US Cable Support > Time Warner Internet Services > [TWC] Standard Internet in NYC keeps Deteriorating

[TWC] Standard Internet in NYC keeps Deteriorating

can you post your signal levels from »192.168.100.1/ and if your modem shows logs, that too?
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thanks for showing an interest - keep in mind i may have power cycled my modem when i notice loss of logical internet
connectivity before it had a chance to log the error properly so the rest of the log is the same as the last 2 entries.

the signal levels look okay from what i can see. The DHCP errors in the log look like they could cause an issue, but those times could be off or other entries cleared out like you said. I would think if DHCP fails you wouldnt be able to get online.
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I get those same DHCP errors and don't have any issues, so it's probably not that.

reply to Packeteers
8mb? god i woulda killed for that when i had standard. standard started out great for me and then turned into dial-up. i was getting .8mb! no seriously. i waited months for TWC to pretend like they were fixing something but i got so frustrated i gave up. i actually got a verizon dsl account while they were doing nothing about it and it was a lot faster than TWC standard. i told them I'm not paying a penny for this TWC dial-up until its fixed. i was getting like 3mb with the dsl, haha.

i got 30mb wideband a while ago and now its pretty awesome.

I may get wideband when my first year teaser rate it up.

all my friends with high FPS in all the mmos and shooters
i play have wideband in common, which make perfect sense
since i recently discovered many games support up to 4
concurrent client:server connections; wideband being like 2.

in the meantime, I posted this on the private service forum,
»Time Warner Cable Direct
I got a response on the 5th day, and after reading this thread
the tech is offering to replace my modem as he claims my area
node is not over congested.

I had Verizon aDSL 7mb service for a few Months, but they
eventually fuked that up so bad that I gave up on them.
I even wrote to their CEO, and they don't give a fuk either.
That was 6 Months before the wider press picked up on the
fact that Verizon was basically throwing it's DSL to the dogs.

reply to Packeteers
tell me about it, i have wideband/ultimate internet and for 2nd month already ever since upstream channel bonding kicked in playing fps games that require low packet loss and reasonable ping is basically impossible as far as being able to actually do what you want in the game. Why? Because every day upstream snr drops below 20-18dB between 8pm and 8 am. It supposed to be at least 24 and for 2 channels that try to use 64QAM it should be even higher.

At night I have to deal with 5-10% packet loss all on the upstream. Even playing rts games is tough, I used to shoutcast and video stream games now I cannot do that at all.

I have been TW customer and using their highest internet packages since 2004 or so, and never before have I seen service get so horrible as far as quality of the connection as past few months, I spent countless hours on phone etc and nothing been really done so far.

reply to Packeteers
get wideband 30mb. its only 10 bucks more a month. well, if you have that worthless turbo gimmicky crap. when you take the turbo off, the difference was only about 10 bucks.

wideband rocks! well, the 30 had dropped to about 18 lately...

reply to Packeteers
after bugging support by email - it looks like a premise visit must be scheduled - i just hope they send someone more qualified than the 10 install a day robot they sent for the initial crappy install job, and that maybe there is a better modem option than that standard RCA.

TWC RR Support: I have checked connection to the modem from our Tools, I see that modem is receiving inconsistent signals from our end. We apologize for the inconvenience. However, this issue needs to have a physical attention to check with the device and with the Internet line for your modem. In this regards, you need to have a Technician's visit to fix this issue for you

Sat Jul 21 15:57:27 2012 Notice (6) DHCP Renew - lease parameters Time Protocol Servers modified
Sat Jul 21 15:57:27 2012 Error (4) DHCP RENEW sent - Invalid DHCP option
Sat Jul 21 13:57:27 2012 Notice (6) DHCP Renew - lease parameters Time Protocol Servers modified
Sat Jul 21 13:57:27 2012 Error (4) DHCP RENEW sent - Invalid DHCP option
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out

Sat Jul 21 2012 @ 1:05:29 pm US
UP 1.5 MB 443 Kbps 55 kB/s
Sat Jul 21 2012 @ 1:04:59 pm US
DN 40 MB 8.1 Mbps 1.01 MB/s

reply to Packeteers
Same here. I've had TWC for like 3 months and stuck with it to get my "switch-to-bonus". :P Wasn't worth it! lol I had a tech come in like twice and they changed some couplings and then said it was some server problems that would be resolved. And now it's getting worse. I sometimes get like 1.5 Mbps during the night.

I upgraded to turbo and they said it would increase it even at the "peak times" or whatever, but IMHO, they pretty much lied.

