So, for a long time my apartment has had shitty internet. Frequently dropping connection, downloads that start really fast but fall flat in minutes/seconds, shitty Xbox Live connection and lag...the works.

I've been thinking it was just the shitty Belkin router that a roommate probably got at the salvation army, but recently another roommate plugged his computer straight into the cable modem and still had the connectivity problems.

Here are some symptoms:

-When downloading games via Xbox Live, the progress bar will go for a few percentage points, then completely stop for a few minutes, and lose connection. Connection can be reestablished, and the cycle repeats.

-When downloading large files online, the download speed will start high (~450 mbps or w/e the unit is) and gradually decrease down to bytes scale, and eventually ramp up later.

-When playing a game (ex: Halo 3) on Live, the game will have good connection, then the connection degrades, the game gets laggy, and we get booted from Live.

-Frequently kicked off of the internet during normal browsing. I will be doing nothing more than browsing TWW and talking on pidgin and the internet will die, only to reconnect in a few seconds. I believe that my computer thinks the internet is fine and lets me send AIM messages for a few minutes even though I'm offline.

The time for these varies. Sometimes we can get several Halo games in a row, others we can barely (if at all) finish one game.

This has been seen on all of our computers, and doesn't matter who many people are living in the apartment (I've had trouble all summer even though I live alone). We don't torrent.

So, has anyone heard of this? I haven't called Time Warner, and I don't think the router has any weird firewall things. We have power cycled the modem and the router many, many times to no avail.

7/29/2009 1:30:27 PM

have you called them and asked?? reading ftw, lol..call them.

there's also a page you can go to on your modem.. i think it's at 192.168.100.1 (go to that address in internet explorer) that can show you the signal levels and some other things to see if maybe you really aren't receiving a strong enough signal. i don't remember what the levels are suppose to be but somebody else can post that.

[Edited on July 29, 2009 at 1:44 PM. Reason : a]

7/29/2009 1:42:44 PM

Sounds like your modem is down the shitter. Call TWC and have them replace it. I've had to have it done before too.

7/29/2009 1:43:59 PM

Are there any traps on the line?

7/29/2009 1:51:03 PM

Thanks for the replies!

Quote :

"Sounds like your modem is down the shitter. Call TWC and have them replace it. I've had to have it done before too."

I actually didn't know modems could go bad, thanks for the heads up.

Quote :

"Are there any traps on the line?"

wat?

7/29/2009 1:59:05 PM

there could be data gremlins on your cable lines trapping your packets for sustenance

7/29/2009 2:11:31 PM

^^ Do you have full cable, partial, or internet-only? You might want to inspect any splitters you have access to. How is the quality of your TV signal; particularly for the channels in the mid to upper 70s?

[Edited on July 29, 2009 at 2:12 PM. Reason : not enough ^s]

7/29/2009 2:12:00 PM

We have cable TV + Internet. The signal is pretty good, nothing to complain about that I've seen. Since we're in an apartment building I'm not sure about the whole splitters deal but I'll take a look when I get home today

7/29/2009 3:22:44 PM

8/9/2009 1:38:43 AM

They JUST came out to fix my line signal going to my cable modem. The coax was badly spliced and coiled and split and hidden, for no reason at all. Check this out (speakeasy speed tests):

Washington DC
Download Speed: 21734 kbps (2716.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 495 kbps (61.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

New York
Download Speed: 20110 kbps (2513.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 497 kbps (62.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Atlanta
Download Speed: 23919 kbps (2989.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 493 kbps (61.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Chicago
Download Speed: 20652 kbps (2581.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 493 kbps (61.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Dallas
Download Speed: 13142 kbps (1642.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 492 kbps (61.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Los Angeles
Download Speed: 12891 kbps (1611.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 488 kbps (61 KB/sec transfer rate)

San Francisco
Download Speed: 7403 kbps (925.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 489 kbps (61.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Seattle
Download Speed: 14663 kbps (1832.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 489 kbps (61.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Washington DC (again)
Download Speed: 20210 kbps (2526.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 496 kbps (62 KB/sec transfer rate)

New York (again)
Download Speed: 24341 kbps (3042.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 496 kbps (62 KB/sec transfer rate)

Atlanta (again)
Download Speed: 19049 kbps (2381.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 496 kbps (62 KB/sec transfer rate)

I have RR Turbo and I guess after I switched from that I called to complain and they upped my bandwidth to make up for the signal problem or something. I hope they don't notice and re-cap it. Of course it IS Sunday morning

8/9/2009 11:19:55 AM

btw there is a feature called speedboost that is common in the major mso's (including twc) that basically pushes your bandwidth higher for a small period of time when you first start a download. it uses a 'token bucket' and takes a while to re-load (if you will). this can throw off your numbers on speed tests, and is responsible for the behavior your mentioned.

8/9/2009 11:49:14 AM

Yeah I know about speedboost. I'm not sure how long I'd have to download something before that went away. Anyway, the point is even with speedboost it's not supposed to be that fast, and it was maybe 1/2 that on a good day before they came to fix my line.

8/9/2009 11:59:43 AM

not sure how fast it normally is for you... speedboost timing and speed thresholds can vary depending on how they're configured

8/11/2009 10:41:50 AM

Yeah, I mean I had never seen anything > 10 mbps on ANY speed test, and only got close to that on the local time warner one. I'm trying to figure out a good way to do a longer term test.

8/11/2009 10:57:11 AM

not sure if this helps you or not, but if you just got one of those net monitors on your computer you can see a graph over time to show more accurately where the burst was and how it tapers off for a large download (in theory). obviously with cable that has pretty much everything to do with peak usage times

8/12/2009 12:42:56 AM

Yeah I can do that with my router, I keep forgetting to test it out when I get home though

8/12/2009 11:04:37 AM