Net goes to shit.. at night.

Magus`

So I live in Missouri and I use Charter internet services. For the last couple of weeks the speeds/response times of my internet activities past 6 PM or so have gone to fucking shit. Some night I'll get short (30s or so) disconnects every 5 minutes or so.

Calling Charter doesn't seem to help (they keep saying they 'see no problem') and I'm not sure where to check online to see if other people are having the same trouble. Using my ZIP code (64093) doesn't seem to turn up much either.

What can I do to get this fixed? Who do I call? This makes playing games fucking awful.

L Ron Howard

What kind of set up do you have? Router(s)? Wireless only? Plugged straight into the wall/modem?
What kind of connection? DSL? Cable? T1? Dial-up?

see317

Sounds like someone may be leeching your bandwidth after they get off work.
If you have a wireless modem, try changing the password on it (or secure it if you haven't done so already).

Ursangus

I had the same issue when I used a wireless router for my PC. I'd say if it's an option, switch to just hardline CAT-5 cable to connect if possible and see if that resolves your issue. Wireless is nice, but in some cases completely un-necessary.

Al_wat

Yeah I would suspect someone leeching your internet, but it could be a whole bunch of different things.

Assuming you use wireless, log into your router's web portal thing (you do this by inputting the IP address of your default gateway into your browser). Usually here you can find a list of computers that are currently or have recently used your network. If you find any ones you don't recognize, then a neighbour is using your internet.

Over

Could be someone leeching your connection, as mentioned.

Could also just be a crowded cable connection during peak hours in your neighbourhood/building.

For example, at my mom's house she's on shitty Rogers Cable (Canadian provider). When I used the connection there, there was always a noticeable drop in speed and reliability during peak hours, letting up around 10 pm or so. I know the router and wireless were secure (since I was responsible for securing it), and when I would call Rogers, I'd get the standard "it's a cable connection, speed may fluctuate during peak times".

Magus`

It's two computers. One is hardline, one is wireless. The wireless is secured.

It always seems to start at 6. Always.

Al_wat

We need more information before we can really provide you with more advice.

you say it starts at 6 - when does it get better?

Have you checked your router to see if anyone else is logging on? I mean, you say its secured, but to be absolutely sure you have to check the router logs.

what troubleshooting steps have you taken? We know you called the ISP and they claim its fine on their end.

What type of connection is it? Cable, DSN, what?

I'm assuming when this interruption happens that you are still fully connected to your network right?

Magus`

The problem happens before it even gets to my router - the 'ready' light on the modem goes out.

It's a cable connection. It starts at 6 PM and seems to be better-ish when I wake up the next day (9 AM-ish?).

During raid tonight in WoW I probably DC'd 20-30 times over the course of 4 hours. The DCs never last more than 1 minute and are usually only 10-20s long. When I wasn't DCing I was getting ungodly lag (though WoW claimed my latency was never more than 150ms most of the night).

I guess I'll call again, but man, this is fucking obnoxious.

Al_wat

Hmm. It could be from all your neighbours getting on the internet - cable lines tend to be shared across a neighbourhood.

I wonder if everything really is fine down at the ISP. We have problems like this from time to time with our digital cable (I could be wrong, but I think this basically uses a cable internet connection or at least is similar). The company always claims nothing is wrong and then we find out that some kind of signal booster close to us either needed repairs or was in the process of upgrading or something.

edit: although based on the timings of your problems I am thinking its the neighbourhood...

honestly, the only thing I can think of is to keep harassing the ISP. Maybe look into switching to one of their competitors, price everything out, call them up and be like "your service has gone to shit lately, we are going to switch to your competitor (whatever rival company) unless this changes. Your internet is unusable. What am I paying for?" etc etc

twmjr

Al_wat's advice is spot on -- the problem is either 1) something, somewhere in the ISPs network is borked and needs to be fixed, but they need to be harassed to do it or 2) they have over-saturated your local node and when everyone gets home from work, bam slowdown.

As for a site to check, DSLReports is great for this sort of thing: http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all from a quick check they have a direct support forum for Charter (the company guys that end up helping on those boards are sometimes more helpful than the ones you'll get on the phone), and they should have a user forum for Charter customers where you can find other people in your area.

Magus`

Well shit, this appears to be happening again. Last time this happened, it turned out Charter's pipeline was overly saturated due to an increase in their various internet speed tiers and the main line couldn't handle it. It was fixed by getting another pipeline going. Guess what Charter just did recently? Yep, upgraded their speed tiers again.

Should I even bother calling them this time or just wait until they hopefully add another pipeline?

Raekreu

Magus` wrote:

Should I even bother calling them this time or just wait until they hopefully add another pipeline?

Calling might not get them to shift their lazy asses, but it's basically the only thing that you can do.

If you're the bandwagon type, you could talk to your neighbors and ask them to call up Charter as well. Enough people griping about bad service might get the ball rolling, as it's very unlikely you're the only person having issues with lag and disconnects.

Magus`

Yeah, it's what I did last time around this year. They sent out half a dozen techs who replace cable, modems and everything else under the sun. It was only after 2 months of this that they're like "OH, I guess our main pipeline just wasn't big enough. Our bad! Lolololol."

Unlike last time, however, this time Google is showing me plenty of recent people having the same issue after the speed upgrade 'promotion' so at least I know it's not just me.