Slow UPC speeds

dmohalloran

Hi
I have two questions. First, I have 10Mb broadband with UPC in Dublin 12 area, since I have had it, the most I have got is 7Mb (that was wired speed) wireless was at most 5Mb. I was originally on the 3Mb package but was then upgraded, the same cable modem is in use (standard american scientific UPC modem), and I have my own wireless router (Netgear MR814v2)
My first question is, would the hardware I have in use be the cuase of the slow speeds. Not sure of the spec of the UPC supplied cable modem, but the wireless router is 802.11b capable, would this have a huge impact on the wireless speeds achievable.
My second question is how close do most people get to the sign up speed. Even on the wired connection, laptop straight to the modem, the most ever achieved in 7Mb. Most time even on wired the speed is closer to 5Mb

Thanks

Snake Plisken

yeah they speeds are crap compared to what you pay for, for example I'm paying for 20meg but right now I'm only getting 3meg, checked even their own speedtest which is the only one the customer support people will believe when you ring them, so think I'm going to cut down to the 10meg package as I've very rarely got the Broadband Max 20meg they advertise

Lenny

yea speeds are quite pants for me right now too... 4 megs..

suprasonic

Ye think about trying different laptops and then ringing and getting it checked?

Snake Plisken

Well rang them last night only got first level support, but at least I got a decent girl, and I told I was using their speed test and only getting 3megs, this was at 8.30 last night, she agreed that it was way to slow, so I'm now waiting for their tech's to give me a call, now strang thing last night and the night before between 1.30am-2.00am my speed was back up to near 18meg, so I wonder if they have to many subscribers in the area which is killing my speeds during peak times? If so whats the point in paying the top premium when you get less then a quarter of what your paying for?

Freddie59

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Well rang them last night only got first level support, but at least I got a decent girl, and I told I was using their speed test and only getting 3megs, this was at 8.30 last night, she agreed that it was way to slow, so I'm now waiting for their tech's to give me a call, now strang thing last night and the night before between 1.30am-2.00am my speed was back up to near 18meg, so I wonder if they have to many subscribers in the area which is killing my speeds during peak times? If so whats the point in paying the top premium when you get less then a quarter of what your paying for?

Don't use Irish servers when testing. Have a look at the last poster in this thread:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055595902&page=2

Snake Plisken

Freddie59 wrote: »

Don't use Irish servers when testing. Have a look at the last poster in this thread:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055595902&page=2

Well Actually Magnet's speedtest is most accurate, but UPC only will only believe the speedtests from
http://www.upc.nl/internet/snel_internet/speedtest/

Had a call back from 2nd level and they recognise that there is an issue, she was going to pass it on to her supervisor and expect a call back hopefully tomorrow.

DrivingInfo

I have a 20mg connection!!!!!!
This is what i have for the last week, i have got on to them but noting yet :mad:



This is 20mg connection

Snake Plisken

DrivingInfo wrote: »

I have a 20mg connection!!!!!!
This is what i have for the last week, i have got on to them but noting yet :mad:



This is 20mg connection

Do us a favour and check it after midnight tonight see if your getting anything better speedwise, btw where are u based? If in Dublin where in Dublin, my theory is that they have to many subscribers which is causing slow down during peak hours, no point having the top package if we aren't getting near what we are paying for, I'd also make sure you tell them that until you get speeds nearing what you are paying for you want discount off your next bill!

DrivingInfo

I'm in Newbridge, kildare, about 25,000 pop not the 1 mil in Dublin so you would think that it would be possible to get at least half of what I'm paying for.



Here's my 20:30 reading

hightower1

DrivingInfo wrote: »

I have a 20mg connection!!!!!!
This is what i have for the last week, i have got on to them but noting yet :mad:



This is 20mg connection

Before we all go into conspiracy mode have you done any self testing?

-remove any router whether being used via wifi or switch?
-Rebooted their modem?
-Cleaned up the comp?
-Tried a different comp?

Not that there may not be an issue but I am pretty sure any tech desk would ask you to do all that anyway? For the sake of a few mins work could save a good lump of time on a phone right?

DrivingInfo

hightower1 wrote: »

Before we all go into conspiracy mode have you done any self testing?

-remove any router whether being used via wifi or switch?
-Rebooted their modem?
-Cleaned up the comp?
-Tried a different comp?

Not that there may not be an issue but I am pretty sure any tech desk would ask you to do all that anyway? For the sake of a few mins work could save a good lump of time on a phone right?

Done it all as i was on to them,


They are very helpful and the lads on the phone could not do more, but look at the last reading i got, that is taking the pis. it is meant to be 20meg.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

hightower1

DrivingInfo wrote: »

Done it all as i was on to them,


They are very helpful and the lads on the phone could not do more, but look at the last reading i got, that is taking the pis. it is meant to be 20meg.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Did they give you any help or idea what the problem could be? I agree the speed is a disaster there but was there any network work listed for the area? Any signal issues from your modem or line?

DrivingInfo

NO not a thing, they looked. the lad i was talking to said he will get his team leader to look into it, I feel sorry for him because what can he do.

But then again! what can i do?????

FloatingVoter

I'm on 20 Mbs package in Dublin 8. Now I'm getting 3-4 Mbs. Its been erratic since Thursday. I wonder if the electricians strike had anything to do with this mess. A statement from NTL/UPC would be nice.

