10 meg probs

[Orangeclockdog]

I switched from Samsung stb 3mb to sacm back in october to allow me to get 10mb.

All has been fine with the speed up until about 1 week ago when my connection dropped to circa 950k. My upload speed has remained constant at around 500k.
I finally bit the bullet and rang tech support tonight. The chap on the end of the phone 1st of all told me that my wireless router would cause my d/l speed to halve to around 5mb (which was never the case when things were working ok). He told me he would re-initialise my modem and my problems would be solved. Guess what? speed tests show between 900k and 1.8mb.
1)Help
2) Is what he said about the router nonsense as this is the first I've heard of this and google doesnt verify what he said anywhere.

I have Ntl 250 modem, buffalo airstation g54. Acer aspire 3000 laptop and desktop pc with belkin wirless g network card. (Speed on the desktop is also a problem)

Thanks in advance.

[MovedGoalPosts]

:welcome: to Cable Forum :D

Regarding the router, there is a little truth in what was said in that rarely are the full speeds of wireless transmissions fully achieved. There will be speed loss due to interference, distance, etc. However for most users this will not be serious and certainly shouldn't halve the stated speed unless somethign is very wrong.

Equally adding any extra connection into network, gives any information packet another step to travel through between a remote internet server and the computer. But this effect would be almost imperceptible measures in perhaps a millisecond. Not enough to affect you really.

So realistically we must look at speeds of the broadband and speeds of the wireless. Your broadband should be, up to 10Mbps speed (note the up to - again contention and other network factors mean that you won't get the full quota). Your 802.11g standard wireless connection can run at 54Mbps. Much faster than the broadband connection so, even if your wireless network was very poor, you'd still have spare speed in hand not to degrade the broadband service.

The older 802.11b speed was only 11Mbps, so yes if you do have any 11b standard components in your network, that could drag overall speeds down and affect your internet service.

You can confirm that your router is not having any effect, by temproarily removing it and just using the one PC.

[Orangeclockdog]

Thanks for the welcome and the response.
I take on board what you say about added components slowing down the network, but as you say this should be almost negligable. My speeds have literally gone from measured speeds of 10Mbps to c1Mbps.

I have tried plugging the modem straight into my laptop (via ethernet) and the same lack of speed occurs (as explained to the tech support chap).

[Gareth]

Yep, do as Rob says and remove the router from the equation (if possible) so that you can help the NTL tech support eliminate that from their list of possibilities. In my experience, if tech support (not just NTL but anywhere) can fob you off with an excuse, then they will do so, in the hope that you'll not speak to them when you call again to say you've still got problems ....at least that's what I used to do at the end of the day when I worked in tech support ;)

---------- Post added at 00:53 ---------- Previous post was at 00:52 ----------

Oops, just saw your post and that you've already tried this approach

[patrickp]

Try checking your modem configuration page, Orangeclockdog - navigate to http://192.168.100.1/ and enter 'root' as the username and password. Then look for the modem configuration page.

I don't know if this will work through your router (certainly works Ok through a wired router), but it won't work if you've set a proxy.

You should see Maximum Downstream Data Rate: 10240000 and Maximum Upstream Data Rate: 512000 if you're on the 10Mb tier. If the values are anything else, you should contact ntl.

[Orangeclockdog]

Tried that, info as follows;
Cable Modem Operation Configuration
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 512000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled

So all is as should be?

---------- Post added at 10:52 ---------- Previous post was at 10:15 ----------

Just been back on to tech supprt. After running various test, they say it is a problem at their end. It has now been passed on the faults to sort out. This will happen within the next 3 days.

I'll post the outcome. (If anybody is interested that is!!)

Thanks for your help guys.

[mikey]

As a matter of interest, how are you checking the download speed?

[Orangeclockdog]

Am using http://www.dslguide.org/tools/speedtest.asp
also tech support got me test the speed on
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

I first noticed the drop in speed on the bandwitdh meter on newsbin, when downloading from newsgroups.

[dragon]

:welcome: to Cable Forum :D

Regarding the router, there is a little truth in what was said in that rarely are the full speeds of wireless transmissions fully achieved. There will be speed loss due to interference, distance, etc. However for most users this will not be serious and certainly shouldn't halve the stated speed unless somethign is very wrong.

Equally adding any extra connection into network, gives any information packet another step to travel through between a remote internet server and the computer. But this effect would be almost imperceptible measures in perhaps a millisecond. Not enough to affect you really.

So realistically we must look at speeds of the broadband and speeds of the wireless. Your broadband should be, up to 10Mbps speed (note the up to - again contention and other network factors mean that you won't get the full quota). Your 802.11g standard wireless connection can run at 54Mbps. Much faster than the broadband connection so, even if your wireless network was very poor, you'd still have spare speed in hand not to degrade the broadband service.

The older 802.11b speed was only 11Mbps, so yes if you do have any 11b standard components in your network, that could drag overall speeds down and affect your internet service.

You can confirm that your router is not having any effect, by temproarily removing it and just using the one PC.


22mbit/s is the average thoughput i got on a lan transfer over a 802.11G network, so thats definatly fast enough for ntl's 10mbit.

[Jim galbally]

lling you its your router?

sounds like the bloke was just rying to get you off the phone! typica helpdesk response.

