Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Evening all,

My first post - and unfortunately it's a request for help.

While I was living at my folks place I had a 2mb connection via a set-top box ... and this was all set-up under in my fathers name (as they already had tv, phone, etc). It all worked VERY well - and on various speed tests I always had a good 2mb connection.

I recently bought my own place and on the 10th Sept I had cable tv, phone and broadband installed (with NTL) - the broadband coming via the set-top box. One thing that surprised me about the installation was that they didn't put a box onto my house (as with my folks place), they simply ran a feed from next doors outdoor box into my house.

Unfortunately, when the installation was put in, they installed a PACE set-top box and not a Samsung one ... and I therefore could not receive broadband at 2mb's (and I was temporarily put down to 1mb from the 13th Sept).

Today, I had the box changed to a Samsung one and rang customer services to go back on to the 2mb package.

I have run a couple of speed tests (adslguide.org and tinyurl.com) and BOTH have indicated that I am only getting a 400k connection rather than a 2mb connection (I have phoned them to confirm I am on the 2mb package). This is on an XP Pro based PC running an ethernet connection (not USB), directly to the tv set-top box.

I ran these tests while on the phone to the NTL Broadband support team - and he couldn't explain why I was getting such poor results. We disabled my firewalls, etc, and still the results were very poor (i.e. no change).

I'm not sure if it's related, but on having my new connection, etc set-up, I've not been required to re-enter my PID, etc ... i.e. I've not had to re-register my PC. This is partly fortunate though as NTL have not supplied me with the welcome pack - and I therefore have not been given a serial number to key on the autoregister page. The only thing we did do was to run IPCONFIG and release and then renew my IP address (which didn't change). We also rebooted both the set-top box and my PC.

Once I get all this working I'm hoping to set my router up so that my girlfriends PC can then be connected to the broadband connection ... but I'm not doing that until I've got this running at 2mb !

If anyone has any thoughts / help, then I'd very much appreciate it. I've made numerous calls to NTL this evening, none of which have been particularly helpful. Unfortunately I cannot do anything with the PC until after around 4.30pm each afternoon / evening ...

Thanks in advance.

Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

:welcome: to the forum


You might have to register the connection

I cannot remember what it is, somebody will say what it is (autoreg?)

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

:welcome: to cableforum.

TBH. running two cable connections from one box sounds dodgy to me, and could be the cause of the problem.


I am also surprised that your box did not require you to register. This could be something NTL have changed in the new software though.
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To start the registration process manually (this might help), go to http://start.ntl/

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Hi soundlab,

Was the PC you are using now previously registered through your parents STB? This should not make a difference to the speed you're getting, but might explain why you didn't have to re-register its MAC address.

As others have said, splitting your neighbours drop cable is unconventional at best, but if there is no drop cable to your house there may have been no alternative. It should not necessarily cause a problem - but a drop cable is only really designed to support one analogue STB...

If you'd like to PM me your details (smart card number, account number, or STB MAC address) I'll have a quick check of some vital statistics for you! One of the team can confirm I'm an ntl staff member.

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

hello everyone my first post to as above i have experienced exact problemn im on 2 mb and getting 400k speeds to this started yesterday spoke to a very helpful engineer in swansea done the above tests and got back bad results via the tinyurl test which the engineer assured me will be investigated and i was given a months free broadband while they investigate. i am in cardiff cf5 area i had a new modem installed today previously using Terrayon for about a month i have been having probs my net connection fading away this would happen every few day or so sometimes i get back on the net sometimes not hence the new modem a ntl modem but yesterday is when the slow speeds started i wonder if any 1 else in the cardiff area is having same prob. by the way great site

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Tried to run start.ntl and it doesn't find any pages ... just fails to load.

Additionally, i tried manually going to the Autoreg pages - only to find that it requires the Serial number sent to me in my Welcome Pack ... a Pack I have not received - and therefore I do not actually have my serial number (just my PID, etc).

Jimbo - What's is an STB MAC Address ? I can PM you my account number ...

Cheers,
Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

MAC address of the STB (Set top Box), you used to be able to get to it via the information screens after pressing page up, page down, blue button. Dunno if you still can though. If not it may be on a sticker on the back or bottom of the set top box.
Oh and yes Jimbo is a member of NTL staff, has naff taste in music on his Ipod but a member of staff none the less ;)
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Could be a number of reasons but did the tech you spoke to check your signal levels at all? If the problem persists you may want to check your signal strength etc and post the details in a seperate thread so the two threads don't get confused.
Have a read through this and post your levels in a new thread with a few details as listed here and someone will look into it for you.

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

That's because your PC has a public IP address - you can only get to start.ntl with a private IP address which you get before registering your PC on the network.

The Autoreg pages are only for setting up your email address when you're using STB. The serial number is ntl-ct8-cb487.

The MAC address uniquely identifies the STB to the broadband network. Account number is fine. :)

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Jimbo - you have a PM.

Thanks,
Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

It's http://autoreg.autoregister.net/

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Sorry chuck but Stu is correct with his address, this is the correct one for STB BB, the one you have quoted is for Cable Modem BB

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Got an engineer coming out next Tuesday evening ... hopefully get the problem sorted then.

