UPC: "Faster Speeds coming, Summer 2008"

christophicus · 16-04-2008 12:48pm

My brother has a DS and I have played Mario Kart online with it and had no problems ( except for the insane amount of time it takes to find other players, but I think thats a nintendo problem no NTL ) .

Zascar · 16-04-2008 6:23pm

I just got my upgrade:

[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net][/img]

Massive upgrade in upload speeds, but no change in Downloads, so far...

paulm17781 · 16-04-2008 6:27pm

Zascar wrote: »

I just got my upgrade:

Did you ask or did you just get it? Did you have to sign / fill in the new contract?

Zascar · 16-04-2008 6:29pm

No I just got it. No new contract as far as I know

Sorry this did not appear in the last post:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/260172458.png

GerardKeating · 16-04-2008 6:30pm

Zascar wrote: »

I just got my upgrade:

[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net][/img]

Massive upgrade in upload speeds, but no change in Downloads, so far...

No upgrade here in Galway yet

christophicus · 16-04-2008 7:38pm

My downspeed is real slow today !!

Also just checked it would appear people are not having trouble with NTL and DS games its just Wii games so my answer does not really help you I am sorry to say.

Snake Plisken · 16-04-2008 11:23pm

ok so can we start to clarify what NTL modems can handle the 12meg upgrades and which ones can't and will have to be replaced?

My one is a Blue NTL250, no manufacturer on it, can this one handle the speed upgrade, I hope so otherwise I'll have to arrange for there guys to come around and the only day I'm available is on a saturday, which could mean a long wait

Edit I've found the spec for my modem here http://www.ambitbroadband.co.uk/DataSheets/ntl250%20Data%20Cable%20Modem.pdf states that the maximum data rate is 30Mbits per second(64QAM) so I take it no modem upgrade is needed

christophicus · 17-04-2008 12:23am

No, your modem is the one I used to have, one of the newer ones , it should be ok. The only reason I got a new one is cause we got NTL VOIP.

WizZard · 17-04-2008 12:44am

Not sure if this is the right thread, but do NTL not use the built-in modem in the new PVR boxes? Or are they forcing separate modems on people?

paulm17781 · 17-04-2008 9:28am

WizZard wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right thread, but do NTL not use the built-in modem in the new PVR boxes? Or are they forcing separate modems on people?

Forcing separate on people. I'd prefer to use the one in the DVR but then UPC would be doing something customers like.

christophicus · 17-04-2008 9:39am

I would have thought that most people would prefer not to have the modem in their living room??? Don't people usually try and keep their PC's outside of their living room?

Zascar · 17-04-2008 11:23am

Snake Plisken wrote: »

ok so can we start to clarify what NTL modems can handle the 12meg upgrades and which ones can't and will have to be replaced?

At the moment I'm using my old modem - looks something like this: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/ntl250a.jpg - can't remember exact model name. However they did give me one of the Scientific Atlanta ones, but I never managed to get it to work. Perhaps that is why I've been upgraded yet my download speeds have no increased. I assume if I call tech support and spend 3 hours on hold waiting for tech support eventually someone will help me provision it and get it working. I'll try tonight and post back.

stanley1 · 17-04-2008 11:56am

It's an Ambit 250, uses a Broadcom chip, very highly regarded, I would stick with this unless you needed voip service.

thebman · 17-04-2008 12:27pm

christophicus wrote: »

My downspeed is real slow today !!

Also just checked it would appear people are not having trouble with NTL and DS games its just Wii games so my answer does not really help you I am sorry to say.

Fair enough, thanks for getting back.

Can't you just time how long the automated message takes to go by and browse the web and drink a cup of tea or two while you wait.

paulm17781 · 17-04-2008 1:52pm

christophicus wrote: »

I would have thought that most people would prefer not to have the modem in their living room??? Don't people usually try and keep their PC's outside of their living room?

Good point. I have mine in my living room anyway. I'd like the choice, mainly to free up a plug socket.

Spagfish · 18-04-2008 3:07pm

brim4brim wrote: »

Also if someone with Xbox Live can post if they are having any issues with it, I'd appreciate it because I mostly just play games online with my connection. Defeats the point of moving if I can't do this on NTL.

