New modem, bandwidth upgrade, horrible speed drop!

ianpstark · 08-06-2006, 16:44

Hi all,

First post here, so forgive my newbiness.

I've just upgraded to 10mb. NTL replaced my trusty old CMX modem with a ntl:250 because the CMX was not able to support 10mb.

They installed it today and after the engineer had left I ran the same speed check that I had run earlier this morning (before the modem swap). The check was from adslguide.org.

Disappointingly, whereas before I was getting speed reports of up to 6mbps down and almost 500kbps up, I now get 0.9mbps down and 0.1 up. I understand that these tests are flaky at best but I was certainly not expecting a drop!

Nothing else has changed on my setup other than the modem. Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what's going on?

Also, another thread in the forum talks about a CF speed test and mentions a link at the top of the page - all I can see is links to google ads about speed tests. Is there a specific CF test and if so, where can I find it?

Thanks for any help.

Ian . . .

banjo · 08-06-2006, 16:52

Try this, http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...speedtest.html

Cobbydaler · 08-06-2006, 16:53

In the dark blue band below the Google ads, 5th from the left....

ianpstark · 08-06-2006, 18:11

Thanks guys! I cannot believe I missed the link - I searched for a good five minutes!

Anyway, the sad news is:

1st 512K took 5172 ms = 99 KB/sec, approx 816 Kbps, 0.8 Mbps
2nd 512K took 5516 ms = 92.8 KB/sec, approx 765 Kbps, 0.75 Mbps
3rd 512K took 4484 ms = 114.2 KB/sec, approx 941 Kbps, 0.92 Mbps
4th 512K took 3875 ms = 132.1 KB/sec, approx 1089 Kbps, 1.06 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 903 Kbps, 0.88 Mbps

I'm guessing this is indicative of a problem that needs to be reported to NTL. Meanwhile, does anyone have any thoughts about why it should drop so suddenly and so much?

Cheers.

Ian . . .

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 16:05 ----------

UPDATE:

I found a tier level check at NTL which, to my horror, told me I was on the 1mb service! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!

A call to Customer Services (I was talking to a human being within 30 seconds) had the problem rectified within about three minutes - during which time I also upgraded my package to include the unlimited calling plan.

New test results:

1st 512K took 547 ms = 936 KB/sec, approx 7713 Kbps, 7.53 Mbps
2nd 512K took 500 ms = 1024 KB/sec, approx 8438 Kbps, 8.24 Mbps
3rd 512K took 468 ms = 1094 KB/sec, approx 9015 Kbps, 8.8 Mbps4th 512K took 907 ms = 564.5 KB/sec, approx 4651 Kbps, 4.54 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 7454 Kbps, 7.28 Mbps

I am a) a happy bunny and b) my faith in NTL has been restored (for now!!). Because they dealt with it so quickly I will overlook the fact that I had to call about it in the first place.

Ian . . .

Richy99 · 09-06-2006, 14:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianpstark

Hi all,

First post here, so forgive my newbiness.

I've just upgraded to 10mb. NTL replaced my trusty old CMX modem with a ntl:250 because the CMX was not able to support 10mb.

They installed it today and after the engineer had left I ran the same speed check that I had run earlier this morning (before the modem swap). The check was from adslguide.org.

Disappointingly, whereas before I was getting speed reports of up to 6mbps down and almost 500kbps up, I now get 0.9mbps down and 0.1 up. I understand that these tests are flaky at best but I was certainly not expecting a drop!

Nothing else has changed on my setup other than the modem. Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what's going on?

Also, another thread in the forum talks about a CF speed test and mentions a link at the top of the page - all I can see is links to google ads about speed tests. Is there a specific CF test and if so, where can I find it?

Thanks for any help.

Ian . . .

did they charge you for swapping the modem out? i still got an old cmx and see about 7meg on so am tempted to get ntl to replace it if its free

ianpstark · 09-06-2006, 14:24

Hi,

No they didn't charge me but that doesn't seem to be the norm. When I first upgraded to 10meg I asked their advice about replacing the modem. I was told that I could buy one from ntl and when I asked if I could get one cheaper from eBay they said that was fine. Of course when I then called to get the new mac address registered I was told that this was wrong advice and I could only use an ntl supplied modem. A quick call to customer services with a bit of a sob story and they agreed to replace it free.