My DSL is crappy. What do I do?

Magic Pink

I use Qwest for Internets because it's the only service available to me in my area. I have the "up to 3mb "speed.

I used speedtest.net because I noticed Steam was downloading and WoW was patching at only 300kbs and found my download speed is 2.6mbs but my upload speed is only 4kbs.

SO

A: Is that a problem? My friend's WoW patched at 1.3mbs but he has Comcast internet.

B: If it is a problem, is speedtest.net something I can trust? It seems like a front for a registry entry correction program.

c: If A and B = YES, what the heck do I do to improve this? I can only use Qwest because I'm in some weird internet dead zone.

bowen

Dump DSL if it all possible. Look to be spending $50 ish a month for internet, most people I've found with these issues budgeted $20 and end up with shitty DSL service.

They could also be throttling you if you torrent (wow). Do you notice network performance issues in wow?

Magic Pink

I'm paying 80$ as it is.

No, no performance issues in WoW at all.

bowen

Okay, yeah, since you're paying that much I'd give them a call because it strikes me as throttling, though, 5kbps might be what they're advertising for uploads?

Magic Pink

What's throttling?

End

Throttling would be where they reduce your network speeds due to particular conditions. Reasons would be due to the type of traffic (such as torrent traffic, although the FCC has really come down hard on that), or due to the hitting a pre-determined soft cap.

You could definitely have issues with upload speeds though. When I've used DSL in the past, I've noticed download speeds can really suffer when you are saturating your upload.

Try turning off the p2p support in the Launcher, to see if that helps.

Magic Pink

End wrote: »

Throttling would be where they reduce your network speeds due to particular conditions. Reasons would be due to the type of traffic (such as torrent traffic, although the FCC has really come down hard on that), or due to the hitting a pre-determined soft cap.

You could definitely have issues with upload speeds though. When I've used DSL in the past, I've noticed download speeds can really suffer when you are saturating your upload.

Try turning off the p2p support in the Launcher, to see if that helps.

You'll need to dumb those instructions down a lot before I'm able to do that.

End

There's an option in the WoW launcher (the window with the big Play button that patches/downloads the game and shows news) that refers to peer to peer downloading.

Try disabling it.

I can't say exactly where it is because I'm at work, but it shouldn't be hard to find.

Magic Pink

Oh, the WoW launcher. Ok, I guess I can try that but it's a little late to help with the patching and the game runs completely fine. Can I do the same thing with the STEAM store?

Are there any PC or modem settings I can dink with to increase my upload speed as well?

bowen

Upload speeds shouldn't affect anything on steam. If your download speed suffers, it could be because the other side of the connection can't handle giving you 1.2 MBps.

belligerent

Do you run multiple programs at the same time that would use your internet? Like do you use a program to download movies or music while also downloading other things?

How are you plugged into the network? Do you just plug straight into the wall/modem from your computer, or another way? Do you connect wirelessly?

There aren't a whole heap of things you can do to increase your usage on your side for downloads. P2P is

Magic Pink

I'm plugged directly into the modem. I'm not running anything else. I did connect wirelessly and the lag in the online games was awful; direct connecting fixed it.

Ego

OK, so:

What is the actual advertised upload rate for your internet service? You can find this out just by calling the tech support line and asking. Find this out, and let us know exactly what it is.

Now, pay attention to whether they tell you your upload is x kilobytes per second or x kilobits per second. Most ISPs advertise using either kilobits or megabits, instead of kilobytes or megabytes (kilobytes and megabytes are however what you'll usually see in software, like when you've got something downloading in firefox or the WoW downloader.) There are eight bits to every byte. IE, in the old timey days dial up models were listed at stuff like 14.4 kilobits per second, which actually equates to 1.8 kilobytes per second for a download.

(if that sounded confusing, be glad you didn't start with modems measured in baud, and will never know what a line editor is.)

Anyhow, the reason the upload rate is important (I assume what you have for download is 3 megabits per second, aka 384 kilobytes per second) is that when you download something on your computer, your computer also simultaneously sends data for the purpose of error control and checking, to make sure the chunk of data it got was accurate (because lots of times on the internet, data simply never makes it to it's destination, and sometimes it gets corrupted before getting there.)

