http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21161122 en Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:19:16 EDT Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:19:16 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21164854 bryz : Noticed another topic discussing similar problems starting at the beginning of September.

Anyone have new input?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21164854 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:44:15 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21163281 anon : I have the exact same problem. I live in Calgary. I see a range btw 30-70k/sec. I have been experiencing this for about a month and a half now. Tried the same tests as you described. I am also an avid BT user who began using BT way before it became mainstream.

I noticed after installing SP3 thats when the dramatic slowdown occured (around that time, i dont know whether this is a coincidence or whether they are somehow related)... I changed the half open connections back to my original 50 but still same issues..]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21163281 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:14:12 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21161122 bryz : Hopefully someone can shed some light on my problem...but some background first.

For years I have been successfully downloading various torrents with impressive speeds using Shaw's extreme service in St. Albert. Recently, I moved downtown and signed up for Shaw Extreme-I again thinking I would be receiving the same level of download speeds. Guess again. The below image shows my "Glass Ceiling" of between 30-40 kb/s.

My initial thoughts were "Crappy torrents, must be," so I did a little testing to see if this was the case. I chose several large torrents with huge numbers of seeders/leechers and attempted downloading it at my condo downtown. Average speed ~30 kb/s overnight. Then, I went to the University and attempted downloading there. Initially I thought it wouldn't even work since the university generally has thwarted my attempts to download torrents via wireless. Surprise, surprise, I'm downloading ~300-400 kb/s (same torrents as before) and uploading ~800 kb/s (restricted that quickly before I'd get thrown off the network, hehe).

This brings me to my next test - same torrents, went back home to St. Albert to see what kind of speeds I'd get there. Although not as high as at the UofA, I still averaged around 100-200 kb/s download speed.

Next, I thought I would establish whether this was a PC or MAC OS X problem + Router. Plugged PC directly into modem, average download speed 30 kb/s. Plugged Macbook Pro directly into modem, average download speed again 30 kb/s. Obviously no difference between PC/MAC and the direct connection negated the problem of a firewall on my Airport Extreme.

Lastly, I thought I would try downloading something that in the past I would have amazing speeds -- the show Heroes. The torrent had well over 50,000 seeds/leechers and I assumed I would get superior speeds...nope, 30-40 kb/s average.

Definite lastly, I noted above that I was testing while downloading several different torrents to establish whether it was a problem with an individual torrent. All quoted speeds are the total speed of all torrents being downloaded together.

As I mentioned above, I have been an avid user of bit torrent for quite some time and am adept at customizing the settings and firewall settings to properly facilitate downloading. I called Shaw yesterday and got the expected spiel that there is no traffic shaping on my account as I have Shaw Extreme-I (not to mention the rep said he lived near me and was experiencing exceptional speeds on Extreme-I while downloading torrents).

I am left still clueless as to the problem with my connection. My conclusions are that it is not a PC/MAC/Router problem, but some kind of restriction has been placed my on my account regarding bit torrent traffic (encrypted or not). Can anyone please provide me with some input as to how I should proceed from this point? I find this extremely frustrating as I am paying for bandwidth (theoretically unthrottled) and I cannot take advantage of it. I should point out that running a speedtest with either Shaw's speedtest or speakeasy.net both have superior results. Any help would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Brian

[EDIT] Added the image. Also, it seems that the speeds I am achieving are sinusoidal. Every once in a while it reaches a more reasonable speed before being reset back down to rock bottom.

Shaw Extreme-I speeds @ new condo

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21161122 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:05:48 EDT