Speed problems in Mid-Bedfordshire

daemon · 13-12-2005, 16:23

Hi,

I've been using NTL broadband quite happily since May 2001 and currently have 2M service which, until recently, has been giving download speeds of 250kbps consistently.

Over the last week my download speed has dropped to 17kbps maximum and it shows no sign of recovering. Before anyone asks, I operate a PC as a router and it has been (and still is) running with consistent performance. Behind the router is one Linux and one Windows 98 desktop system (both are adequately firewalled and virus protected).

A traceroute from my Linux desktop system to www.bbc.co.uk produces the following output:

Code:

sh-3.00# /usr/sbin/traceroute www.bbc.co.uk
traceroute to www14.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.114), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  router (192.168.0.1)  0.413 ms  0.113 ms  0.101 ms
 2  * * *
 3  lutn-t2cam1-b-v112.inet.ntl.com (80.4.118.133)  9.582 ms  9.694 ms  9.183 ms
 4  lutn-t2core-b-ge-wan64.inet.ntl.com (213.107.47.213)  11.343 ms  10.130 ms  12.324 ms
 5  nth-bb-b-so-310-0.inet.ntl.com (213.105.174.65)  11.797 ms  11.739 ms  12.832 ms
 6  nth-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.117)  12.966 ms  50.221 ms  11.184 ms
 7  gfd-bb-b-so-400-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.98)  18.599 ms  13.711 ms  13.570 ms
 8  redb-ic-1-as0-0.inet.ntl.com (213.105.174.138)  15.078 ms  16.566 ms  20.610 ms
 9  212.58.238.189 (212.58.238.189)  17.452 ms  17.736 ms  17.391 ms
10  212.58.238.133 (212.58.238.133)  17.602 ms  15.212 ms  16.238 ms
11  www14.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.114)  19.813 ms  14.997 ms  16.954 ms

As you can see, there's a huge delay after my router and before lutn-t2cam1-b-v112.inet.ntl.com (each star represents 5 seconds of non-response).

Can anyone with insider contacts please investigate this?

Regards,
Neil Darlow

Neil · 13-12-2005, 16:30

http://www.ntl-isp.ntl.com/ServiceStatus/

Ignition · 13-12-2005, 16:52

Nothing to say really, the router there chose not to, or was too busy to respond to your pings. Each star takes five seconds to appear as that's the standard timeout on the Linux implementation of ping (and pretty much every other one actually).

As stated elsewhere on this forum it's not really a major issue so long as the pings at the destination are ok, which they are.

Good chance that there's reduced capacity available or connection probs due to the fire in Hemel Hempstead taking out local capacity on the cable network in that area.

daemon · 13-12-2005, 18:01

Thanks for the replies.

Neil, I did check the service status before posting and if breakage in Hemel Hempstead affects traffic between Sandy and Luton, I'd be amazed.

Ignotion, I think you need to study the implemetation of traceroute. It doesn't use the same mechanism as ping (which you seem to think it does). If NTL's hardware chooses not so send TTL exceeded responses then their network is, indeed, broken.

Regards,
Neil Darlow