Cable Internet Bandwidth: Pay for 10megabits, get around 1 during peak...

[austin316]

I'm currently with RCN and pay for the 10megabit connection. However, from 6PM to midnight, EVERY NIGHT, I only get about 1megabit per second, rather than 10 and my pings are around 100. If I switch cable companies from RCN to Comcast would that help, or is the bandwidth coming into my apartment on the same shared lines?

Also, I've lived in two apartments near my current place (within a 1/2 mile) and have always had RCN and never had this issue. Also, I don't use a router or a splitter on the coax line.

TIA

 

[thescreensavers]

Your neighbor is downloading teh porn

 

[The Boston Dangler]

you pay for the UP TO 10 megabit service. changing isp should get you better service than what you describe, but no promises. the wiring in the premises will be the same, but connected to a different company's system outside.

a. your current location is in a different node, with either higher sub saturation or lower capacity networking hardware
or
b. your isp's traffic capacity has taken a dump since you left the old places

 

[austin316]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
you pay for the UP TO 10 megabit service. changing isp should get you better service than what you describe, but no promises. the wiring in the premises will be the same, but connected to a different company's system outside.

a. your current location is in a different node, with either higher sub saturation or lower capacity networking hardware
or
b. your isp's traffic capacity has taken a dump since you left the old places

so is it worth trying to switch in your opinion?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

depends on what you're looking for. if you play online games, 100 ping is totally unacceptable and reason enough to switch right there, imo. you are unlikely to see a huge increase in transfer rate. torrents will definately be choked, or knock your modem offline. even dl's from microsoft are subject to network management that will ensure you never see the numbers you're hoping for. i am told verizon's fios service is not currently subject to choking, and has excellent perfomance, but availability is scarce.

either way, i would shop around - there are usually decent incentives to switch telecoms, but 2 year contracts are becoming the norm.

 

[quakefiend420]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
depends on what you're looking for. if you play online games, 100 ping is totally unacceptable and reason enough to switch right there, imo. you are unlikely to see a huge increase in transfer rate. torrents will definately be choked, or knock your modem offline. even dl's from microsoft are subject to network management that will ensure you never see the numbers you're hoping for. i am told verizon's fios service is not currently subject to choking, and has excellent perfomance, but availability is scarce.

either way, i would shop around - there are usually decent incentives to switch telecoms, but 2 year contracts are becoming the norm.

i remember playing q2 on dialup and being amazed at 180 lol

250-300 was average...i dunno how i ever managed to kill anyone back then

 

[0roo0roo]

how did u test?

 

[zanejohnson]

i think you need to call your isp and let them know what's up....

they'll probably send a tech out, because if it's an "up to 10mbps" you sould be getting at least 7-8mbps at least...


my connection is a 10mbps/10mbps business line from the cable company and i get a solid 10mbps both ways during peak hours... and during off peak hours i've seen as high 15-16mbps on the downstream...

 

[austin316]

Originally posted by: zanejohnson
i think you need to call your isp and let them know what's up....

they'll probably send a tech out, because if it's an "up to 10mbps" you sould be getting at least 7-8mbps at least...


my connection is a 10mbps/10mbps business line from the cable company and i get a solid 10mbps both ways during peak hours... and during off peak hours i've seen as high 15-16mbps on the downstream...

I'll call the tech today. Also, I use www.speedtest.net/, but I've got similar results with many different speed test websites.

 

[QED]

If you are getting near your 10megabits off-peak, then the fact you are only get 1 during peak times doesn't indicate you or your ISP have cabling or hardware issues.

More than likely, you have one (or more) neighbors who are sharing the same line back to the cable company and are heavy users (or abusers). It's not uncommon for a single cable to service 100 to 200 customers in a neighborhood. Sometimes you get lucky and 99% are casual internet surfers-- sometimes you don't and 10% are torrent-downloading fiends. Keep in mind this bandwidth is also shared with your cable company's On-Demand offerings.

Switching cable providers may or may not help-- depends on how many users they in your neighborhood, how many lines they have servicing that neighborhood, and what type of users they are.

 

[spidey07]

Comcast is pretty much the leader in high performance cable networks and are doing tons of upgrades. If by switching you actually truly get on a different network and cable modem/infrastructure it could be a drastic improvement.

But the real answer to your question is "it depends on a lot of stuff outside your control". Thank all the kiddos downloading illegal crap every single night for your poor service.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Comcast is pretty much the leader in high performance cable networks and are doing tons of upgrades. If by switching you actually truly get on a different network and cable modem/infrastructure it could be a drastic improvement.

But the real answer to your question is "it depends on a lot of stuff outside your control". Thank all the kiddos downloading illegal crap every single night for your poor service.

yup. It's with ANY ISP...even FIOS. When I first got it, FIOS was wow....now everyone in my condo has it and me thinks their is alot single lonely guys where I live.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: Gibson486


yup. It's with ANY ISP...even FIOS. When I first got it, FIOS was wow....now everyone in my condo has it and me thinks their is alot single lonely guys where I live.

I thought only cable was shared bandwidth? Obviously, there'll be some slowdown on the CO's side if everyone is hitting their connection at once, but cable shares bandwidth locally (so when your neighbor soaks up bandwitch, you lose some) whereas DSL / FIOS that doesn't happen. Again, or so I've always though.

 

[spidey07]

Also as much as I despise dslreports.com you can go there to see feedback on service in your area. That should be able to tell you if you'll get any performance change.

