Very slow in Portsmouth on some protocols

Hi there.

Doing speed tests, I can get up to 10 meg via HTTP. But via newsgroups, I can only manage 380k with 16 connections. At 8 connections it's only 200k.

Sounds like contention? Bittorrent brings the connection to it's knees. Connections keep timing out. All this with 20k max upload and an average of 70k download.

Anyone got any ideas? Perhaps it's local to Portsmouth (Cosham)?

I'm not sure, but I'd imagine contention would affect all traffic, not be limited to newsgroups & torrents?

It sounds more like shaping, to me, although NTL 'officially' don't do it yet....

Have you tried changing which ports you use for the torrents?

- I rarely manage high speeds on torrents using the standard ports. Although the last couple of days have said 'running normally' the most I got was 100KB/s & usually it was more like 30-50, so I'd be interested in your feedback.

It doesn't sound like contention, does it?

I normally use a port up in the 50000 range for BT, I have tried others but to no effect.

I'll be a tad upset to say the least if NTL are traffic shaping. I signed up on Wednessday and specifically asked the guy if they were, or had any plans to traffic shape. His exact words were "no, we are going forwards, not back".

---------- Post added at 22:12 ---------- Previous post was at 22:05 ----------

Should add that I am using Newshosting. Just came from ADSL, could get 600k/sec on a good day.

Looks exactly like traffic shaping to me. Usenet and BT are slow, HTTP is more or less OK.

One thing I can't understand is why BT is still crippling my connection at only 20k up. In fact, even at 5k it's iffy.

[darkone338]

prepare to be upset... traffic shaping is on its way...

Are you saying the told me an outright lie on the phone? If so, I will be leaving, and they can stuff the 12 months minimum.

But I really hope it isn't like that... actually, i was just getting 800k so...

Well, it's back down again. Usenet and P2P only, everything else is fine.

What on earth is going on?

[Chrysalis]

it may be shaping but I remember reading that ntl are only going to shape upstream traffic.

it may be that all your peering routes used for p2p and news are congested and that http is fast because you downloading from an internal proxy server.

I can get about 400k with 16 connections now...

With NTL upping people to 4 meg, I hope they add more external bandwidth to match.

Oh wait, this is NTL...

[James Henry]

You were lied to regarding shaping. Not many ISPs that don't shape now due to the relatively few people who cane their services downloading hundreds of GB a month.

[malcb]

i am suffering slow speeds as well, in basingstoke.

1st 512K took 1250 ms = 409.6 KB/sec, approx 3375 Kbps, 3.3 Mbps
2nd 512K took 1968 ms = 260.2 KB/sec, approx 2144 Kbps, 2.09 Mbps
3rd 512K took 2047 ms = 250.1 KB/sec, approx 2061 Kbps, 2.01 Mbps
4th 512K took 1938 ms = 264.2 KB/sec, approx 2177 Kbps, 2.13 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 2439 Kbps, 2.38 Mbps

and thats with a 10mg connection

[Richy99]

what port are you using for newshosting?

[DaggaDagga]

I've noticed over the last two months or so that something's changed.

I run DU Meter. On an HTTP download, the rate used to bang straight up to the maximum (7-9Mbps). Now, it ramps up from nothing to 7-9Mbps over about 5 seconds. It's an amazingly straight line, up from near zero to the max. Definitely looks like something's managing things. Anyone else see this?

If they are shaping then they're probably just doing every port. This also makes VoIP pretty useless. But it just so happens that NTL will install you a lovely phone line for £12 a month.

Originally Posted by James Henry

You were lied to regarding shaping. Not many ISPs that don't shape now due to the relatively few people who cane their services downloading hundreds of GB a month.

I'm going to call them and try to get a definate answer on this. If not, at leaast some explanation for what DaggaDagga is seeing. I too have noticed the same thing on usenet.

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:09 ----------

Originally Posted by Richy99

what port are you using for newshosting?

I usually use 119 but have tried 7000, 8000, 9000, 80, 25 etc. 8000 is usually best but I tend to use leave it at 119 (automatic best routing) as that is usually the same.