Slow UPC speeds

dmohalloran

Hi
I have two questions. First, I have 10Mb broadband with UPC in Dublin 12 area, since I have had it, the most I have got is 7Mb (that was wired speed) wireless was at most 5Mb. I was originally on the 3Mb package but was then upgraded, the same cable modem is in use (standard american scientific UPC modem), and I have my own wireless router (Netgear MR814v2)
My first question is, would the hardware I have in use be the cuase of the slow speeds. Not sure of the spec of the UPC supplied cable modem, but the wireless router is 802.11b capable, would this have a huge impact on the wireless speeds achievable.
My second question is how close do most people get to the sign up speed. Even on the wired connection, laptop straight to the modem, the most ever achieved in 7Mb. Most time even on wired the speed is closer to 5Mb

Thanks

Snake Plisken

yeah they speeds are crap compared to what you pay for, for example I'm paying for 20meg but right now I'm only getting 3meg, checked even their own speedtest which is the only one the customer support people will believe when you ring them, so think I'm going to cut down to the 10meg package as I've very rarely got the Broadband Max 20meg they advertise

Lenny

yea speeds are quite pants for me right now too... 4 megs..

suprasonic

Ye think about trying different laptops and then ringing and getting it checked?

Snake Plisken

Well rang them last night only got first level support, but at least I got a decent girl, and I told I was using their speed test and only getting 3megs, this was at 8.30 last night, she agreed that it was way to slow, so I'm now waiting for their tech's to give me a call, now strang thing last night and the night before between 1.30am-2.00am my speed was back up to near 18meg, so I wonder if they have to many subscribers in the area which is killing my speeds during peak times? If so whats the point in paying the top premium when you get less then a quarter of what your paying for?

Freddie59

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Well rang them last night only got first level support, but at least I got a decent girl, and I told I was using their speed test and only getting 3megs, this was at 8.30 last night, she agreed that it was way to slow, so I'm now waiting for their tech's to give me a call, now strang thing last night and the night before between 1.30am-2.00am my speed was back up to near 18meg, so I wonder if they have to many subscribers in the area which is killing my speeds during peak times? If so whats the point in paying the top premium when you get less then a quarter of what your paying for?

Don't use Irish servers when testing. Have a look at the last poster in this thread:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055595902&page=2

Snake Plisken

Freddie59 wrote: »

Don't use Irish servers when testing. Have a look at the last poster in this thread:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055595902&page=2

Well Actually Magnet's speedtest is most accurate, but UPC only will only believe the speedtests from
http://www.upc.nl/internet/snel_internet/speedtest/

Had a call back from 2nd level and they recognise that there is an issue, she was going to pass it on to her supervisor and expect a call back hopefully tomorrow.

DrivingInfo

I have a 20mg connection!!!!!!
This is what i have for the last week, i have got on to them but noting yet :mad:



This is 20mg connection

Snake Plisken

DrivingInfo wrote: »

I have a 20mg connection!!!!!!
This is what i have for the last week, i have got on to them but noting yet :mad:



This is 20mg connection

Do us a favour and check it after midnight tonight see if your getting anything better speedwise, btw where are u based? If in Dublin where in Dublin, my theory is that they have to many subscribers which is causing slow down during peak hours, no point having the top package if we aren't getting near what we are paying for, I'd also make sure you tell them that until you get speeds nearing what you are paying for you want discount off your next bill!

DrivingInfo

I'm in Newbridge, kildare, about 25,000 pop not the 1 mil in Dublin so you would think that it would be possible to get at least half of what I'm paying for.



Here's my 20:30 reading

hightower1

DrivingInfo wrote: »

I have a 20mg connection!!!!!!
This is what i have for the last week, i have got on to them but noting yet :mad:



This is 20mg connection

Before we all go into conspiracy mode have you done any self testing?

-remove any router whether being used via wifi or switch?
-Rebooted their modem?
-Cleaned up the comp?
-Tried a different comp?

Not that there may not be an issue but I am pretty sure any tech desk would ask you to do all that anyway? For the sake of a few mins work could save a good lump of time on a phone right?

DrivingInfo

hightower1 wrote: »

Before we all go into conspiracy mode have you done any self testing?

-remove any router whether being used via wifi or switch?
-Rebooted their modem?
-Cleaned up the comp?
-Tried a different comp?

