Rocky Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 This is a good point of discussion, so it is open for business - however Stinger, take this is an official warning. Your posts across various threads have been argumentative on numerous occasions, it just is not justifiable, or acceptable. Back on track. Yeh, you can tweak cable modem settings. I never knew about ISPS getting shirty about it, but there some settings you can tweak that ISPs can have no beef with - and they are some OS settings. I think Phantom mentioned MTU - that is, one setting. Changing that setting can optimise your connection for downloads or gaming for example. I have a tool on a cover disk here somewhere, I'll get the details for you later. I agree with Phantom though - if there is a serious issue with your downloads speeds I'd take it up with the ISP first. I know more than one persion who has tweked modem settings before and been left with no access at all! I know I could probably tweak mine in under 5 minutes using a couple of tools, but I know I am getting the sort of speeds my ISP said I would get for my cash, and it is fast enough for me, so I am not risking breaking anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Also, Id like to add really quick, that the two settings that Rocky and I mentioned, can only be set to a certain amount. Its better to go a little lower than max, no matter what version of Winblows your using. If you set too high, you can actually cause packet loss. Ill get some facts together today, and make up an easy to understand tutorial for you guys later today, after i get up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zebb Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 I have a 1mb cable connection which is alright but not the super fast fat pipe i was hoping for, especially during the evening/night time, is this due to the amount of people using the same line as me at those times do you think ? I have used most of the sites mentioned in here before to try to tweak things up a bit but i cant say i noticed any major improvement..... Im with NTL over here in the UK btw.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 The trouble with cable is, you share a trunk line to a node that has up to 120 people on it, all sharing the same bandwidth from the node out. The more people that are on, the less bandwidth you're going to get. Most residential cable modem service is capped at a max of 1.5/128. Very few subscribers nowadays see more than that, although it happens. A good guide line for you to follow is this. Most ISP's, dial up aside, try and deliver at least 80% of advertised bandwidth. DSL is nice because its more secure, and the bandwidth is yours. Its dedicated. Cable is not. It also depends alot on whether you have a fiber backbone out on the poles that lead to your house. If you do, about the only limit you will have on bandwidth is what your modem config file is set for. If they are still running copper out to your house on the poles, you are going to be hampered a bit, depending on how many people are on the node. One other thing to remember, very important - Read your agreement!! In nice letters it tells you that they will not guarantee speed like DSL companies will. They cant, because of the shared trunk. Although 8 out of 10 times it does work out well. In Ruin's case, the cable company has got a technical problem, either with the modem, or the hardware on their side of his house, or even crappy coax. 80Kbps isnt even 10% of what he should have. He's getting robbed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zebb Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Thanks matey thats pretty much what i assumed, doesnt stop me thinking im being ripped off though....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Im with NTL over here in the UK btw.. In the UK, cable rules the roost eh Zeb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRC Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 I love my dsl--live only a block from a switching station and have a strong signal---consistently get 640-660 on download--256 on upload, as advertised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 One other thing to remember, very important - Read your agreement!! In nice letters it tells you that they will not guarantee speed like DSL companies will. They cant, because of the shared trunk. Although 8 out of 10 times it does work out well. In Ruin's case, the cable company has got a technical problem, either with the modem, or the hardware on their side of his house, or even crappy coax. 80Kbps isnt even 10% of what he should have. He's getting robbed. My lady friend and her mom tried DSL out here and got half of what I've got now. They ran it through Bell South IIRC. I also seem to remember that distance from a node can cause significant decreases in DSL speed. I'll talk with my parents and see what we can do. As long as it wont cost us anything extra, lmao. Money seems to be a tight ship sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 (edited) I went ahead and spent some time figuring out what is going on. Me ussually getting Ruin's speeds or less I called comcast and told them that I dont get any more than 40kbps ussually when downloading. They for the second time told me that you can't always download to your full potential and told me to check to make sure P2P programs and such were closed for maximum bandwidth yadda yadda. Test: Download.com Then with some friends I conducted some download tests from download.com Each of the below programs were downloaded by me and my friends with cable and the speeds were as follows. Kazaa 5.2-8.1-3.2 ICQ Lite 89.7-31.5-64.2 AIM 30.9-24.9-17.1 MY connection speeds was determined by the "Clock this Download" function there as 92kbps, 524kbps, 138kbps, 39.7. When it varies that much it means the that test funtion is crap. Test: Toast.net Toast.net Performance Test I entered ISP as Comcast and selected Cable as my connection type. 229K-950K is Cable/ADSL 1078K-1300K is T1 Image: 540K Throughput 938K Throughput 954K Throughput Registered as T1 connection 452K Throughput 513K Throughput 340k Text Document 639K Throughput 4002K Throughput Registered WAY WAY WAY over T1 3240K Throughput Registered WAY WAY over T1 4319K Throughput Registered WAY WAY WAY over T1 All of the Above 532K Throughput 796K Throughput 405K Throughput DSLreports.com DSL reports Speed Test 1522 Down 189 Up Note- All tests had cookes, temp, cache and all previous data cleared before tests were done. If your speeds compare about equally to those then your connection is fine (providing you are a cable user). The tests were done in IE6 and on mutiple lines including mine which was considered in perfect working order by Comcast. Ruin, go ahead and compare with some of those tests and see what your speeds are if they are about the same then your connection is exactly what it should