NTL Cable perfomance drop

slaine · 09-09-2003 8:11am #1

Hey Guys,

I noticed over the weekend that there has been a huge perfomance drop in my NTL throughput, especially from Irish sites.

I'm trying to figure out if it's just me that's experiencing this or if other users have noticed similar. Though I've not seen anyone post about this in the recent history.

The problem is mainly on Irish sites though I have seen a drop in performance from UK sites too. As a test I was downloading the latest linux 2.6 kernel from both ftp.heanet.ie and mirror.ac.uk. On the heanet download I'm seeing varying speeds ranging from the 15k to 25k. From the mirror.ac.uk site I'm seeing 44k to 55k.

I've not really downloaded from the mirror.ac.uk site before and noticed that the through put varied here on my esat adsl connection at work. Though I have downloaded regularly from heanet and I would normaly see downloads perform in the region of 60+k.

I've been on to NTL cable support and needless to say they can't find a problem. They've logged the complaint and say that I'm the only person to complain thus far, so perhaps it is an issue local to me.

We've done various things to solve the issue, removing the modem from the network and adding it back etc. Nothing seemed to make a difference.

It may be a line quality issue, the signal to noise was a 21.8db. Apparently they'd think it was a problem if it gets to 20db.

Anyway, I'd appreciate some feedback to guage if it is just me or if there has been a performance drop from other users.

As a test, what speed's do you get on average for downloading say the first 10Mb of the following urls,
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.0-test4.tar.bz2
ftp://mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.0-test4.tar.bz2

Cheers,
Slaine

maxheadroom · 09-09-2003 11:26am

are you on the old segment in Tallaght or the new segment in lucan?

NTL don't peer in INEX, so you are always better off choosing a UK mirror as the route to you is actually shorter.

slaine · 09-09-2003 11:38am

I'm in the the tallaght network. I was assigned to the broomhill server and got reassigned to the tallaght1 server last night to see if it made a difference. It didn't.

Are you on the NTL system ? If so could you try a test of those downloads for me.

I know there are less hops to the uk as all the traffic from ireland goes to manchester and down to london and back again when accessing an irish site. It takes about 16 hops iirc. But as I said, that never affected my throughput before so something has changed.

mrblack · 09-09-2003 1:09pm

Hello ,

I am on the lucan2 node and got connected a few weeks ago. I would agree with Slaine that the performance with NTL cable has dropped sharply over the w/e. Yesterday Monday I could not connect at all throughout the whole day. I called the fault reporting line 3 times yesterday, I was on hold for so long that I hung up each time. Finally last night when I called the sales line instead they told me that they had lots of faults around the city and had stopped answering the fault reporting line earl in the day. Today I am connecting but at a slower speed than normal. The emails came in not much faster than dial up. BTW the eircom mail always comes in much faster than my NTLWorld mail.
Those d/l tests are at 16KB/s and 25KB/s

slaine · 09-09-2003 1:21pm

Yes, there was a JCB incident in North Dublin at some point yesterday, but apparently it didn't affect the the cable modem network. And I saw this drop in performance on Saturday.

The 1800924424 number was appauling yesterday. I ended up getting a call back at 21:30. I got the Customer Care manager to get one of the cable modem service people to do a call back as I found it impossible to get through.

I was on the phone for nearly two hours with this last night.

maxheadroom · 09-09-2003 1:43pm

I'll check it out when I get home, but last night I was downloading at ~67kbps when grabbing the mozilla source from ftp.mozilla.org... I remember there was about 10 seconds where it only got 40 somthing kbps...

talla · 09-09-2003 1:44pm

Thats NTL for ya, the best broadband service available in Dublin, but the worst customer service staff, call wait times, billing department etc etc

slaine · 09-09-2003 1:48pm

Interesting.

I just tried to get the 1.4 mozilla from ftp.mozilla.org. Although it started at 30K it's now at 66k. So perhaps I am loosing my mind.

mrblack · 09-09-2003 2:06pm

My d/l speeds are at 60KB/s + right now as well. But why does NTLworld.ie email take so long to connect and D/L compared to eircom.net mail? Anyone know?

gerire · 09-09-2003 2:34pm

the first test ran at 52 dropped to 25 for 1 min and then back up to 55.

Second test took a while to get above 10k but ran then at only 42k for an average speed

Mozilla source is going at full speed

maxheadroom · 09-09-2003 3:39pm

First one started at 65, then dropped to 55, then slowly to 30, and hovered there until I got bored (at about 20Mb)

Second one took quite a while to settle down, spiking to 70 and going as low as 45, but then settled down at ~55.

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/latest/mozilla-source.tar.bz2

is coming down at 69...

slaine · 09-09-2003 3:45pm

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

slaine · 10-09-2003 2:33pm

As a follow on to this. It definitely is a routing/peering issue. I've been able to download from ftp.esat.net at 69K last night.

Just checked again. Was getting 66K on ftp.esat.net, 20k on heanet.

Serbian · 10-09-2003 6:05pm

I'm getting steady downloads from both. I'm on a 1024 line from Eircom here. 105 and 108kb/s respectively on the sites you posted. I'd say it's pretty certain that there is something wrong with NTL.

Bunny · 10-09-2003 7:35pm

Its impossible to get info or help from ntl, we are currently using their modem service, but I want to try and get broadband...

Does anyone know if NTL broadband is available in Bray?

maxheadroom · 10-09-2003 10:25pm

Originally posted by Bunny
Does anyone know if NTL broadband is available in Bray?

From http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_faqs%20euro.html#13
Where and when will ntl's Always-On Broadband Internet service be available?

The rollout plan of our broadband internet service is currently only available in certain parts of West Dublin in and around the Dublin 24, 22, 16, 12, 6, 6W and Lucan areas. You will need to live in an area where ntl have built a cable network and offer its cable services. In order to get more information on our roll out plan and get an indicative date of when the service will be available in your area, please call 1800 923 005.

I really wish people would do a quick check on the ntl site before asking that question :rolleyes:

Bunny · 11-09-2003 12:37am

we have NTL cable, its a yes or no answer I need

MrPinK · 11-09-2003 12:44am

no. Until you see them digging up the roads outside your house you won't be able to get it.

maxheadroom · 11-09-2003 9:53am

Originally posted by Bunny
we have NTL cable, its a yes or no answer I need

Originally posted by maxheadroom

our broadband internet service is currently only available in certain parts of West Dublin in and around the Dublin 24, 22, 16, 12, 6, 6W and Lucan areas.

Is Bray on that list? Theres your answer.

milltown · 11-09-2003 11:42pm

You might also consider calling the number he was kind enough to provide for you. :rolleyes:

Bunny · 12-09-2003 12:20am

called the number several times, cuts off everytime when someone answers after 5 mins of hold. Can I get NTL broadband in Bray, the answer is no. I just checked my line on the net to see if I could get eircom adsl, it says yes, but can I trust that?

mrblack · 14-09-2003 9:19pm

Since Tuesday last the service from NTL has been much improved. I have been online a lot as I was off work for the past week and I cannot fault in any way the service since then. 'It does what it says on the tin' Shame it was so bad last w/e and last Monday.

NTL Cable perfomance drop

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