Popinjay
join:2007-12-12
 ·Signature Wireless
| Advice needed
Alright, first off my ISP is terrible. I've been using them for three years now since nothing else is available in my area. They over subscribe their access points by a large margin even admitting it, and their way of fixing it is by adding another AP which I noticed absolutely no difference at all, and they don't have a throttler installed. My speeds can range from 1meg to 200k in a matter of minutes during the day.
Now at night everything is fine. Usually past 10:30pm things start to calm down and my speed and ping times begin to stabilize. It's pretty much been this way since as long as I can remember.
Every time I call them asking what they can do to fix my problem they always have some excuse with no solution, like asking me if I reset my radio or send out a tech to readjust it.
My question is what do I do here? Do I keep trying to get them to straighten up, or am I doomed a horrible experience as long as I'm with them? |
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AMD Phreak
Premium
join:2003-12-14
| Welcome to the forums. 
Lets cut to the chase (you've already answered most of these so I am going to cut the others out):
From the stickied forum posting:
•1. Your WISP's name
•2. Your WISP's claimed speeds you should receive
•3. The manufacture of the equipment the WISP has provided you with
It sure sounds like over-subscription issues. If they added additional access points, and your radio was placed onto the new AP but you still had problems, it sounds like there is congestion on that particular PoP. They might backhaul the PoP's traffic to a different location where their internet connection comes from, and this backhaul link might be saturated. Finally, there might be congestion in their internet connection, in which case they'd need to order additional bandwidth.
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| reply to Popinjay
said by Popinjay  :My question is what do I do here? Do I keep trying to get them to straighten up, or am I doomed a horrible experience as long as I'm with them? I would suggest printing out these pages:
»m0n0.ch/wall/
and then mailing them, along with a little letter explaining to them how a free and cheap device like this one would enhance every customers experience. I wouldn't put a return address on it. 
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Popinjay
join:2007-12-12
·Signature Wireless
1 edit | reply to Popinjay
1. Signature Wireless www.signatureblue.com
2. They "guarantee" 300k or above. No specific speed given other than that.
3. Tranzeo 2.4 GHz. No idea on the exact model but it's your traditional rectangular white box look.
And that m0n0wall, is there anything in particular on that webpage I should mail them other than what it does? They might not even take it seriously since they have this habit of talking down to me.
Thanks for the assistance. |
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AMD Phreak
Premium
join:2003-12-14
| HMm....
Well, you could maybe print the main info page along with this...
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_shaping
But then again, I am very sarcastic. |
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Popinjay
join:2007-12-12
·Signature Wireless
1 edit | reply to Popinjay
An update since I last posted, I sent them the things I was told. No response really on any of it, I'm guessing they just didn't give it the time of day. I also spoke to a tech about everything. He basically told me straight up that there's nothing they can do. He mentioned they added more bandwidth numerous times, tried installing a throttler with nothing but bad results. I was also told that I'm the only person that calls in (around once a month is all) and complains about the problems I'm having (lol?). Judging by the ping plotter test I ran I can't imagine someone not complaining.
From what I understand the reason my connection looks like absolute garbage is because, and I quote "There's a small amount of people like you that play games all night, and download large files." Well that's what I was told anyways, but any idiot can see that it's getting the most problems during it's peak hours. I even had trouble getting that test to run in the beginning because it kept timing out so much.
Now to defend my ISP some, it doesn't always look this bad. This was a really bad afternoon/evening which happens from time to time, but on good days it still wouldn't be tolerable for the majority of users on this board.
Anyways I suppose what I would like is some new tactics someone could give me to use to get through to them.
I wanted to add I know I won't be getting any miracle cures, it's just that anything I say to get them to improve their network doesn't work. Only natural I suppose to be asking for help on a place like this and showing people what it's like. |
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MarkKladivo
@sigtech.net
 from:
seagreen
| What say you give me a call?
I own the place and am quite certain we can get this issue resolved - it really is unusual for our network.
Please either call the office and demand to speak to me, or e-mail admin (at) signatureblue.com with your contact info and I will be in touch as soon as I see it.
I can't guarantee that I can fix it immediately, but I'll bet it can be fixed quickly.
BTW - Sorry to hear you're having trouble.
Mark |
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AMD Phreak
Premium
join:2003-12-14 | reply to Popinjay
Good to see you here Mark. If you have any questions please come over to the WISP forum. |
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seagreen
Premium,Mod
join:2001-05-14
out there | reply to MarkKladivo
Thanks for popping in to try to help out your customer - I'm sure it's been noted and appreciated.
FYI the WISP forum is here: »Wireless Service Providers It's a B2B forum. |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| reply to Popinjay
said by Popinjay : He basically told me straight up that there's nothing they can do. He mentioned they added more bandwidth numerous times, tried installing a throttler with nothing but bad results. Well, It is good to see that you have a WISP who is willing to try and resolve your issues. Hats off to Mark Kladivo for being man enough to come forward and make his presence known.
