3 edits | [Connectivity] HORRIBLE speeds at night - Boston, MA 10-2008 I know Somerville has it's own thread, but our speed has been great until the past few days, yet is now even WORSE than what their posts are showing.
Before least week, I almost ALWAYS ping at my connection speed (10meg/sec) but since last week, I'm pinging about 1.5meg/sec at night--which is when I USE my home internet!! 
There are two things that I think could be done to SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the troubles you are causing your customers:
1) If this is an upgrade for the system, why not do it LATE NIGHT so you won't affect your customers?? (9pm-1am is when speeds have been affected) Why not do it from 1am-6am? MOST of your customers are using their internet at 10pm, and are growing frustrated (myself included!)
2) I am getting a fraction of what I'm paying for. And I know this isn't capacity issues, because RCN has been FANTASTIC on speeds before last week. My neighbor has a 1.5meg connection (and paying considerably less than I am), yet his speed and mine are equal at night. So he doesn't have a reduction in speed, yet mine is down almost 90%?!? So if you MUST affect our connections, make sure the people paying more for their connection are less affected (ie. change the caps during work, so each user can still get 60% of the speed they pay for...)
RCN: Above all, PLEASE Do these upgrades later in the evening!!! You are operating in a college town, and are affecting probably 90% of your users by starting work so early in the evening! Also, please pass along an ETA on the work being done. (I REALLY don't want to have to switch ISPs!) |
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| Re: [Connectivity] HORRIBLE speeds at night - Boston, MA I'm experiencing the same problems living in Brighton. Currently transferring at 1.13Mbps when I'm paying for 20Mbps. Slowness has been only happening lately and seems to be around 9pm or so.
Come on RCN get it together.  |
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2 edits | Not only am I now hitting 0.7meg/sec, the latency makes ALL online gaming & VOIP completely impossible.
I am 52ms to my FIRST hop
Sound unbelievable?
»/linequality/nil/2447881
I don't know how I can stay with RCN with service like this. I'm dreading having to switch to Comcast...sigh. |
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| reply to moulder3
I hate to say it but I'm still having speed issues at night in Brighton -- haven't seen much improvement since my original post a couple weeks ago. I know it seems like a broken record is playing on this forum lately with all these speed issues and before it was sporadic when the slow downs would hit, but now almost on a nightly basis I slow WAY down. Yesterday I ran a speed test and clocked in at 1.44 Mbps (download). This has been the norm for the past several weeks.
I understand that peak traffic occurs at night, but 1.44 Mbps when you pay for 20 Mbps can be maddening. |
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| reply to moulder3
same deal in brookline ma at nights. even right now im only getting 10mbit out of my subscribed 20.
weekdays during office hours seem fine (everyones at work). other than that, pretty shoddy lately. |
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1 edit | reply to moulder3
rcnman: Can you please update us on the situation? Is work being done? What is the ETA it will be completed?
Many of your customers want to know this is a short-term problem, and not an ongoing (and unaddressed) network issues. Because at these speeds, even DSL would be a significant improvement!  |
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| reply to moulder3
I don't think this is related to overnight maintenance.
I'm typically seeing 4 - 5 Mbps during the day, instead of the 10 Mbps I'm paying for, with periodic drops to 1 Mbps or less. I've reported this to RCN, and nothing has improved. I did see 10 Mbps for the first few weeks following my switch to RCN, so the problem is clearly not with my home network.
The cynic in me wonders if the advertised speeds are a marketing ploy, assuming that most users never run a speed test. |
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| reply to moulder3
I'm currently getting 560K/s despite subscribing to Mach 20. This is downloading OpenSUSE off of Usenet, at 20 threads, which can easily max my connections at non-peak hours.
Is this something we can expect to continue indefinitely? Seems to be mostly non-responses to this sort of thread, which I guess is mostly just an acknowledgment that the RCN nodes are over saturated/bandwidth is oversold to accommodate peak usage bw? This didn't used to be a problem ~1 year ago, it's unfortunate that it is now, especially as this is supposedly after the analog crush? |
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| said by brooklinercn :
I'm currently getting 560K/s despite subscribing to Mach 20. This is downloading OpenSUSE off of Usenet, at 20 threads, which can easily max my connections at non-peak hours.
