Time Warner Cable - Legacy → [TWC] Powerboost... how long is it supposed to last

My area just recently got upgraded to powerboost. I'm in the mid-ohio division. The powerboost lasts about 4 seconds for me. I can download up to about 33mbps for the first 4 seconds of a download and then it reverts back to the speed of 14.5 mb download. I was just wondering how long everyone's powerboost was working for them before it reverted back to the regular speed?

4 seconds for this powerboost really does little to help download very big files. I was under the impression powerboost would at least work for 30 seconds to a minute? Thanks.

its a gimmick really, something to fool the more naive speed-testers into thinking they're getting super-fast speeds. after all, a speed test lasts just a few seconds and the DL portion should be over before the powerboost times out and reverts to normal. what I don't understand is, if this powerboost thing is just for 'Turbo' users, then no one's being fooled really- very few of us are naive when it comes to broadband and tech in general. I don't know what the point of this powerboost feature is to be honest.

Given that many downloads only last for a few seconds, Powerboost will help in those instances (that's the "point" of using it). Obviously, it won't help much if you are downloading the latest Windows Service Pack.

@Daveinpoway:
EXACTLY

Think of all the files you download every day, kba4. It speeds up website loads, email downloads, and buffering of videos and music.

There is no "Gimmick" here, your getting a faster speed for the first few seconds of a transfer.

my overall experience has not changed. downloads have not sped up, and nothing other than speed tests even hint at more speed. the difference between 15 and 30Mbps is negligible when calling up websites or 'boosting' a large file for 3-5 seconds. my pings haven't changed and neither has the upload speed. it's just a download speed gimmick and all it does is fool speed testers who don't know what they're looking at when the results come up- other than now the numbers are higher so therefore they must be better.

again, I wonder why powerboost isn't in place for standard users, as most of us on Turbo are smart enough to know what we're seeing.

its a way to utilize more bandwidth at time of it's being needed, instead of just 'sit there'. Thats how i understand it. This is just hopefully a snack until DOCSIS 3.0 hits, and i hope it can be competitive like FIOS.

Darn, I thought these test were real.

Looks like someone is using a modem that is capable of having a download speed of 100 Mbps or higher. So basically PowerBoost gives you an uncapped modem for downloads for a certain amount of time. However, it's not done on the modem side, it's done on the server side somehow I would guess?

the tests may indeed be real but the point I'm trying to make is that the 'boost' lasts but a mere 5 seconds and is not realistic at all. How often do your Patch-Tuesday download at these speeds? Or game patches or p2p transfers? The point is, the speeds may exist but it's a gimmick; kinda like having a highway with a speed limit of 55MPH (and cops posted at every mile marker) with an on-ramp of half a mile with a limit of 120MPH; some cars will be able to get to 120 sure, but the moment they're on the highway they'll slow down. what'd be the point of that may I ask?

I don't like the idea of powerboost... All it does is fudge up results on speed test sites... A few years from now, all the major speed test sites are going to have average results in the 100Mbps range once powerboost is fully deployed, yet most people will only truly have a 10-30Mbps connection.

It's just a cheap trick, in my opinion. Maybe some people will find it useful, like those that download lots of 5-10-20 megabyte files on a daily basis, but powerboost isn't going to do anything for very large downloads or streaming media.

About 85% or more of my monthly bandwidth usage comes from streaming media/HD and video conferencing. Stuff that requires a steady, constant connection. I'm a believer that as time goes on, more and more of our own content/files/data will be stored on servers, and accessing things will be in real time streaming, and much much less of it will involve any type of downloading and storing on disk... What's the point of doing massive downloads to disk anymore? It's such an outdated form of internet use. All the things I could possibly want to watch or listen to are only a click away, instant on demand streaming.

The other thing I don't like, is that the speed tests that JusticeDun posted above are probably what our connection speeds will look like after Docsis 3. 50-100Mbps down powerboost with still the same piddly 384-512-768K up. One thing consistent with TW is their absolutely crappy upload speeds.

4seconds very useless great way to fool speedtests

it's not fooling the dslreport speedtest that well

i call bs on that

WHOO I can't wait to download all my e-mails in half a second instead of a whole second! What an INCREDIBLE new feature.

:Sigh:

Most people would like getting feature like this for free, not DSLR users, they act like its a slap in the face. Go on, Call and cancel, Tell them your canceling BECAUSE THEY GAVE YOU A FREE FEATURE, I can only hope the CSR mutes the line before laughing hysterically.

all Powerboost and other similar technologies do is set the curve for US broadband speeds artificially high. when sites like speedmatters, etc. start having averages 2-3x what they were just last year, the data will be cited when the FCC goes to look into deployment. Then the FCC says 'the US is doing quite well' and continues to let the big ISP's have their way with policies. Meanwhile real speeds have not improved one bit (no pun intended) and upload speeds are still just as relatively slow as ever.

