UPC offering 30Mbps broadband and problems with upgrade

IrishTonyO

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Ok so spent the last half hour awaiting to get to talk to tech support apparantly there is a big meeting on monday in UPC with their network people on a fix time to address this issue the girl makes out that its down to noise issue to the local node, she wasn't buying that it was a contention issue and I also advised her a lot of people were having similar issues in the lucan area and across the city, she said they were putting a plan in place on Monday and which would include fix time resolution, and credit to the affected customers and we should all be getting phone calls starting on monday to give us updates, I also mentioned people were keeping track of their speed issues via this forum and she said that UPC "monitor" boards.ie as well

A meeting on Monday to arrange a fix time???? It has been going on now for 2.5 weeks already!! I reckon noise on the line is bullsh**t, how come I can get 14.5 Mbps early mornings?? I still think everyone affected should ring UPC and make sure they get credit for this. Like I have said many times I was very happy with UPC and defended them. But the lack of information regarding this, and lack of calls to update people, and also the fact they have increased their standalone charge without prior notification are making me change my mind rapidly. I will still wait to see the outcome of this, but they have a lot to do to get their standing back as far as I am concerned.

the_law

Tony wrote: »

Receive Power Level
1.5 dBmV

Transmit Power Level
58.0 dBmV

It does not vary and I honestly think this is a smokescreen on UPC's behalf

Receive 6.5 dBmV, xmit 39.4 dBmV here. And I'm at the very last tap of a 300m long trunk cable.

Agree with Tony - it's rubbish, power levels depend on the impedance of the cable not how much it's being used...

However, I would be tempted to fix anything above 55dBmV just for the sake of ruling out poor signal.

I actually do think most of it is down to contention... in my area there are two downstream frequencies being used, each giving 38Mbits usable bandwidth.

For example, with 4 20Mbit users downloading simultaneously, the two 38Mbit channels would support two users each, everyone would get 19Mbits and everyone would be happy. Maybe even a bit less, once you account for 20 other people browsing the web, which really takes very little bandwidth.

However, put those 20Mbit users up to 30Mbit, and you can only keep one user per frequency happy. UPC should have added additional downstream frequencies from every node for this upgrade - in fact, I can't see why they haven't, as they need to provide at least four to support a 120Mbit headline speed product this year.

They haven't provided this in my area, which only has two possible explanations: either they plan to do DOCSIS 3 on completely different frequencies and keep the old frequencies for slower plans, or they are adding new frequencies node by node over the coming weeks and months to see how it goes in different areas.

FWIW, I've just done a speedtest and got 23.47 Mbits. Some simple calculation:

23.47 / 29.3 (see below*) = 0.80 =fraction of speed I'm getting.

38-23.47 = 14.53 = other traffic on my frequency at that time

14.53/0.80 = 18.16 = other traffic on frequency before I did my speedtest

18.16 is pretty close to 19.5 (see below again*)

* UPC's 30 Megabit service is provisioned as a max data rate of 30720000 bps, which is 30000 kbps and dividing again by 1024 is 29.3 megabits. Likewise for the 20 Mb service.

Anyway, what that shows is that all it takes for me to get 23.47 rather than 30 is one other subscriber on 20Mbon my frequency. A quick estimate puts the number of homes on my trunk cable at over 100... That's the effect of 1.25:1 contention, not bad, but consider that UPC have sold a service with 17:1 as their standard!

bonoman66

Thank you very much to all who've taken the time to take note & post their modem power levels. I'm very grateful to you all.

I was told that if I got mine down from the current transmit power value of 56.0 to maybe 48.0 (or 42.0 if possible) that this would be much better & probably resolve my low DL speed in the evening issue.

After seeing the range of peoples power levels posted, I would have absolutely no confidence that the work UPC have proposed to carry out for me (eg install new cable from UPC BroadBand entry point box on side of house to a new internal modem point to reduce my transmit power level) would resolve the low DL speed issue.

Its far too widespread a problem & really must be something to do with their network configuration / bandwidth on their network etc..

Here's my current speedtest.net stats on my 30Mbps service - Sat Jan 23rd 2010 5:29pm




Here was my speed yesterday morning!



Here was my Ping Test yesterday morning!



& yesterday evening / night

the_law

Bonoman, the key in your case is that you have a consistent upload speed at all times of day. Remember it's the transmit power level from you to the node that they are going on about... if data is not getting from you to the node correctly, how come your upload speed is fine all the time?????

However, there may be benefit in going along with it so they can't say 'oh but we identified the problem and you didn't let us fix it'.

