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Zoomer309
join:2003-05-01
Mason City, IA

Zoomer309

Member

[IA] Too all in North Iowa with slow download speed after 4PM...

I think there are a few painful conclusions we can come to:

1. The issue has had more then enough attention given to it on here.

2. If MediaCom had any intention of fixing it, they would have done it. Its been going on for months

3. MediaCom cant maintain the 1.5Mbps download speed they offered 5 YEARS ago now during peaks, so clearly they are behind the times with it comes to equipment and networks.

4. Flood the office with demands for help and when they dont help, drop em.
john_895
join:2002-07-26
Clear Lake, IA

john_895

Member

Re: [IA] Too all in North Iowa with slow download speed after 4P

Last Result:
Download Speed: 3479 kbps (434.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 474 kbps (59.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Zoomer309
join:2003-05-01
Mason City, IA

Zoomer309

Member

In defense of MediaCom, just to so I am into fair play, I did a few more tests. From 355 to 420 my speed went from about 7500 to 1500 or so, but after that is started to come back up, here is the last test

Download Speed: 6116 kbps (764.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 475 kbps (59.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

So it has gone from about 1500 20 mins ago to this. Perhaps that was not the "prime time lag monster" we have been tracking the past few weeks.
Semper_Fi
join:2002-04-02
Dubuque, IA

3 edits

Semper_Fi

Member

Well so far so good, usually my speeds go to crap around 4:30pm.


marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO

marigolds to Zoomer309

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said by Zoomer309:

I think there are a few painful conclusions we can come to:

1. The issue has had more then enough attention given to it on here.

2. If MediaCom had any intention of fixing it, they would have done it. Its been going on for months

3. MediaCom cant maintain the 1.5Mbps download speed they offered 5 YEARS ago now during peaks, so clearly they are behind the times with it comes to equipment and networks.

4. Flood the office with demands for help and when they dont help, drop em.
Depending on the region, fixing peak time slow downs can take months. Mediacom said that provisioning requests took 4-6 months for the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area before they were able to switch. Once they switched over the AT&T for provisioning, the time dropped to around 4 weeks. I would wonder why planning cannot be done 4-6 months ahead, but apparently it is not that simple since the problem happens all the time.

The issue though is likely not bandwidth to the headend. It is probably the headend equipment itself and possible the node structure. Headend equipment is relatively quick to fix (balancing loads, ordering and installing new equipment), but if the node structure is the problem then it can be a time-consuming fix.
Basically, they can split the node twice (into four legs each running to a separate port on a card at the headend). A tech can probably explain this part better since I do not understand it that well. Once the node is running to four ports, no amount of new bandwidth or headend upgrades are going to reduce the usage. To do that, new nodes can going to have to be installed running to a smaller amount of households. This is what was eventually needed in Iowa City and it took months just to plan, much less execute.

There is an easy way to know if the households passed per node is the problem....
Who was the cable company when HSI was first introduced? Has there been a system rebuild since that time?

Dogbert9
Premium Member
join:2002-03-28
Brookings, SD

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It appears other areas are affected as well. I am experiencing the same massive slowdown in South Dakota. So far I can say I'm not impressed with the speed "upgrade" During the day I get around 7200/484.

drslash (banned)
Goya Asma
join:2002-02-18
Marion, IA

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I am not going to bash but the peak hours issues I had took over one year to be resolved.

Dogbert9
Premium Member
join:2002-03-28
Brookings, SD

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I've experienced peak hour issues three different times in Brookings. Each time it took over six months for it to be resolved. Seems like as soon as it gets fixed it gets bad again in a few months and we start all over again.
Zoomer309
join:2003-05-01
Mason City, IA

Zoomer309

Member

The odd this is it does not seem to effect games all that much. When i am watching videos on Gamespot or CNN, it DOES effect that. the videos stream to my PC and WMP tries to buffer ahead, during the day the speed of my connection is more then enough to handle it.

During peak times its almost impossble. Also: I have Gamespot Complete and like to download demos, sometimes those files can be 800 to over 1000MB. When my connection is running 800-900KB/sec download, I can get those files in a half an hour, during peak times it could take 2 or more hours.

I guess its just something we will have to deal with.

clones
join:2005-04-18
Ankeny, IA

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Has anybody directly talked to mediacom about this in the past couple of weeks? If so what was there response. My parents live in Waukon and are dealing with the same issue.
john_895
join:2002-07-26
Clear Lake, IA

john_895

Member

said by clones:

Has anybody directly talked to mediacom about this in the past couple of weeks? If so what was there response. My parents live in Waukon and are dealing with the same issue.
The admitted to overselling their bandwidth in my area, and told me to wait 2 weeks while they get another line with AT&T.