be at according to professionals who I called and talked to on 2 seperate occasions. This is all pure fact. Edited July 14, 2003 by Stinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 Toast.net results It's my ISP man, there's no way it's certain servers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Yes, distance with DSL is a very big factor, and Bell South, unless they have upgraded their Stingers(Remote DSLAM) or their CO(Central Offices) will go no more than 15,000 feet. If you go to DSLReports .com, where you ran your speed test, in the upper left corner of the menu, is a small menu that you can use to find DSL options in your area, and it will also tell you how far from the CO or Stinger you are. Check this out. It is usually very accurate. But call BS also, and make sure. If it says that you are too far out, it is possible that BS added a Stinger, and they dont know about it yet. It is also a good idea, when running speed tests, to do it at 3 different sites, and average them. I use DSL Reports, Toast, and PCPItstop. These tests are usually a very accurate reading of your speed, and are what the ISP's use to measure your speed when diagnosing speed issues. They use nearly uncompressable data packets to test, giving you a very accurate representation of your DL Speed. They use MP3 files Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 That is within Cable and DSL specs Ruin.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 That is within Cable and DSL specs Ruin.... But it's only 1/3 of what I should be getting. Charter advertised 500K as a minimum. And the average speeds I get on downloads is still a a maximum of about 100KBS. Average 60 - 80. Also, I decided not clear my cache or turn of Messengers etc etc, because those would all be up and/or full for when I download something. Again, the test from DSLreports. 174 Down, 103 Up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 The DSLreports scores are low but Ruin my friend nobody here with Cable can download at 500kbps. Go post at one of the test sites and see what they say. Call charter though anyways. On our T1 line at school we cant download at 500kbps nobody ever has with Cable its not possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 On our T1 line at school We have a T3 line at school, and it would be an upgrade if we got dial-up for all of the computers. I'd like to be able to peak over 100 or so. I'm not asking for the full 1M download, but just to be able to hit 150KBS or so. So, I will call my ISP once I'm back from vacation and have time to deal with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 (edited) My transmission speed according tp PCpitstop is 244kb/s but I never download at that speed. Its hard to explain how it works but you never are going to download at what these test sites are bringing up. Most likely your ISP will just take you around in a loop but seriously post at a forum like here http://pcpitstop.ibforums.com/ and see what they say, go ahead and link to this thread too. No cable user gets speeds of 150 even ussually. Fileplanet gives me up to 90 then after about 10 minutes Im in the 30's for the rest of the night. Edited July 14, 2003 by Stinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Based on the 80% rule, even at 500Kbps, it isnt even 20%. Thats just wrong bro. As for registering as a T1 connection or better, a T1 is a Megabit. Cable and DSL, depending on the plan are easily capable of this. Cable or DSL is easily a match for a T1, if you are running a 1.5/128 config File. When you call Charter, ask them what your config file is rated at, and ask them why you cant get more than 20% of that. And remember, the tests arent crap. The ISP's use these same sites to do speed tests. If a tech comes out, and tests your speed, watch where he goes to do it. Anything is within specs, especially when no speed is guaranteed. Anything from 56K and above. That doesnt mean its right, and he's not getting shafted. Demand that they send a tech out. My DSL runs at 1.8/768, and I only have a 1.5/512 connection, which blows a T1 away. My average on a daily basis, except when my modem went out, was never less than 1.2/400, still blowing away a T1. A good cable connection, depending on who through, can beat that even. What Ruin is getting is nowhere near right, and needs to be dealt with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 The best way I think of it is that when you have 56k, you never can download at 56kb/s even though it is 56k. Phantom, we should find a decent sized file and see what the 3 of us download it at (not neccesarily the whole file). Im up for it whenever if you want to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 http://theaggressors.com/ruin/Jewel%20-%20...s%20Tribute.mp3 Try that. 2.15M in 50 secs. Transfer Rate: 45 KBS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Doesnt matter because 1), his overall line speed is in the toilet. 2), depending on how many hops each of us have to go through to get to the server will affect the DTR, 3), we cant determine if we are all connecting via the same RAS, and 4), we arent using the same Provider or service, so it would prove nothing. And for the final time, he is NOT affected by just certain servers. It is overall. So, he has made his decision on what he needs to try, and arguing over this same point is pointless. The plain simple truth is his speed is in the toilet, and needs to be gotten out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 59 seconds at 103KBPS. I just ran it again, and got it in 32 seconds, at 145KBPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hephaestus Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Ruin, as you know, I'm also on Charter with a 768 plan. here's my result from toast. When I talk to the techs at Charter, they usually tell me to use pcpitstop for bw tests. Their rule of thumb is 50-60kbs less than advertised speed is normal, and anything below that warrants action on their part. It's obvious something is wrong on their side. You already know what to do, bro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Phantom you are getting a bit too into this Im just trying to help so let me. Ruin my speeds were 18.6, 14.2, 12.4 and 14.1 start to finish. I have screenshots that I can email to you if you want. My ISP told me I am in tip top condition. Total Elapsed time is 2:34 for that Ruin. Damn seems I am in the barrel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 *scratches head* That's not mathmatically correct, lol. Musta bogged down at the beginning for something... wierd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 Thanks Heph. Yeah, if you're getting that on Charter as well, looks like I need to ring em... Frustrating, but neccessary. What are your transfer speeds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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