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Cortlander
@shawcable.net

Cortlander

Anon

[BC] How do I fix or get shaw to fix my internet DL speeds?

Hi, I am currently on Shaw Extreme in West Vancouver. When it is working properly I generally expect around 15-20Mbps DL speed, and consistently good ping/jitter.

However for the past year (or even longer) my internet with Shaw has been very inconsistent. It seems to have two sort of "modes," one where I get consistent ping and a nice ~20Mbps DL speed, and another where I get massive jitter (50-600) and DL speeds of about 1-4 Mbps. Which speed I get doesn't seem to be determined by peak hours either.

For instance, last night at about 7:10 I was downloading from Origin at ~20 Mbps, by 7:15 that had dropped to about 2, and my jitter had increased massively (making online gaming impossible). It has remained like this for the past 12 hours. I expect that at some point in the next day or three it will go back into the "good" mode.

This problem seems to have gotten worse recently. Over the past week I have had 3 days of "good" internet and 4 days of slow, useless internet. I rarely go a full week without having at least one issue.

I have had Shaw service technicians come out several times, and each time they tell me its not a problem with my house directly, but rather a problem with the area. And yet the problem still hasn't been fixed. I recognize that part of the difficulty is the intermittent and seemingly unpredictable nature of the issue, but still.

I have talked with my neighbors, who have also complained about slow speeds, but nothing seems to get done.

So I guess my questions are:

What could cause this behavior?

and

What can I do to fix this/get this fixed?

Note that I have done all the plug directly into modem, boot in safe mode, try different computers etc steps suggested by Shaw support.
Cortlander

Cortlander

Anon

I forgot some extra information in my first post that may be helpful.

First of all, my upload speed seems to remain constant (~2Mbps) despite my fluctuating download and ping.

And secondly, I have run the "line quality - ping test" test on this website.

It says that I am experiencing packet loss of about 5%, always on the last 'hop' to my computer.

Pingtest.net reports 0% packetloss, but high jitter on about 1/3 of my tests.

kevinds
Premium Member
join:2003-05-01
Calgary, AB

kevinds to Cortlander

Premium Member

to Cortlander
It almost sounds like peak-time congestion...

Does this only happen in the evenings?

Keep booking service calls (for as close to the time it normally starts happening) Booking a service call for between 10am-12pm won't help you much if you have issues at 7pm each night.

If your neighbors are having the same issue, get them to contact Shaw as well about it.

rustydusty
join:2009-09-29
Red Deer County, AB

rustydusty to Cortlander

Member

to Cortlander
Like Kevin said, consistently call them, get neighbours to call in and complain as well. Eventually they will address the congestion issue, however it seems to drag on forever sometimes. About 5+ years ago I was in your situation here in Red Deer, Alberta. Took them over a year to finally fix the issues. Friends all over the city had the same issue, so the congestion was spread across an entire 75K city and didn't get resolved for a year. Haven't had one issue since, though.

Cortlander
@shawcable.net

Cortlander to kevinds

Anon

to kevinds
I don't think the problem is peak-time congestion.

Mainly because:

a) The problem doesn't only start at peak hours. Eg: I have had it begin at 1:30 on a Monday, or 1am on a Sunday.

b) The problem persists through low usage hours. For example today my internet has been 'down' since last night at about 7. This includes the early morning hours, which I assume should be congestion free.

c) The problem will sometimes temporarily resolve itself during peak hours. Eg: I have had my net come back at 5 pm on a weeknight.

For me the biggest indicator that it is not congestion is the persistence of the problem past peak hours. If the problem is caused by congestion, then it should surely resolve itself during off times.

rustydusty
join:2009-09-29
Red Deer County, AB

rustydusty to Cortlander

Member

to Cortlander
Peak time congestion doesn't necessarily have to be say 6PM to 11PM. Also, only issue that it could be is either bad levels on the modem, or inside wiring. I would try moving the modem to your utility room where the splitters are. Tap into the first one, plug directly into a laptop and check things. This could eliminate bad wiring in the house itself. Also, call in once you've moved the modem temporarily and see if they say anything regarding the levels. I know I had some weird issues few years ago when I had no servers, and the modem sat far away from the utility room and was off a whole bunch of splitters. Since then the modem sits in a cabinet on top of two servers and directly into main splitter and not one issue since.
Cortlander
join:2012-10-21

Cortlander

Member

Thanks for the response rusty.

I agree that peak time congestion isn't always a set time frame, but I find it hard to believe that the congestion is lasting for 3-5 entire days at at time. Add that to the fact that when my internet is in "good" mode, it works just fine through the obvious peak times.

I have already tried directly connecting to my modem with a laptop (safe mode and wireless card disabled) and a different desktop.

I have already had Shaw service technicians come out several times and check the modem. Also I already have my modem and routers in my utility room.

I am fairly sure the problem is not with my lan or computers, because of all of these tests as well as the fact that my neighbors experience slow speeds as well. The last technician I had out said he had to call a different service to come and fix something in the area, but I never got a follow up as to what it was.

When I contact shaw online support they tell me that from their end they can't see why my internet would be slow.

rustydusty
join:2009-09-29
Red Deer County, AB

rustydusty to Cortlander

Member

to Cortlander
Actually, just going off my memory of when I ran into this 5+ years ago, the congestion ended up getting to your point where it wasn't just during peak times. The congestion just got to the point where it was almost all day. There was a window from 2-6AM where it wasn't TOO bad. Keep calling, regardless. Get your neighbours to as well. ShawSean here on the forums may be able to push it through harder to, but this situation generally doesn't happen anytime soon. It requires a ton of calls in from numerous people for them to notice, unfortunately.

kevinds
Premium Member
join:2003-05-01
Calgary, AB

kevinds

Premium Member

Reminds me of the city of Drumheller... The entire city's Shaw's internet was done with 5xT1s... I didn't get the details if Shaw finally ran fiber out there, or if they started to use the SuperNet.

But yes, keep booking service calls, and with enough service calls that the service techs are not able to fix (service calls cost money) it becomes cheaper to fix the issue. Especially with more people calling in.