slow speeds in the evenings

Hi,

I am getting very slow speeds in the evenings (from about 5 pm to 9 pm)
on my demon connection, ran two speedtests from speedtester.bt.com
tonight, the first came back with 510 kbps and the second was 430 kbps.
This is on an adsl max line that is syncing at 5440 kbps. Here are
the line stats from my netgear dg834g router.

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 5440 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 36 db 15.5 db
Noise Margin 12 db 24 db

I don't think that it is a line problem, I have emailed the demon
helpdesk with a copy of the line test asking what can be done to improve
the speed. I suspect they will blame it on contention (which may well
be correct), but since I am getting consistently a speed which is 1/10
of my sync speed I feel there is definitely something wrong. It is also
affecting my ability to play certain games since some kick you for
having a high ping.

Another line test from speedtester.bt.com.

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 4000 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 5440 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 519 kbps

If you wish to discuss these results please contact your ISP.

If you are experiencing problems with specific applications, servers or
websites please contact your ISP for assistance.

Your test has completed please close this window to exit the performance
tester.


Does anyone have any advice ?, what sort of questions should I ask Demon
to get the best chance of them looking at it ?.

Thanks.

--
Eps

On 11-Mar-2007, andy <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Does anyone have any advice ?, what sort of questions should I ask Demon
> to get the best chance of them looking at it ?.

The questions are:-
Is it time of day sensitive? Like no problem in
the Wee Small Hours?
Time of day sensitivity has several possible
causes, you need to test further to determine
which specific cause. That is to determine
whether your ISP is traffic shaping, if it's
contention, or if the problem is your ISP's
bandwidth to the world beyond.
Put figures from various times of day
into Excel, then plot.
If you have webspace on Demon, test FTP speeds
(downloads of say a 2MB jpg) at various times of day.

Tests with various speed testing sites can be
difficult to interpret as they are not sites in your
ISP's domain, they are external to and
separate from your ISP (and may have their
own loading problems, like if 20 or more speed
tests are running simultaneously, each competing
at their end for finite bandwidth, and the route
(traceroute) going through many routers and switches).

You have to tackle speed problems systematically and
logically if you want to pin down the cause of a
bottleneck.
Mapping your ISP's hardware is a good starting point,
what class of network is it and what's at each IP address?

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:aaGdnVpITrON-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> On 11-Mar-2007, andy <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have any advice ?, what sort of questions should I ask Demon
>> to get the best chance of them looking at it ?.
>
> The questions are:-
> Is it time of day sensitive? Like no problem in
> the Wee Small Hours?
> Time of day sensitivity has several possible
> causes, you need to test further to determine
> which specific cause. That is to determine
> whether your ISP is traffic shaping, if it's
> contention, or if the problem is your ISP's
> bandwidth to the world beyond.
> Put figures from various times of day
> into Excel, then plot.
> If you have webspace on Demon, test FTP speeds
> (downloads of say a 2MB jpg) at various times of day.
>
> Tests with various speed testing sites can be
> difficult to interpret as they are not sites in your
> ISP's domain, they are external to and
> separate from your ISP (and may have their
> own loading problems, like if 20 or more speed
> tests are running simultaneously, each competing
> at their end for finite bandwidth, and the route
> (traceroute) going through many routers and switches).
>
> You have to tackle speed problems systematically and
> logically if you want to pin down the cause of a
> bottleneck.
> Mapping your ISP's hardware is a good starting point,
> what class of network is it and what's at each IP address?

Here's a copy of a posting I made to bt.broadband.support

*************************************************

I seem to be affected by very slow speeds today but I think it's a general
slowdown of the internet rather than a BTY problem. According to
www.speedtester.bt.com the results are:

IP profile for your line is - 7000 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8096 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6135 kbps

which is very good but my actual browsing is like wading through treacle,
with pages taking a minute or two at least to download. And it's not just
websites either - my mother-in-law lives in Carlisle and I live in Preston,
Lancs, (90 miles apart) so when she has a problem with her computer (like
she did half an hour ago) I use UltraVNC to remotely access her machine.

Normally, I see her screen within about 20 seconds of accepting the incoming
connection but tonight it took 3 minutes and every action was taking maybe 1
to 2 minutes to happen.

Something's amiss but I don't know what.

************************************************** ********

My speedtests are always consistent at whatever time of day but I still feel
like I'm in treacle and it's been like this for about a week now.

John

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"andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I am getting very slow speeds in the evenings (from about 5 pm to 9 pm) on
> my demon connection, ran two speedtests from speedtester.bt.com tonight,
> the first came back with 510 kbps and the second was 430 kbps. This is on
> an adsl max line that is syncing at 5440 kbps. Here are the line stats
> from my netgear dg834g router.
>
> ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
> Connection Speed 5440 kbps 448 kbps
> Line Attenuation 36 db 15.5 db
> Noise Margin 12 db 24 db
>
> I don't think that it is a line problem, I have emailed the demon helpdesk
> with a copy of the line test asking what can be done to improve the speed.
> I suspect they will blame it on contention (which may well be correct),
> but since I am getting consistently a speed which is 1/10 of my sync speed
> I feel there is definitely something wrong. It is also affecting my
> ability to play certain games since some kick you for having a high ping.
>
> Another line test from speedtester.bt.com.
>
> Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
> IP profile for your line is - 4000 kbps
> DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 5440 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
> Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 519 kbps
>
> If you wish to discuss these results please contact your ISP.
>
> If you are experiencing problems with specific applications, servers or
> websites please contact your ISP for assistance.
>
> Your test has completed please close this window to exit the performance
> tester.
>
>
> Does anyone have any advice ?, what sort of questions should I ask Demon
> to get the best chance of them looking at it ?.

I saw something similar for a 10-day period early February. Normally I see
about 960kbits/sec from http://www.speedtest.net/ (with 350kbits/sec upload)
but for the problem period download was about 160 kbits/sec (upload same at
350kbits/sec). Challenged Demon about it - two days later speed returned to
normal, no explanation from Demon !

--
Graham J

John. wrote:

> I seem to be affected by very slow speeds today but I think it's a general
> slowdown of the internet

So what's one of those when it's at home?

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