Is this something we can expect to continue indefinitely? Seems to be mostly non-responses to this sort of thread, which I guess is mostly just an acknowledgment that the RCN nodes are over saturated/bandwidth is oversold to accommodate peak usage bw? This didn't used to be a problem ~1 year ago, it's unfortunate that it is now, especially as this is supposedly after the analog crush?
Although I agree it's now obvious that RCN simply doesn't want to comment on this thread (leaving us to believe they either can't or don't want to increase internet capacity to their nodes), I thought I'd update on something I thought was interesting.
A friend of mine just moved to Boston and was pricing both Comcast & RCN and found that while Comcast recently boosted their internet speeds (available up to 50 meg/s, with its standard speed going from 12 meg/s to 15 meg/s ), RCN actually dropped the internet speed in their bundle packages from 10 meg/s to 5 meg/s . I can honestly say I've never seen an ISP go backwards like this! Especially when their direct competition in the Boston area is Comcast and Fios, both of which are rapidly increasing their speeds.
I'm beginning to think that our slow internet is here to stay on RCN. For me though, even more than speed I'm REALLY concerned about my latency. I'm still pinging 30-60ms to my first hop (regardless what time of day I test), which makes online gameplay practically impossible. A year ago I was getting 6-12ms to my first ping and NEVER had bandwidth issues. I really wish we knew what happened.
....A 15 meg/s connection (even with a monthly 250gb cap) on Comcast is starting to look pretty good, though! |
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 jmirabellaJoe MirabellaPremium,VIP
join:2003-10-20
Lanham, MD
kudos:2 | reply to moulder3
need your mac addresses to help.. throughout the thread please. |
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 lilhurricaneCrunchin' For CuresPremium,Mod
join:2003-01-11
Purple Zone
kudos:51 | reply to moulder3
»RCN Forum FAQ »How to Check your Cable Modem ID -- Encoded MAC Address. |
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Reviews:
 ·RCN CABLE
| reply to moulder3
im not trying to thread-jack you moulder3, but Joe Mirabella im having the same issues here in Easton PA, anywhere from 7pm-midnight. i have major slow downs too, i have called customer support, techs come to the house (4 times) and no results; one tech told me its the nod in my area, reason being its very overloaded. im setup for 20mb and i only get an average of 1-3mb down during the evening.
here's my mac: 00:13:10:be:1e:8d |
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| reply to moulder3
Hey Joe,
Cable Modem MAC Address 00:1c:ea:c1:37:14
Obviously the time of day the test is run at matters -- is basically all that matters really. Between 7PM and midnight, as others have said, especially on weekdays, seems to be the worst. During the day (noon, etc.), speeds are fine.
Both latency and total bandwidth suffer at peak times.
Thanks a lot for the help 
- jm |
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| reply to jmirabella
My MAC address is 00:1a:66:93:92:3c
I just checked again, and ma.speedtest.rcn.net is showing 4.9 Mbps, instead of the promised 10.
I have been checking several times per day for the past few weeks, and I have seen one reading faster than 5.5 Mbps - this morning at 0730 I saw almost 8 Mbps.
Rebooting the modem has no effect. |
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| reply to moulder3
My download tests are always over 10 here in Arlington
Taken just a few minutes ago with speedtest.net, 10409 kb
Of course this is very early evening and very early am. |
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| reply to moulder3
I subscribe to 20/2 service, brookline MA. As posted above, my MAC is 00:1c:ea:c1:37:14.
from »ma.speedtest.rcn.net/
Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 14.75 MB (15468724 bytes)
Total time taken : 22.15 seconds (22147 milliseconds)
Throughput : 698.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.7 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 5584.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 5.58 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Upload #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 14.75 MB (15468724 bytes)
Total time taken : 60.68 seconds (60681 milliseconds)
Throughput : 254.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.25 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 2032.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 2.03 Mbps [Megabit-per-second] |
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| reply to moulder3
So it's Monday at ~10:30PM right now, one of the prime "bad times" I was talking about, so I figured I'd post some examples.