Spoken to Broadband Tech Support again this evening and they mentioned something about a MAC address. The MAC address was set when my Broadband was being used at my old address (against my folks PID, etc) and when they try and reset my details for my own connection in my new house the MAC address is resetting itself to the previous MAC address (or something like that).

So, looks like I'm stuck on 400k instead of 2mb for another week or so.

Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Hi guys,

About time I posted up another update.

Still having some problems. Yesterday I finally decided to try setting up the PC downstairs (our 2nd PC) which has NEVER had a previous broadband installation on it (just dial-up). On setting everything up and running some speed tests, the PC was indeed getting a 2mb connection.

I installed the router (as we need both pc's on broadband now) and finally managed to get it to work this morning (D-Link 604 router) .. hardwired ... set it up with Dynamic IP, and had to do a MAC clone to get it to work. Anyway, after getting it up and running it was still connecting at 2mb.

GREAT :p:

BUT .... I then connected my PC to the router and I am STILL only getting 400k .... which is all I've ever been getting. I cannot find why my PC is only getting 400k and the other can get 2mb ?

My PC was set-up on broadband at my folks place ... and now I have my own account at my own place. I'm running on my own PID, etc. My folks have had the broadband at their place disconnected and the STB has been taken away.

I cannot for the life of me work out why my PC only gets a 400k connection yet the PC downstairs gets a 2mb connection (through the router OR connected to the STB directly).

If my ethernet cable had been "pinched" slightly when we ran it upstairs (i.e. the cable is faulty) would that slow the connection down ? (or would I just lose the connection) ?

Both PC's are set-up in exactly the same way (ethernet connections, never dial a connection, proxy settings off, etc).

ANY IDEAS ? It's driving me insane. I've had only 400k since it was installed on Sept 10th ! :mad: :mad:

Note: I was only getting 400k when my PC was connected directly to the STB .. and I'm still only getting 400k with the router now attached (as of this morning).

Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

is it possible the PC was previously 'tweaked' in respect of RWIN & MTU settings, for optimising the previous dialup connection? - these may still be there & will need altering for broadband

read more here

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...ps/tweaks.html

(Thanks Robin :tu: )

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Both PC's have had Dial-up on them and then broadband installed ... so I'd be surprised if there was a problem there ?

Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

worth checking, though - you might like to try the tweak test in the article I linked to on Robin Walkers superb site, to see?

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

I downloaded something called "TCPOptimizer.exe" ... and ran the Optimise option. This amended my MTU and RWIN - which were VERY low (500 and something) up to 1500 (MTU) and then re-ran some speed tests (the Robin Walker tests and the ADSLGuide speed test) ... both of these now show a 2mb connection ... whereas it was showing 400k.

Just ran the same tests on the PC downstairs - so I'm going to compare the results.

Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

nice one - thanks for the feedback, it is really helpful for other people who may experience similar problems :tu:

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

The website I got it from was :

http://www.speedguide.net/tcpoptimizer.php
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Some more information from a test I just did (after amending my settings to match those of the other PC) :

1. Your Tweakable Settings:
Receive Window (RWIN): 256960
Window Scaling: 2
Path MTU Discovery: ON
RFC1323 Window Scaling: ON
RFC1323 Time Stamping: ON
Selective Acks: ON
MSS requested: 1460
TTL: (less any hops behind firewall) 127
TTL remaining: 118
TOS/TOS subfield: 0
TOS/Flags:

2. Test 1024001 byte download
Actual data bytes sent: 1040061
Actual data packets: 714
Max packet sent (MTU): 1500
Max packet recd (MTU): 1500
Retransmitted data packets: 11
sacks you sent: 170
pushed data pkts: 99
data transmit time: 5.456 secs
our max idletime: 464.9 ms
transfer rate: 167353 bytes/sec
transfer rate: 1338 kbits/sec
This is not a speed test!
transfer efficiency: 98%

3. ICMP (ping) check
Minimum ping: 78.64 ms
Maximum ping: 89.46 ms
Ping stability:
82.37 83.27 88.42 80.43 89.46 83.60 80.28 86.44 79.43 78.64

These results all came from the following test :

http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks

Having run the test and looking at the results, you have to select you "Service" (which I selected "cable"), Your advertised speed (kbit/s) (which I selected "2000"), your operating system (Mines XP Pro) and Connection (I chose "Normal")

The results above are almost exactly the same on both ours PC's now.

Darren

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

looks like a result :tu:

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

Just a few more results :

From Robin Walkers on-line speed test :

1st 128K took 531 ms = 246840 Bytes/sec = approx 2054 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 532 ms = 246376 Bytes/sec = approx 2050 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 531 ms = 246840 Bytes/sec = approx 2054 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 547 ms = 239620 Bytes/sec = approx 1994 kbits/sec

And from ADSLGuide :

Downstream1833 Kbps (229.1 KB/sec)1979 Kbps (inc. overheads)Upstream187 Kbps (23.4 KB/sec)201 Kbps (inc. overheads)

So I THINK I've sorted it myself.

Homealone - thankyou for the link to Robins "Tweeks" section ... that's how I found all this stuff. :)

Re: Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box
 

no problem - Robins site is a tremendous resource for advice & information, I'm sure he will be pleased you found it useful :)