upc - will i get the speeds advertised?

paddydriver

I think that many of the problems reported on UPC relate to DNS - even when I swap over to Google DNS (8.8.8.8) I still occasionally get slow resolution or failures over the UPC network - so maybe it relates to UDP packets over the network cause when it comes to raw downloading the speed is fantastic. DNS issues can cause very frustrating problems...

Roland27

Here is a good one for you all. I have discussed the problems I had with my UPC broadband in detail earlier in this thread, and I was fortunate enough to find an answer in this thread thanks to other members here. The problem I was having was I was getting very poor ping results and packet loss so my line was terrible, but it was fixed simply by unchecking 'IP Flood Detection' in the modem settings.

Now, I had an ongoing case with UPC who were aware of my problems but were completely unable to fix it, this after at least 10 telephone calls and two technicians calling to my house. But then, after I had found the solution here, I had a call from the UPC technician who was due to call to my house (even though I no longer needed him), and he told me he may have found an answer to my problem and to go to the website..........

.... boards.ie. I was shocked and didn't say anything, and he said there is a thread there in which you can find a solution and it has to do with changing an IP Flood Detection in the settings of your modem. I then told him i know, that I have already fixed it myself and that it was me who found my own solution (through other members here) in that thread. Essentially, the UPC technician was telling me to look at this thread on Boards.ie to find the answer to the issue which they could not fix. Hilarious.

So, Broadband Kid and Karsini, you two you will be pleased to know that UPC are now directing their customers who are having problems with their broadband to solutions provided by yourselves on this very forum.

(hmm, I was just thinking its also possible that Broadband Kid is the same person as that UPC technician. If so, hows it goin )

Karmafaerie

Lads, this issue has been dealt with here for about a year now.


The IP FLood detection issue is in every second thread here.
You may also want to go into Wireles>Security and disable the WPS Config also.

Go into Wireless>Basic and make sure that new channel isn't set to auto.
(Alsomake sure that you're not on a channel that is already being used in the area).

All these will halp your wireless connection.

Karmafaerie

Just want to get a few things off my chest.;)



The problem is that ever BB provider in Ireland gets complaints from customers who assume that cause their wireless is slow, their BB is slow.

(I'm not saying this about anyone in here to be clear)

For instance you'll see this when you look at the imediate responses to people saying their speed is "terrible", straight away you'll get replys of "wireless?".

I remember when UPC used the Netgear, and all we had was complaints of the Netgear being terrible.
And if UPC used Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, it would be the same.
Cause "some" people just assume that wireless should just work all the time.

Roland27 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, lads. I could buy a new wireless router or even forget about using wireless and connect via lan, but to be honest I'm simply not happy with that. UPC clearly advertise their broadband as being wireless and as such I expect to be able to get the full broadband I pay for wireless, so I think I will get onto them.

UPC/Eircom/Vodafone/UTV/Perlico/etc can not, and will not ever guarantee a wireless speed.
They would not be able to.

Wireless can pick up interference from anything in your area, so the ISP can't be responsible if your neighbours connection causes problems for you.

Also it's down to the wireless card in your computer, as well obviously as the state of your computer.
How can your ISP guarantee your speeds through wireless?!

The don't and can't.
They advertise cable broadband with wireless capabilities.
The wireless can work properly, but has to be set up to do so.

racerxkiwi wrote:

its great as long as its working. when it goes down its no use calling them.. you just wait 40 mins on the phone (which is charged to you at a "lo-call" rate - not yr free mobile mins!!).

racerxkiwi wrote: »

Oh yea - they are now alright.. when I phoned them last year it wasn't.

Ahhhhh, no.

UPC have had a freephone number from landlines for about 4 years, and a freephone number from mobiles for over two years.

You probably rang their sales line which is low call, but then UPC can't be responsible for you ringing the wrong number.;)






Lastly, just in relation to the Cisco Wifi.

It's actually a great little router, but is hampered by terrible firmware.
If you go in and adjust the settings right then you'll be fine(ish).
Which is of little help to us of course.


If you don't have the VOIP I would suggest bridging, simply cause a G class router is out of date nowadays.
If you do have the VOIP, simply disable the Ciscos wireless and use your own N class router.
the Cisco is free people.

