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OriginalDrM
join:2003-05-08
Pompano Beach, FL

OriginalDrM

Member

[Speed Problem] Traffic Shaping?

About a week ago I've noticed my ADSL has become more asynchronous than usual.

My service is 3Mbps/300kbps.

In the past several years with Earthlink I've found that uploading up to 20kB/s has minimal effect on downstream speed allowing about 2Mbps simultaneously. Uncapped uploading could reduce downstream speed to .5-1Mbps.

In the past week uploading around 20kB/s drops down speeds to 1Mbps and anything faster brings all down stream activity to a crawl.

Speed testing shows my speeds to be 101+% of what my service is rated at.

My ISP claims no shenanigans, supposedly going so far as to send an AT&T rep to check the lines.

Glastnost and various M-Lab tools don't detect shaping.

Is it possible they are doing something that there are no tests for and can't be detected?

To be clear, my testing has included different sites, HTML based and bittorrent based uploads and downloads. I've tested different PCs on my network and bypassed my router to eliminate that.

Any thoughts? Anyone else ever hear of full speed with degraded performance?
OriginalDrM

OriginalDrM

Member

Spoken with Earthlink a bazillion times now.

Level 3 support and 'Priority' support conversations haven't helped.
They've reset ports, rebuilt my connection, etc. a few times.

This is baffling. Everything LOOKS normal if you just check the raw speed, but small amounts of upload bring download speeds crashing to a low levels.

Anyone else on earthlink test for this yet? Easy enough to test, upload something (if you can cap your upload speed like with a bittorrent client you can be more specific), and run SpeedTest.net at the same time.
OriginalDrM

OriginalDrM

Member

Still talkin' to myself, but to continue the saga...

I had a techie tell me that my modem is so old I need to replace it. Of course I have to pay for that (even though I've been with them for 13 years.) They'd wave the fee, but I'd still have to pay shipping ($20 for the slowest method) and sign a 1 year contract.

He wasn't sure it would fix the problem but suggest I try it. I declined.

Someone else I spoke with at Earthlink later said it was a good decision NOT to replace it because modems don't go bad like that. They die or they don't. Yet he had no other suggestions.

Called again today, weeks later after researching alternative ISPs. I was told again it was the modem but she was positive a new one would fix the problem.

She said some such thing about they can provide full speed but the with a weak signal strength that makes the performance unstable.

She was able to get a manager to wave the fee and the contract but I still need to pay the shipping (they even offered to send it 2 day for the same price as ground).

I'm on the fence... yay or nay, do modems go bad like that?

DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium Member
join:2001-07-23
Bristol, CT

DrStrange to OriginalDrM

Premium Member

to OriginalDrM
Modems might conceivably go bad like that, but I've heard that line from Earthlink tech support before. I'm inclined to believe that the modem isn't your problem.

If you want to be certain, find someone in your area with a spare modem and ask to borrow it for a few days.
OriginalDrM
join:2003-05-08
Pompano Beach, FL

OriginalDrM

Member

I did try at one point with a modem from a Bellsouth customer. I couldn't get the thing properly configured to even get it to connect.

I know I should try again, but I'm not sure what I did wrong.

DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium Member
join:2001-07-23
Bristol, CT

DrStrange

Premium Member

If it was issued to a Bellsouth customer for an older line, the VPI/VCI pair may not match what Earthlink uses. Make sure the VPI/VCI sets automatically, or set it to 0/35 [older Bellsouth might be 8/35].

Other than that, if it worked on Bellsouth, it should work on Earthlink.
OriginalDrM
join:2003-05-08
Pompano Beach, FL

OriginalDrM

Member

Thanks. I still couldn't set up the Bellsouth modem for PPP, but in bridge mode I was successful using the 0/35 numbers (it was previously set for 8/35).

It appears that either my modem is slowly dying or maybe Earthlink isn't supporting it as well(?)

Both modems showed the same upload and download speeds with no other activity. With an active upload it was a different story.

(Numbers are an average of multiple speed tests)

Earthlink Modem
Up Activity | Download Speed
15 kbps | 2.27 Mbps
20 kbps | 2.10 Mbps
25 kbps | 1.66 Mbps

Bellsouth Modem
Up Activity | Download Speed
15 kbps | 1.79 Mbps
20 kbps | 1.31 Mbps
25 kbps | 1.22 Mbps

New modem it is. Thanks again. A real shame the people at Earthlink or so clueless or this could have been sorted out almost 2 months ago.