If you really don't want them to, maybe because the cable run is really awkward and messy, just have the UPC guy reel off the appropriate amount of cable, hang it down the side of your house and in a window! Then test again with the 'new' cable and see if it gets better (preferably at 6pm or something and with the UPC guy there)!

bonoman66

the_law wrote: »

Bonoman, the key in your case is that you have a consistent upload speed at all times of day. Remember it's the transmit power level from you to the node that they are going on about... if data is not getting from you to the node correctly, how come your upload speed is fine all the time?????

However, there may be benefit in going along with it so they can't say 'oh but we identified the problem and you didn't let us fix it'.

If you really don't want them to, maybe because the cable run is really awkward and messy, just have the UPC guy reel off the appropriate amount of cable, hang it down the side of your house and in a window! Then test again with the 'new' cable and see if it gets better (preferably at 6pm or something and with the UPC guy there)!

Thanks for the advice & feedback.

I guess I'll have a think about it over the next week or so & keep an eye on this thread to see what develops (if anything).

Appreciate everyone posting their experiences - its helpful to compare with other customers.

Cheers

Krieg

Well I didn't upgrade for the simple reason that I knew that this kind of crap would happen. When I was on 3mb and upgraded to the 10mb I had probs for about 2/3 weeks and so did everyone else AFAIR.

Im on 10mb now and an extra 5mb wont change my life, even though its a free upgrade.

However, after reading this thread I checked my own speed, it was 5mb. I have had a very consistent connection over the last number of months (9.6mb regardless of time of the day) until now. Looks like everyone might be suffering regardless of upgrading or not

IrishTonyO

speeds at 22.05 on 15Mbps Clondalkin area

bonoman66

Speeds 23:05 Celbridge Area 30Mbps

GigaByte

30Mb/s at 12:34am

Nehaxak

Anyone got another reliable Bandwidth test site ? All the ones I've tried, Speedtest, magnet speedtest, blacknight speedtest, all borked for me for some reason. Whether they're over reporting speeds or whatever (see sig for example).

Direct downloading I seem to be getting a steady 30Mb no problem, would just like a decent bandwidth test site to keep an eye on things without having to resort to downloading something and monitoring.

Modem power levels as per request.

Receive Power Level
4.1 dBmV

Transmit Power Level
44.5 dBmV

fionny

UPC coming on Tuesday to fix low level apparently;

Receive Power Level

17.4 dBmV
Transmit Power Level

27.5 dBmV

Not sure how these stand up but ive been getting diabolically low speeds since upgrade to 30meg.

the_law

fionny, UPC need to come out alright, but to fix high signal level! They'll fit a 12dB attenuator, or some combination of splits and attenuators to that effect.

The reference receive level is 0 dBmV, you want to aim for between -4 and +7 ish dBmV.

IrishTonyO

IrishTonyO wrote: »

15Mbps speed tests



Power levels

Receive Power Level

7.9 dBmV

Transmit Power Level

48.0 dBmV

now at 2.50am download levels almost perfect

Leiva

After 8months of problems I seem to have eventually got to speak to a UPC Tech with some Savvy .

Case History:
I was on a 10mb DOWN 1mb UP package , but never got anywhere near those speeds .
Long story short ...had 4 Tech callouts - No luck .
Went for 15mb upgrade(to see if improves) - Even worse result .

I had my 5th callout on Thursday .
Tech changed the modem and walked out , forgot to to register the new MAC address , and I had no Internet for 24hrs:mad:

UPC Supervisor called me Friday (and to be fair) could not apologise enough.
I gave him my whole 8month case history , he scheduled for a senior Tech to call me that evening directly .

How the call went :
I mentioned to the senior Tech about this forum and all problems with the "Fibre power" upgrades , he said that they have had to open up a whole new case file with the amount of calls , the plan is to draw up a plan for the problematic areas , and meet next week .
After numerous test and speedtests , HE suggested I come off the fibre power package .
He then proceeded to try all remaining packages on my line ... my previous 10mb package , the ULTRA (not fibre) 20mb package .
All options never gave the desired speeds , but the 20mb package imporoved my ping & upload .
He said I need a 6th Tech call out , the problem is at my node .:eek:
We agreed to leave me on the 20mb for the weekend to see any improvements ,
Got these speeds & quality this morning (wireless)...:D



I know for a fact that I will not get anywhere near these dizzy heights come 5pm .
Over the past 8 months , 5 Tech call outs , splitters changed , shore connections changed , modems changed ....I have proven 2 things .

1.) "FIBRE POWER" ..Was never fully tested , we are the BETA if you ask me .
2.) My ongoing problems are CONTENTION ...full stop !

M.

bonoman66

bonoman66 wrote: »

Thank you very much to all who've taken the time to take note & post their modem power levels. I'm very grateful to you all.

I was told that if I got mine down from the current transmit power value of 56.0 to maybe 48.0 (or 42.0 if possible) that this would be much better & probably resolve my low DL speed in the evening issue.