[Orangeclockdog]

He didn't actually say the router was causing the problem, he said that I would never get full 10Mb as the router would halve the speed (5Mb), but this didn't explain why I was only getting 1-2Mb. I did explain I had been getting the full 10Mb, which he said was not possible as the router wouldn't allow this!!!
I would like to think these guys know what they are talking about, as I am no expert, but do have a smattering of knowledge about the product (I work in NTL telesales, I'll brace myself for the jeers!!) and felt he was talking nonsense (and felt there was somewhat of a language barrier coming into the equation). Which was why I asked the question here.
I am constantly telling (potential) customers that having a wireless router (solving wiring issues) causes no *noticeable* degradation in speed. I just wanted to be sure I was accurate, as I am only relaying my personal experience to customers, without having the technical knowledge to back it up.

[dragon]

He didn't actually say the router was causing the problem, he said that I would never get full 10Mb as the router would halve the speed (5Mb), but this didn't explain why I was only getting 1-2Mb. I did explain I had been getting the full 10Mb, which he said was not possible as the router wouldn't allow this!!!
I would like to think these guys know what they are talking about, as I am no expert, but do have a smattering of knowledge about the product (I work in NTL telesales, I'll brace myself for the jeers!!) and felt he was talking nonsense (and felt there was somewhat of a language barrier coming into the equation). Which was why I asked the question here.
I am constantly telling (potential) customers that having a wireless router (solving wiring issues) causes no *noticeable* degradation in speed. I just wanted to be sure I was accurate, as I am only relaying my personal experience to customers, without having the technical knowledge to back it up.


if your on 802.11b wireless network this maybe the case as 11mbit wireless can only actually sustain somewhere between 3 and 6mbit (cant remember the exact thoughput)

[Orangeclockdog]

Well, its been a week now and have just spoke to tech support and they are happy with me getting between 1.5-2meg on a "upto" 10meg connection. My latest speed test results:
Sat, 14 Jan 2006 16:26:03 UTC

1st 512K took 2313 ms = 221.4 KB/sec, approx 1683 Kbps, 1.6 Mbps
2nd 512K took 2703 ms = 189.4 KB/sec, approx 1439 Kbps, 1.4 Mbps
3rd 512K took 1844 ms = 277.7 KB/sec, approx 2111 Kbps, 2.1 Mbps
4th 512K took 1172 ms = 436.9 KB/sec, approx 3320 Kbps, 3.2 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 2138 Kbps, 2.08 Mbps

There is a problem with some customers of the Baguley server (South Manchester) not getting anywhere near the full 10meg. This has occured since more 3meg customers have been upgraded to 10meg.

Oh and by the way...they inform me that newsgroups are not good for downloading err...linux distros as the are notoriously slow. Funny that as in Dec I could download a 1.5gig distro in 40mins now it takes 2hrs+.

[Rone]

Virtually no-one will get the full 10meg for most of the time, its advertised up-to 10meg for a good reason.
Obviously if every customer they have connects at once and starts downloading large files, it will slow right down, so it would be stupid for them to call it a "permanent" 10meg line.

However theres lots of people who cant even get the 3meg they were on before, so if you cant get near 10, you would think 3 is hardly out of the question?
But it seems it is, and i can see more people going to the 2meg unlimited, because it is unlimited, and 2meg is more like the maximum speed available. :(

[squirrel1970]

Network Access : Enabled Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 3072000 bps Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 300000 bps Maximum Number of CPEs : 1 Software Upgrade File Name : ntlhm120_ntl0002.cpr Software Upgrade AdminStatus : ignoreProvisioningUpgrade Software Upgrade OperStatus : completeFromMgt
ah yes... 10meg... lovely, isn't it?


silver ambit 120, ethernet connection....
connection is rock solid at 2.6megs...

[Orangeclockdog]

The saga continues....

need to check my account when I get in work tomorrow, looks l've been downgraded!!??

Network Access : AllowedMaximum Downstream Data Rate : 2048000Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 200000Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600Maximum Number of CPEs : 1Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled

[Enuff]

i have a few other posts knocking around on here about this slow 10mb problem... i called tech yesterday and they told me that the problem was at their end and that engineers are working on it... and its only effecting some 10mb customers, (i'm in north manchester) she told me to check my download speed here (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/testmyspeed/test.iso) ... after this she downgraded me to the 2mb and told me to test the speed again, i got full 2mb speed... which i thought normal anyway...
then she upgraded me back to the 10mb but still no improvment...

what i'm thinking orangeclockdog is that they may have downgraded u to the 2mb but forgot to put u back up to the 10mb? cos they downgrade u to the 512Kb if you go way over the cap.

[Orangeclockdog]

I went down the same road as yourself, with tech support d/g me to 2meg. They then gave me the option to stay on this speed until my problem was solved (note the actual admission that there was a fault, when I had been told there wasnt a problem as the service was 'upto 10meg'!!). I told them to leave me on 10meg as I would have no way of knowing when the fault was fixed unless I was left on the service that was faulty.
In short though, you may be right, just because I requested something doesnt guarantee it happened. However, last Weds evening I did reach the dizzying speeds on 7meg, today however we are talking in the region of 400k, on what appears to be 2meg!!!

[Enuff]

yep, after more and more speed tests from many reliable places I'm still only getting 4meg. the test below (http://www.irishisptest.com/myspeed/) is usually always up or very close to the "Ethernet - 10 Mbps" speeds


http://img496.imageshack.us/img496/3449/speedtest0sn.th.jpg (http://img496.imageshack.us/my.php?image=speedtest0sn.jpg)