Is this crap or what?!

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Is this crap or what?!

Attobrute

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#29516 10-Jan-2009 09:10

To (mis)quote Boston:

I woke up this morning and the sun was gone
Turned on my computer to start my day
I lost myself in a familiar bloody annoying feeling
I checked my ADSL connection speed and was both horrified and annoyed

The above is this morning's Speedtest result for our "blazingly fast" ADSL connection. It is about the same as the other times I have checked it (in other words, pathetic). The time of day or night doesn't seem to make the slightest difference.
Now, we have a GoLarge account with a certain large monopolistic telecommunications provider that shall remain nameless for the moment (though easily identifiable).
We are supposed to be getting the fastest possible connection downstream, and 128kbps upstream. I've stuck with our current plan, as it is uncapped.
If anyone has seen my other posts, we live about 4km from our exchange. I have also checked speeds for family and friends in other locations in Auckland, and they are considerably faster than ours. I don't know how far they are from their respective exchanges.
Our service seems to be getting slower with time. I imagine that lots of people in our neighbourhood have broadband too - there are certainly an increasing number of wireless connections observable if you look for them (all locked unfortunately).
What I want to know is, is this standard for unfortunate people who happen to live a fair distance from their exchange in an area where lots of people have broadband? Are we just going to have to live with it until more infrastructure comes online?
Or is it my poor choice of ISP plans that is the major hampering factor? I've heard that GoLarge is shaped, but I thought that only applied to bittorrents.
Another ISP's sales rep has sworn black-and-blue to me that we will get faster speeds if we switch to them. Should I believe him?
I'm feeling quite negative about the whole thing at present, as you can probably tell from the tone of this posting!
Advice would be appreciated,
Cheers!

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#188521 10-Jan-2009 09:16

Since so far we haven't seem people complaining of speeds on Telecom and since you say this has been happening for a while, I'd recommend:

- post stats from your modem - noise, attenuation, etc. This could help identify a line problem
- post any contact you had with their help desk - have you asked for a technician to come around and check your wiring?

Old and/or bad internal wiring is one of the top causes of bad speed. Also, are you using filters correctly? How many other devices (fax, alarms, handsets) you have on this line? Any interference when you talk on the phone?

Attobrute

19 posts

Geek

#188524 10-Jan-2009 09:47

Well paint me several shades of embarrassed!
I was so incensed when iTunes told me that my Kermode movie review podcast would take 4 hours to download that I called up our ISP's helpdesk. A nice woman who listened patiently to my rantings asked me to try disconnecting both of our phones to see if this would improve things. I was frankly skeptical because we have filters on both of them.
However, I was amazed and chastised to see this dramatic improvement with the disconnection of our bedroom phone.
My guess is that the filter had broken somehow. I never knew they could do that!
Anyway, problem solved for the moment. All of a sudden the sun is shining again! I think I'll go for a run...
My main question still remains though - will changing to another ISP (Orcon) improve things even further?
Cheers!

munchkin

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#188525 10-Jan-2009 09:52

edit: My original post called for an isolation test, which you've now done :)

It is possible tha tmoving to another ISP could improve your speeds, however, living ~4KM would limit your maximum downstream speed to something around 4MBit, however, your wiring as well as other factors (4KM from the exchange is probably line-of-site, not actual distance travelled by the copper) and the fact a 128KB upload speed limits your connection to a maximum throughput of ~4MBit, too.

jfnz

211 posts

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#188782 11-Jan-2009 13:36

Another case of blaming the ISP before sorting your own stuff out.

Unsurprisingly, it looks although you've been the one left with egg on your face. If you'd have taken the advice given to you in the other thread you created about this same exact issue and done the isolation test mentioned that wouldn't have been the case.

Get rid of GoLarge and make sure your internal wiring and modem are set up correctly. After that might be a good time to try another speed test. Only then can you start to blame your ISP and have solid ground to stand on.