I can see some Fuc$Nut at the FCC saying "Hey LooKie at the speed tests! 100MB/s Cable! Wees fixed it!"

my PowerBoost only lasts about 5 secs =[ I was downloading a game from STEAM and I was hitting 2.2MBps for about 5 secs then it went back to 1.2MB. Ya the speed tests look good, but thats about it.

That's exactly it.

In a number of countries around the world they provide 50-100Mbps (or faster) symmetrical connections that can achieve their full rated speed continuously... while here in the US, our ISP's will allow us to achieve similar speeds for 3 seconds, and then cut us back down to our knees where they believe we belong.

In time, the powerboost tactic will eventually artificially inflate the speeds reported by US speed test census statistics and make people believe we're as good as everyone else, but we're really not. US ISP's will continue to milk their inferior networks and run off with all the profits they can carry.

I'm not asking for 100Mbps... but if they really want to improve speed to improve customer satisfaction, why not boost 10Mbps RR Turbo to 15 or 20 and RR standard to 10, instead of messing with all this powerboost crap.

"I'm not asking for 100Mbps... but if they really want to improve speed to improve customer satisfaction, why not boost 10Mbps RR Turbo to 15 or 20 and RR standard to 10, instead of messing with all this powerboost crap"

That is exactly the speeds in Buffalo.

Turbo is 15/2
Standard is 10/1

and turbo is powerboosted,

Hob

i am saying it does not even help because most of the "buffering in less then 6mbps youtube..

so having 30 mbps for buffering is useless

Same for San Diego and some parts of Texas

Standard is 10/1
Turbo is 15/2 with PowerBoost

Time Warner should expand that to all markets =D

"Time Warner should expand that to all markets =D"

Each Division sets its own speeds. This certainly allows flexibility.

Hob

I could only wish they offered 10/1 and 15/2 here. If that was the case I would jump for turbo in an instant. I'm not getting turbo until the upload speed reaches a minimum of 1mb.

Yup same here. We got Fios competition in my area (My address doesn't qualify =/) and the RR Turbo is still 10/1 ... anyways I got Power Boosted today and it only last about 5 seconds =[

blah it solves buffering issuse

No it does not

i downloaded AN HD trailer and it Bufferd 4 times

I never said it "Solved buffering issues" i simply said it helps fill buffers faster, If your source is still overloaded, then no matter if you have a 10gigE connection its still going to pull slow,

Download powerboost does seem sort of gimmicky to me ... While I have no complaints about it getting implemented, I don't see it saving me much time.

UPLOAD powerboost would be really nice to have for remote login purposes, though. Screen updates are pretty "bursty" and upload powerboost would help a lot with that, I would think. Most cable ISPs have done upload powerboost after download, hopefully TW does the same.

downloading from the playstation network

I would be more forgiving about powerboost if the boost lasted for the first 1-2 minutes of a download/upload. TW's 5 seconds makes the whole feature basically useless/cheap/gimmicky.

Download powerboost alone, no matter how fast, will not entice me enough to jump for turbo until the minimum upload speed gets increased. I don't want a 30/512k connection, I want 10/1 or better.

Looks like I got powerboost today.... but I found it pretty useless. I tried downloading a DVD ISO file from my MSDN account, and after about 30 seconds it topped out on about 1600 KByte/s, after which it dropped down to about 1100 Kbyte/s which is the maximum I can pump out of my 10/1 connection.

It lasted all about a minute or so, and I was a good 100 MB into my 2.6 Gb file. Whoop-dee-doo.

But since the download client of MSDN is a special breed, and it increases download speed overtime instead of maxing out in the beginning, I did some other tests:

I downloaded Vista SP1 x64 from MS, a nice 600 meg download. I THINK I saw a speed of 1300 Kbyte/s for like 10 seconds, before it dropped down to about 1080 Kbyte/s - which again is roughly my 10 Mbit downstream.

The I decided to do something else. A Knoppix DVD from kernel.org, measuring 4.1 Gb. - It started out great at nearly 2200 Kbyte/s, or 2 MB/s, but within 10 seconds It dropped down to no more then about 1100 Kbyte/s - you guessed it - my maximum speed I already have of 10 Mbit/s.

And whoop-dee-doo again, I am a full 150 MB into my 4.1 Gb download when I type this.

Upstream? Not a single byte above my 1 Mbit/s.

I'd say Powerboost is pretty pathetic. I would have expected it to last at least 5 to 10 minutes....