dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
1195
jimzzzak
Premium Member
join:2006-10-08
Austin, TX

2 edits

jimzzzak

Premium Member

[TWC] Austin: Poor Upload Speeds with 50/5 package and more...

I've had this package pretty much since it became available. The upload speed of UP TO 5 MB/s has been very reliable until suddenly on 11/9/12. Since that time my speeds have been significantly lower. I'm pretty sensitive to this as I just started moving several noncommercial websites over to a new host, and the FTP is taking forever (relatively).

This is my recent speedtest.net log:

»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 77&ria=0

I waited 3 days to call for support hoping that the problem would fix itself (it did not.) I called Tech Support, and they did all the usual things over the phone. They then scheduled a truckroll. The tech came out and checked everything that he could and advised that I call for an internal TWC technician to come out as it might have to do with firmware. I complied, and a TWC tech came out 3 days later. He tested everything including a speedtest at the pole on the street and informed the person here that the problem was at a node or "the hub" and that if things didn't improve to call back in 3 days.

He also installed the latest modem (a Motorola one) and changed the TCP/IP settings on my network music server computer in the modem closet. This change of settings took down my Squeezebox network music server equipment. It took me a good hour to get everything working again.

Things did NOT improve. My upload speeds clock from 0.5-1.5 MB/s most of the time, and the average is probably around 1.0 or slightly less.

I called back today (a week later). The tech on the phone had no notes from the second truckroll so I had to recount what the tech had told the person here (I was at work to pay for the megabucks I give to TWC every month). The tech on the line offered to adjust some billing codes that might clear the problem up!? He also attempted up-sell me on some premium channels. I then quizzed him on how adjusting some billing codes might help with my upload speed and if so, why hadn't this been done at the time of the first call and not two truckrolls and a week later. He then put in a call to a higher level of tech support and went over my case with them (while I was on hold). He came back on the line and informed me that he could schedule a THIRD truckroll.

Simultaneously, however, he indicated that although 5 MB/s is the claim, anything above 1 MB/s is considered acceptable despite my telling him that prior to 11/9/12, I was consistently getting > 4 MB/s.

I was certainly discouraged that instead of guaranteeing a successful tech support experience, the tech was implying that my expectations were too high for their be$t internet $ervice, even though it had consistently met my expectations for months. And another truckroll cannot be cheap for TWC but how likely is it to be successful if two prior attempts were NOT?

The call got interesting when I requested a refund for my broken/slow upload for 2 weeks. I dropped the request as I didn't want the financial claim to interfere with the technical one, but I intend to bring it up again if I'm still not back to my baseline in the near future. Money is probably the only thing that will motivate TWC to get this fixed. After all this is the third call and the second week. I realize that we're in a recession, Hurricane Sandy just ravaged the Northeast and all but this 50/5 service is expensive, and I expect a bit better than >1 MB/s upload for what I am paying.

I'm pretty disappointed with the whole tech support experience so far. TWC should be too. They had to pay for the TWO truckrolls and the upcoming one too. I'm amused by the up-sell too

Any thoughts from readers on any of this?

Thanks and Happy Holidaze.
Fleeced
join:2012-10-06

Fleeced

Member

Re: [TWC] Austin: Poor Upload Speeds with 50/5 package and more.

Upload speeds are part of the story. Post the logs of your signal strengths you can get from your modem. How many computers use the network? Are you testing on multiple computers? Do you have any other switches behind the router?
gkloepfer
Premium Member
join:2012-07-21
Austin, TX

gkloepfer to jimzzzak

Premium Member

to jimzzzak
You may want to check what hub you're on (do a traceroute somewhere on the Internet and look at the 3rd hop or so). You'll see something like tge7-4.austtxa-er01.texas.rr.com - I believe austtxa is hub A, hub C will have a c as the last letter.

I mention this because next week TW has on their old network status page that they are doing a whole bunch of work on hub C over the next 2 weeks, which services a large part of west/northwest Austin and Cedar Park, and this problem may improve once that maintenance is finished. It isn't clear what work they're doing. It could be that they're already aware of performance issues, but one department isn't talking to another department.

Unfortunately these are the same kinds of issues I have with TW - when things work, they work great, but when they don't the techs have problems diagnosing the problem.

Like the other response said, posting signal levels and modem logs are helpful, and definitely try to isolate your own equipment (a very simple and reproducible test case makes for a strong point when you're dealing with this). Also, I wouldn't be shy about asking for compensation for bad service, especially if they're acknowledging there is a problem but don't seem to be fixing it.

By the way, their billing codes seem to be very intimately tied to whatever system they use for provisioning service...so the suggestion that it could be a problem isn't entirely without merit (but with your erratic speed test results, it's not likely).
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to jimzzzak

Member

to jimzzzak
What part of town are you in?

I'm on 50/5 and still getting full speeds in both directions, or within 10% of full speeds anyway. I'm in NW Austin, not far from 183 and MoPac (or 183 and 360, take your pick).

Posting signals from your modem (192.168.100.1; look up the password and username based on your modem model) here will help us figure out what's going on. It could be that you've been shunted off to a lower-modulation upload channel that can;t handle the traffic that;s being placed on it. I've had that happen twice, albeit on Comcast and a few years ago.

