Contention finally an issue?

Richard Dower

Does anyone suspect that the take up of BB has finally started to effect people and there download speeds?

Seems over the last 3-4 months the BB service has gotten worse and worse, especially at certain times of the day. It seems that downloading files is ok, as in i get the normal 300-325KB download speed...but normal browsing and webpages take forever, streaming is horrid.

Add to that, how do we know Eircom is not lying about the number of people connected at exchange level?

We're supposed to be on a 48/1 or 24/1 contention ratio...but how do we know this is true?, is there anyway to verify this?

For all we know Eircom could have hundreads of people connected to a single line, i mean...the service just gets worse and worse?, and we cannot avail of an alternate service.

dub45

Richard Dower wrote:

Does anyone suspect that the take up of BB has finally started to effect people and there download speeds?

Seems over the last 3-4 months the BB service has gotten worse and worse, especially at certain times of the day. It seems that downloading files is ok, as in i get the normal 300-325KB download speed...but normal browsing and webpages take forever, streaming is horrid.

Add to that, how do we know Eircom is not lying about the number of people connected at exchange level?

We're supposed to be on a 48/1 or 24/1 contention ratio...but how do we know this is true?, is there anyway to verify this?

For all we know Eircom could have hundreads of people connected to a single line, i mean...the service just gets worse and worse?, and we cannot avail of an alternate service.

If you are getting normal download speeds would that not suggest that some of your issues lie elsewhere? for instance visiting a website takes you into 'contention' presumably with the rest of the internet?

And apart from sporadic complaints on here where is the evidence that the service gets 'worse and worse'? If it was as bad as you claim surely boards would be flooded out with complaints particularly as Eircom is the biggest isp?

lucernarian

dub45, contention problems do not have to involve every eircom user. Problems can be limited to a few exchanges, and some people may use the internet when contention is not a problem. Also, whatever about sporadic complaints, I have seen more reports of evening slowdowns in the last year than in the previous year. There is only one definite case of contention or a problem with exchange capacity and that was affecting the poster Dcully in Monasterevan I think. I think there was also a problem with capacity in the Tyrrelstown exchange in the last year or so.

Personally, I've witnessed a slowdown in the evenings with Digiweb FWA in my own area, which has no locally advertised or contactable alternative. This has lasted since Christmas and at midnight or thereabouts, the speed improves fairly quickly back up to normal. Mabye the consistent timing hints something else, but the way that it starts at 4 or 5 pm is suspect.

dub45

To_be_confirmed wrote:

dub45, contention problems do not have to involve every eircom user. Problems can be limited to a few exchanges, and some people may use the internet when contention is not a problem. Also, whatever about sporadic complaints, I have seen more reports of evening slowdowns in the last year than in the previous year. There is only one definite case of contention or a problem with exchange capacity and that was affecting the poster Dcully in Monasterevan I think. I think there was also a problem with capacity in the Tyrrelstown exchange in the last year or so.

Personally, I've witnessed a slowdown in the evenings with Digiweb FWA in my own area, which has no locally advertised or contactable alternative. This has lasted since Christmas and at midnight or thereabouts, the speed improves fairly quickly back up to normal. Mabye the consistent timing hints something else, but the way that it starts at 4 or 5 pm is suspect.

I am not saying there are not issues but dsl is a contended product so it is unrealistic not to expect slow speeds etc etc.

The original poster claimed that the service just gets worse and worse - my point is that there is no evidence of that claim particularly as the person complaining has no problems with his download speeds.

The 'sad' thing is in relation to dsl is that speeds could be an awful lot worse than they consistently are and the isps would still be providing the service that people sign up for.

The reason people experience problems in the evenings is presumably because thats the busiest period for users.

According to Eircom iirc they have been adding up to 4000 new users a week lately so that combined with other isps new sign ups must put pressure on from time time with the lag for extra bandwidth to be provided.

meepins

My connection has been dreadful around this hour for a few days. Not liking it...

homah_7ft

Yes contention is finally catching up to us. I've noticed my download speeds drop once school has finished since we hit 2007.