I use my connection mostly for xbox live too. The 12 Meg was installed on Tuesday and I had terrible lag problems on xbox live (both Gears of War and Halo 3 were totally unplayable, even though I had open NAT.) There definitely was no problem with xbox live because I tested it with my Eircom broadband connection. I rang support and they said my connection was perfect so there shouldn't be a problem - they couldn't help me and suggested I ring the premium support number. There's no way that's going to happen!
I'm not familiar with the new router they gave me (Netgear WGR614) but I noticed that wireless mode was set to b and g so I changed it to g only. I only made that change yesterday evening and didn't have any lag problems last night (I was hosting 8 on Gears lag free - on Tuesday I couldn't even host 3). I'll get to test it out properly over the weekend. Hopefully the problem was just the router, I really don't want to have to go back to my 3meg Eircom!

My download speeds have remained pretty constant at 11.5 down and 0.95 up.

RangeR · 18-04-2008 3:26pm

Spagfish wrote: »

I use my connection mostly for xbox live too. The 12 Meg was installed on Tuesday and I had terrible lag problems on xbox live (both Gears of War and Halo 3 were totally unplayable, even though I had open NAT.) There definitely was no problem with xbox live because I tested it with my Eircom broadband connection. I rang support and they said my connection was perfect so there shouldn't be a problem - they couldn't help me and suggested I ring the premium support number. There's no way that's going to happen!
I'm not familiar with the new router they gave me (Netgear WGR614) but I noticed that wireless mode was set to b and g so I changed it to g only. I only made that change yesterday evening and didn't have any lag problems last night (I was hosting 8 on Gears lag free - on Tuesday I couldn't even host 3). I'll get to test it out properly over the weekend. Hopefully the problem was just the router, I really don't want to have to go back to my 3meg Eircom!

My download speeds have remained pretty constant at 11.5 down and 0.95 up.

That is UPC's standard response. Their network is NEVER to blame. Here's one for you. Run this on your pc

Open a command prompt : Start -> Run : Then type CMD and press enter.
In the black command prompt window, type

ping www.heanet.ie -n 100

This will run for a few minutes and will put a LOT of text on screen. I'm only interested in seeing the last 3 or 4 lines. Something like

Ping statistics for 193.1.219.79:
    Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 23ms, Maximum = 55ms, Average = 39ms

This will tell you, roughly, what the packet loss is on your connection. Even at full speed, your internet will appear to crawl if packet loss is more than 4% or 5%.

Before pedants start going on about the -t parameter, I didn't think it worth mentioning as it needed more instructions

Spagfish · 18-04-2008 3:34pm

Ping statistics for 193.1.219.79:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 43ms, Maximum = 267ms, Average = 50ms

There were 4 long responses out of the 100: 129ms, 137ms, 198ms, 267ms. Most were 44
Do things look good or bad? Any other test I can run on it?

RangeR · 18-04-2008 3:47pm

Spagfish wrote: »

Ping statistics for 193.1.219.79:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 43ms, Maximum = 267ms, Average = 50ms

There were 4 long responses out of the 100: 129ms, 137ms, 198ms, 267ms. Most were 44
Do things look good or bad? Any other test I can run on it?

It actually looks pretty good, for UPC [yes I had to get that dig in there

]

Latency is a tad on the high side. You are seeing a minimum of 43ms. On an Irish ISP pinging heanet.ie, I would expect to see at least half that time. But it's not bad.

As you said, you are seeing the odd spike in the hundreds of milliseconds. This in itself is not indicative of a UPC problem. Are you currently downloading or uploading anything at the moment? or using XBL, or any other internet related things?

It's best to run these ping tests while not using the internet at all.

Maybe run this test a few times over the next few days. Maybe once in the morning, once in afternoon and once in evening for 2 or 3 days. It will give you a better idea of your overall connection stability.

Moriarty · 18-04-2008 3:47pm

In fairness, UPC don't peer with HEANet at INEX so you'll get increased latency to it coming from UPC connections as it routes through London and Vienna.

Ping statistics for 208.69.34.132:
    Packets: Sent = 200, Received = 200, Lost = 0 (0&#37; loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 67ms, Average = 29ms

On the other hand, from a box in Digiweb to my UPC connection in Dublin 1.. (and taking into account that digiweb and upc do peer at INEX)

--- my.upc.connection.upc.com ping statistics ---
200 packets transmitted, 200 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 6.647/16.787/58.579/10.015 ms

Not too bad imo.

thebman · 18-04-2008 3:47pm

Those are pretty good response times. Someone else was saying they throttle torrents.

Is it likely the way they do this is causing the problem?

