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Care to solve an internet malfunction mega-mystery? Come look!
NeonBlackJack
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright folks,
My internet has a mysterious ailment.
I have a 2mb/1mb wireless broadband (as in I get the signal through waves from a tower) connection.
I get a pretty consistent download speed on most servers anywhere between 150kb/s and 250kb/s, which would seem to be exactly what my connection is supposed to be capable of.
However, as of a few weeks ago any download that I start will run at that correct speed, 200kb/s +- 50 or so, and then, maybe five minutes or half an hour, maybe an hour later, will throttle back to 15 or 20kb/s. It happens on any download from any server, and the time it takes to throttle back varies.
Needless to say, it's quite the frustrating problem. It's making large downloads such as games from Steam take forever (I want to play Mass Effect 2 gol darnit!) and the problem is hard for me to diagnose.
I called tech support for my ISP, and they can't get any idea what it might be. I'm not sure they even believe the problem exists, because everytime I go to speedtest the values come up correct. I try to explain to them that yes, that is the nature of the problem: any new transfer is fine at first and then throttles back. So they offer to upgrade my connection. DOH!
There are a maximum of four computers on the network at a time, one of which is connected via ethernet cable.
I was using a linksys WRT54G ver 6 router, but I am currently using a newer WRT54G2 ver 1. There is no difference in the problem.
Please help me solve this mystery ailment!
And if you have any questions for me, ask. Together we stand strong!
My internet has a mysterious ailment.
I have a 2mb/1mb wireless broadband (as in I get the signal through waves from a tower) connection.
I get a pretty consistent download speed on most servers anywhere between 150kb/s and 250kb/s, which would seem to be exactly what my connection is supposed to be capable of.
However, as of a few weeks ago any download that I start will run at that correct speed, 200kb/s +- 50 or so, and then, maybe five minutes or half an hour, maybe an hour later, will throttle back to 15 or 20kb/s. It happens on any download from any server, and the time it takes to throttle back varies.
Needless to say, it's quite the frustrating problem. It's making large downloads such as games from Steam take forever (I want to play Mass Effect 2 gol darnit!) and the problem is hard for me to diagnose.
I called tech support for my ISP, and they can't get any idea what it might be. I'm not sure they even believe the problem exists, because everytime I go to speedtest the values come up correct. I try to explain to them that yes, that is the nature of the problem: any new transfer is fine at first and then throttles back. So they offer to upgrade my connection. DOH!
There are a maximum of four computers on the network at a time, one of which is connected via ethernet cable.
I was using a linksys WRT54G ver 6 router, but I am currently using a newer WRT54G2 ver 1. There is no difference in the problem.
Please help me solve this mystery ailment!
And if you have any questions for me, ask. Together we stand strong!
NeonBlackJack on
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Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
This is my first guess, especially given that it happens at the same time after starting the download.
Try pulling in a huge HTTP or FTP download and see if it has the same results (XP SP3 standalone, a massive game demo, etc) If it doesn't, it's probably your provider being a colossal silly goose and blanketly throttling all TCP traffic above :1024 to attempt to hurt the filthy pirates.
If it does, then it's just your provider being a silly goose period and you need to yell at them.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Do you use Bittorrent a lot and/or just download a ton of stuff? Remember Comcast and many other ISPs have download limits where they will cap you for using too much.
Also use a network logger. Mine doesn't log out anything permanently, but you could try http://www.dumeter.com/. I haven't used Dumeter, but it looks like it might help you.
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
You could test prolonged transfers between computers on your own network to see if the problem exists. Try transferring a multi-gig file between the wired PC and one of the wireless ones to see if something similar happens. I don't think this is the problem, but it gives you more ammunition for when you face off with the ISP again. You may have to pushback to get to a second tier of support or someone besides the doufus phone jockeys that just read scripts.
Wireless broadband is considerably more expensive to distribute than standard cable or DSL, especially if you're buying your service from a company who is just leasing someone else's towers (like Cricket or Clearwire).
They're throttling the hell out of you because to them you are a heavy user who is costing them more money. The time it takes for your connection to throttle may vary, but I'd bet that the amount of data that you download before it throttles can be tracked and will be similar based on what time of the day or night you are downloading (whether you're pulling down a lot of data in a high traffic time of day) and how much data you and the three other computers have transferred in that 24 hour period.
Odds are there is something in the fine print of your agreement that says something like "Company X may make changes to provide the best service for all customers", which is pretty much "We can shape your connection to hell and back if we want to".
If you aren't on a contract with your current ISP and wired broadband is available in your area you should look into it.