Not that there may not be an issue but I am pretty sure any tech desk would ask you to do all that anyway? For the sake of a few mins work could save a good lump of time on a phone right?

Done it all as i was on to them,


They are very helpful and the lads on the phone could not do more, but look at the last reading i got, that is taking the pis. it is meant to be 20meg.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

hightower1

DrivingInfo wrote: »

Done it all as i was on to them,


They are very helpful and the lads on the phone could not do more, but look at the last reading i got, that is taking the pis. it is meant to be 20meg.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Did they give you any help or idea what the problem could be? I agree the speed is a disaster there but was there any network work listed for the area? Any signal issues from your modem or line?

DrivingInfo

NO not a thing, they looked. the lad i was talking to said he will get his team leader to look into it, I feel sorry for him because what can he do.

But then again! what can i do?????

FloatingVoter

I'm on 20 Mbs package in Dublin 8. Now I'm getting 3-4 Mbs. Its been erratic since Thursday. I wonder if the electricians strike had anything to do with this mess. A statement from NTL/UPC would be nice.

Snake Plisken

DrivingInfo wrote: »

NO not a thing, they looked. the lad i was talking to said he will get his team leader to look into it, I feel sorry for him because what can he do.


But then again! what can i do?????

They said the same to me i.e. I'll pass it onto my Team Leader, I know two other people in Lucan who are currently on the 20meg packages getting poor speeds, if this is widespread, I'd advise everyone to get onto UPC about it, as for a statement from UPC, you'll never get that, as a lot of people would be looking for a credit against their next bill for poor service, it happened to be a couple of weeks back took about 3 weeks to sort it out I got the bill and it was for the full service, straight on the phone and told them I was getting less then 10 meg, crappy way they worked out the discount and got 10 euros discount!

DrivingInfo

Just done a test at 11:00 and this is my speed now!



Maybe I should ring them and tell about the unhappy comments on this website. I can tell you they will get their finger then.

I think every one who reads this should show their speed test results from all over the country and then UPC can use it as market research, (maybe they would see black spots of bad service) because they seem to be very good and helpful and maybe they will like to have the information as companies usually pay for that....;);)

vibe666

posting here is highly unlikely to make any difference. what will make a difference is people calling up and complaining of slow speeds, if enough people complain that is.

it's not always easy for an ISP to know exactly where there are problems if people don't complain about it and even if they do see a potential problem somewehre, if nobody is complaining then they probably won't do anything until they can see significant user impact so the best way to get something done is to make sure they know there is a problem so they can act on it.

they also need to be sure it IS actually a problem on their end and not just a mis-configured router or dodgy cable at the customer end, which is why you have all the troubleshooting from 1st level when you call up as the vast majority of the time it IS something at the customer side.

DrivingInfo

Did all the checks with them on the phone and as i said "because they seem to be very good and helpful" I think you should charge for a service when the customer gets what they pay for and not because you say they will get 20meg when the only time i got it was when it was installed first which was 30th of last month which was 2 week ago???????

I know they all say UP TO 20meg but I have speed test results of



And that is taking the piss:(

Rebel021

Well thats the catch with all bb providers "up to" with no provisions.

vibe666

upc are usually pretty good if their service isn't up to scratch. it's a pain to have to jump through all the hoops, but if you stick with it they should sort you out.

FloatingVoter

I was at 18.5 Mbs at 10 AM today. Now this...



On previous days experience, I'll be down to 2 Mbs by 5. I'm on the so called 20 Mbs package. Have been happily for 3 months until last Thursday.

DrivingInfo

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I was at 18.5 Mbs at 10 AM today. Now this...



On previous days experience, I'll be down to 2 Mbs by 5. I'm on the so called 20 Mbs package. Have been happily for 3 months until last Thursday.

Where are you in our little Island? Im in kildare.

DingDong

Contention will always be a problem, but it not like upc sit on there hands and do nothing about it. Its an on going battle. Some contention issues can be fixed fast usually an adjustment in the headend, Others may require physical work such as a new node to segment the area to a smaller size . Its the problems that require physical work, that take a bit more time. Its not like the upc network has falling flat on its face, take a look at my speedtest result from a few minutes ago. The best way to check your speed is connect directly to the modem (no router) and download something off heanet, like http://ftp.heanet.ie/disk1/backtrack/bt4-beta.iso and check the transfer rate.