The adding of extra bandwidth is a good thing, however, with out some form of shaping/throttling, it will not do a lot of good. I find it odd that they had a bad experience with a "throttler", but then again, I wasn't there and I didn't install it, so who am I to make negative comments about it. Perhaps they bought into some sales persons big line of crap and installed something that didn't do anything it was supposed to?.
I can tell you first hand that if you are running an ISP of any type, SOMETHING MUST be done to control the bandwidth hogs and peer to peer users so that everyone gets a fair share of band width, otherwise all of your customers will have a bad day every day.
Now, in defense of your WISP, I need to ask you some questions. The first one is how much bandwidth are you trying to consume in a day?. If you are the type of user that has Limewire running 24/7 and you are down loading everything under the sun, there may be some incentive for the WISP to not fix your setup? (Not that it is the correct thing to do, but we do live in a real world).
If none of this applies to you?, please do not be offended. A lot of end users do not realize that running Limewire in the background while playing games will ruin their gaming experience.
If one or two users attached to your access point are running Limewire or any other P2P application, and those 2 users are not throttled or shaped in any way, your online experience is going to be horrible. If you are the one running Limewire, you can bet that your neighbors are not going to be happy with their online experience either, as you are killing them.
It sounds like you may be close to finding the answer to your problems?. I hope everything works out.
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Popinjay
join:2007-12-12
·Signature Wireless
1 edit | I don't use limewire, I don't download torrents, I use this connection for gaming and that's it. In fact I don't even believe my ISP allows such things. Sure I'll download things occasionally, but who doesn't? Maybe once or twice a week or every other at the MOST I'll download something greater than 100mb. I strictly use this connection for gaming. And if you want to know which games COD4, TF2, first person shooters. Which consist of 1-4 hours a day, not all in a row.
My basic routine of accomplishing my bandwidth goals are monitoring my connection and waiting to see if it's tolerable enough to withstand these tasks, and making sure it'll be enjoyable for myself. I'll see how fast a webpage loads, that's about all I do to check. |
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Quento21
join:2007-09-28
Laurel, MT | reply to Popinjay
i have the same problems with my ISP, USA Digital. The peak hours are horrible, my speed is all over the place and so is my ping. I also online game. |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| reply to Popinjay
said by Popinjay :I don't use limewire, I don't download torrents, I use this connection for gaming and that's it. In fact I don't even believe my ISP allows such things.
That's fine. Keep in mind, I have to ask some questions to try and help you figure out what is going on. You do pay for it, so it should work.
said by Popinjay :Sure I'll download things occasionally, but who doesn't? Here again, I agree with you 100%. It sounds like you are just a normal user, and ISP's love those. 
said by Popinjay :My basic routine of accomplishing my bandwidth goals are monitoring my connection and waiting to see if it's tolerable enough to withstand these tasks, and making sure it'll be enjoyable for myself. I'll see how fast a webpage loads, that's about all I do to check. I think you have a right to see how well your connection is performing, and I also think you have a right to a decent online experience, especially if you are just surfing and gaming. I asked those questions earlier because I wasn't sure what you did on a normal day of usage, and those habits can sometimes affect your overall experience, but now that I have your answers, we need to move back to your connection itself.
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| reply to Quento21
said by Quento21 :i have the same problems with my ISP, USA Digital. The peak hours are horrible, my speed is all over the place and so is my ping. I also online game. Your issue is a common one. As much as I hate to say it?, read this:
»Wireless users, READ THIS!
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Popinjay
join:2007-12-12
·Signature Wireless
4 edits | reply to Popinjay
Posting an update since my radio has been tweaked with. It has improved from what it used to be some, but what I haven't really been getting help with is what is causing all the packet loss still and ping times acting up in the late hours.
This was a pretty good day actually, but some days the packet loss can become so great that if I have programs running like an instant messenger or steam they'll just disconnect and then reconnect once it's stabilized.
What I'd like to know is what sort of activity could cause this much packet loss? |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| said by Popinjay :What I'd like to know is what sort of activity could cause this much packet loss? While I do not have a lot of experience with "Steam", I do believe that program tries to track a few thousand servers at all times. It also uses a peer to peer protocol to provide you with updates to your games?. If this is the case?, your WISP may be limiting the amount of connections coming from your PC and /or router. This fact alone MAY cause you issues?
Have you tried turning off Steam and then playing another FPS game that doesn't use Steam?. If so, does that make a difference?.
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Popinjay
join:2007-12-12
·Signature Wireless
2 edits | Steam doesn't seem to be the culprit, I usually only have it on 2-3 hours a day every other day or so. I'll only log in when I believe my connection has calmed down, and when I'm in it doesn't appear to be using any bandwidth other than loading links from what I can see anyways. As in no packets being sent or received other than the initial load and the game updates when I activate them.
Also that log I recorded on ping plotter I had no programs running in the background other than firefox on occasion that would use bandwidth. Basically my bandwidth useage regardless of how much or little I'm using has no effect on my connection looking the way it does. =/ |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| I wish I had a better answer for you, but it appears that either your radio has a crappy link or the access point you are attached to is oversubscribed?. Either way, there is nothing you will be able to do to fix it. 
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