Got a call from ntl

paulm17781

Last time they upgraded my connection went awful for a few weeks, Returned to normal not long later. Been solid since. Hopefully this is all that this is.

PixelTrawler

Drapper wrote:

put the graph up of the pings as an image please !

will do, Im at work at the moment but when I get home this evening ill do it

bk

These type of problems occured this time last year when NTL upgraded from 1.5m to 3m. The problems happened for a few weeks before and after the upgrade and then after the upgrade they settled down and are rock solid since then.

I'd imagine that the engineers are reconfiguring the routers in preparation for the upgrade, give it a few weeks and see how it goes.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

TempestSabre wrote:

Grammar nazi replace ASDL and DSL for Broadband. So I forgot Cable, big deal. :rolleyes: Obviously we've been imagining the problems in our area and all those support calls and engineer visits were a complete figment of our imagination. High pings, high latency and being unable to connect for a a hour or more are signs of high contention. Thanks for correcting me in that. Those upgrades to the infrastructure that did improve things must have just been coincidence.:rolleyes:

Not necessarily high contention, as the NTL service is 'obviousally' sent over coax(and fiber I know), if the signal is relativly weak due to attenuiation, you can have problems with the BB package, this can also effect your digital tv signal, though it has a lower threshold.

On the ping issue, i was getting terrible d/l last night, though I was setting up a new wireless network and thought it was just me.
Running ping plotter at the moment and after 160 traces the average round trip is 14, with a current trace of 12, and my d/l speeds are normal, about 1.94meg on the 2meg package.

meglome

Just got the 3mb NTL in today already had cable so now I can get rid of the home telephone the the old broadband was over. The speed is great but some crazy routing to get to local addresses.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

Here is the graph from ping plotter, I am on NTL 2Meg in Tallaght




This is my D/L at the same time as the graph was taken

PixelTrawler

Drapper wrote:

put the graph up of the pings as an image please !

here you go

http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/9518/pingplotter5gq.gif
its a fairly typical example of what im getting

DemonOfTheFall

joebloggs, you can't complain about getting crap pings to www.heanet.ie.

Web servers generally just have crap pings. I get a constant 105ms ping to www.heanet.ie . I'm getting a solid 25ms to boards.ie though. Same to clarity.jolt.co.uk (a games server).

In fact I don't think I've ever gotten a good ping to www.heanet.ie.

If you want something more reliable to ping use clarity.jolt.co.uk or NTL's DNS or eircom's DNS or something.

DemonOfTheFall

FuzzyWuzzyWazza wrote:

Not necessarily high contention, as the NTL service is 'obviousally' sent over coax(and fiber I know), if the signal is relativly weak due to attenuiation, you can have problems with the BB package, this can also effect your digital tv signal, though it has a lower threshold.

On the ping issue, i was getting terrible d/l last night, though I was setting up a new wireless network and thought it was just me.
Running ping plotter at the moment and after 160 traces the average round trip is 14, with a current trace of 12, and my d/l speeds are normal, about 1.94meg on the 2meg package.

Cable does suffer from contention.

The data to every user goes down the same coax. Each modem just gets its own "slot" of time every couple of milliseconds. So if lots of users are on at the same time all the slots will start to fill and contention will come into play.

Kenny_D

Just got a call from ntl (Clondalkin Village, Castle Park) about the broadband. Cyberghost what package did you go for? I'm with Esat 3mb line at the moment but I'm thinkin of going for the 2mb line.

About these supposed upgrades to 10m. How soon are we talking? Will prices stay the same? Will people get free upgrades? In otherwords, would it be better I order now at current price of €30pm (2mb) and wait for the increase. Or would it be better to wait and then sign up once the increases have been made?

They say the first 3 months is free and upgrading/downgrading is free after 3 months. Minimum contract is 6 months. This sounds fantastic for me if someone can confirm you can do this: Sign up for the 3mb package where first 3 months are free, then just drop to the 2mb package once the 3 free months are up. Then just pay €30pm for the remaining 3 months of the contract

So with NTL it would be €90 for 6 months broadband
Currently with Esat (3mb) 6 months broadband = €240

Is the logic right there or am I missing something? Seems like the smart thing to do is just switch to ntl for now anyway and save a few quid. There's no connection fee, free modem etc and a 17:1 compared to 24:1 on esat (I think)

PixelTrawler

Demon, heanet is just an example ( tried all the sites you mention... u on NTL? )

its the same no matter what web or game server i connect to... fluctuating pings with spikes that make games such as BF2 unplayable. And its the same day or night. (i realise a simple ping test is not a proper test for all manner of reasons however its just to demonstrate the consistent problem)

This is in stark contrast to my eircom DSL connection where i always had really solid pings....

In comparison to that connection, this NTL connection is woeful

Drapper

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

Demon, heanet is just an example ( tried all the sites you mention... u on NTL? )

its the same no matter what web or game server i connect to... fluctuating pings with spikes that make games such as BF2 unplayable. And its the same day or night. (i realise a simple ping test is not a proper test for all manner of reasons however its just to demonstrate the consistent problem)

This is in stark contrast to my eircom DSL connection where i always had really solid pings....

In comparison to that connection, this NTL connection is woeful

that ping plotter only shows one hop! put a full trace up mate!

PixelTrawler

weird thing with pingplotter on my connection...

i only get a reading if i set it final hop only
if i set it to show all, it shows just one hop with a reading of 1ms which is weird ( no matter what server ).

Tried all the options, cant change the behaviour.