Snake Plisken

DrivingInfo wrote: »

NO not a thing, they looked. the lad i was talking to said he will get his team leader to look into it, I feel sorry for him because what can he do.


But then again! what can i do?????

They said the same to me i.e. I'll pass it onto my Team Leader, I know two other people in Lucan who are currently on the 20meg packages getting poor speeds, if this is widespread, I'd advise everyone to get onto UPC about it, as for a statement from UPC, you'll never get that, as a lot of people would be looking for a credit against their next bill for poor service, it happened to be a couple of weeks back took about 3 weeks to sort it out I got the bill and it was for the full service, straight on the phone and told them I was getting less then 10 meg, crappy way they worked out the discount and got 10 euros discount!

DrivingInfo

Just done a test at 11:00 and this is my speed now!



Maybe I should ring them and tell about the unhappy comments on this website. I can tell you they will get their finger then.

I think every one who reads this should show their speed test results from all over the country and then UPC can use it as market research, (maybe they would see black spots of bad service) because they seem to be very good and helpful and maybe they will like to have the information as companies usually pay for that....;);)

vibe666

posting here is highly unlikely to make any difference. what will make a difference is people calling up and complaining of slow speeds, if enough people complain that is.

it's not always easy for an ISP to know exactly where there are problems if people don't complain about it and even if they do see a potential problem somewehre, if nobody is complaining then they probably won't do anything until they can see significant user impact so the best way to get something done is to make sure they know there is a problem so they can act on it.

they also need to be sure it IS actually a problem on their end and not just a mis-configured router or dodgy cable at the customer end, which is why you have all the troubleshooting from 1st level when you call up as the vast majority of the time it IS something at the customer side.

DrivingInfo

Did all the checks with them on the phone and as i said "because they seem to be very good and helpful" I think you should charge for a service when the customer gets what they pay for and not because you say they will get 20meg when the only time i got it was when it was installed first which was 30th of last month which was 2 week ago???????

I know they all say UP TO 20meg but I have speed test results of



And that is taking the piss:(

Rebel021

Well thats the catch with all bb providers "up to" with no provisions.

vibe666

upc are usually pretty good if their service isn't up to scratch. it's a pain to have to jump through all the hoops, but if you stick with it they should sort you out.

FloatingVoter

I was at 18.5 Mbs at 10 AM today. Now this...



On previous days experience, I'll be down to 2 Mbs by 5. I'm on the so called 20 Mbs package. Have been happily for 3 months until last Thursday.

DrivingInfo

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I was at 18.5 Mbs at 10 AM today. Now this...



On previous days experience, I'll be down to 2 Mbs by 5. I'm on the so called 20 Mbs package. Have been happily for 3 months until last Thursday.

Where are you in our little Island? Im in kildare.

DingDong

Contention will always be a problem, but it not like upc sit on there hands and do nothing about it. Its an on going battle. Some contention issues can be fixed fast usually an adjustment in the headend, Others may require physical work such as a new node to segment the area to a smaller size . Its the problems that require physical work, that take a bit more time. Its not like the upc network has falling flat on its face, take a look at my speedtest result from a few minutes ago. The best way to check your speed is connect directly to the modem (no router) and download something off heanet, like http://ftp.heanet.ie/disk1/backtrack/bt4-beta.iso and check the transfer rate.

Snake Plisken

don't bother telling them about speedtest results either as it's only their own speedtest (http://www.upc.nl/internet/snel_internet/speedtest/ ) they are interested in, if you get to second level support some of them will use Magnet's as well which is http://speedtest.magnet.ie/

I think Dingdong is right in that it's contention issues in our area's as if a lot of us in off-peak times get close to the 20meg then sounds like to many users on the local node, be that lucan kildare, tallaght. But if they do a big marketing drive like the add i'm looking at on this thread then they should build in extra capacity before hand so they can cope with new subscribers.

FloatingVoter

I'm in Dublin 8 and still slowing down... I've checked on two laptops and been round the houses with upc on the phone. I even wasted €15 on a premium rate phone line that upc referred me to. To no avail. A snotty letter threatening to cancel my direct debit is next.:(

DingDong

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I'm in Dublin 8 and still slowing down... I've checked on two laptops and been round the houses with upc on the phone. I even wasted €15 on a premium rate phone line that upc referred me to. To no avail. A snotty letter threatening to cancel my direct debit is next.:(

Have you connected to the modem directly with an ethernet cable?. If you have speed problem only at peak time it would indicate a contection issue. If your having speed problems all the time it could be something else, such as a noise issue at your local node.

FloatingVoter

According to upc, not a contention issue- as theres a low number of users on my line..."you should be getting top speeds". It was slow at midnight Thursday/Friday, fast Friday day then slow Friday night. Fast Saturday until about midday. Its a mystery.:)

FloatingVoter

Down to 2 Mbs last night. 19 Mbs this morning and now slowing to 5 ... and upc lines are swamped with calls. Oh well.

j4vier

in dublin 8 as well

should be on 10 mb but goin at about 4

FloatingVoter

11.15 pm and gloriously crawling along at 3.11 Mbs.

So much for 20 Mbs broadband. They still won't admit its their problem.