Snake Plisken

don't bother telling them about speedtest results either as it's only their own speedtest (http://www.upc.nl/internet/snel_internet/speedtest/ ) they are interested in, if you get to second level support some of them will use Magnet's as well which is http://speedtest.magnet.ie/

I think Dingdong is right in that it's contention issues in our area's as if a lot of us in off-peak times get close to the 20meg then sounds like to many users on the local node, be that lucan kildare, tallaght. But if they do a big marketing drive like the add i'm looking at on this thread then they should build in extra capacity before hand so they can cope with new subscribers.

FloatingVoter

I'm in Dublin 8 and still slowing down... I've checked on two laptops and been round the houses with upc on the phone. I even wasted €15 on a premium rate phone line that upc referred me to. To no avail. A snotty letter threatening to cancel my direct debit is next.:(

DingDong

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I'm in Dublin 8 and still slowing down... I've checked on two laptops and been round the houses with upc on the phone. I even wasted €15 on a premium rate phone line that upc referred me to. To no avail. A snotty letter threatening to cancel my direct debit is next.:(

Have you connected to the modem directly with an ethernet cable?. If you have speed problem only at peak time it would indicate a contection issue. If your having speed problems all the time it could be something else, such as a noise issue at your local node.

FloatingVoter

According to upc, not a contention issue- as theres a low number of users on my line..."you should be getting top speeds". It was slow at midnight Thursday/Friday, fast Friday day then slow Friday night. Fast Saturday until about midday. Its a mystery.:)

FloatingVoter

Down to 2 Mbs last night. 19 Mbs this morning and now slowing to 5 ... and upc lines are swamped with calls. Oh well.

j4vier

in dublin 8 as well

should be on 10 mb but goin at about 4

FloatingVoter

11.15 pm and gloriously crawling along at 3.11 Mbs.

So much for 20 Mbs broadband. They still won't admit its their problem.

GalwayKiefer

I had the problem recently where it was up and down like a yo-yo for about 2 weeks then I started being unable to connect during the day. Rang them and they sent out a technician (I'm in Galway btw) and it was working when he arrived so he pretty much hopped back in his van straight away. Few days later it was back to on/off all day so I rang them again and a different guy came out and did some tests on the line coming into my house with his own equipment. Turns out we are the last house on our line and were getting a very weak signal, he got another technician to do something over the phone and from then on I've had no trouble. Its *much* better as the speedtest.net test shows below. He was saying that they're in the process of doing an upgrade for their 20meg customers to 30meg but it really does seem to depend on where you are located as to the speeds you get.
Keep hounding them until they send someone out to sort it, its unacceptable to be getting the speeds some people are getting here considering how much upc bb costs (20meg in particular)

DrivingInfo

HI again

I think you would like to know that i rang and they are flat out with calls, I tested with 2 laptops and still the same But the guy on the phone said that i MAY be charged €50 when the tech guy calls, as it depends on where the problem is "Even though" i tested with 2 laptops! but he said it could still be on my side hmmmmmmmm????

We'll SEE!;)

coldfire1x

Not sure why its slow for everyone but I am in Dubin 8 with 10mb line and here's what sppedtest says:

FloatingVoter

I sent a registered letter to upc yesterday complaining about this bull****. Not even a mention of sending out a techie yet. It was 19 Mbs this morning.

DrivingInfo

Has anyone got their UPC BB Fixed yet.

Still getting 2.6mg when it should be 20mg

FloatingVoter

DrivingInfo wrote: »

Has anyone got their UPC BB Fixed yet.

Still getting 2.6mg when it should be 20mg

Check out the UPC tech support nightmare thread for my lack of progress. It seems to be congestion in my case. UPC say everything is perfect at their end.

Irishpimpdude

Mines been bad too lately before this i was getting my full 20mb



Magnet speedtest

Download Speed: 10439 kbps (1304.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1387 kbps (173.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

debian-live-501-i386-xfce-desktop.iso 934.0 kB/s - 12.8 MB of 472 MB
http://ftp.heanet.ie/debian-cd/5.0.1-live/i386/iso-cd/debian-live-501-i386-xfce-desktop.iso

What i find weird is this, downloading with usenet i get full speed
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2659/usenet.jpg

lafors

I'm in Dublin 9, been having the same problems as the rest of you since last week. It was that bad this morning that the connection was dead altogether.
Tried to ring them twice and after 15mins on hold, I was taken off hold and then they hung up, both times.

