*ALL* ntl 10Mb Discussion (Part 3)

[joggerspark]

Originally Posted by Sage013

Thanks for that fire. Here are the results i get, not pleasant reading unfortunately:

File size transferred : 14.75 MB (15468724 bytes)
Total time taken : 38.94 seconds (38937 milliseconds)
Throughput : 397.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.4 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 3176.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 3.18 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Well, the situation I have now is that two sites (here and kbps.co.uk) that say I'm running at 3Mb (approx) and two sites (irishisptest.com and adlsguide) that say I'm runnning at 5Mb (approx). Whichever is right, unless ntl install a SACM for free, I'm going to downgrade to 2Mb. However, having a problem in finding the right people to speak to at ntl at present.

This is what I get

File size transferred : 14.75 MB (15468724 bytes)
Total time taken : 12.64 seconds (12640 milliseconds)
Throughput : 1223.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 1.22 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 9784.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 9.78 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Location: Manchester North - Modem: NTL:250 SACM - Speed Subscribed to: 10Mbit

Results using Cable Forums Speed Test.

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:13:19 GMT

1st 512K took 1265 ms = 404.7 KB/sec, approx 3076 Kbps, 3 Mbps
2nd 512K took 1374 ms = 372.6 KB/sec, approx 2832 Kbps, 2.8 Mbps
3rd 512K took 1625 ms = 315.1 KB/sec, approx 2395 Kbps, 2.3 Mbps
4th 512K took 1140 ms = 449.1 KB/sec, approx 3413 Kbps, 3.3 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 2929 Kbps, 2.85 Mbps

===============================

Results using this test.

Your Download Speed is 2.91 Mbps Your Upload Speed is 490 kbps

===============================

Results using this test.

Your line speed: 3437.2 Kbps 421.2 K bytes/sec

===============================

Results using this test.

On Wednesday, 25th January, 2006
Your bandwidth measured as:

2.51 Mbps

which means you can download at 321.66 KB/sec. from our servers.

===============================

[Sage013]

Dodger444, what has tech support said to you so far??

Originally Posted by Sage013

Dodger444, what has tech support said to you so far??

After phoning TS last Saturday, and both me and Karuna , (by-the-way TS in India) trying to sort it out, she came to the conclusion that the fault lies at NTL's end, and that she will pass this info on to the right department. I did however this morning at around 11am have a very good stable connection of 1.2mbps but after getting home this evening and doing the same tests... well u can see the results I got in my other post. I'll give them another call tomorrow if things haven't changed.

[handyman]

Originally Posted by sicknote

then you my friend are a very lucky person because most of the rest of the damm country are not getting anywhere near it but then you should know this already if you read the posts on the forum and i doubt also that you have 10mbit ALL the time :P cause if ya did i would come and move in with ya:P

hmm out of 10000+ users on this forum there must be 20-30 having proper problems (discounting those with router issues and what not) I can say hand on heart that this is not the major issue that you are trying to make it out to be. Ntl have well over 1 milllion broadband customers and If there was a issue as big as you think it is then there would be a 2hr wait to speak to customer service. This is not the case. And there will be something done about it rest assured.

There will be 1000's of people will good stable 9-10mbs connection.

[sicknote]

im sorry handyman but you are wrong just looks at the facts when everyone was on 3mg lines there was no problems or anything significant and suddenly they roll out 10mg and upgrade the 3mg users even though they dont want to be and boom the sxxt hits the fan there is clearly a problem providing a stable 10mg or even 5mg to a lot of this country just look at the posts with all the areas...sheesh..you know what i cant really be assed to sit here tryin to explain this anymore because does nothin to sort it or to my damm blood pressure i just hope that your speed does not fall the same way then we shall see your response im just an average guy that wants at least an average service for my money is that to much to ask you think?

just thought i would take a quick look:hmm
portmouths,harrowgate,cambs,watford,aylesbury,dove r,guilford,basildon,leicester,nthampton,manchester ,s.e.londo
to name just a few across the whole country and there aint a 10mg problem? haha

[Chrysalis]

handyman you assume most people ring up when they got problem's, eg. my sister who is far from tech savvy was wondering why pages sometimes timeout on her pc and she assumed it was the website fault and wasnt even considering ringing ntl. When her tv box broke it took her 4 months to bother ringing up simply because she couldnt be arsed. Probably a fair few people around the same.