Gift horse - mouth -etc.

Roland27

Karmafaerie wrote: »

Lads, this issue has been dealt with here for about a year now.

Thanks for your belated interest, but when I first encountered this problem I searched these forums and could not find an answer relating to my problem, and certainly nothing to do with 'IP FLood detection'. In addition, there are loads more members with the same problem as recently discussed in the UPC Getting Worse thread, and it seems clear enough that most members don't believe that "this issue has been dealt with here for about a year now." Also, from my previous post you can see that UPC themselves don't know about the problems associated with IP FLood detection.

Karmafaerie wrote: »

UPC/Eircom/Vodafone/UTV/Perlico/etc can not, and will not ever guarantee a wireless speed.
They would not be able to.

Wireless can pick up interference from anything in your area, so the ISP can't be responsible if your neighbours connection causes problems for you.

Also it's down to the wireless card in your computer, as well obviously as the state of your computer.
How can your ISP guarantee your speeds through wireless?!

The don't and can't.
They advertise cable broadband with wireless capabilities.
The wireless can work properly, but has to be set up to do so.

With regard to wireless, that was not my main concern, it was that my BB was terrible even when wired.

Furthermore, I am not that technical when it comes to wireless and broadband and so do not understand the ins and outs of it, but when I see broadband advertised as a 15Mb line with wireless capabilities, I expect to get somewhere close to that. I understand there will be some loss when its wireless, but not as much as happens with UPC. I have had Eircom and Smart wireless broadband before and never encountered such severe loss.

Karmafaerie

Roland27 wrote: »

Thanks for your belated interest, but when I first encountered this problem I searched these forums and could not find an answer relating to my problem, and certainly nothing to do with 'IP FLood detection'. In addition, there are loads more members with the same problem as recently discussed in the UPC Getting Worse thread, and it seems clear enough that most members don't believe that "this issue has been dealt with here for about a year now." Also, from my previous post you can see that UPC themselves don't know about the problems associated with IP FLood detection.

I myself have advised about a half dozen or more posters on here about it.
In numerous threads.
As well as seen others doing so for a while.
It was about a year when I first posted it.

I'm simply pointing out that it's not new.

It's not going to go away either as newly insalled modems will always have it switched on due to the the crappy firmware I mentioned.
It's also probably not the only issue that's causing those people problems.

There's a grat assumption in here of is one person has a problem, others assume their problem is related, while in fact many different issues would be at fault.

Secondly UPC do know about it.
Who do you think told me a year or so ago(;))

I'd say you were unlucky to be routed through to their firstline tech support rather than secondline.
While I have had problems dealing with issues with UPC, their 2nd line tech do know a bit of what they're talking about.
1st line tend to just book service calls for everything.


As for the "UPC getting worse thread".
How many of the almost 200,000 UPC BB customers post in there?

People don't go online and praise, they only go and complain.
For instance would you have started a thread if you got the BB installed and everything was fine?

A tiny percentage having problems doesn't make the service bad.
And the fact that people come out withy "UPC Getting Worse" threads, cause their service is bad is my point exactly.
It's reactionary and factually incorrect.

Yes some people are having problems, but that doesn't make the service terrible.

Roland27 wrote:

With regard to wireless, that was not my main concern, it was that my BB was terrible even when wired.

Furthermore, I am not that technical when it comes to wireless and broadband and so do not understand the ins and outs of it, but when I see broadband advertised as a 15Mb line with wireless capabilities, I expect to get somewhere close to that. I understand there will be some loss when its wireless, but not as much as happens with UPC. I have had Eircom and Smart wireless broadband before and never encountered such severe loss.

You never experienced such a severe loss, as you were not on as high a speed.
The higher the speed, the more severe the degredation.
Once you go past 10 it can get bad when you've problems.

22-23 MB is about the most you will get on a G class wireless.
This is G class on the modem and on the Network card of your laptop.
That's one of the reason that UPC can't guarantee speeds, as if they did they would only be able to sell to people with higher spec computers.

I understand that you're not familiar with the tech, I've only a passing knowledge myself, and there are plenty here who know way, way, more.
I wasn't coming down on you at all, as to be honest you were more than reasonable.