When it works its great, but when there's a problem they are a disgrace!
:mad:

FloatingVoter

It seems as if they can't support the 20 Mbs package during peak hours.

As for IrishPimpDude...wouldn't Usenet use different DNS servers than UPC ?

Automan

For the last few weeks my speeds during the day have been between 2 and 6 meg (At about 2am will get 10 meg).
Before this I would very rarely get bellow 10 meg during the day, just seems to be getting worse (on the 10 meg pack).
Over in Blanch.

probe

Both cable and DSL have big problems. Cable can't handle demand when everyone in a neighbourhood is online - the available bandwidth gets saturated. Or if your neighbour does some digging in the garden it could mess everything up for the area you live in. DSL has a speed/distance limitation over a few km.

The only real solution is fibre. High speed. Upgradeable to multi-gigabits/sec. Low maintenance for the operator. Long reach in rural areas (100 km+ from the local village type range). Inexpensive to install in rural areas if you don't put it underground and mechanise the installation process. Very economic in urban areas with a multi play scenario - HDTV, internet, phone, video on demand. Nobody wants to rent DVD/BDs and have to take them back to the rental location if they have the alternative of getting the same quality online.

Fibre has the spare bandwidth to allow service provider competition over the same line. There is no alternative. Any other infrastructure spend is a waste of money.

If you have a fiber optic connection between an HDTV and a Dolby Digital sound system (AC3) you will know how simple fibre is compared with messing about with an old fashioned cable connector.

FloatingVoter

With the 20 Mbs package and I'm off Cork St. in Dublin 8. Not exactly rural. What annoys me is upc say its my computer. Dead funny given it was clocking 19+ Mbs this morning around 8 AM.:rolleyes:

Irishpimpdude

FloatingVoter wrote: »

It seems as if they can't support the 20 Mbs package during peak hours.

As for IrishPimpDude...wouldn't Usenet use different DNS servers than UPC ?

It has nothing to do with DNS servers all a dns server does is resolve a server ip from an address

Probably because it makes 20 connections at once instead of just one

hightower1

probe wrote: »

Low maintenance for the operator..

What? Are you serious? Its notoriously difficult to maintain! Its very fragile and incredibly hard to repair without removing an entire line if there is a break.

probe wrote: »

Inexpensive to install in rural areas if you don't put it underground and mechanise the installation process.
.

And as I have stated above you would have to install this underground, over ground fiber lines would be a disaster, the slightest storm and you'd have massive breaks and to make it worse it would be in the middle of no where dragging multi pal repair crews away from the major centers.



Its a fantastic medium for data transport for both quantity and quality BUT its expensive, difficult to maintain and is complete over kill in light of the competitors in Ireland. Why spend that amount of money to triple your rivals speeds when the average consumer will change provider if you supply only a marginal increase and costing the ISP a whole lot less.

FloatingVoter

Hardly the actions of a 20 Mbs connection making 20 connections at once.;)

Snake Plisken

I'm still waiting for a supervisor to ring me 2 weeks on, I rang again last week and was given the same answer, well I won't be paying my full bill again this month as if I'm only getting less then 10 meg speeds, why should I pay for the 20 meg service? Recommend you get the the number of the case open for your issues so you can reference it back to their accounts people.

Irishpimpdude

As its nearly 3 in the morning mine seems to be better which makes me think it is congestion.



Download Speed: 18481 kbps (2310.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1445 kbps (180.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

FloatingVoter

Just up on a Monday morning..Heres my uncongested speed.


Now for 5 PM and downwards.

bk

hightower1 wrote: »

What? Are you serious? Its notoriously difficult to maintain! Its very fragile and incredibly hard to repair without removing an entire line if there is a break.

It doesn't degrade anywhere close to how quickly copper degrades and isn't badly effected by water.

hightower1 wrote: »

And as I have stated above you would have to install this underground, over ground fiber lines would be a disaster, the slightest storm and you'd have massive breaks and to make it worse it would be in the middle of no where dragging multi pal repair crews away from the major centers.

This doesn't seem to be a problem for Verizon in the US, where they do this all the time, running fibre along poles in areas that suffer far more extreme weather then we have.

They have developed a variety of techniques to handle and simplify maintenance.

FloatingVoter

As predicted:rolleyes: