Speed Problems / Test confusion :(

[Muppetz]

Hi All,

(HG3 postcode, 10MB NTL/VM)

I've had NTL/VM 10mb for about 3 months, and it has been great... up until the last few weeks.

I cant seem to get a download speed on any file higher than 150-200 kbs. www.speedtest.net reports me as having a max of 3mb d/l and at peak times as low as 800kb. The speed tester download (dan ewells ?) reports similar speeds, and a 24% packet loss !

I have run those speedtests and had the same poor browsing / gaming speeds from 3 different machines (vista/xp/linux) both via my router and directly connected to the modem.

The thing that is really confusing me is that after spending some time on the phone with a very helpful indian chap (who confirmed that my speeds were very slow) he asked me to try www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk and that reports my speed as 9589 ! almost the 10mb !!

But that site is the only place I can get anywhere close to that speed, my real life use and the 2 other tests contradict it....

Any idea why the speed would be so great on that site, but so poor in real life and other tests ?

[lucevans]

Are you connecting through a proxy server? Click on the link at the top of this page called "Connection" - this will tell you whether you are on a proxy server or not.
I too have only had 10Mb cable BB for a couple of months, and it was great (download speeds consistently 9800 kbps on speedtest.net) until last Wednesday. Since then, D/L varies between 150 kbs and 3500 kbps. The only change I can see is that I used to be automatically connected through an NTL proxy server, and since last Wednesday the proxy has gone. I posted on this subject here yesterday, and from the responses, it sounds like Virgin Media have decided to do away with the proxy server network they inherited from NTL and TeleWest. I wouldn't mind this if they had actually boosted their network capacity sufficiently to maintain customers previous connection performance, but, at least in your and my cases, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Rob

[RepeaterGenic]

Hi All,

(HG3 postcode, 10MB NTL/VM)

I've had NTL/VM 10mb for about 3 months, and it has been great... up until the last few weeks.

I cant seem to get a download speed on any file higher than 150-200 kbs. www.speedtest.net reports me as having a max of 3mb d/l and at peak times as low as 800kb. The speed tester download (dan ewells ?) reports similar speeds, and a 24% packet loss !

I have run those speedtests and had the same poor browsing / gaming speeds from 3 different machines (vista/xp/linux) both via my router and directly connected to the modem.

The thing that is really confusing me is that after spending some time on the phone with a very helpful indian chap (who confirmed that my speeds were very slow) he asked me to try www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk and that reports my speed as 9589 ! almost the 10mb !!

But that site is the only place I can get anywhere close to that speed, my real life use and the 2 other tests contradict it....

Any idea why the speed would be so great on that site, but so poor in real life and other tests ?

Don't use speed testing sites, these can give misleading information. A better way to check your speed is download the "full service pack 2" from Microsoft. and monitor your speed over a period of time, this gives a far truer picture than any speed site. If Dan's site says you are dropping packets then you have a problem and need to find out where the packets are being dropped.

1 connect up directly to the modem (bypass your router)
2 In the DOS prompt type "tracert www.bbc.co.cuk" and press enter.
3 You will get a listing of all the servers between you and the bbc.
4 look for the first server and note the IP address.
5 Next type "Ping xx.xx.xx.xx" the X's are the IP address you noted dont forget
the full stops
6 leave it running while you get yourself a JD
7 press "ctrl and C" and your results will be displayed, showinig how many
Packets where sent, and how many recieved, and what percentage where
lost
8 If you have a packet loss of more than a few % then the problem is at, or before the first server. IE the problem is in side Virgin's nw
9 If your packe loss is ok, then check the "Time=xx ms" the xx should be fairly constant. If you are seeing swings like "20ms to 130ms" then the problem is at or before the first server.
10 The bad news is you need a tech to hook up at the cab confirm that the problem lies between the cab and the first server and not between your pc and the cab.
11 Good luck :)

[Muppetz]

Thank you very much for the replies, and sorry it has taken me so long to reply myself.

I did exactly what you said ref pinging bbc.co.uk, and downloading the full 266MB service pack 2 from Microsoft

Both tests carried out on Sunday morning, at 11am.

Service pack 2 was an odd download. For the first 10 minutes speeds never exceeded 100kb/s.After that speed increased to around 500kb/s. In total it took around 15 mins to download.

The trace route revealed the first router IP to be <IP REMOEVD - JEFFERSON T>. pings to this server were mostly stable at between 9ms and 30ms. However there were peaks every minute or so up to 100-190ms (min 8ms, average 15ms, peak 195ms) There was zero packet loss (784 packets sent).

not sure if its related or not, but last night i was getting massive lag spikes whilst on xbox360, so i booted up the latop and set a ping running to www.google.co.uk (http://www.google.co.uk). Every couple of minutes i would get 3 or 4 requests timed out... the service status page at ntl is down at the moment so i guess maybe it was not just me ?

[Muppetz]

The trace route revealed the first router IP to be <IP REMOEVD - JEFFERSON T>. pings to this server were mostly stable at between 9ms and 30ms. However there were peaks every minute or so up to 100-190ms (min 8ms, average 15ms, peak 195ms) There was zero packet loss (784 packets sent).


Just wanted to bump this, months on and no improvement the ping spikes almost exactly every minute (the ping from my connection to the 1st named NTL router) from low 20's to 150-200 ping, spoiling anychance of decent gaming.

[christopherw]

So if you're positive it's an upstream problem, get in touch with VM? Try the newsgroups if you don't want to ring the 0906 number, they sometimes have techies who float about on there and can look into problems if they're not busy.

[Muppetz]

So if you're positive it's an upstream problem, get in touch with VM? Try the newsgroups if you don't want to ring the 0906 number, they sometimes have techies who float about on there and can look into problems if they're not busy.

I have tried, but the chaps in india just go through a script and then say there is no problem, or that I must have spyware etc (a definate no !)

(I would add though, that the other week we had a total disconection and when I rang I spoke to a chap in the UK who was extremely helpful and sent an engineer, unfortunately the wife had to stay in for him as I was working otherwise I would have tried to raise this issue as well)

I'll try the 0906 number this week, and try my luck, but I don't hold out much hope !