Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

Hi all,

My 1st post regarding Cable TW.
My problem with Telewest seems to be a problem with a few here for what i have been reading.
Been with Cable for around 5 years starting of with there 512k connection,
Buying faster speeds from them every time they up-graded.

On the 10mb conection now and only getting speeds of dail-up to 1.5mb
Ring cable customer services none stop to report my problem and hoping they can sort it out, and only being told the same old thing UBR 87% full nothing they can do.
On one phone call got told to find another ISP if i am not happy:shocked: :td:

After all we are all buying a servive that we are clearly not getting. Ringing there Customer support for the help and only being left were we started.

From: Bristol
OS: Windows XP Home
Network Set-up: Modem Direct to PC †¦ router off to eliminate problems.
Firewall: PCguard

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 14 ms 15 ms 27 ms 10.36.0.1

2 99 ms 37 ms 60 ms 195.188.230.225

3 35 ms 57 ms 79 ms 195.188.230.69

4 36 ms 28 ms 27 ms 195.188.230.18

5 28 ms 21 ms 54 ms 194.117.136.182

6 53 ms 29 ms 61 ms 194.117.136.178

7 22 ms 42 ms 22 ms tele1-know-rab.telewest.net [194.117.136.158]

8 26 ms 42 ms 29 ms 194.117.136.146

9 37 ms 77 ms 23 ms 194.117.148.171

10 17 ms 26 ms 34 ms 212.58.238.129

11 44 ms 60 ms 34 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131]

Trace complete.


In fact on this Trace its came back pretty good but 80% of the time its much worst
with time out's so on...

Download speeds of around 24kbs to 150kbs and this was straght from blueyonder games site. http://gamefiles.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyondergames/



Is there a tip to convince blueyonder cutomer services when ring them we have a problem that needs to be addressed ???

Or do we have to make do, pay the £35 for a 1 or 2mb connection when we all could goto another ISP for around £17:99 at them speeds.

Thanks
Tony.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

Hi, WildSOD, :welcome: to Cableforum.

I personally find it amazing that Telewest are running any UBRs at 87% capacity, however, I am not in a telewest area, and don't know for sure how they run their network.


We do have some Telewest employees here, hopefully one of them will advise.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

Cable is rubbish totaly...I am now Downloading at a speed of 38kbs..pings from bbc.co.uk any where from 30ms to 60ms..And NO i have no spys or viruses, Just cable overloading there UBR yet again, Really thinking of changing my ISP now, Not even AOL customs get theses pings i know of plenty on AOL, all UK based with 16ms ping all the time i know they have slower downloads like 1mb and 2mb but hey at least its at a stable rate.

I have the Phone and TV package too i will also move that else where giving my money where my custom will be for what i pay for. no rubbish like i have now.
Tony.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

87%? well i phoned them the other night and the guy said the upstream channel i was on was running at 94%, which just made me laugh.

the inconsistent ping times were varying between 100 and 1000ms (mainly around 200)

im in bristol too and it seems widespread across the city

he changed my upstream channel to one on 60% which was the lowest out of the 4 he had available for me (though 60% is still pretty high no?) - it's been a fair bit better since then but a few nights it's still been pretty bad

one of the telewest guys suggested they'd be able to send out a motorola modem so i could change the channel myself but it seems that's incredibly unlikely to happen. guess i'll just be phoning them up quite reguarly to switch channels...

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

Hi hoofner,

I think Telewest will lose loads of customers at this rate i know of a few who are also thinking of moving on.

94% have had that too and also moved to other channel's...worked fine for a few days then back to square one :(
I have the Motorola Modem now and even with me swapping about from channel to channel only to find them all as bad as each other. When i ring them they goto second line for a while come back and say "I'll just have to put up with it its just busy"!!! what the hell we paying for here ??

Wonder if there's a way to speed thing up for all that are having trouble not sure on the law but came across this...
Link on a quick search on done.
http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/saleandsupply.htm

Maybe one here can point if the law has been broken or not..I'm not saying they have.
Somthing has to be done millions of ponds been made from us all and for a service we are not getting, Or thats how i feel.
Tony.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

I went back to 2Mb and it runs better,at half the price.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

I think the 2mb is much better and reliable then the 4mb
those who don,t download alot of things the 2mb is the best one
to go for and its cheaper too

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

dont really see how that could make a difference tbh. If the network is overloaded and telewest servers take half a second to respond to requests from your computer then it wouldnt make a difference if you were on half a mb, 10mb or even 100mb. You might get closer to what you're paying for in terms of download speed but the latency should be identical. Maybe they've put you on a different upstream cuz you're on 2mb...


This is probably the only way they'll listen, though they'll probably think the cause was something completely different...

I also know a few people who intend on cancelling and switching to dsl after their 12 months are up. The thing for me is my landloard wont let me install sky or an external aerial so if I want a tv package I need to get telewest, and seeing as you cant get the tv package without subscribing for a net package or phoneline it would be a tad expensive to pay for 2 landlines a month when I only use a mobile... fortunetely since switching upstream iv had continued good service, though im not keeping my hopes up.

In terms of their contractual agreement, well I bet (..im not a lawyer) the only thing it'd give us would be the right to exit the agreement within the 12 months. One thing though, on the phone they did mention if it continues they may give you some compensation (e.g you pay less for your connection) which might be worthwhile - but who wants a net connection that's that slow, however much they charge you

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

i'm having the exact same problems.

what we need to do is all contact watchdog.

bad press is what they need cos they don't seem to be doing anything about it.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

I'm just wondering if being uncapped is causing any of these connection problems? There are users constantly downloading 24/7.

Personally I think if other isp's can be uncapped with no problems than there shouldnt be a cap... have u seen this thread?

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=40672

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

That looks like upload congestion, why do you think TW only supply 384k on the 10Mbit not the 512k ntl supply, or the 512k+ that all the DSL operators supply on their 4Mbit and up products ;)

---------- Post added at 16:21 ---------- Previous post was at 16:19 ----------

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=40678 looks similar. We'll see if the chap's connection starts going Pete Tong as load increases.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

It is upload congestion and i think spenandrew is right, watchdog is probably the answer. I think if my connection goes tits up again (im presuming when the students are back from hols etc it'll be slow again) I might look into it.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

The higher that broadband speeds go, the more that contention will be an issue. You will not get full speed or anything like it with high speed connections unless you pay for a leased line, a very low contention line or are contended with users who hardly ever use their connection. I doubt that Watchdog would show any interest in the matter as contention issues are a feature of low cost, high speed broadband particularly when the ISP has little or no money to invest in the network.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

Perhaps Telewest should consider some *shock* traffic shaping ;)

---------- Post added at 16:58 ---------- Previous post was at 16:56 ----------

They don't necessarily have to be a feature if traffic is handled properly, however following a policy of being totally unlimited with no traffic management and charging low prices isn't the best recipe.

Along with this I'm not convinced that Telewest will want to bust a gut to upgrade at this point anyway with the takeover coming up, companies rarely do.

Oh and those speeds are not acceptable, even for a contended network. That's going beyond congestion, 87% is far too high to run a DOCSIS upstream. These should be kept from getting congested by any means possible. Downstream can congest and not cause major problems, upstream congestion is a killer.

Re: Connection speeds is it Acceptable
 

Traffic management means that some users will not get the maximum that they may be expecting however it is handled. Heavy users who do not get the maximum are the ones who are most likely to pick up the fact that they are not getting 100% and complain about it.

Low cost services by definition are probably not generating the income required to invest in the network and remove congestion problems.

The higher that average speeds go, the less likely that anything like 100% can be achieved