As an aside, I don't think there's any such thing as austtxc in traceroutes. It's all austtxa, though my third traceroute hop is tge7-5.austtxa-er02.texas.rr.com and yours might be different.
gkloepfer
Premium Member
join:2012-07-21
Austin, TX

gkloepfer

Premium Member

A friend of mine in another part of town is tge9-2.austtxd-er01.texas.rr.com, so they are different depending on location.

Whether or not what I am assuming is correct is definitely up for verification (I'd really like to get an official word from somewhere, but I doubt this is something that TW will confirm for me!).

I am pretty sure that if you're austtxa, then you're also on hub A (if you're in north Austin, generally south of McNeil, east of Jollyville, and likely west of I35, you're probably going to be on A). What they call "hubs" are likely large fiber aggregation routers (or similar devices) and not those old Ethernet devices that we used before everything was switched... They cover large areas, and are what the individual nodes are ultimately connected to (I believe the nodes are the larger usually white boxes, as opposed to the silver boxes which are usually amplifiers, that hang from the cable TV wires if you're in a neighborhood with overhead wiring).

Again, this is all from what I've been able to surmise from speaking with techs, looking at what I see around me, and from what I know from networking in general. If anyone who works at TW can clarify, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
jimzzzak
Premium Member
join:2006-10-08
Austin, TX

jimzzzak to Fleeced

Premium Member

to Fleeced
Not sure this is what you want but here goes:

Downstream Bonded Channels
Channel Lock Status Modulation Channel ID Frequency Power SNR Correctables Uncorrectables
1 Locked QAM256 137 543000000 Hz -6.6 dBmV 39.4 dB 2 0
2 Locked QAM256 138 549000000 Hz -6.9 dBmV 39.3 dB 2 0
3 Locked QAM256 139 555000000 Hz -6.8 dBmV 38.8 dB 0 0
4 Locked QAM256 140 561000000 Hz -7.2 dBmV 38.8 dB 1 0
5 Not Locked Unknown 0 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB 0 0
6 Not Locked Unknown 0 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB 0 0
7 Not Locked Unknown 0 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB 0 0
8 Not Locked Unknown 0 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB 0 0

Upstream Bonded Channels
Channel Lock Status US Channel Type Channel ID Symbol Rate Frequency Power
1 Locked TDMA and ATDMA 1 2560 Ksym/sec 38000000 Hz 46.7 dBmV
2 Not Locked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV
3 Not Locked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV
4 Not Locked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV

How do I run a traceroute as suggested?

I'm in Northcentral Austin, near Airport and St Johns. 78752 or near Lamar and 183

Thanks for your help.
jimzzzak

jimzzzak to gkloepfer

Premium Member

to gkloepfer
I looked up how to do a traceroute and I get

tge7-4.austtxa-er01.texas.rr.com

as the 3rd hop and the 4th one is very similar.

Thanks for everyone's help.
jimzzzak

jimzzzak to Fleeced

Premium Member

to Fleeced
I forgot to add that there are 5 or so computers on the network but only 2 wired. There's also a few tablets on the network. My tests are always done when no one else is on the network and the other computers are usually off.

I have done plenty of tests with a laptop connected via ethernet cable directly to the cable modem, and I'm getting the same upload speeds
jimzzzak

jimzzzak

Premium Member

I don't even think the speedtests give a very good story.

I can usually get 400 kb/s to a site I use a lot. Currently the best I can do is about 25 kb/s.

Pitiful in my opinion.

PS I called TWC back and apparently the billing codes were fine now. This tech did agree that the uploads I am getting are abnormally low and needs to be fixed. She indicated that an upper level tech would be dispatched this time as this was the third visit.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Your signal levels are within spec, though they could be better.

My guess is that there's something up with either your modem (did you have the issue before you swapped modems? Did you swap modems recently?) or that upload channel itself. The second issue is entirely TWC's job to fix, but it might take a bit.
jimzzzak
Premium Member
join:2006-10-08
Austin, TX

jimzzzak

Premium Member

They swapped the modem after the problem with uploads began.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Okay. Sounds like it't an issue with their plant then.
jimzzzak
Premium Member
join:2006-10-08
Austin, TX

2 edits

jimzzzak

Premium Member

Thanks for all the replies and help.

FWIW, I just tried testmy.net speed tests and got terrible results for upload (less than 1 MB/s) and fairly good download (49 MB/s) pretty consistently at 5:30-6:30 AM here with no other computers here active and unlikely to be much in the neighborhood.

»testmy.net/compID/642995538896
jimzzzak

jimzzzak to iansltx

Premium Member

to iansltx
Third truckroll today and third new modem installed (a UBEE modem the size of a small desktop computer tower).

Upload this PM always less than 500 kbps

Third technician also has isolated the problem to the line. That's not exactly a shocker.

Supposedly there is someone looking at the line tonight.

I'm to call back in 48 hours if no improvement.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Hope things get sorted out.

Unlike the old Ambit DOCSIS 1.1 (was it 2.0 compatible?) modem, the Ubee has no trouble keeping up with modern cable speeds. At least the modem-only device that I rented from Comcast didn't have issues anyway...pulled 60/20 on 50/10 service with PowerBoost, before upstream channel bonding was available too.
jimzzzak
Premium Member
join:2006-10-08
Austin, TX

jimzzzak

Premium Member

It appears to be fixed:

»testmy.net/compID/64300926131