EDIT: turned out to be the linksys router blocking it i can run plots now

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/2259/heanetplot9hu.gif

bk

GStormcrow wrote:

About these supposed upgrades to 10m. How soon are we talking? Will prices stay the same? Will people get free upgrades? In otherwords, would it be better I order now at current price of €30pm (2mb) and wait for the increase. Or would it be better to wait and then sign up once the increases have been made?

No one knows for fact, but the upgrades are supposed to happen at the end of this month, start of next month.

Last time NTL upgraded, everyone was upgraded for free and the price stayed the same, I guess the same will happen again. On the other hand they might change their pricing structure, who knows?

GStormcrow wrote:

They say the first 3 months is free and upgrading/downgrading is free after 3 months. Minimum contract is 6 months. This sounds fantastic for me if someone can confirm you can do this: Sign up for the 3mb package where first 3 months are free, then just drop to the 2mb package once the 3 free months are up. Then just pay €30pm for the remaining 3 months of the contract

So with NTL it would be €90 for 6 months broadband
Currently with Esat (3mb) 6 months broadband = €240

Yes, it is normal to take 3m for the first three months and to downgrade for free after that. The only catch is that you probably won't want to downgrade, NTL are like drug deals, they give you the good stuff for free so that you get hooked

DemonOfTheFall

Heres what mine looks like.

http://homepage.ntlworld.ie/demonofthefall/heanetplot.png

It is fairly spikey. Doesn't feel bad to play at all though, oddly.

I hope NTL's irish network doesn't go belly up when 10 meg comes in...

PixelTrawler

Thanks Demon

similar to mine, although the spikes are worse earlier in the evening... i actually got a few games of BF2 in last night but it wasnt fully playable till after 11.30 ( it was actually fairly perfect for the first time )
must keep an i eye on this

maybe im just in a busy estate... i noticed on sunday morning it felt ok and on sunday evening it was back to lag

I think im just going to see how this upgrade pans out ( if it happens )... although i imagine theyll do something seeing as their top package is now more or less the same as Smarts entry one

TempestSabre

I'm near Drapper and we had loads of problems with this for ages. Especially last year. I haven't done a check in a while but mine been ok for a while now. Though I haven't done any online gaming with mine. I was having a problem with VOIP but I've switched form 1M to 2M and thats sorted it. I think in our area last year the problem was contention but NTL always denied it until they fixed it. But at least they fixed it. Drapper yours still ok?

Drapper

TempestSabre wrote:

I'm near Drapper and we had loads of problems with this for ages. Especially last year. I haven't done a check in a while but mine been ok for a while now. Though I haven't done any online gaming with mine. I was having a problem with VOIP but I've switched form 1M to 2M and thats sorted it. I think in our area last year the problem was contention but NTL always denied it until they fixed it. But at least they fixed it. Drapper yours still ok?

mine is pefect lads since Sept last ! thank god! btw T Sabre Magnet is available in our area!

GBX

How do I go about checking the speed im getting from NTL? ive no idea .. its connected .. thats all I know... any program/download I can get/should have?

Roen

Try this lad for size. http://www.irishisptest.com/myspeed/

PixelTrawler

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

I play CS with 100/100 rates and still ping 45-50 to all the english servers.

Just tried CS, dont normally play it but its very tolerant of latency, seems much less affected then BF2

Downloading day of defeat: source now to give it a try... hopefully its like CS

EDIT: Day of Defeat plays well. Seems steam is pretty immune to a bit of latency

Dodge

SouperComputer wrote:

feck, im in clondalkin (behind green isle) but broadband is not available here. Ar$ebiscuits. Really wanted to scrap €ircon.

I'm in Clondalkin and have had NTL BB since last may...

Should say I've no problems and never have had...

Freddie59

Drapper wrote:

T Sabre Magnet is available in our area!

What advantage would that be over a 10 Meg NTL? Isn't the TV service only 30 TV and Radio channels (combined)?

dlofnep

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched Mr. Freddie.

Drapper

Freddie59 wrote:

What advantage would that be over a 10 Meg NTL? Isn't the TV service only 30 TV and Radio channels (combined)?

Magnet is guaranteed 8mb, NTL is not confirmed ! and they way is been peed around on BOards, don't think this will happen !!

bk

Drapper wrote:

Magnet is guaranteed 8mb, NTL is not confirmed ! and they way is been peed around on BOards, don't think this will happen !!

That isn't true, unlike NTL, Magnet share the bandwidth with the TV service. One TV stream will use about 4Mbit/s, so this is going to eat into your bandwidth if you are also getting the TV service from them.

Drapper

bk whats the update on the NTL upgrade? you of all people must know ???

bk

Drapper wrote:

bk whats the update on the NTL upgrade? you of all people must know ???

Well the rumours always said the end of February or the start of March, with lines up with last years upgrades.

I don't know any more then that. However I would say that there are definitely upgrades coming. NTL are currently replacing all the old DOCSIS 1 modems that are capable of up to 5Mbit/s with the newer DOCSIS 2 modems which are capable of much faster speeds.

They wouldn't go to all this expense unless they plan on introducing products faster then 5Mbit/s.

Plus they do have to keep ahead of Magnet and Smart.

Drapper

bk wrote:

Well the rumours always said the end of February or the start of March, with lines up with last years upgrades.

I don't know any more then that. However I would say that there are definitely upgrades coming. NTL are currently replacing all the old DOCSIS 1 modems that are capable of up to 5Mbit/s with the newer DOCSIS 2 modems which are capable of much faster speeds.

They wouldn't go to all this expense unless they plan on introducing products faster then 5Mbit/s.

Plus they do have to keep ahead of Magnet and Smart.

thanks BK the best response to this on BOards !

CyberGhost

Drapper wrote:

thanks BK the best response to this on BOards !

yea, he always has pretty smart great replies