The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
My ISP is throttling my speed.
wogi
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Every once and a while I stumbleupon to speedtest.net. I always run it, just to make sure I'm getting what I'm paying for. Usually everything checks out ok.
I came across the google version of a similar service, which showed I was at 4 mb/s below what it should be. I went back to speed test, same thing, about 4 mb/s under what I'm paying for.
Is there anything I can do? I did some research, and it looks like its perfectly legal for them to do that. I'm avoiding calling them, because 1, it takes forever to get to someone, and 2, I'm certain that they have a canned answer for just that, and I don't feel like going through the rigmarole for nothing.
I came across the google version of a similar service, which showed I was at 4 mb/s below what it should be. I went back to speed test, same thing, about 4 mb/s under what I'm paying for.
Is there anything I can do? I did some research, and it looks like its perfectly legal for them to do that. I'm avoiding calling them, because 1, it takes forever to get to someone, and 2, I'm certain that they have a canned answer for just that, and I don't feel like going through the rigmarole for nothing.
http://bit.ly/runshort
-Current W.I.P.
-Current W.I.P.
wogi on
0
Posts
-Current W.I.P.
50% of your "up to" speed is what the majority of US customers are getting, and that's where you are. The only real bright light here, sad to say, is that the FCC did decide "up to" speed advertising is so misleading that it probably needs to be banned. Not that you'll get your speed back, just that they'll have to tell you what you're actually paying for, not a magical number that you'll almost never get.
Check out my band, click the banner.
I would recommend DSL...full speed all the time and no horseshit like overloaded nodes or bandwidth caps.
If you have neighbors that give a shit, and can take a bit of time each week to put the info together, it's worth a shot. Otherwise, time to switch providers (if you can).
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
I could never sell the crap. I don't care if it's cable or DSL, I refuse to sell it. I did Technical Support for 2+ years at AT&T and having to deal with the lies that the salesperson adds onto the package was enough for me to call it quits. It's copper, it's not Fiber. Unless you have an Optical Network Terminal INSIDE your home, locked up, and out of reach, you are on copper. It has it's limits. DSL nodes are notorious for being overbooked. Ever get that email/pamphlet in the mail saying, "XYZ ISP is coming to your area soon!". Yeah, total lie. It's either available now and they won't run the last mile of cabling, or it's full to capacity and they're waiting for that one person to miss a payment so they can terminate the account.
Wow, this turned into a rant. Sorry about that. This is something that kinda gets under my skin though. Bottom line: Yeah, they're probably throttling. Unless it's cable. Cable is a DOCSIS network and allows for higher throughput than an ATM over Ethernet authentication like DSL. Nothing you can do, sadly.
With our local LANMinds, we pay for our bandwidth a little more, but we get exactly what we pay for. Heck, during busy hours, sometimes we get MORE bandwidth than what we pay for.
-Current W.I.P.
Not sure where you are but... DSL here (toronto canada) is capped lower than cable, and its slower overall at all tiers for a similar price.
The only thing you can do really i guess is go to dslreports and read the reviews of the ISP's offering service in your area. Each ISP, even if theyre national, is going to be offering different types of services depending on the area. I know Bell here downtown toronto sucks, but out in the suburbs it can be drastically different, from worse to far far better. Here, you get throttle for about 8 hours out of every day. My friend lives out in st. catherines, and he never gets throttled, simply because no one uses DSL out there. Same with rogers cable, downtown it sucks, its throttled probably 20 hours out of every day. But when i lived in oshawa, it was never throttled, cus i lived in a shit neighborhood with old people who probably didnt have cable internet.
Check out my band, click the banner.
Everyone should do this regardless of whether or not you think you are being throttled.
NintendoID: Nailbunny 3DS: 3909-8796-4685
Although, resetting my router seems to have made a substantial difference... oddly enough.
-Current W.I.P.
Basically it makes your torrent traffic look like not torrent traffic. It doesn't just change headers but encrypts the entire stream so ISPs can't tell what it is. That way, your ISP can't detect bit torrent traffic and throttle it the way Comcast started a couple years ago (and a lot more have started since they won their lawsuit).
You probably have internal networking issues rather then throttling. Your router probably can't handle all of the half open connections you're creating torrenting, causing everything to slow down.
it really only works with really *really* behind the times ISPs now though as it's fairly easy to tell if the encrypted traffic is bittorrent or not by the traffic characteristics, unless your running it through a vpn tunnel, which is a service you need to pay extra for. Generally now clicking encryption will give you high speeds for a minute or so until your isp has enough info to classify it as encrypted bittorrent then bam, back down to throttled.
I am on Comcast, and have experienced nothing of the sort. I think people make the mistake of enabling encryption, but still accept unencrypted connections. That will certainly send up some flags. In uTorrent, you have to force encryption and uncheck allow legacy connections.
NintendoID: Nailbunny 3DS: 3909-8796-4685
Yeah, I'm also on Comcast and forced encryption / disallowed legacy connections changed my speeds over night.
I first starting noticing the throttling about late April, early May (a few weeks after that court case came down) and I was no longer able to stream Netflix over my 360 at the same time I was torrenting.
Encryption made that possible and ever since I have 3-4 bars on Netflix and torrenting around 150 kb/s or higher depending on how many seeds are on.
I've been seeing that a lot lately. Calling copper lines fiber to compete with actual fiber optic.
The problem is, they're using it as "Fiber" rather than actual fiber optic. A long strand of copper wire can still be technically called a Fiber. Plus, a lot of their backbones are based off fiber optic. It's disingenuous to say the least.