UPC Broadband - Varying Speed !

TestLink

Hi guys,

I signed up for 120MB BB + Unlimited local and national and mobile calls. I installed UPC cable router 2 days back. To check the speed, I connected the LAN port of the Router directly to the LAN port of my Netgear WNDR 4500 port in my Notebook. I then went to the speedtest.net (Ookla) page and checked the broadband speeed.

I was getting only 10Mbps. I was shocked to see this result.

After noon again I checked the speed was 60 Mbps.

Next day morning, I checked the speed was around 115-120Mbps

I dont understand how this much variance / fluctuating speeds in broadband occurs with UPC. The connection speed with Magnet (which I am till now) was always they promised. I talked to UPC sales team and they couldnt tell me which Cable modem Router I am going to get. Speaking with Sales -> Technical Support -> Customer Support -> Sales : Endless loop of conversations!

1. Do any one else face the same issue with UPC Broadband?Please share your experience. This is the first time I am on a cable network

2. Do I need to configure the UPC Router to get optimum speed?

3. What would be the procedure to cancel the UPC account if the connection speed falls bellow 100 Mbps or BB speed varies consistently.

4. After the cooling off period of 14 days I would have to pay 200 Euro to cancel UPC account, which is scary and crazy at the same time!

Hearing that I am switching to UPC, Magnet offered me 30 Euro for 60Mb BB, Unlimited Local and National Calls and 100 International calls.

So still cant decide between UPC and Magnet !

Any suggestions?

Jacob

Nickindublin

I was with Magnet FTTH until feb. Had there 100mb BB only pack for 50 a month. Switched to UPC as they offered free call to mobiles 240 mb for 45 a month. I have to say the Magnet was spot on. I find the UPC jittery.

TestLink

Ya, I would wait for some other guys also to come up with their experience with UPC and if not satisfied cancel the account and stay with magnet.

ED E

See here.

degsie

ITguru wrote: »

To check the speed, I connected the LAN port of the Router directly to the LAN port of my Netgear WNDR 4500 port in my Notebook.

This is confusing! You are connecting to a 3rd party router and then from there to a notebook? You need to test directly from a lan port of your supplied UPC modem/router to confirm your speed.

TestLink

degsie wrote: »

This is confusing! You are connecting to a 3rd party router and then from there to a notebook? You need to test directly from a lan port of your supplied UPC modem/router to confirm your speed.

Sorry typo!
I was connecting the laptop directly to UPC cable modems's Lan port. Is the Technicolor cable modem any good? Reviews shows that they are sh**!. Earlier they had Motorola and they were performing good from users experience.

kamin99

my UPC is 240/24 in the mornings and 70/24 night time it is as if the neighbours are sharing my line when they come home ! ridiculous .
I got fed up calling UPC as they keep telling me the same thing, reboot , make sure you measure the speed using ethernet and so on!!

bk

kamin99 wrote: »

my UPC is 240/24 in the mornings and 70/24 night time it is as if the neighbours are sharing my line when they come home ! ridiculous .

Cable broadband, as is most broadband at some level, a shared medium.

Cable broadband works by sharing about 400Mb/s with X number of homes in your area. So yes, as more of your neighbours start using the connection when they get home in the evening, you connection might slow down too.

However to be honest, even 70/24 is still excellent performance. Obviously we would all like to get the full 240, 100% of the time, but honestly what are you doing that 70Mb/s isn't good enough for?

kamin99

bk wrote: »

Cable broadband, as is most broadband at some level, a shared medium.

Cable broadband works by sharing about 400Mb/s with X number of homes in your area. So yes, as more of your neighbours start using the connection when they get home in the evening, you connection might slow down too.

However to be honest, even 70/24 is still excellent performance. Obviously we would all like to get the full 240, 100% of the time, but honestly what are you doing that 70Mb/s isn't good enough for?

No it is not that it is not good enough, it is what I signed for nothing else, so If I sign for 240 I should expect some figures near that all the time , and to be honest in the beginning it was 235 all the time only in the last 2 months that the speed has dropped to 70

bk

kamin99 wrote: »

No it is not that it is not good enough, it is what I signed for nothing else, so If I sign for 240 I should expect some figures near that all the time , and to be honest in the beginning it was 235 all the time only in the last 2 months that the speed has dropped to 70

Shrug, what you going to do?

You signed up for "up to" 240Mb/s broadband, I bet if you go back and read your contract, you will see that it doesn't guarantee that speed.

Unless you spend tens of thousands per month for a dedicated business fiber connection, then all consumer broadband is like this.

And UPC is probably the best performing provider in Ireland. For example, Eircoms "up to" 100Mb/s can be as low as 7Mb/s!

Even the new 1Gb/s FTTH currently being rolled out by Eircom and ESB is shared, 2.4Gb/s with a contention ratio of 32:1, which means you'd only get a guaranteed 75Mb/s if all your neighbours were using it fully at the same time!

240Mb/s off peak and 70Mb/s peak is really doing pretty well. The average download speed in Ireland is 27Mb/s, globally it is 23Mb/s, 70Mb/s is faster then what the majority of people in the UK are getting. You could be doing way worse.

Don't get me wrong, register your complaint and hopefully within a few months UPC will upgrade/split your local node and you will get closer to full speed at peak times. But don't hold your breath.

kamin99

Don't get me wrong, register your complaint and hopefully within a few months UPC will upgrade/split your local node and you will get closer to full speed at peak times. But don't hold your breath.[/QUOTE]

keithclancy

kamin99 wrote: »

No it is not that it is not good enough, it is what I signed for nothing else, so If I sign for 240 I should expect some figures near that all the time , and to be honest in the beginning it was 235 all the time only in the last 2 months that the speed has dropped to 70

Ok, then pay for a business product with 1:1 contention

Sparky1972

UPC 240MB package is crap. I also signed up, was previously on 120 and it performed much better. Did a speed test and it gave me 13 down and 11 upload. Contact UPC and they just say that your router is installed correctly and all settings are correct.

dmcm_90

Sparky1972 wrote: »

UPC 240MB package is crap. I also signed up, was previously on 120 and it performed much better. Did a speed test and it gave me 13 down and 11 upload. Contact UPC and they just say that your router is installed correctly and all settings are correct.

I find upc the worst broadband iv ever had. During the when I'm home the broadband is slower than my 4G connection on wifi

Calibos

As a counter point, I got 125/12 24/7/365 when I was the 120mbit package and 245/25 24/7/365 on the 240mbit. ie. full speed all day everyday.

bk

UPC are by far the fastest residential ISP in Ireland, as you can see from the Net Index results here:

http://www.netindex.com/download/2,49/Ireland/

- Scroll down to see ISP rankings
- The number one entry is Heanet, which isn't a residential ISP, it is the Irish university network, so it doesn't really count
- ASTER Sp. z.o.o., the second placed ISP is actually UPC

UPC are roughly on average three times faster then the next placed ISP, BT Ireland.

I see the same results with my own UPC 240Mb/s connection, I use a Samknows box on the connection and it reports that I get very good results.

Of course that isn't to say you aren't getting bad performance, unfortunately with those sort of things there will always be some small percentage of people who have issues. Have you contacted them and had an engineer out to test it?

But on the whole, UPC are currently the best and fastest ISP in Ireland.