Originally Posted by handyman

hmm out of 10000+ users on this forum there must be 20-30 having proper problems (discounting those with router issues and what not) I can say hand on heart that this is not the major issue that you are trying to make it out to be. Ntl have well over 1 milllion broadband customers and If there was a issue as big as you think it is then there would be a 2hr wait to speak to customer service. This is not the case. And there will be something done about it rest assured.

There will be 1000's of people will good stable 9-10mbs connection.

Maybe your right? but that makes things even harder for us customers on the 10mb who are having problems and have been for a few weeks now... everything was hunkydory for me and many other 10meg users before, i was reaching speeds of 1.0mbit + every test i did... usually 1.3mbps on the news servers. as for the 20-30 customers u mention having probs on here, what about all the ntl customers out there who know nothing about cable forum who are maybe trying to get an idea of what might be happening with there braodband? let alone the customer who just doesnt even know how to check if he/she is getting the correct speed they subscribe to? and yes, this is a major issue for ntl the more potential customers who read this type of thread are more likely to shy away from nthell and find there broadband and other services from a more reliable company that keeps their customers in the know and not the dark. so if ntl dont want that to happen, then they'd better pull their finger out and get it sorted.

[Sage013]

Just thought I'd throw my two pence worth in on the last few posts.

One million broadband customers? Yes, but how many on 10Mb? I have a Samsung STB and was on the 3Mb package. Apparently I was upgraded to 10Mb on the 14 December. However, I wasn't informed of the upgrade and, as I was still getting 3Mb then I didn't know I had a problem. It was only when I cam across this board a couple of weeks ago I found out about 10Mb and called ntl to see when I would be upgraded that I found out I ws already upgraded. So how many people are there out there that don't even know they're on 10Mb and are unaware they have a problem?

I used to have a lot of problems with myt ntl connection about 4-5 months ago. I would just keep losing the entire broadband and digital TV for 4-10 hours. Everytime it happened I reported the fault and it only took about 1-2 mins to get through, baring the recorded bits like "try rebooting your system' etc. Now when I phone ntl it's taking me 5-15mins to get through, and this is mid week in the day time, not evenings and weekends. to me this signifies a big increase in the number of people contacting ntl.

I've also noticed that the weekly lists of planned maintenance have increased threefold in the last few weeks. Again, this indicates to me they know things are not right at the moment. However, it also shows that they are trying to do something about it.

I have been with ntl for 8 years now, and my parents have been on cable since it was first introduced, long before ntl took over things. We have both been happy with what we've got over the years.

As with any service that you pay for from a company, when things are runing smoothly and all is well, you're happy with what you're getting. As soon as there are any problems, they become the worst company in the world. I know a lot of people who use other ISP and they've all had their problems with them over the years.

I'm happy to wait another couple of months to see if ntl can sort out the problems. If things haven't improved at all by then, I'll then consider other options. My only current gripe with ntl is that why should I pay £35pm for 5Mb when other people paying £35pm and get 10Mb, just because they will not supply the hardware for me to get 10Mb. I'm not paying £50 to get something they install for new customers free of charge!!