After seeing the range of peoples power levels posted, I would have absolutely no confidence that the work UPC have proposed to carry out for me (eg install new cable from UPC BroadBand entry point box on side of house to a new internal modem point to reduce my transmit power level) would resolve the low DL speed issue.

Its far too widespread a problem & really must be something to do with their network configuration / bandwidth on their network etc..

Here's my current speedtest.net stats on my 30Mbps service - Sat Jan 23rd 2010 5:29pm




Here was my speed yesterday morning!



Here was my Ping Test yesterday morning!



& yesterday evening / night

& this morning Sun Jan 24th 2010 8:50am ish

IrishTonyO

speed test 9.13 am Clondalkin area 15Mbps



Still convinced it has to be contention in my area as well as I am getting almost perfect speeds at off peak times and then terrible speeds for the majority of the day.

Leiva

Contention ?

or

Noise (certain times)


Whats your gut feeling ?

IrishTonyO

Really think it is contention as before upgrade had no problems at all, surely if it was noise etc it would have occurred to some extent then as well.
Reckon that too many people got broadband in over Christmas and then a lot upgraded the speeds, all without UPC increasing the bandwidth capacity.

Leiva

With me I am 100% sure its contention .

If they cant get a 30mb speed working , what chance is there of the planned 120mb planned for later this year (2 hopes I think of this )

Suppose if i did get the 120mb then with contention etc , i might get near the 30mb

NeVeR

1st i've not read all 50 odd pages as it's to much lol

But how to I get the speeds.. I've on the old 3MB package in my g/f's house and it's still 3MB, I've the 10 MB as home... Do i just restart the modem ? or do I have to make a call

Thanks.

Leiva

NeVeR wrote: »

1st i've not read all 50 odd pages as it's to much lol

But how to I get the speeds.. I've on the old 3MB package in my g/f's house and it's still 3MB, I've the 10 MB as home... Do i just restart the modem ? or do I have to make a call

Thanks.

if you are happy with your 10mb speed then stick with it. The reason for this thread been so long is beacause of problems people are having since upgrading . I would wait til march when everyone automatically gets the upgrade , seems they have not got it right yet.

If you decide you can't wait then fill this out , 2 days later you will get s mail to tell you to restart your modem:
http://www.upc.ie/about_us/Price_Changes/Speed_Changes/

IrishTonyO

NeVeR wrote: »

1st i've not read all 50 odd pages as it's to much lol

But how to I get the speeds.. I've on the old 3MB package in my g/f's house and it's still 3MB, I've the 10 MB as home... Do i just restart the modem ? or do I have to make a call

Thanks.

I'd wait if I was you, until UPC have sorted out the problems with the upgrade.

IrishTonyO

IrishTonyO wrote: »

speed test 9.13 am Clondalkin area 15Mbps



Still convinced it has to be contention in my area as well as I am getting almost perfect speeds at off peak times and then terrible speeds for the majority of the day.

and now at 12.05 the decline starts.......

zero86r

30mb line just now :rolleyes:



WTF

bonoman66

Yep Me too...

30Mbps Celbridge Area...

This morning...




Right now (1:10pm)

IrishTonyO

IrishTonyO wrote: »

speed test 9.13 am Clondalkin area 15Mbps



Still convinced it has to be contention in my area as well as I am getting almost perfect speeds at off peak times and then terrible speeds for the majority of the day.

IrishTonyO wrote: »

and now at 12.05 the decline starts.......

14.25 as it gets lower, just wait til everyone gets up after last night out or finishes their Sunday dinners and we'll be back to about 3.5 Mbps

IrishTonyO

IrishTonyO wrote: »

speed test 9.13 am Clondalkin area 15Mbps



Still convinced it has to be contention in my area as well as I am getting almost perfect speeds at off peak times and then terrible speeds for the majority of the day.

IrishTonyO wrote: »

and now at 12.05 the decline starts.......

IrishTonyO wrote: »

14.25 as it gets lower, just wait til everyone gets up after last night out or finishes their Sunday dinners and we'll be back to about 3.5 Mbps

didn't have to wait long

fionny

Just to confirm so it seems my receive is way too high still:

Receive Power Level

15.7 dBmV
Transmit Power Level

26.0 dBmV

This is at 3pm....

At least i know what to tell the engineer on Tuesday!

NothingMan

Getting pretty annoyed at this now. After spending half hour on to Netgear to get my router up to speed then my speeds just keep dropping. Cost €13 on my phone bill for netgear and I don't plan on spending an hour waiting for UPC. I've emailed them last Tuesday but no replay yet.

30Mb line. When I first upgraded the upload was always fine but now nothing is.

Scruff

To the NTL peeps monitoring this thread:
I wont be changing to NTL anytime soon until this problem is sorted and will stick with voda. better the devil you know.
EOM.