RangeR · 18-04-2008 3:48pm

Moriarty wrote: »
In fairness, UPC don't pear with HEANet at INEX so you'll get increased latency to it coming from UPC connections as it routes through London and Vienna.
Ping statistics for 208.69.34.132:
    Packets: Sent = 200, Received = 200, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 67ms, Average = 29ms
On the other hand, from a box in Digiweb to my UPC connection in Dublin 1.. (and taking into account that digiweb and upc do pear at INEX)
--- my.upc.connection.upc.com ping statistics ---
200 packets transmitted, 200 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 6.647/16.787/58.579/10.015 ms
Not too bad imo.

Fair point. But hoo haa to those times

Spagfish · 18-04-2008 3:57pm

IrishTLR wrote: »

Are you currently downloading or uploading anything at the moment? or using XBL, or any other internet related things?

It's best to run these ping tests while not using the internet at all.

Maybe run this test a few times over the next few days. Maybe once in the morning, once in afternoon and once in evening for 2 or 3 days. It will give you a better idea of your overall connection stability.

Nope, only one computer was connected and i wasn't using it for anything else. I've ran the test a few times now and they all get 200ms spikes.

RangeR · 18-04-2008 4:01pm

Spagfish wrote: »

Nope, only one computer was connected and i wasn't using it for anything else. I've ran the test a few times now and they all get 200ms spikes.

Wireless or wired connection from pc to router? I've seen semi regular spikes like that on a wifi connection.

If wifi, maybe try wired connection.

Edit : If wired connection and that pattern persists, get onto UPC. take screenshots of each test and have them at hand when you are talking to them.

Maybe a better idea is to download multiping or pingplotter. 30 day free trial. Much better to use.
Google is your friend.

AntiVirus · 18-04-2008 4:23pm

Can anyone on the 12MB package try and connect to the servers on this game, its free and good fun.

http://www.trackmania.com/en/

I can connect to the master servers but can't play online with UPC??

Spagfish · 18-04-2008 4:40pm

IrishTLR wrote: »

Wireless or wired connection from pc to router? I've seen semi regular spikes like that on a wifi connection.

If wifi, maybe try wired connection.

The previous test were run from a wireless laptop in the next room to the router (full signal). I ran that test 1000 times and did not get a single spike on a wired connection. Does this mean that the router they gave me is not good? Or just not configured properly? To fix this should I buy a new router? Or get NTL to install another TV port in the room that I'd be using the xbox for a wired connection? I take it that spikes like that would be pretty significant for gaming.

Ping statistics for 193.1.219.79:
Packets: Sent = 1000, Received = 1000, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 42ms, Maximum = 50ms, Average = 43ms

silvine · 18-04-2008 5:27pm

I have the same netgear router. What's the difference between 'b' and 'g' on the mode settings?

RangeR · 18-04-2008 5:32pm

silvine wrote: »

I have the same netgear router. What's the difference between 'b' and 'g' on the mode settings?

b is slower and generally [maybe only] supports WEP [bad wifi encryption]

Use g. It's faster and supports WPA [better] and WPA2 [even better if your router and computer support it.]

RangeR · 18-04-2008 5:33pm

Spagfish wrote: »

The previous test were run from a wireless laptop in the next room to the router (full signal). I ran that test 1000 times and did not get a single spike on a wired connection. Does this mean that the router they gave me is not good? Or just not configured properly? To fix this should I buy a new router? Or get NTL to install another TV port in the room that I'd be using the xbox for a wired connection? I take it that spikes like that would be pretty significant for gaming.

Ping statistics for 193.1.219.79:
Packets: Sent = 1000, Received = 1000, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 42ms, Maximum = 50ms, Average = 43ms

Ok, not a problem with the UPC connection.

To be honest, I'm not an expert at the low level wifi issues. But I have seen those spikes on most wifi connections I've used. It's not noticeable if browsing the web or emails. But OMFG, it ruins online gaming and VoIP to a degree.

I'm not sure if there is anything you can do, other than run a cable from router to computer / XBox. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can give better advice.

thebman · 18-04-2008 5:37pm

I use a linksys WRT54GS for online on Live and Wii and don't have any problems. In fact the 360 goes thorough ICS on my laptops connection and still never kicked or drop my connection except now that my BB is fooked with IBB.

Was playing Mario Kart last night and chating over 360 to someone and kept getting kicked from the chat and loosing connection to Wii WiFi. I've seen 700ms pings now and 3% packet loss which is why I'm looking to change.

UPC: "Faster Speeds coming, Summer 2008"

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