You came here and asked for help.
Others come here, and just start e-shouting about how such an ISP is the spawn of satan, before they look into what's causing their problems!:P


How is your browsing now?
I've found UPC's DNS to be very bad so even with the wireless working properly, your bowsing may not be up to scratch.

Roland27

If UPC do know about it then they must have a very poor way of communicating with each other internally. I spoke to both first-line and second-line tech support several times as well as have two technicians call out to my house to try fix it – but no one could find out what the problem was and no one thought to check the settings in the modem or even mention IP FLood detection.

The number of people who are happy with their UPC service and never experienced any problems and complained about them here is irrelevant. There are a large number of people here who are complaining about poor BB service which is related to serious packet loss as a result of IP FLood detection, so you would think it would be in the best interest of UPC to raise awareness of this issue, especially to new customers, as it would save them a lot of trouble in the long run. Its simple really. Every new modem they supply has IP FLood detection enabled and so can cause people problems – so why aren't they aware of this when people complain?

Thanks for the info on the wireless – its useful. To be honest, after struggling so long to get my BB working properly at all, I don't mind about it not being wireless and happy enough with it wired. My browsing is perfect now and excellent speed and ping test results.

No worries anyway and thanks for your input. By the way, you don't happen to work for UPC, do you?

Karmafaerie

Roland27 wrote: »

If UPC do know about it then they must have a very poor way of communicating with each other internally. I spoke to both first-line and second-line tech support several times as well as have two technicians call out to my house to try fix it – but no one could find out what the problem was and no one thought to check the settings in the modem or even mention IP FLood detection.

I really do doubt that it was the second line you were speaking to mate.
The second line are notorious for never booking service calls.
It's as if they have to pay for them out of their wages or something.
You'll find loads of reports in here about how they'll take you though every check under the sun before booking a call.

Roland27 wrote:

The number of people who are happy with their UPC service and never experienced any problems and complained about them here is irrelevant. There are a large number of people here who are complaining about poor BB service which is related to serious packet loss as a result of IP FLood detection, so you would think it would be in the best interest of UPC to raise awareness of this issue, especially to new customers, as it would save them a lot of trouble in the long run. Its simple really. Every new modem they supply has IP FLood detection enabled and so can cause people problems – so why aren't they aware of this when people complain?

Of course it's relevant.
When you have 200,000 customers, and a couple of hundred are complaining, you're doing a good job.
That's the arguement that UPC will give you anyway.
When a company is expanding as fast as UPC is (They've about tripled their BB users in the last few years), while forcing through the fastest series of speed increases in the history of BB in this country, all while trying to cover more of the major cities towns than ever, then there will be teething problems.
If UPC can keep the service working well 90% of the time for 90% of their customer base, while doing all of that, they're not "getting worse" as the thread you linked me to suggested.

Roland27 wrote:

Thanks for the info on the wireless – its useful. To be honest, after struggling so long to get my BB working properly at all, I don't mind about it not being wireless and happy enough with it wired. My browsing is perfect now and excellent speed and ping test results.

No worries man.
I know I spent a lot of time in here looking for input back when I started getting interested.

Roland27 wrote:

No worries anyway and thanks for your input. By the way, you don't happen to work for UPC, do you?

That's my second pet peave of boards by the way.
As soon as you mention that you don't hate an ISP you get accused left, right, and centre, of working for them.;)

No I don't.

I just hate when people go over the top with their criticism.
I mean, I had horrible problems with Eircom personally, but that doesn't mean that everyone does.

flamegrill

Lads if you're having trouble with wireless then there might be a "smart" way to sort this for yourselves. It doesn't require a certain level of understanding of wifi and channels but this app will help no end.

Download inSSIDer from http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider and install it on your Windows PC or Mac. It'll scan the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands (if your card supports it) and tell you what channels are used.

Find a channel that is least used in your proximity and switch your router to this. You should be able to get around 25Mbit/s on the 30Meg UPC line if you can find a unclogged channel.

The best channels for 2.4Ghz are typically 1/6/11 and 13. If you can switch to these you should get the best from your UPC router.

Paul