So if your upload is ridiculously capped, your upload speed will actually determine the maximum throughput of your downloads.

So anyhow, ask.

Also, download and install 'netmeter'. It gives real-time feedback on network usage. Just in case you've got crap in the background that's using up all your upload speed. Like, say, a bit-torrent application.

Personally I'm inclined to think you're just a victim of traffic shaping, but this will narrow it down immensely.

edit: though, frankly, if a provider has to use traffic shaping with DSL, they need some help running their central office.

Blake T

I am pretty sure the min download/upload speed for is 512/256.

If you can play wow without any real problems then you probably just had a bad speed test.

Magic Pink

So update: I've called Qwest multiple times and their answer is that I have to replace my router (which they sold me) and my splitter (which they sold me). Also, for some reason whenever I play RIFT my router loses connectiont o the internet. The DSL light flashes and the internet light goes out.

So any advice? Either "that's bullshit, here's your problem" or "yup, here's some good router brands" or anything? I don't know what else to do at this point.

bowen

I very much doubt it's any of the above.

That's typical level 1 "get the customer off the phone with common things that break but probably aren't broken."

Some things that will be a problem with DSL:

Degradation of signal over your telephone copper. How old is the house and how old is the telephone cable in the house? If you're handy you can replace this yourself if it's especially old (50 years).

Line filter (splitter?), may not be filtering out digital signal with the analog signal and there may be a lot of noise on your telephone line causing disconnects.

Of all of those, the least of your problems will be your router. You'll know if it's your router because you won't be able to get on at all.

Blake T

Call them back. Tell them a friend drop by with their router and splitter and you still have the same problem.

Magic Pink

bowen wrote: »

Degradation of signal over your telephone copper. How old is the house and how old is the telephone cable in the house? If you're handy you can replace this yourself if it's especially old (50 years).

See, this is what I think it is. This house is VERY old and I doubt that the phone lines are kept up in this area at all since I'm in a bizzare internet dead zone. Qwest is the only service I can get and I'm smack dab in the middle of a major US capital.

bowen

Generally you can tell how old the phone lines are just by the jack on the wall.

Does it look like a typical white-offwhite plastic jack or does it look like this huge behemoth of a dark gray jack that you could land an airplane on?

Do you rent or own? Any idea on the age of the house?

Magic Pink

Rent and behemoth. Also, it's the only jack in the house sadly.

bowen

See if your landlord can't replace the telephone wire. Let them know you're getting dropped calls and diminished internet usage.

I mean sure it's not super critical right now but you don't want to be in a position where your phone cuts out on an interview or anything do you? We're talking like $25 worth of cable here to bring it from the dmark to your jack. If you're handy enough you could probably do it yourself once you get permission.

Mr_Grinch

I'm more "England" orientated with my advice but still.

How's the quality of your phone line? On a quiet line can hear any pops, clicks, whistles, buzzing? You should be able to get a quiet line by (google tells me) dialling 1 and then stopping. Apparently "Now listen and really concentrate while you are doing so cause you are only going to get 30 seconds before it times out and get's replaced by busy tone again.... "

Anyway, listen on the line, listen for any noise, any static, any crackling, these can be the signs of a dodgy line and it'd be worth getting straight back on to your provider.

Magic Pink

I'll try that. Thanks folks.

Magic Pink

I did the line listen and it was absolutely silent so maybe it's not my phone line. The modem is a Motorola 3347 which seems a little old. Maybe it really is the modem?

bowen

Like 2 years old.

I have a wireless router from like 7 years ago that still works like a champ.

Any idea on how far away from the telco company you are physically? Other than that you've tested everything and let them know what Blake T said.

Magic Pink

I have no idea. It's Qwest so they're everywhere, like roaches.

Aeyther

Magic Pink wrote: »

I use Qwest for Internets because it's the only service available to me in my area. I have the "up to 3mb "speed.

