg BB.


Been just told that I`ll never get anything faster than what Im getting at the minute (equivalent to 3-4 megs)

Should I just jump and go with UPC?

Ive been getting 20 mb solid for over 9 months.


I do however have good points, reinstalled bout 2 years ago, if your pointsare old have em redone, ive seen BB installed with the old old cablelink points left inplace!

niallk

OK problem solved, kind of. I got a new cable "f-plug to coax" and plugged the router into the outlet upstairs in my room and I am getting a quality signal now. Problem is there's only one socket so I have to use internet/tv at different times which is grand for a game of CallOfDuty but I can't surf/watch tv at the same time (There's currently a load of static on the box).

There's a few other cable outlets around the house that I'll try tomorrow so I can watch tele in my room but I'm starting to think this may be the outlet with the best signal.:o

mickger

Since the 20meg speeds were introduced i was getting full speeds up to about a week ago. Since then my speeds have dropped to about 5-6megs in the day or evening time and then back up to 20megs late at night. Are NTL holding back speeds at peak times? I'm in Waterford.

DisasterIRL

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

interesting thread.

I'm living in swords and got a leaflet through the post saying i could get 20mb BB for 46 euro a month.

I currently give eircom 55 euro a month for a 2mb line. I have to say its a decent line for gaming, but downloads is horrendous, i rarely get over 150 k/bs a second.

I'm strongly considering getting upc. I know i wont get 20mb download, buts its the possability. I live close to the exchange so i generally get high speeds.

For 46 euro a month, its cheaper then what i pay for a faster service with no caps.

I generally download a heap load of stuff, play world of warcraft and surf the net. But download speed is my main concern.

What do we think folks? Should i do it?

I'm more concerned with dublin posters, helpful if near my area. A mate of mine got it in, has it gonig 6 weeks now and says its the bees kneews.

He lives 5 doors up and ive witnessed the speeds of 6-7 mb a second. (We live extremely close to exchange)

But hes not tech savvy, doesnt game, jsut downloads.

Some info would be great Solid reliable info aswell please. Im pretty in touch with tech stuff, and I know every provider has been having horribly lately.


Eircom isnt bad, just they are a rip off for a higher package, 250 a month for 20 mb, no thanks.

On one hand if your friend is quite close to you and getting very good speeds then I would say yes, go ahead with it, the general view of UPC is that if it's good it's great, if it's bad it's not.

Just price wise it is a smart move, worst case scenario is that you get the high package it costs less and is the same speed as the previous package.

Vendetta

Still only getting 2 megabits, was anyone on to upc? I will ring them tommorow in work if not.

vibe666

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

I'm strongly considering getting upc. I know i wont get 20mb download, buts its the possability. I live close to the exchange so i generally get high speeds.

assuming you are talking about your telephone exchange it's not going to make the slightest difference how close you are or not to it, the ntl 20mbps service works off an ntl cable tv connection, not the phoneline.

ROC1977

I live 100 yards from UPC's office in Limerick. I've got the cable signal booster for the whole street on the wall. Still get up and down speeds.

vibe666

lol, guess that's that quesiton answered then.

yeah, it's up and down, but tbh it's never gone below 7mbps for me since I had it in and the upload has stayed above 800kbps the whole time (up to the full 1.5mbps) so I'm not that fussed.

so far it's been more than quick enough so that I'm not waiting long for anything and I couldsn't really do any more with it if it was any faster tbh. my main interest at this stage is not having to mind my usage like with BT and the freedom to do what i want with it.

oh, and pings are much better too.

LimerickGuy2009

Hi all,
I signed up to the 20mb chorus package 4 weeks ago and within 1 hour i had speed issues...they did the usual send the installer back to check it, sent techs(so called techs i must say as they did nothing i had'nt done) tht all happened in week 1 and 2. Then upon ringing customer care a day or 2 later i was told it would take 10 working days to resolve.......12 working days later guess what still not fixed....shock......given a new fix date of wed the following week....still not....told it will be thur.....not fixed....told it will be fri(which will be tomorrow).
Being told different stories each time i ring from *1: transmitter is faulty *2: the node is faulty *3: congested line( currently re-segementing the line)

During this time i found most of the staff to be very unhelpful, except for 1 customer care agent who was helpfull.

i left a reliable isp to move to chorus as they assured me that the 20mb was available in my area of limerick.

Personally i would'nt recommend chorus/ntl to anyone, would rather use one of the o2 usb things than chorus.