I'm switching to RCN tomorrow to see if that works.

reply to Packeteers
I actually dont mind if I lost some speed but I cannot stand darn packet loss constantly on the upstream.... is just making impossible to enjoy/play any games online not to mention trying to talk on voice comm or stream games...

reply to rasmasyean
ras - it's well known that Turbo is a +$10/mo scam, but before you give up on WTC/RR try a Month of Extreme ($50mo 30/5), since that's a re-enginneered wideband docsis3 requiring a different modem. that's my upgrade path should my first year on Standard ($30mo 10/1) continue to be a bust. Verizon is contracted with my City to provide FiOS (heavy fines if they don't), so TWC only has another year of dicking around before it will start bleeding customers unless they update their network here.

update: got a premise visit with a TWC/RR Tech tomorrow. a later phone support tech did not see the signal problems again (great to know their email and phone support people don't log what they find against your account, so there is no way for them to compare line trouble history - in case you were wondering, I'm being sarcastic), but it's clear the speed is still degraded, so at least they have that to work with. they offered me a speed upgrade for free (standard to turbo) but I didn't fall for that scam, and instead insisted they send someone to make sure the service was consistent. i just worry they'll pay me lip service if they don't spot such an intermittent problem so wish me luck as i waited for months of degraded service till it got this bad...

to make sure this intermittent nature does not let them off the hook for any sort of repair, i'm using ping graph to document packet loss, which is about once every 10 minutes while pinging root-A every 5 seconds.

Too late. I already scheduled the RCN install when I posted. :P I didn't want to "give them a chance" yet again anyway.

But I did get the DOCSIS 3 you are talking about. RCN had a tripple play deal in my area and with 50/6 and "equivalent channels" it was arround $20 extra. And it actually IS near 50/6 for all the times I've checked in the past couple of days. We'll see what happens on the weekend.

It was funny, because I thought my TWC tripple play was cheap. But on my sheet, it says that Wideband 30 = $69.95 on top of already having RR Broadband (10).

reply to Packeteers
premise visit guy came, checked wires taps connectors and replace the modem. his propaganda java speed test sight showed my speeds were great, but my actual speeds had not changed at all, and to root-a i drop packets every 1:50 pings. the premise visit guy did all he could so i asked him to urge his supervisor to escalate my ticket to their network IT department, since the last mile may not be at issue, rather how their central office is routing me and perhaps my neighbors segment incorrectly. it makes no sense that i can ping Root-D(anycast) without dropping packets yet Root-A(static) drops like crazy (both withing 100 miles of my location), this only exemplifies how i enjoy stable routing to some site, but not to others.

here is the info off the ubee plastic toy modem they gave me;

Cable Modem : DOCSIS 1.0/1.1/2.0 Compliant
Boot Code Version : 1.1.2b
Software Version : 2.105.3004
Hardware Version : 1.3
CA Key : Installed
Acquire a Downstream Channel 309000000 Hz Locked
Connectivity State OK Operational
Boot State OK Operational
Security Enabled BPI+
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 115
Downstream Frequency : 309000000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5360.537 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 3.4 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 39.4 dB
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 2
Upstream Frequency : 23800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 5120 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 38.2 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 4
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 1024000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 3044
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Enabled

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, I think I better understand what my problem is, and it may not be unique to me. i've run various speedtests using hosts in OTHER cities and found my routing quality can vary widely. for example my routing nyc-chicago is great, while it sucks from nyc-wash.dc I will try to document this issue further to present to TWC/RR networking later this week.

»www.megapath.com/speedtestplus/

It will take a week or more to see if I need to reset my modem.

as for speeds - it seems that Texas based speed testing sight I have my history on is actually one of the now poorly routed sights, so the tests i get from them does not fairly represent my actual connection speed... I'll clarify once I have more reproduce-able data to show.

Can you please explain the Root-X part? What is that? And application you are using to test internet performance?

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_name_server

at the moment I'm working under the assumption that TWC/RR would want it's customers to see each of the east coast n.american root servers from NYC especially if they are anycast. I'm also using a well known (non biased) ISP service reseller major market speedtest sight as it's really hard to nail down a test that fairly represents speed relative to your geographic location that TWC/RR can reproduce and respect. I've worked with MegaPath and know they are a customer advocate, meaning they will resell any CLEC as long as they can maintain a high quality of service - if not, they will drop them and yes I've seen them do it.

»www.megapath.com/speedtestplus/

TWC/RR also has many of it's own regional speedtest sights, but I'm having a hard time getting a large and broad enough sample to work reliably without a lot of marketing and survey taking nonsense, also ISPs are notorious at cheating on their own tests by taking advantage of own initial query ISP caching.

