http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20730030 en Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:56:27 EDT Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:56:27 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21038403 thatguy5245 : Hey DunbarWV,

Don't know exactly where u r in Dunbar but I am near Kroger's and Shoneys.

The last time I checked in June before leaving for Verizon's very stable 7.1/768 DSL there were 181 people on the node that I was connected to.

You are lucky to be getting 3Mbps 1 time I got 612kbps down 750kbps up]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21038403 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:24:44 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20997794 longgone : Welcome DunbarWV. Look about the 12M related Post in here and check to see if you are not alone with your frustrations. At least it does appear that the Tech was attempting an honest answer for those consistent inept speeds, but too bad if they accomplish just a fix of those early AM 19-20's you reported to them. :hmm:]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20997794 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:31:58 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20995334 anon : I recently ordered 12meg internet in Dunbar thinking I was upgrading from verizon 3meg DSL. All day and night I get different speeds ranging from 1meg to 5megs download. Only at around 4am can I get anything faster, but what is strange is during those morning hours it reports the speed as being 19-21megs download. I even tried downloading some files to see how accurate that was, and it was accurate! But what sucks is during the day the speed is slower than my 3meg DSL! Techs say there is nothing wrong on my end, that its the node, too many customers, but give no resolution. Customer service says they have notified corporate. Not sure what that will accomplish. I was also told that the modems are provisioned for 13meg to make sure you get the 12meg and that they have no idea why I get way more than 12 during the early morning hours. This makes no sense to me, I really hate their internet service. :mad:]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20995334 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:06:17 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20971971 SteveP75904 : Dang DJBuzz, with all that info I'm very surprized you haven't fixed your own problem, I think suddenlink needs you as their network engineer :P (lmao)
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A government large enough to provide you with everything, is also large enough to take everything away.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20971971 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:20:08 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20746869 DJBuzz24 :
In larger areas SL will order a DS3 (45Mbit) or 2 @ around $8,000-$14,000 (seriously) each. 99% of the time the more you order, the cheaper. In smaller areas they'll order T1/DS1 ciruits (usually $300-$1500/mnth) and "mux", or bond them together. The most common scenario is to order at least 3 or more, again, the more the cheaper, and at one point they pretty much become buy 2, get 1 75% off!

It is then SL's job to either manage that network themselves (from what I gather mostly metro areas), or outsource (for rural/small markets) the management. From what I've been told, no one but engineering knows what those metrics are (marketspeak, ignorance, or strategy, I'll let you decide), and they're most certainly not made publicaly available. That includes Tech Support, at all tiers.

In my case, there's very limited bandwidth for the number of users, resulting in around a 43:1 ratio. Meaning each customer is sold "1Mb" service, when in reality there is only enough bandwidth to support ~43 simultaneous users @ 1Mb/ea, maxing their connection. Statistically that should only happen for less than a couple total minutes per day, each instance lasting only a second or two. The companies that I've worked with in the past have typically sold on a 25-30:1 ratio, and even then power-users end up on DSL, typically sold at 15-20:1, or business class (1-10:1). Ratios that low almost guarantee that users will be downloading to their heart's content, and unless they're eagle eying stats, will never notice.

In my area it becomes such a problem that SL has enlisted a troop of Network Nazis to severely throttle users that reach some unknown limit. The general line of thinking here is, "we throttle to make it fair for other users", while the general line of defense is, "it works fine for 99% of our other users". If it works fine for them, then limit *their* bandwidth, as they're less likely to notice.

Using the above tactics along with selling based upon what its MAN speeds are will end up gaining the company a class action lawsuit.

For that matter, anyone wanting to look into that should seriously consider printing the current terms of service, any emails you've exchanged with the company, and any speedtest logs you may have (again, speedtest.net allows you to get a handy spreadsheet, mine just so happens to contain every speed test since 01/28/2008, when I first signed on). Let technically capable counsel look everything over, and see what they say. If someone gets some positive feedback, be sure to post it here :)

Often it doesn't result in anything other than a slight dent to the company's bottom line, but some people get off on that kind of retribution :)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20746869 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:24:07 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20743522 anon : BINGO!

But that is what the company say's when we I have Tech's come out.... the Speed is only guaranteed "On our Network".

So, Yes. I also want my speed beyond SL network, but the thing is, NOBODY here with 12meg service can get the Speed even within SL Network they say they can only guarantee.

And I really do not know why we, in WV, are told to use the SL site for Speedtests, But I do know that when I run speedtest executed to there, It is going from my modem through local HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) network, to the CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) at the Local Head End, 25 miles away, Long Haul Fiber through multiple Fiber Nodes along the way to the NOC in Texas, 1000 mi. away. That is all well and good, but like you said off network it goes down even worse than on the SL MAN.

Another thing I have noticed, that I can run a speedtest on the speedtest.net site, choosing different locations everytime, and have completly different speed result's every single time.

So honestly, I can see what the point is about "Speed on our network"

Because If there is any company in the US that can guarantee the speeds I pay for, no matter where on the WWW im looking at or downloading from, even on a speedtest server that has no bandwidth to accomadate my test, and still get the speeds I pay for, then I think that would be the Holy Grail of service, and I have yet to find/see/ or hear about this kind of service, even if you are sitting on a theroretical pc on a 100GBe Longhaul backbone.

