Cable Forum - View Single Post - Very Poor 2mb Broadband via Set-top Box

Soundlab · 21-09-2005, 21:16

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

21-09-2005, 21:16	#1
Soundlab Inactive Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 54	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