Poor connectivity in general

Tidosho · 11-12-2004, 00:45

Hello. I have been an ntl customer on broadband for over 3 years now and looked forward to the recent increase to 1.5MB. The "upgrade" has been disappointing to say the least. From have a stable fast connection at 1MB i now have a very poor one. A speed test indicates everything is as it should be but it use it is terrible. I have never had "operation timed out" before on normal web pages. It is much worse of course when on p2p programs but the connection in normal use is more like a fast dialup than a broadband connection. Running a D-Link 604 router but have also disconnected this and used a straight connection to 2 different computers with no improvement. Any advice gratly appreciated. Windows XP SP2, Athlon 2800XP...... any other details i will supply if asked. TIA
Edit.... I receive this through a STB which was recently changed to the silver Samsung.

daxx · 11-12-2004, 03:09

see http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ht=p2p+samsung
for the probable answers to your questions.

A search on "p2p sampsung" reveals a few more threads concerning this issue

Tidosho · 11-12-2004, 12:23

Thanks for the reply. It does seem there are various issues with this box. I'm thinking of switching to a 1Mb adsl connection and maybe a freeview box becuase so far ntl have been less than helpful.

daxx · 11-12-2004, 16:28

NTL are aware aware of the current issues with p2p and the Samsung boxes and from information posted in the threads revealed froma search you will soon glean the information that a solution is being worked on.

Be assured that switching to ADSL may not solve your problems, its the 'nature of the beast' (TCP/IP), any data packets received have to send back an 'ack' to the sender in order for the next packet to be sent, it logically follows that at some point the number of packets you receive at a high speed, will at some point cause congestion in the outbound 'ack' queue which is currently limited on most suppliers to a maximum of 256K. As a result your inbound data stream will appear to slow down until as such times they (the inbound packets and the outbound 'acks) catch up with each other. Hence the need for 'throttling' your inbound speed when currently using p2p services, particularly bit torrent clients

Tidosho · 11-12-2004, 22:19

Once again thanks for the reply. Yes i realise the bandwidth shouldn't be completely taken by the p2p app but this is happening when i restrict uploads to 15k and am only downloading at 15 to 20k. That's what irks the most, not being able to browse whilst downloading and uploading at modest/slow speeds. For example browsing these boards whilst downloading at about 10k each page is taking up to 30 seconds to load..... and sometimes i have to stop and reload. Thing is this worked fine before the box change and that's what irks me. I'n not going to rush into any changes and will probably wait until the new speed upgrades to see.

daxx · 12-12-2004, 02:22

What area/town are you in? As there are several threads which, IMHO appear to be area specific.

Have you tried specifing a proxy for your web browsing just in case your local assigned transparent proxy is having an 'off period'.

Have you checked out Robins site for any help/tips that may be applicable in your case? http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/ is the location

Tidosho · 13-12-2004, 10:01

I'm in the Manchester area. I've read a lot of the links you posted.......... thanks again. Very little applies to Samsung box however i will search out details of how to access the diagnostics of it to see if anything is amiss. To be honest web browsing is painfully slow even when not downloading. This is with either IE or Firefox and my patience and faith in NTL are both close to "quit".

daxx · 13-12-2004, 14:35

Just to narrow it down a bit more, North or South Manc? as they use different proxys, North uses the manc proxies and south uses bagu.

Have a look at this http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=20815 thread for North area. Also take a peek into this http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=31 sub forum for proxy and email related issues.

I personally am in South Area and at the moment

am enjoying for some reason no proxy. Like you I use both IE and firefox, though not in any particular prefence, through a Samsung via a DL 614+ router and find by using the Simple Speed Test at Robins site regualrly (sp) get around my specified speed.

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 13:31:53 GMT
1st 128K took 719 ms = 182298 Bytes/sec = approx 1517 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 703 ms = 186447 Bytes/sec = approx 1551 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 719 ms = 182298 Bytes/sec = approx 1517 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 718 ms = 182552 Bytes/sec = approx 1519 kbits/sec

Have a look at the thread http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=20977 and check to see if you are being routed through a transparent proxy

Tidosho · 13-12-2004, 17:30

My location is Salford which i would guess puts me in the north Manchester region.
Apparently i am on this proxy. manc-cache-7.server.ntli.net.
Can't find the test you did, do you have the site address please?
Router model is D-Link 604 which i believe is the wired version of the 614.

daxx · 13-12-2004, 20:10

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...speedtest.html is the link for the speed test.

It would appear you are on North Manc proxys.

Have a look at the stickys in this http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=31 forum for proxy hints

Tidosho · 13-12-2004, 20:31

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 19:30:17 GMT
1st 128K took 3781 ms = 34666 Bytes/sec = approx 288 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 828 ms = 158300 Bytes/sec = approx 1317 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 3610 ms = 36308 Bytes/sec = approx 302 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 3812 ms = 34384 Bytes/sec = approx 286 kbits/sec

This just done on mine.