 

[SunnyD]

I changed from Knology to Mediacom and went from ~6Mbps with a 300-500ms ping during prime time hours to 10-25Mbps with a 40-70ms ping during prime time hours.

 

[austin316]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
I changed from Knology to Mediacom and went from ~6Mbps with a 300-500ms ping during prime time hours to 10-25Mbps with a 40-70ms ping during prime time hours.

and these are both cable companies?

 

[phoenix79]

Originally posted by: austin316

Originally posted by: SunnyD
I changed from Knology to Mediacom and went from ~6Mbps with a 300-500ms ping during prime time hours to 10-25Mbps with a 40-70ms ping during prime time hours.

and these are both cable companies?

If you want to call them that, they both suck

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: Gibson486


yup. It's with ANY ISP...even FIOS. When I first got it, FIOS was wow....now everyone in my condo has it and me thinks their is alot single lonely guys where I live.

I thought only cable was shared bandwidth? Obviously, there'll be some slowdown on the CO's side if everyone is hitting their connection at once, but cable shares bandwidth locally (so when your neighbor soaks up bandwitch, you lose some) whereas DSL / FIOS that doesn't happen. Again, or so I've always though.

You have to share it at some point....you are not going to get a whole dedicated line straight to the internet.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: phoenix79

Originally posted by: austin316

Originally posted by: SunnyD
I changed from Knology to Mediacom and went from ~6Mbps with a 300-500ms ping during prime time hours to 10-25Mbps with a 40-70ms ping during prime time hours.

and these are both cable companies?

If you want to call them that, they both suck

This. Knology really sucks IMHO. Mediacom doesn't have the greatest rep, but they do serve my neighborhood much better than Knology. In my town, or different sides of the city, we have Knology, Mediacom, Comcast, Charter, and I think one more cable company... as well as AT&T.

 

[Cable God]

Originally posted by: phoenix79

Originally posted by: austin316

Originally posted by: SunnyD
I changed from Knology to Mediacom and went from ~6Mbps with a 300-500ms ping during prime time hours to 10-25Mbps with a 40-70ms ping during prime time hours.

and these are both cable companies?

If you want to call them that, they both suck

My 20/2 service (residential) from Mediacom has been nothing short of stellar. I've had a few hours of downtime a few times over the past two or three years, but everyone has that periodically.

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: Gibson486


yup. It's with ANY ISP...even FIOS. When I first got it, FIOS was wow....now everyone in my condo has it and me thinks their is alot single lonely guys where I live.

I thought only cable was shared bandwidth? Obviously, there'll be some slowdown on the CO's side if everyone is hitting their connection at once, but cable shares bandwidth locally (so when your neighbor soaks up bandwitch, you lose some) whereas DSL / FIOS that doesn't happen. Again, or so I've always though.

You have to share it at some point....you are not going to get a whole dedicated line straight to the internet.

I don't think this is true. DSL speed is based on the distance you are from the main trunk rather than how many people in your are have DSL and are currently using it.

Also, how many times have you heard someone complain about how slow their DSL gets during peak hours (I've heard 0)? Now, how many times have you heard someone complain about how slow their cable gets during peak hours (I've heard many)?

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Cable God

Originally posted by: phoenix79

Originally posted by: austin316

Originally posted by: SunnyD
I changed from Knology to Mediacom and went from ~6Mbps with a 300-500ms ping during prime time hours to 10-25Mbps with a 40-70ms ping during prime time hours.

and these are both cable companies?

If you want to call them that, they both suck

My 20/2 service (residential) from Mediacom has been nothing short of stellar. I've had a few hours of downtime a few times over the past two or three years, but everyone has that periodically.

I honestly can't complain myself. Far better speeds than Knology, and I have quite acceptable pings. It was the ping that was killing me with Knology - 500ms at 8pm at night does not a happy gamer make.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

is it possible to have 2 cable providers service the same region?
i thought they were monopolies.

i know here it's location specific. you're either in roadrunner, or optimum. no choice for the customer.

 

[austin316]

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo
is it possible to have 2 cable providers service the same region?
i thought they were monopolies.

i know here it's location specific. you're either in roadrunner, or optimum. no choice for the customer.

Chicago gives you a choice of RCN or Comcast.

 

[QED]

Originally posted by: kalrith

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: Gibson486


yup. It's with ANY ISP...even FIOS. When I first got it, FIOS was wow....now everyone in my condo has it and me thinks their is alot single lonely guys where I live.

I thought only cable was shared bandwidth? Obviously, there'll be some slowdown on the CO's side if everyone is hitting their connection at once, but cable shares bandwidth locally (so when your neighbor soaks up bandwitch, you lose some) whereas DSL / FIOS that doesn't happen. Again, or so I've always though.

You have to share it at some point....you are not going to get a whole dedicated line straight to the internet.

I don't think this is true. DSL speed is based on the distance you are from the main trunk rather than how many people in your are have DSL and are currently using it.

Also, how many times have you heard someone complain about how slow their DSL gets during peak hours (I've heard 0)? Now, how many times have you heard someone complain about how slow their cable gets during peak hours (I've heard many)?

Well, that plus the fact that while DSL bandwidth is eventually shared somewhere down the line, it is shared across a larger pool of consumers which a corespondinlgly larger pipe to the Internet. This larger pooling help even out bandwidth demand, as opposed to cable where you might get blazing speeds (if all of your neighbors are old fogies who use it to check their Jitterbug phone balance) or craptastic speeds ( if all of your neighbors are horny perverts with nothing to else to do ).