This was from a tech @ my house and a CSR over the phone.

marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO

marigolds

MVM

said by john_895:
said by clones:

Has anybody directly talked to mediacom about this in the past couple of weeks? If so what was there response. My parents live in Waukon and are dealing with the same issue.
The admitted to overselling their bandwidth in my area, and told me to wait 2 weeks while they get another line with AT&T.

This was from a tech @ my house and a CSR over the phone.
One thing to note: Mediacom cannot legally restrict selling of HSI to limit the number of subscribers in an area. Hence why I have always thought over-selling was a misnomer. What Mediacom has done is underprojected and underdeveloped.

Two weeks is extremely optimistic unless the order has been in the pipe for months already. I suspect that they are not getting more bandwidth from AT&T (which would only have a minor effect on the speed at individual households), but rather they are splitting the node that you are on.

joedbq
@mchsi.com

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This is what its at now in Dubuque


And here is what it is later on at night:
Semper_Fi
join:2002-04-02
Dubuque, IA

Semper_Fi

Member

They say we are on a "over saturated node" here in Dubuque and when I asked how long would it take to split the node he said it could be up to 2 months.

pabster
join:2001-12-09
Waterloo, IA

pabster

Member

I think we're all on an oversaturated system.

Here's tonight's fantastic Prime Time speed results:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 170 kbps (21.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 510 kbps (63.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

I'm getting 12% of my download speed and barely 50% of the upload.

Lar
join:2002-06-17
Iowa

1 edit

Lar

Member

Well I heard from Account suspension today. They have no idea why my account was suspended. They suspect a supervisor did this. Maybe by accident. (Yeah ok)

My speeds suck this evening.

Download Speed: 2870 kbps (358.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 454 kbps (56.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
narcoreality
join:2006-12-11
Oelwein, IA

narcoreality

Member



This is at 12:oo+ at night.

Lar
join:2002-06-17
Iowa

Lar

Member

said by narcoreality:



This is at 12:oo+ at night.
Yeah looks like you got the 256 up back as well.

joedbq
@mchsi.com

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Upload speeds havent dropped for me (dubuque) during or after peak hours.
JBark8
join:2003-06-26
Spring Valley, MN

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Seeing the same thing here in SE MN. Great speeds in the mornings, poor speeds at night.
This morning:


Tonight:


I have noticed that the upload is pretty consistent. I've ran a few dozen tests over the past couple days, and it's always in the 450-490 range.
narcoreality
join:2006-12-11
Oelwein, IA

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Member


I'll test again around 7 tonight and see what happens, I am sure it will be below 1000kbps down and always around 240 kbps up.
pabster
join:2001-12-09
Waterloo, IA

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That is the best result I've seen in weeks. Upload is a bit stifled but latencies and overall thoroughput are right on.

I noticed last night from 5-9PM (the usual slow time) speed was pretty consistent (though not this fast.)
narcoreality
join:2006-12-11
Oelwein, IA

narcoreality

Member

I dindnt post my speeds but tonight was actually pretty good, it didnt drop below 500kbps/sec. Last night was bad and Tuesday night was horrid.
pabster
join:2001-12-09
Waterloo, IA

pabster

Member



I better knock on wood.
chadwik
join:2002-02-02
Waterloo, IA

chadwik

Member

not great here. My ping to the server is high also.

11am Friday morning.

chadwik

chadwik

Member

well, my link to the Twin Cities must be bad, even though it is the gold pyramid on the list. When I click Chicago I get this.



I am going back to my old way of testing and that is 8 connections to a nntp service downloading a large file.
pabster
join:2001-12-09
Waterloo, IA

pabster

Member

said by chadwik:

I am going back to my old way of testing and that is 8 connections to a nntp service downloading a large file.
That's actually a more accurate test, assuming the NNTP provider has the pipes for it. I'll assume you aren't referring to Mediacom's NNTP
chadwik
join:2002-02-02
Waterloo, IA

chadwik

Member

said by pabster:

said by chadwik:

That's actually a more accurate test, assuming the NNTP provider has the pipes for it. I'll assume you aren't referring to Mediacom's NNTP
I never even attempted to use Mediacom's NNTP.

Well at the moment, I am pulling 13.60 across 8 connections to newshosting. I have a job to do at 4pm, so I hope it stays this way past the golden hour. I will report back in a couple of hours when I return.
chadwik

chadwik

Member

ok, this looks good. It is 5:30pm and I am pulling 13.56Mbps across 8 connections.
chadwik

chadwik

Member

Mine is back to turtle speed again. Speeds were perfect all weekend. Now this...