I'm also using a European VPN to show how I can ping the same IP (NYC to GR back to NYC) without dropping packets (albeit at slower speeds) yet when I ping that same address locally without the VPN active, I drop packets like crazy - that should not be the case, but it is. That test helps me confirm that it's not the IP hosting that is the problem, rather it is my own ISP's routing to that IP that is failing me.

One thing I noticed about TWC/RR routing methods versus Verizon/DSL is that all routing is very localized. what I mean is on Verizon/DSL my packets would travel the same first 5 hop path of routers right before it got onto the non Verizion internet backbone no matter what destination address I sought. with TWC/RR my packets only travel 2 hops on the same routers before they are guided though a maze of 4 TWC/RR routers hops before they get on to the internet backbone. this system of localizing your routing may increase redundancies for TWC/RR but it also makes it harder for them to identify and diagnose a faulty router which may be dropping packets since sometimes you will be routed by it, and other times you won't.

what is most depressing about this revelation is now I understand why going from narrow to wideband will NOT alleviate this routing issue of being sent through TWC/RR equipment that is clearly dropping packets. wideband may give me access to a second channel which increases redundancies, but if both bonded channels are threading packets through the same set of faulty TWC/RR routers, then I'll still drop packets, just at a higher rate of speed. the local tech they sent to replace my modem who barely seemed to follow most of this discussion only confirmed as much. he basically admitted you will experience the same quality of service, only at a higher rate. the problem is faster speed despite dropped packets may be more forgiving with streaming and downloading, but speed alone is pointless with a low bandwidth interactive services like VoIP or client:server online game play.

truth is, this whole effort may be pointless. I wrote TWC/RR offering my data showing which regional cities from me (such as NYC to Wash.DC) should not be dropping packets, and used the argument that it would benefit my node, and save them money on frivolous and costly premise visits from speed complaint service calls, but their IT department does not seem particularly interested in pursuing anything that may identify their own faults and actually improve their overall service.

at this point I guess I should simply be happy I may no longer have to power cycle my modem as often now that they sent a guy to replace it... lucky me

reply to Packeteers

Levels

Wednesday

Thursday

reply to Packeteers
rook - the problem with TWC is TWC let me explain.

back when i had Verizion aDSL the last mile of copper was from me to the CO where i was plugged into one of dozens of routers. if my last mile was fine, I'd bug verizon to "reprovision" me to a different CO router which often would clean up my routing and packet dropping issues.

TWC can't do this - you are stuck on a network segment and can't get off of it. if the segment gets congested, they'll add another segment, but ONLY if the segment gets congested and everyone is bitching about it. so if your segment is routed through the maze of poorly maintained higher level routers till your packets get off TWC and onto the internet, then you are basically screwed.

So all TWC can and will do is send a drone to your house, swap out your modem, check your cable and connections for unusual noise or DB loss, then run a 10 second bogus cache speedtest. they do NOT test for dropped packets at all, period - they just don't give a crap about that because they know various segments of their network drop packets like a drunken sailor.

so no, TWC will not monitor your line since they know it will only reveal what a piss poor old build they have here in NYC. if you get a tech who tests the line for a few minutes and see problems, he has no way to distinguish where in his network they are, so all he can do is premise visit. if that problem is intermittent, or between you and another state or country - ffugetaboutit. so you are stuck with this crap until Verizon FiOS comes to the compete in your area - or when pigs fly out your butt.

why am i so pissed? because i left 7mbs Verizon aDSL for this TWC packet dropping sink whole, and going back to Verizon's perfectly clean network (in my area) is no longer an option, because they force you to buy a POTs line that I also don't need and pay for a fukton of fantasy taxes every month. it's amazing... the FCC crawls up ISPs ass for not providing service to rural hicktowns, yet their mandate to encourage competition withing suburban/urban markets goes completely overlooked.

TWC strong-armed my building management (kickbacks anyone?) to keep RCN out of my Coop (nice competition system you got going there FCC), so now all I can do it suffer with TWC and wait for FiOS which by contract has two more years to light up my part of Queens. of course their lawyers will probably wiggle them out of it, and NYC taxpayers get screwed yet again by giving an area vendor exclusive access, then not compelling them to deliver on their committements. OK, rant over...

Obviously I was hoping for a different answer.

I'll probably call TWC tomorrow and see what they can do. Then I'll give them a couple of weeks to get my service back to where it used to be, back when it was fast and reliable. If things don't improve, I'll call Verizon back and set up a Fios install. They've actually been bugging me to switch, with three home visits and a flyer every month since they wired my neighborhood.
They actually have some pretty good deals for new subscribers.

Anyway, thanks for the info.
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"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats." - H. L. Mencken