[squirrel1970]

Well, we *were* on 10meg.... or should that be, NTL assumed we were, our modem, however, indicated that we were on 3meg. Taking into consideration that a lot of people were getting dialup speeds on 10 meg and knowing our modem wasn't going to cut the mustard and despite numerous attempts to convince NTL that our modem wasn't cutting it, we took the plunge yesterday and went down to 2megs unlimited.
Yes, I could've called out a tech guy, but we need a good connection here and the drop in speed was only marginal compared to what we were getting. I'm going to leave it a month and attempt to go back to 10 meg and if the modem config says it's 3meg, then we'll get someone out to fix it/install new modem. If, however, we're happy at the end of the month, we'll leave the connection at 2meg until later in the year. 10meg is fine if you can get it, not so if you can't or if your modem can't handle it. Maybe later in the year, other technical apects that need to be sorted by NTL will be resolved by then and maybe the 10meg might seem a little more stable than it seems at the moment.
Until then, it's business as usual here, albeit a little slower - but thats not a problem, it's an asset.

[Rakhal]

The modem upgrade issue is what annoys me most about the whole affair.I've been with NTL broadband since the 512K days and as such I have a Terayon modem. It's not capabale of 10MB (typically I get 6 or so) and they want £50 to change the modem. Why am I being penalised for being a long-time loyal customer. This just doesn't seem fair to me. Now I realise that I've still got a faster service than I used to have, but there's still a sense of injustice.
Mind you the occasional plunges to dial-up speeds are more worrying. Happens randomly, but doing anything on the web is excruciating when it does. SPeeds typically drop to the 10-15kbps range. Pages were designed differently in the 14.4K modem days, going back to that speed with todays image/feature rich pages makes we want to tear my hair out. Hopefully things will improve.

<grumble><gruimble><grumble>
--Rakhal

[parakeet]

Hello,

I'm currently on the 1Mbps package, but am considering upping to 3/10Mbps.

Before that, could anyone advise what the service is like in Cardiff? Download/upload speeds, performance... ?

Thanks.

[manfredojr]

10mb is a joke full stop.

[Sage013]

Originally Posted by parakeet

Hello,

I'm currently on the 1Mbps package, but am considering upping to 3/10Mbps.

Before that, could anyone advise what the service is like in Cardiff? Download/upload speeds, performance... ?

Thanks.

You might get lucky or, you might end up having a nightmare and wasting days of your time trying to sort things out. Personally, if I was on 1Mb at present then, unless I'm desperate for extra speed, I would stay on 1Mb for another month or two at least too see if things get better.

Originally Posted by manfredojr

10mb is a joke full stop.

It's only a joke for the people having problems. If you've read through enough posts on this board then you'll know that some/plenty of people are getting high speeds and not having problems.

I've just run another test and, lo and behold, I'm getting the max speed expected at present. I have a Samsung STB and the 5Mb package (I'm refusing to call my package 10Mb anymore!!). A couple of minutes after I did the test below, I did another one and got 4Mb. On average over the last 24 hours I've been getting approx 3.4Mb. Whilst not exactly much of an increase on the steady 3Mb I had, ntl clearly say that speeds are now up to and not constant as before. Basically I'm getting exactly what ntl say I should be getting. Unfortunately any one reasonable length download still comes along at very erratic speeds. Still, It would surprise at present if things went back to 1.5Mb later today!!

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 14:54:05 UTC

1st 512K took 765 ms = 669.3 KB/sec, approx 5087 Kbps, 5 Mbps
2nd 512K took 546 ms = 937.7 KB/sec, approx 7127 Kbps, 7 Mbps
3rd 512K took 1265 ms = 404.7 KB/sec, approx 3076 Kbps, 3 Mbps
4th 512K took 734 ms = 697.5 KB/sec, approx 5301 Kbps, 5.2 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 5148 Kbps, 5.05 Mbps

[tweetiepooh]

It's been alluded to before and it's worth restating but downloads of 512kB are just too small to get accurate figures for 10M, probably even for 3M. I mean at 5M you are looking at subsecond times. A small glitch in a router or something could have an extraordinary effect on that sort of number.

Get a better feel by downloading something substantial, multiple megabytes, from a well mirrored, well connected server. gcc from sunfreeware mirrors is around 100M and will let the connection settle and will give better figures. It will be somewhat lower if everyone does it at same time so use as an example only.