All that aside, SL cannot even guarantee anyone here in WV paying for a 12meg account on their own Network, for that matter, on average, not even a 7 meg connection. No that really sucks if you cant even provide it on your own network.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20743522 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:48:17 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20736698 DJBuzz24 : So, what would be the purpose of subscribing to a service that allows 12Mb transfers between it's own, local customers, but filters everyone out of a connection being oversold 45:1?

For what it's worth, I subscribe to 1Mb service, and receive 256k 90% of the time.

The techs here (and subsequent calls to tech support) recommended I use speedtest.net 100% of the time. The excuse about "hitting the bgp and peering out" was a nice attempt to use confusing jargon that basically translated to "run a speed test to a server sitting 2ft from where the end of your cable connection terminates at the Head-End".

We don't subscribe to SuddenLink MAN Services. We subscribe to SuddenLink HIGH SPEED INTERNET Services. This is something that this cable company has a hard time grabbing a hold of.

SuddenLink doesn't have enough localized content to give me any reason to stay *within* the network, and seems to punish me anytime I try to get to anything outside of their network.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20736698 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:17:26 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20734905 anon : Sorry, I didnt see that you was from AR, but the sites that jib listed is a speedtest only within the SL network. From what I understand, but not for sure, on the last HOP b4 it hits the AS into wonderland. But, our 12meg is here in WV, and the site link includes WV in the address, So this maybe shot from the 10k CMTS @ local Master headend to Tyler, TX NOC.

So this is only on the Network, and the TOS says, above all, SL's speed's cannot be guarenteed outside SL's network, I.E> not running off network speedtest's like speedtest.net

But the kicker is, that even on SL's own network, it dont stay consistant.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20734905 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:47:19 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20734748 anon : I think that it is in all good intentions by local tech's, in the end they are more on the RF side of the system, and not CCNA, Net+ or any other certified IT tech, or they would be indoors and not in you attic @98 deg. outside temp.

Anyways, Im no expert by far, but isnt BGP like you said the Board Gate Patrol that allow's communication with other " Peering " networks, I.E. XO.net, Level 3 Communications, HighWinds Group ect. basically allows SL network to talk with/combine other MSO's and Telecom's network's?

That is what I think he means by running Trace route and see how shitty the next hop or two on on different Peering Networks out of Suddenlink's own network.

Here a link to Wiki on Peering FYI

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20734748 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:04:37 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20730569 DJBuzz24 : speedtest.net keeps similar results. I just used it to send Pete Abel a spreadsheet (also provided by speedtest) of all my speed tests since signing on with SuddenLink on January 28th.

The beautiful part is about 90% of those speed tests should line up with my trouble ticket notes with SL. Both when the problem started occurring as well as a nice little time/date stamped speed test to show it'd been fixed...for the time.

as for "hitting the bgp and peering out", I'm pretty sure the tech has good intentions, but has picked up the wrong buzzwords. Granted, I do more managerial tasks now, but in the 12yrs I was in networking and SA, I never heard "hit the bgp and peer out" from anyone.

"Peer out" = "connection reset by peer", usually a dropped connection due to packet errors, sudden disconnect, etc. Most commonly SEEN in chatrooms, but fairly common in every aspect of networking. Sudden disconnects from a FTP server can be considered "CRPB", or "peering out".

BGP = Border Gateway Protocol - Everything routed from SuddenLink to/from the Internet is done via BGP routing. It's not a "thing", but rather a giant virtual traffic cop. Any speedtest you run that looks to the internet will "be hitting the bgp", but only "peer out" if SL has some major Internet link problems.

The only way that makes sense is if you run speed tests from within the local network. I.E. you send a file to your neighbor's computer, he sends it back, and you mark the results. Anything else is going to use the internet, using BGP, and show you the results of how fast you can leave your house, travel to France (or anywhere you choose), and come back again. As it should, as the only real way to get a good "Innernet speed test" is to use the Internet to do it! :)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20730569 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:34:51 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20730030 anon : Ok Folks, Let try something new today. The immediate response I will get from a tech that comes out to my house is " Lets run a speed test that dont hit the bgp and peer out" Tech's who even can comprehend this is slim to none, anyway's it it not the tech who is local that is to blame. Ok, well if that what they want, then lets give it to them. The first link is a way to setup a SID name. So even if your IP changes, you can still pull historical stats from the SID name on the database reports link. Please use the same one each time you run the test.

The other link is database that you can put your SID in and set the date back a few months to see all that is still stored on file. So, if this helps at all to get my speeds somewhat consistant, the I guess what Sen. Byrd said about SL bringing WV from the gutter in terms of avg. speeds may still hold true, but until then, looks like that pat on the back was a little premature since we are actually in the "alpha" stages of testing. Shouldnt we be getting paid for that?

SID Speedtest:
----------------------------------------------------------
»speedtest.wv.suddenlink.net/mysp···nid.html

Database Reports
----------------------------------------------------------
»speedtest.wv.suddenlink.net/mysp···b/search

Now, this has been around since the start of their launch of the test site, usually goes back i think 45 days? But, it may not be around if this rub's salt into the wounds....]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20730030 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:30:44 EDT