Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA
2 edits | [Connectivity] Horrible slowness at night -Somerville, MA
I was very excited to move from Medford MA to Somerville MA, because it meant I could finally ditch Comcast and get back to RCN who I had in Natick and was incredibly satisfied with.
Alas, I only get the 20mbit down/2mbit up I pay for in the afternoons, when I am usually at work. Once I get home around 8 PM, all the way until I go to sleep (even past 1 or 2 AM), I can't get over 6mbit down, and 1mbit up.
Here's a result not 10 minutes ago from speedtest.net which has shown me 20mbit in the past:
And here's one from about 8 PM when it was at its worst. Both of these have no other traffic on my router except the speed test.
I replaced my leased modem with a purchased D-Link DCM-202 and nothing has changed. My levels are fantastic and I am confident in my network (yes, I have tried directly connecting and get the same results).
Here's the levels from RCN's speedtest site (and my MAC so you can help me, RCN!):
The conclusion is probably, unfortunately, that my node is saturated. However, this is no excuse. I pay for 20mbit downstream and 2mbit upstream, and I can hardly ever reach that.
What can RCN do to rectify this situation? What's the best way for me to go about getting it fixed?
I disliked Comcast for many reasons, but I got a consistent 16mbit down/1mbit up in my previous residence (the extreme speed tier).
Help me love you again, RCN! |
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alanisrox69
join:2005-03-29
LHV, PA
 ·RCN CABLE
| Re: [Connectivity] Horrible, depressing slowness at night :(
And before anyone blames the DCM-202 as the problem, it's not. I told him to replace the RCN modem with that one......
I use it here, and get 20.2mbps down all the time.
I hope someone can help Pzy 
-Derek-
--
CHECK YOUR FSLC TAXES!!! |
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sashwa
Pixie Cat Crunchin' n Foldin'
Premium,Mod
join:2001-01-29
Alcatraz
clubs:  | reply to Pzykotic
»Getting Official Help..
»RCN Forum FAQ »How to Check your Cable Modem ID -- MAC Address. |
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afty
join:2002-04-21
Somerville, MA
| reply to Pzykotic
Re: [Connectivity] Horrible, depressing slowness at night :(
I also live in Somerville, and I see the same behavior. I have the 10 Mbit service, but in the evenings I am lucky to see 2 Mbits down. During the day I can get 10 Mbit, but I'm not home during the day so that doesn't really help me.
Here is my info from the RCN speedtest page:
Your Modem Mac 00:14:e8:b7:1b:96
Forward Frequency 735000000
Forward Modulation qam256(4)
Foward Signal to Noise 35.2 dB
Forward Power Level 4 dBmV
Return Frequency 24816000
Modem TX Power 40.6 dBmV
Downstream Ratelimit 11000000
Upstream Ratelimit 800000 |
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boble88
join:2001-12-20
Somerville, MA
·RCN CABLE
| reply to Pzykotic
Re: [Connectivity] Horrible slowness at night -Somerville, MA
When you run your speed tests is there an anti-virus, malware, trojan, firewall, or any other such program running in the background? Do you have a wireless router as well? I ask this because using these on my home PC has taxed my down load speeds anywhere from 2 to 10Mbps. They also have a smaller affect on my upload speeds as well. Taking my Dlink DIR-655 off line has also raised my download speeds. Which is a new problem for me, which I am trying to solve in the Dlink forum. |
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA
| Pzykotic,
Hey, so stupid question when you ran your speed tests did you turn off whatever you have doing uploads? We've got your modem running a solid 2mbps upstream almost all last week and only stopping in the wee hours of the morning.
In 7 days you uploaded alot of data So I just want to make sure when you are doing your tests that you have whatever not running. When I quickly matched up time-stamps it looked like they overlapped atleast your tests to RCN's speedtest system. Likewise if you don't have anything running perhaps now would be a good time to change your wireless key if you have one.
Now, so you don't think I'm putting everything on you;
While Somerville as a hole including your specific downstream is slated for upgrade. However, even then it's not nearly saturated enough to cause the results that you are reporting. Is there any chance I can get you to run tests against our servers at a few random intervals?
--
Bryan Laird
Director Product and Technology |
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA
4 edits | reply to Pzykotic
Re: [Connectivity] Horrible slowness at night -Somerville, MA
I made sure to turn off any data transfer while doing speed tests, but didn't bother for the levels tests on rcn.net. If there was any overlap, it wasn't significant enough to cause the massive downstream slowdowns I see.
I just performed a speedtest on my home PC, no one in the 3-unit apartment building is home right now (and none of them except me have RCN), and this is the result at 4 PM with no traffic on my local network:
That's about the fastest I've ever seen, and is still almost 5mbps too slow on the downstream side.
It will get worse and worse as the day goes on, once people get home from their 9-5 jobs/school (at least that's what it seems like).
I'll post again at around 8 or 9 PM with new data, and a realtime bandwidth graph from my router to show the speedtest being the only data transfer.
I work from noon until 8 PM, so I only ever see my RCN connection at its absolute slowest, and it's really annoying. Like I said, I was excited to get RCN back after leaving Medford and Comcast, but this is a huge downside.
Edit: I'll be doing the speedtests on my Windows PC running the latest Flash, Java and Firefox, connected via Gigabit ethernet to a D-Link Gig-E switch, which is connected to my WRT54GL router running Tomato Firmware, which is connected to my D-Link DCM-202 cable modem. All with new ethernet and coax cable, and the router/switch throughput tested to be working properly. |
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lilhurricane
Late Oktoberfest
Premium,Mod
join:2003-01-11
Purple Zone
clubs:
·Comcast
Host:
TV over IP
Software
RCN
Inside Insight
Team Discovery
| said by Pzykotic  : I was excited to get RCN back Let's not be so excited that we forget & post pics w/ our IP adresses, k? 
Fixed for you. |
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA | reply to Pzykotic
5 PM:
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA | reply to Pzykotic
6 PM:
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA | reply to Pzykotic
7 PM:
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA
1 edit | reply to Pzykotic
8 PM:
(oh the horror)
Here's the graph showing no other traffic:
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA | reply to Pzykotic
Here's the worst of the night. Please fix this, it's honestly just horrendously slow, I couldn't be bothered waiting for the upload test to finish.
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA
1 edit | reply to Pzykotic
Still terrible at 10 PM... what's this, 18% of what I pay for?
And here's the 10 PM graph showing my roommate trying to downloading something, getting abysmal speeds, and then pausing it for me to do a speed test (at abysmal speeds):
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA
1 edit | reply to Pzykotic
It's a new world record of slowness! 7% of what I pay for!
11 PM:
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nickcatal
join:2008-06-23
Chicago, IL
1 edit | reply to Pzykotic
Are you using the QOS feature in Tomato on your router? Does this happen when you direct connect to the modem?
QOS is worthless with an unstable max speed... |
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA
| I have never and do not run any QOS, and yes it happens with a direct connection to the modem. What possible cause in my internal network could there be that makes the speed drop precipitously hour by hour, and come back up in the wee hours of the morning?
Sounds like node saturation to me... |
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Pzykotic
join:2002-06-27
Somerville, MA | reply to Pzykotic
12 AM:
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