dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
3481

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog

MVM

[POLL] Would you opt out of powerboost if you could?

I'm curious how many out there would actually opt out of powerboost if they could? I for one would, as it makes doing QoS/shaping/prioritization a PITA. And now that Comcast appears to be rolling out capped powerboost, what's an extra 7Mbps for 20 seconds really worth? When it would boost 3x your subscribed rate, it was more useful IMHO for those who liked having it.

Poll
If Comcast offered a way to opt out of powerboost would you take it?

Yes because of the slower/capped PB

Yes even with uncapped PB

Maybe (if there was a price incentive)

No


Votes:90



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

2 recommendations

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

When it works, it's fine. You're only outbound shaping anyway, so you can just shape to your non-PB speed and be done with it.
Madtown
Premium Member
join:2008-04-26
93637-2905

Madtown to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
That 20 secs of PB is what helps me have enough speed for Netflix or YouTube. No I wouldn't opt out.

JigglyWiggly
join:2009-07-12
Pleasanton, CA

JigglyWiggly

Member

No, it's really nice.
Especially if you ever share pictures or something from your computer.

PeteC2
Got Mouse?
MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT

PeteC2 to JohnInSJ

MVM

to JohnInSJ
said by JohnInSJ:

When it works, it's fine. You're only outbound shaping anyway, so you can just shape to your non-PB speed and be done with it.

Second that. Yes, power boost is not as significant a benefit at today's speeds, but Comcast is never going to offer any opt-out rates for forgoing pb.

I suspect that as pb becomes less relevant, and therefore not even a minor talking point for Comcast, it will eventually disappear.

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog to JigglyWiggly

MVM

to JigglyWiggly
said by JigglyWiggly:

No, it's really nice.
Especially if you ever share pictures or something from your computer.

Yes, I see the use more for uploads than downloads. But it still wreaks havok with QoS (unless you just self-cap yourself at the sustained speeds).

fonzbear2000
Premium Member
join:2005-08-09
Saint Paul, MN

fonzbear2000 to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
I would do it if there was a price incentive.

Also, what's this about rolling out capped PB? I haven't heard anything about that.

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog

MVM

said by fonzbear2000:

Also, what's this about rolling out capped PB? I haven't heard anything about that.

The new business class profiles (27/7 and 17/3) no longer have uncapped PB (that would use as much as is available on the channel(s)). I don't believe residential profiles are seeing it.
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

Thordrune

Premium Member

Is this something new since your previous threads? I still have uncapped PB on 27/7.

Tr0utp0nD
join:2000-12-20
Clarks Summit, PA

1 recommendation

Tr0utp0nD to pflog

Member

to pflog
I've always felt that Powerboost is a sham designed to artificially inflate speedtest scores.

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog to Thordrune

MVM

to Thordrune
said by Thordrune:

Is this something new since your previous threads? I still have uncapped PB on 27/7.

No, but if I recall correctly you have your own modem on your biz account (dynamic), right? I don't believe customer-owned modems are receiving new boot files with the capped PB, just the SMC (and new Netgear, though I may be one of the only people with one).

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984 to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
I cannot see how power boost messes up with your qos.
Your qos should be preventing you from using power boost.

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog

MVM

said by r81984:

I cannot see how power boost messes up with your qos.
Your qos should be preventing you from using power boost.

That's what I mean - when you shape, you have to shape to the sustained speeds, thus eliminating PB anyway. I believe with FreeBSD's ipfw+dummynet you could, in theory, have it shape to rate A for x seconds, then rate B thereafter somehow.

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984

Premium Member

From your post/poll it sounds like you dont want power boost.
So with qos you are getting what you want.
I would think an enterprise grade router could do dynamic qos, but yeah a small home router with a slow processor is not going to be able to do that.

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog

MVM

said by r81984:

From your post/poll it sounds like you dont want power boost.
So with qos you are getting what you want.
I would think an enterprise grade router could so dynamic qos, but yeah a small home router is not going to be able to do that.

Yes, but it's never going to shape as well as something implemented on the network/data link side.

I wonder, with Docis 3, if PB weren't on their network if they could offer higher speeds. Would you rather 27/7 with powerboost or say 30/10 without PB?
pflog

pflog to r81984

MVM

to r81984
Also, some TCP stacks really don't handle powerboost well without alternative TCP congestion control algorithms or other tweaks. (reference: »Powerboost and FreeBSD)

Tr0utp0nD
join:2000-12-20
Clarks Summit, PA

Tr0utp0nD to pflog

Member

to pflog
Also as some feedback, I wish comcast would be more open and honest about the powerboost feature and its limitations.

Me for example, I'm on the standard performance. I believe this is advertised as 25/5 (or soon to be 25/5)

If i run a speedtest, they generally comeback as 24/4 (Also what shaperprobe says)

However using a utility such as shaperprobe I can see that the provisioned speed is 16/2.


Estimating capacity:
Upstream: 4258 Kbps.
Downstream: 25485 Kbps.

The measurement will take upto 2.5 minutes. Please wait.

