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craziplaya21
join:2007-09-17
Chicago, IL

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craziplaya21

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[Speed] Extremely slow and erratic upload.

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Hi, I just got hooked up with RCN 110/15 internet a couple days ago, and I have noticed a huge problem with my upload speed. In just about everything (including Youtube and Dropbox), my upload speed is only about 200KB/s-500KB/s with some infrequent spikes sometimes to over 1000Kb/s. This is a big problem for me because I paid for this connection solely for the 15 Mbps upload, but I am not getting even half that. I am getting the full download speed no problem, though.

When the tech was setting it up, he said the signals were good.

All tests have been done with a direct connection to the modem (Motorola SB 6141) and done on two separate computers.

Attached are relevant screenshots that I hope can prove useful in diagnosing the issue. Please help. Thank you.

Encoded Mac: c733a6822613f5b18293701bf42269f4523cd688
srr2
join:2001-12-20
Pipersville, PA

srr2

Member

I'm not in Chicago, so even though I also have 110/15, anything I say may have nothing to do with your experiences since it seems that RCN in Chicago differs from the other regions in certain aspects. For instance, I have an aging Cisco cable modem with 4 channels bonded downstream and two bonded upstream. It looks like your Moto has 8 channels down, but only a single upstream channel. However, a single channel should be capable of 15Mbps, so that may or may not be an issue.

That said, here's what I've found:
1) The RCN speedtest Flash application just does not work right on uploads. It always returns speeds much lower than the source and the cable link are capable of. The speeds are also erratic from moment to moment. It's not network load related since it's just as useless at 3am as it is at 7pm.
2) Some of the test servers at speedtest.net appear to offer far better functionality, but those vary too. I see full speed uploads on maybe 1/3 of the servers I've tried.
3) I have never tried uploading to YT, but I do get full speed uploads to my personal domain server (Linux, in Texas) and to Flickr. I don't know where the particular Flickr server I hook up to is located.
4) I do not use a typical "router". It's a software Firewall/NAT/Filter running on Linux. It uses server-quality Intel NICs on both sides which could conceivably make a difference in how well data is delivered on high-latency uploads (e.g. the ability of the kernel to tune the NIC properties). However, this does not explain why Flickr can run at full speed while other destinations will not.
5) Even with the worst of servers, I've never seen results as poor as you have there.

Just for gits and shiggles, would you be able to try a different set of hardware, connected directly to the modem as you've done, but running, say, Ubuntu or Debian? If you have some spare hardware available, it wouldn't be an impractical or time-consuming experiment. If you could arrange for an Intel NIC, that would be a good idea too.
NLiveris
join:2001-11-25
Chicago, IL

NLiveris to craziplaya21

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to craziplaya21
I would get RCN involved by having them come back to your place. You're paying for 15Mbps and obviously there's an issue if you're only getting a fraction of that bandwidth. If your pc is free of any nasties and connected directly to the modem via ethernet then I imagine the problem is on RCN's end.