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View Full Version : Broadband problem - contention issue?


Dougal
19-01-2006, 12:15
I currently have the broadband service through a Samsung STB. This always worked fine with the 3mb service and worked well for the first week after the upgrade, but since then the service has been slow and sometimes unusable in the evenings when I commonly use it. I've been in touch with customer services who have sent out an engineer to check my STB and the cabling which is all okay, but the issue still persists.

The connection has been tested with a Netgear Wireless router, a laptop running XP, a desktop running XP, and a desktop running Linux, all with the same result.

Speed test from yesterday evening (done 3 times over a 10 minute period, this is the best result) -

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 19:57:34 GMT

1st 512K took 5738 ms = 89.2 KB/sec, approx 678 Kbps, 0.7 Mbps
2nd 512K took 9323 ms = 54.9 KB/sec, approx 417 Kbps, 0.4 Mbps
3rd 512K took 8793 ms = 58.2 KB/sec, approx 442 Kbps, 0.4 Mbps
4th 512K took 5548 ms = 92.3 KB/sec, approx 701 Kbps, 0.7 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 560 Kbps, 0.55 Mbps

Traceroute from the same time -

Hostname %Loss Rcv Snt Last Best Avg Worst
1. 10.76.112.1 10% 694 764 53 7 34 132
2.leed-t2cam1-a-ge98.inet.ntl.com 7% 714 764 21 6 34 99
3.leed-t2core-a-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com 9% 699 764 27 7 40 322
4.lee-bb-a-so-120-0.inet.ntl.com 8% 706 764 27 8 36 163
5.nth-bb-b-so-000-0.inet.ntl.com 8% 710 764 12 10 38 110
6.nth-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com 7% 713 764 34 11 39 113
7.gfd-bb-b-so-400-0.inet.ntl.com 7% 713 763 30 14 42 110
8.redb-ic-1-as0-0.inet.ntl.com 11% 683 763 31 16 42 142
9. 212.58.238.189 10% 688 763 34 15 45 275
10.212.58.238.149 8% 703 763 31 16 47 286
11.www15.thdo.bbc.co.uk 8% 707 763 45 16 43 106

And a latency graph created by smokeping from an external source, the line was not being used at all during this time -

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2006/01/7.png

Sage013
19-01-2006, 14:20
I use a Smasung STB and get very similar results to you. I have done ever since I got upgraded. You have to remember that we only get up to 5mb depending on network traffic, instead of the constant 3Mb we had. The fact that our speeds are now slower is apparently accepatable to NTL.

If you want faster then pay the £50 for a SACM. I'm not going to go in to a rant about what's happened as I've already done it elsewhere on this board. Personally, I'm going to downgrade to 2Mb then find another ISP to use and ditch NTL completely, including digital TV (sports and movies package) and telephone. Seems £50 for a SACM is more important to them than the £1500 I pay them each year.

Chrysalis
19-01-2006, 14:25
getting a 250 wont solve the problem he has above, that graph with the latency increase is indeed a result of contention.

Dougal
19-01-2006, 15:15
I'm definitely not going to be giving them any more money, what I'd like is a service that works for the money I'm already paying but I'm not sure how to go about getting it. I tried raising to contention issue with customer support but they didn't seem to know what I was talking about, so I've no idea on how to go about getting moved to a less contented pool, for the money they charge I'd like more than a 512k service at the times I use it the most.

Sage013
19-01-2006, 17:25
SACM users don't seem to sufer from contention, not that I've seen on this board anyway, although I could easliy have missed some posts. Therefore, is it possible that Samsung STB users only suffer from contention? I don't know enough on the subject to know whether this would be possible.

Scopeuk
19-01-2006, 20:19
im havving major latency issues atm
e.g 100ms pings to google
and 200ms to www.bbc.co.uk
and i am usign a sacm

Chrysalis
20-01-2006, 18:44
also check my recent posts I dont want to start pasting stuff in duplicate posts.

I have major contention and on a 250 sacm.