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wizzy
join:2001-05-29
Grand Rapids, MI

wizzy

Member

Seems like Usenet getting throttled

I have 6meg (silver) service, and Newshosting as a provider. Until a couple of months ago, no issues.

Recently, within a few seconds of starting a download, my pings jump from 10-15ms to 2000+ ms (they return to normal after the download stops). My account supports up to 30 simultaneous connections, but I've tried it at 30 and 15, and see the same thing. Same thing when limiting my d/l to 400k/s (back in the days when I got 400; now I'm lucky to get 75k/s).

I have been using a non-standard NNTP port, and today tried SSL (563), neither seems to help.

Any ideas? Am i being throttled, or is this something of my own creation?

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by wizzy:

Any ideas? Am i being throttled, or is this something of my own creation?
Sounds like service issues. If you max out your down pipe, latency will go up.

If you're not able to get anywhere near your max (on a 6mbit service, that would be at least 600KB/sec) any time, day or night, and not after 15 minutes or more of full use every so often, then you're having a service issue.

NNTP isn't a reliable test simply because you have no idea what's happening at Newshosting. They could be having service issues of their own.
wizzy
join:2001-05-29
Grand Rapids, MI

wizzy

Member

said by JohnInSJ:

said by wizzy:

Any ideas? Am i being throttled, or is this something of my own creation?
Sounds like service issues. If you max out your down pipe, latency will go up.

If you're not able to get anywhere near your max (on a 6mbit service, that would be at least 600KB/sec) any time, day or night, and not after 15 minutes or more of full use every so often, then you're having a service issue.

NNTP isn't a reliable test simply because you have no idea what's happening at Newshosting. They could be having service issues of their own.
Overnight speeds shot back up to 600+k/s. I had been getting 1-2 Mbps on comcast's own speedtests with nothing else going on, so you're probably right about a service issue (although nothing is ever wrong when I call...). Had slow performance via FTP from a fbsd mirror, too, at that time.

Tordek7
Make the outages go away
Premium Member
join:2009-09-07
Great White

Tordek7 to wizzy

Premium Member

to wizzy
Hi wizzy See Profile,
We can definitely take a look and see what's going on, lets just get some information to begin. Go here if you need help.
»Comcast High Speed Internet FAQ »How To Get Help!

Lets start with all the basics first.
wizzy
join:2001-05-29
Grand Rapids, MI

wizzy

Member

1) Your location: City and State.
- Grand Rapids, MI

2) A description of the problem.
- Connection grinds to a halt when downloading via usenet.

3) Is the issue intermittent, constant or does it occur at a specific time of day?
Intermittent, but becoming more frequent.

Here's a speedtest when things are fine; pings in the 700's while downloading.


last night I was getting about 1.5 Mbps down with no other traffic. Pings in the 2000's when downloading.

4) Your modem make, model & firmware version. How to find firmware version: Access modem

Software Version: SB5100-2.3.8.0-GA-00-NOSH
Hardware Version: 3
MIB Version: II
GUI Version: 1.0
VxWorks Version: 5.4

5) Describe any home networking if applicable. (i.e. routers, hubs, adapters, etc.)

Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT v24sp1

6) List any firewall and/or anti-virus software you have installed. Include what version you have.
SprkFade
join:2008-01-18
Novi, MI

1 edit

SprkFade

Member

Try testing it by capping it at a lower speed, for example 200kB/s. I'm having a similar issue, and I also reside in Grand Rapids. What I noticed is that recently I've been unable to achieve my advertised speeds (16/2) so I'm maxing out the line even with my normal Usenet download cap in place (12000kb/s). I bet something similar is happening to you also.

Try to run a speed test when it happens to see what speeds you can reach at that moment. I'd be willing to bet you wont be at 6Mbps like you're supposed to be. Make sure you pause the Usenet download, so you aren't saturating the line during the speed test.

beachintech
There's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06

1 edit

beachintech to wizzy

Premium Member

to wizzy
Wizzy - what do your modem signal levels look like ( »192.168.100.1 )? I have you tried these same tests directly connected to the modem rather than going through a router?

chong673
join:2001-11-18
Jonesboro, GA

chong673

Member

Does it has different server in other region of the country?

Can you choose different backbone to download?
wizzy
join:2001-05-29
Grand Rapids, MI

wizzy to SprkFade

Member

to SprkFade
said by SprkFade:

Try to run a speed test when it happens to see what speeds you can reach at that moment. I'd be willing to bet you wont be at 6Mbps like you're supposed to be. Make sure you pause the Usenet download, so you aren't saturating the line during the speed test.
I'm away from home for a few days, but will try this again this weekend. It's definitely an issue where overall speed has degraded at that point, so my usenet leeching saturates the line even at slow speeds.

Have you had any luck reporting this type of an issue to Comcast? I've tried a few times, and get the "we don't have a problem, but if more people call I'm sure we'll look into it" response.
SprkFade
join:2008-01-18
Novi, MI

1 edit

SprkFade

Member

said by wizzy:

I'm away from home for a few days, but will try this again this weekend. It's definitely an issue where overall speed has degraded at that point, so my usenet leeching saturates the line even at slow speeds.

Have you had any luck reporting this type of an issue to Comcast? I've tried a few times, and get the "we don't have a problem, but if more people call I'm sure we'll look into it" response.
I've got a post in the Comcast Direct forum so hopefully I'll hear back from ComcastSteve and try to work on it with him. I've also tried to swap modems (4 times to be exact) but that didn't resolve the issue either.

As far as I can tell, it appears to be congestion related since neither of us can get our advertised speeds during peak hours. I've been able to pull my full 16Mbps, and powerboost even, at around 3am or during the morning hours so I don't think it's signal or line problems.

Also, I don't know if the DOCSIS 3 rollout in Michigan has anything to do with it, but that started on the 12th in various parts of the state too.

I'll keep you posted if I hear anything back from the Comcast Direct forums.
tampabay2
join:2008-10-16
Grand Rapids, MI

tampabay2 to wizzy

Member

to wizzy
I also live in GR and have noticed the problems with usenet, using astraweb. When I use a regular connection, I max out at about 500K/s on my 16mbit line over 10 connections. When I switched to the ssl server, my download speed returned to max.