Here's my current ping with Google. This is usually about 22ms during the day with 0% packetloss:
quote:
C:\Users\Administrator>ping -t www.google.com
Pinging www.l.google.com [64.233.169.103] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=232ms TTL=242
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=307ms TTL=242
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=324ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=333ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=251ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=275ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=328ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=310ms TTL=242
Reply from 64.233.169.103: bytes=32 time=390ms TTL=242
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 64.233.169.103:
Packets: Sent = 14, Received = 10, Lost = 4 (28% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 232ms, Maximum = 390ms, Average = 309ms
Here's a current speedtest from »ma.speedtest.rcn.net/
I ran two tests, a 3MB one and a 15MB one.
quote:
Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 10.77 seconds (10773 milliseconds)
Throughput : 294.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.29 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 2352.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 2.35 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 14.75 MB (15468724 bytes)
Total time taken : 70.95 seconds (70949 milliseconds)
Throughput : 218.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.22 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 1744.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 1.74 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Upload #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 12.31 seconds (12311 milliseconds)
Throughput : 257.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.26 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 2056.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 2.06 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Upload #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 14.75 MB (15468724 bytes)
Total time taken : 59.74 seconds (59741 milliseconds)
Throughput : 258.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.26 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 2064.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 2.06 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Your Modem Mac 00:1c:ea:c1:37:14 Your IP 207.180.xxx.xxx
Forward Frequency 735000000 Return Frequency 24816000
Forward Modulation qam256(4) Modem TX Power 38 dBmV
Foward Signal to Noise 37.8 dB Downstream Ratelimit 22000000
Forward Power Level 4.2 dBmV Upstream Ratelimit 2200000
It also seems that the more bandwidth being used, the worse the latencies/packetloss are. For instance, if I ping ma.speedtest.rcn.net while not running a speedtest, I get ~30ms ping at the moment. While running it, despite the speedtest only going ~2mbps, I get 88ms latencies. Google exhibits similar results (except is bad across the board, regardless of whether I'm running a speedtest or not -- but still gets even worse with a speedtest running).
Is this just the result of me being on a heavily overloaded node? The fact this only happens at peak hours makes it seem so, which kinda sucks as I guess there's not much that can be done then. |
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numsey
join:2009-01-05
Brighton, MA | reply to moulder3
taken 05Jan 22:50EST |
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| reply to moulder3
Add me to the list as well!!! I have been dealing with this issue for a while now. I am subscribed to a supposed 20/2 service in proper Boston, and I am getting mostly 3/2 at nights (fine during the day). The following are my results from a speedtest I ran at 10pm EST tonight. This unacceptable and feel I am being robbed.
Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 29.5 MB (30937448 bytes)
Total time taken : 77.12 seconds (77118 milliseconds)
Throughput : 401.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.4 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 3208.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 3.21 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Upload #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 29.5 MB (30937448 bytes)
Total time taken : 123.08 seconds (123080 milliseconds)
Throughput : 251.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.25 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 2008.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 2.01 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Your Modem Mac 00:19:47:5a:66:e4
Your IP 207.180.XXX.XX
Forward Frequency 735000000
Return Frequency 24816000
Forward Modulation qam256(4)
Modem TX Power 46 dBmV
Foward Signal to Noise 35.3 dB
Downstream Ratelimit 22000000
Forward Power Level -4.5 dBmV
Upstream Ratelimit 2200000 |
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| reply to moulder3
Yep, this is nuts. Getting 300K/s off of usenet at the moment (TWENTY THREADS COMBINED FOR A TOTAL OF 300K/s -- like 15K/s per thread). I get ~2.4MB/s at nonpeak times from same thing.
This is really dismal. |
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