UPC Broadband speed problems

Fishy1

Hi All,
I'm hoping some of you techies can help me, as I'm clueless when it comes to understanding Broadband speeds etc.

I'm with UPC on the 20 MB broadband package, but for the past few nights my internet has been appallingly slow. I followed a link to do a broadband speed test & this is the result I got:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 388 kbps (48.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 433 kbps (54.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Can anyone tell me what this means?

Do I need to get on to UPC, or is this normal? Watching even short videos online (4 mins duration) is becoming impossible. This used never be a problem before.

Help!

00sully

yeah mine is knackered at the moment too supposed to be 120mb! they've been having problems all week outages etc... they are quite good generally though so it should be back to normal soon. unless they are bank rolled by Ulsterbank

Sully

Yeah those speeds are very low alright. Have you tried rebooting your router (the black box they gave you for internet)? If all else fails, report it to UPC. There may be a fault in your area they are unaware of.

Fishy1

Thanks 00sully & Sully!

@Sully, I'm really showing my ignorance now but when you say to reboot the black box, do you mean to just switch everything off & then on again after a few minutes? I've done this already, but no joy.

Looks like we may have to ring UPC

Sully

Fishy1 wrote: »

Thanks 00sully & Sully!

@Sully, I'm really showing my ignorance now but when you say to reboot the black box, do you mean to just switch everything off & then on again after a few minutes? I've done this already, but no joy.

Looks like we may have to ring UPC

Plug it out, give it 60 seconds, and plug it back in again. Sometimes works. If that fails, report to UPC.

jmcc

Check for loose connections. While this might be a long shot, a cable might have come lose. However those stats are dire and it is probably worth having it checked out by UPC.

Regards...jmcc

Godsentme

I was really annoyed with the same problem. Desperately slow. Even had to wait to scroll the page.

I was told to reboot the modem and i did, now its even slower!!

I wish I had broadband like here in work - big international company-;).
Lightning fast.

I might have to get my comp seen to I'd say....

Elbows22

Sully wrote: »

Plug it out, give it 60 seconds, and plug it back in again. Sometimes works. If that fails, report to UPC.

You need to give it 10minutes after turning back on - if this doesnt work ring 1908 and go to Tech support(Option 2) and then option 2 again for the broadband.
After the outage there was still a fault in my area but they came out and fixed it - Check with the neighbours and see if they are having the same problem.

Sully

Godsentme wrote: »

I was really annoyed with the same problem. Desperately slow. Even had to wait to scroll the page.

I was told to reboot the modem and i did, now its even slower!!

I wish I had broadband like here in work - big international company-;).
Lightning fast.

I might have to get my comp seen to I'd say....

If your PC is generally sluggish, then get it looked at (in general I think people should get their PC serviced like you would a car anyway). But if speedtests are saying your connection is slow, then its not due to the performance of your computer.

Godsentme

How do I do a speed test? (Simple please. I'm an idiot:o)

SweetCaliber

Godsentme wrote: »

How do I do a speed test? (Simple please. I'm an idiot:o)

Haha, we all have our ups and downs :rolleyes:

http://speedtest.net/ Should do the job for you.

Sully

Sorry, should have said. Speedtest.net is one of the most widely used and recommended sites for a test. You kinda need to know how fast you should have in terms of a download speed (the upload doesn't really make a big difference in most peoples cases) by your Internet Provider (eg UPC) so you can compare it with the results from the speed test.

They advertise "up to Xmb" but you generally get a bit blow the advertised limit and not the exact limit.

Godsentme

I just had a look at it here in work. Will try it in the morning at home. By the way I'm with UPC and I think I'm supposed to have 30 MB (?), so would you know from that and my results if I'm OK?

SweetCaliber

Godsentme wrote: »

I just had a look at it here in work. Will try it in the morning at home. By the way I'm with UPC and I think I'm supposed to have 30 MB (?), so would you know from that and my results if I'm OK?

If your results are generally low and your expected to get 30mb (realistically 20mb +) then yes, you will need to get onto them.

achiman

http://speedtest.magnet.ie/

Kracken

have a look for where the UPC cable enters the house and follow the cable to the modem (not the TV unit).

Pull the power cable out and then unscrew the Coxial cable from the modem and wait 30 sec.

Connect the power again (with the coxial out and leave it boot up fully)

Reconnect the coxial cable again (reboot the modem if the connection is detected)

Try you speed test again...

The abopve process forces the server to re-issue you a new Connection ID...

Hope that helps

Fishy1

Hi all,
Just a quick follow up to let you know that after a loooong call to UPC today, we discovered that our router was not working properly at all.

Luckily we had a spare one & once we replaced the old router our problem was solved. No more going off to make a cup of tea while the videos are loading!

Thanks to everyone for their tips & advice, much appreciated

Godsentme

lee3155 wrote: »

If your results are generally low and your expected to get 30mb (realistically 20mb +) then yes, you will need to get onto them.[/QUOTE

If i did it correctly (Iclicked Galway on the map as there was no where nearer) I got a download of 7.87 Mbps and Upload of 3.06 Mbps.

This I'd say is useless. So pls what to do next?

SweetCaliber

Godsentme wrote: »

lee3155 wrote: »

If your results are generally low and your expected to get 30mb (realistically 20mb +) then yes, you will need to get onto them.[/QUOTE

If i did it correctly (Iclicked Galway on the map as there was no where nearer) I got a download of 7.87 Mbps and Upload of 3.06 Mbps.

This I'd say is useless. So pls what to do next?

Sorry getting a little confused here, lol. Your expected to get 30mb right?

If so, your best bet is to get onto UPC, however, as Fishy1 has stated, the problem he had was with his router.

So best best to try troubleshooting, if all fails then get onto UPC's tech support.

7upfree

lee3155 wrote: »

Haha, we all have our ups and downs :rolleyes:

http://speedtest.net/ Should do the job for you.

We're on 30 and get 31.5. Don't know how to post the picture. But if you choose Limerick or Galway the "ping" is ten times greater and the speed is only 1.

Choose Dublin for server. And your computer can slow it down. We had a problem last year and the computer tech said something was running, affecting the speed. No problem when he fixed it.

Doylers

I had issues for last week on 2nd modem so we will see. Was talking to UPC other day we might be getting 120mb by the end of the summer

Media999

Got a text saying there going from 20meg to 25meg.

Now at night even a youtube video stutters.

They do it on purpose to stop torrents.