I used speedtest.net because I noticed Steam was downloading and WoW was patching at only 3kbs and found my download speed is 2.6mbs but my upload speed is only 4kbs.

My WoW did this when I tried to patch 4.2 using the launcher but it was only downloading 3kbps. I have frontier DSL which is decent enough for games but it's not spectacular. If your still having trouble with patching WoW try closing the launcher, end the launcher process via task manager, then go to your WoW folder and run the background downloader and let that download the patch.

Dark Shroud

Has anyone here suggested running speedtest.net just to see what you're getting?

Also, have you looked into Clearwire? I'm assuming you're in the US so try going to a bestbuy and see what ISP options they have listed in your area.

nexuscrawler

if thje telco will do it the best way around a dodgy DSL line is to have a NID split put in. that's where they split off the DSL signal from the regular line and put it on it's own jack.

Magic Pink

Dark Shroud wrote: »

Has anyone here suggested running speedtest.net just to see what you're getting?

They haven't, mostly because I already did it and posted the stats in the OP.

As of right now, no matter the system, program or service I never get much more then 300kbs download speeds.

amnesiasoft

Magic Pink wrote: »

As of right now, no matter the system, program or service I never get much more then 300kbs download speeds.

300 kb as in kilobyte? Regarding networks you really have to be very specific with your units. You said your speed is advertised as "up to 3 mb," which I'll assume is 3 Mb, or 3 Megabits.

A 300 kilobyte per second download... sounds about exactly what I would expect from that service? You also said you were in some "weird Internet dead zone," so I'd expect you aren't particularly close to a central office from that, which is kind of going to give you the short end of the stick when you're trying to download from a rather busy server.

Magic Pink

amnesiasoft wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

As of right now, no matter the system, program or service I never get much more then 300kbs download speeds.

300 kb as in kilobyte? Regarding networks you really have to be very specific with your units. You said your speed is advertised as "up to 3 mb," which I'll assume is 3 Mb, or 3 Megabits.

A 300 kilobyte per second download... sounds about exactly what I would expect from that service? You also said you were in some "weird Internet dead zone," so I'd expect you aren't particularly close to a central office from that, which is kind of going to give you the short end of the stick when you're trying to download from a rather busy server.

Yeah, I never download anything from anywhere at a much faster rate them 300KBs but my speed is supposed to be 3mbs. But nothing seems to come even close to that and my friends who have the same speed service (but from a different supplier) are getting about 1.3mbs when downloading the same things.

By dead zone I mean that no other supllier will serve my area even tho I'm smack dab in the middle of the state capital. Something about not enough phone lines in the area because of zoning laws or some such.

bowen

3 Megabits is approximately ~384 kilobytes. You are getting exactly what you're paying for there.

When a telco company quotes you service, they often do it in Bits. Why? It makes for bigger numbers. Bits are a factor of 8 less than a byte. 8 bits make up a single byte. Windows measures transfers and speeds (more often than not) in bytes. Why? It's a better representation of it's overall size on disk.

So 3 Megabits is approximately 300 (384) kilobytes of transfer speed. They may even be rounding off and you're getting less. You're right on the money here, that is your essential speed.

In the city they may get higher speeds but their service is still factored for lowest common denominator I think.

Magic Pink

What? Everywhere I checked said that 1mbs is equal to 1024kbs.

bowen

1 Megabyte is equal to 1024 Kilobyte yes.

However every telecom company I have ever known always measures speeds in bits rather than bytes.

So 3 Megabits is equal to .0375 megabytes. So then you multiply .375 by 1024 (to convert from megabytes to kilobytes) and you get 384 Kilobytes per second.

Think of bits as a smaller measurement of size/speed. Think of bits as inches are to feet. Most people don't measure people by inches, but your number sure looks better if it does! Back when bits were a significant transfer speed, it made sense to measure transfer speed in bits.

Magic Pink

AW FUCK

So this whole thread is just me being incredibly retarded! CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

bowen

Don't worry we all fell for it at one point. That's still pretty decent broadband speed and download speed! It's what I get from most servers on Verizon FiOS.