Checking for traffic shapers:

Upstream: Burst size: 4918-4996 KB;
Shaping rate: 2128 Kbps.

Downstream: Burst size: 9463-9986 KB;
Shaping rate: 15978 Kbps.


However nowhere on Comcast site can you find this information out. Being honest about the speed of the connection is my gripe. Is my teir 25/5? is it 16/2 but I get 25/4 with powerboost? Is it going to be 25/5 and my non powerbost will be 18/3.5? Etc

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984 to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
said by pflog:

said by r81984:

From your post/poll it sounds like you dont want power boost.
So with qos you are getting what you want.
I would think an enterprise grade router could so dynamic qos, but yeah a small home router is not going to be able to do that.

Yes, but it's never going to shape as well as something implemented on the network/data link side.

I wonder, with Docis 3, if PB weren't on their network if they could offer higher speeds. Would you rather 27/7 with powerboost or say 30/10 without PB?

Power boost makes sense.
They built their network to handle specific end user peak speeds so your plan is for X amount of speed.
Now because not everyone is always using peak speeds, they can power boost you with extra capacity on their network.

Comcast is just using common sense and extra capacity to benefit their customers. Now if everyone was at peak speed then you would not get power boost.

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog

MVM

Yes, I realize it makes sense for some people, but not everyone, hence the poll.

Also, if they are planning to update PB for residential customers as well to be capped, they must have a reason for doing that. Perhaps being uncapped was taxing the system too much, who knows.

I don't see the point of 27 with boosts to 34 nearly as much as 27 with boosts > 60-70 Mbps (which is what I used to see).
pflog

pflog to Tr0utp0nD

MVM

to Tr0utp0nD
Interesting, so some residential areas and plans are in fact seeing capped PB.

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

1 recommendation

r81984 to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
I just cannot understand why you would not want to use extra bandwidth from excess capacity on the network.
Power boost makes sense for everyone.
Just those that want to use qos on a home router will not be able to use the extra capacity until they can find a router that can do dynamic qos, its not a big deal.

I dont get your complaint.
It sound like you should be complaining about the routers not power boost.

Tr0utp0nD
join:2000-12-20
Clarks Summit, PA

Tr0utp0nD to pflog

Member

to pflog
Also as a background, I've been seeing 24/4 with shaped rate of 16/2 on my connection for well over a year now.

I started checking when I started livestreaming and to be honest the difference is that with 2mbps sustained upload you can't really do 720p/1080p streaming at a decent quality where as if you have 4mbps real upload you can do it no problem ( needs 2-3mbps upload)

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog to r81984

MVM

to r81984
I am sure gamers who want no jitter and low pings would disagree. If uncapped powerboost is constantly pushing channels to their capacity, it would translate into jitter.

I don't really get any benefit other than saving a few seconds on a large download. uploads are somewhat nice for sending large files, but I wouldn't miss it.

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984 to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
A quick google search says openwrt can do qos with burstable connections.

pflog
Bueller? Bueller?
MVM
join:2001-09-01
El Dorado Hills, CA

pflog

MVM

said by r81984:

A quick google search says openwrt can do qos with burstable connections.

And I'm sure it's possible in Linux and FreeBSD as well for those using those as routers, but again the shaping will not be as good for ingress as the HFC network doing so.

Anyway, I didn't really want to start a PB vs. no-PB argument in this thread, I'm more interested in how many people would part with PB.
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

Thordrune to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
Ah, good point. I forgot about that small detail .

m00ster
join:2002-10-13
Houston, TX

m00ster

Member

I still get decent powerboost on my 27/7 connection:

DiffProbe release. January 2012. Build 1008.
Shaper Detection Module.
 
Connected to server 38.102.0.85.
 
Estimating capacity:
Upstream: 15402 Kbps.
Downstream: 90828 Kbps.
 
The measurement will take upto 2.5 minutes. Please wait.
 
Checking for traffic shapers:
 
Upstream: Burst size: 9521-9810 KB;
Shaping rate: 7504 Kbps.
 
Downstream: Burst size: 14954-15810 KB;
Shaping rate: 28746 Kbps.
 
For more information, visit: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~partha/diffprobe
 

I do have a non rental SB6121 though.
Jeremy W
join:2010-01-21

Jeremy W to pflog

Member

to pflog
My PowerBoost has been capped as long as I've been a Comcast customer, which is since 2009. Wasn't aware that any areas had it uncapped for residential subscribers.

Chris 313
Because It's Geekier
Premium Member
join:2004-07-18
Houma, LA

Chris 313 to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
No. I love PB for whatever it is and however long it lasts. I was doing some downloads the other day and not only did I hit my cap of 27.5 continually, I kept boosting to 30 or more routinely and it helped finish my downloads all the quicker.

mustang50
Premium Member
join:2005-05-06
Roseville, MI

1 recommendation

mustang50 to pflog

Premium Member

to pflog
I just wish Comcast would stop using it to describe the speed tiers. Here BLAST is 25/4 sustained, but on the website it says 30/5 with powerboost..

It would be ok if they said 25/4 with a powerboost up to 30/5.
Very deceiving.