Please note: Any posts, comments, or contributions in this forum are posted by me as an individual acting in my own right and do not necessarily reflect the views of any company I work for, clients I've consulted for, or anyone else.

tonyhughes

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#188783 11-Jan-2009 13:41

Attobrute:
a certain large monopolistic telecommunications provider that shall remain nameless for the moment

Not exactly nameless when the first thing in your post is a graphic, with the very clear text "ISP: Telecom New Zealand Limited"

alexx

867 posts

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#188800 11-Jan-2009 15:19

Attobrute:
Well paint me several shades of embarrassed!
***snip**
However, I was amazed and chastised to see this dramatic improvement with the disconnection of our bedroom phone.
My guess is that the filter had broken somehow. I never knew they could do that!
***snip***

Thanks for coming back and admitting where the problem was.
For the benefit of people searching these forums, it would be a good idea to post a note on your original thread, just so people know what the solution was.

jesseycy

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#188917 12-Jan-2009 10:03

Anarkist:

Get rid of GoLarge and make sure your internal wiring and modem are set up correctly. After that might be a good time to try another speed test. Only then can you start to blame your ISP and have solid ground to stand on.

I wouldn't recommend that, actually! Getting rid of Go Large...

Telecom seems to be one of the better ISPs now for speeds (based on forum comments), and GoLarge is a historical plan, meaning once you leave, you can't get back in.... It's not data-capped, so if your speeds aren't that appallingly bad, I'll say think twice before switching...

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jfnz

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#188921 12-Jan-2009 10:18

Well if you don't mind putting up with Youtube videos constantly buffering, 200kB/sec or so maximum throughput over P2P applications and no ability to browse the web while using said application then sure, be my guest.

The point I'm really trying to make though is why complain about throughput issues if you're on GoLarge? This forum is used by (mostly) technically minded people, all of whom will see through a 'OMG evil Telecom are slowing me down' type thread within moments of it being created anyway.

Telecom know it's crap, that's why they don't sell it anymore. If you're going to judge a company, base your opinion on their current offerings. Just the same for example as you wouldn't really call Ford a crap motor company if you still (to this day) owned and drove one of their 1980 Mark 1 Escorts. You can't have it in for them because everyone else drives XR6 Turbo. Grab an XR6 yourself, try it and see what improvements have been made and how technology has evolved instead of sticking to some primal belief that everything from them must be sub-standard and poor performing.

Attobrute

19 posts

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#188968 12-Jan-2009 13:39

tonyhughes:
Attobrute:
a certain large monopolistic telecommunications provider that shall remain nameless for the moment

Not exactly nameless when the first thing in your post is a graphic, with the very clear text "ISP: Telecom New Zealand Limited"

I wasn't intending it to be that hard!

Attobrute

19 posts

Geek

#188976 12-Jan-2009 13:53

Anarkist: Another case of blaming the ISP before sorting your own stuff out.
***snip***
Get rid of GoLarge and make sure your internal wiring and modem are set up correctly. After that might be a good time to try another speed test. Only then can you start to blame your ISP and have solid ground to stand on.

The core reason I posted on this forum was advice about what is the best way to achieve the fastest possible speed an the internet in Auckland (where I live). Although I admit to being a bit of a technogeek (actually, more than a bit

) and a futurophile, I do not work in the tech industry at all. I also think that if a company provides a service, it is up to them to provide support and fix my problem with their service for me... That's what I pay them for after all. I am also a firm believer in turning to experts for help with a problem, rather than making (possibly ill-informed) stabs in the dark myself.

Also, I don't believe that the problem was intuitively obvious. As I posted earlier, I had line filters on all the phone lines, and the system had been working fine up until a month or so ago. Now, with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, I know that line filters can stop working.

However, I do take your point about assessing each part of a system in a logical fashion to attempt to isolate a problem.

Attobrute

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#188979 12-Jan-2009 14:01

To Anarkist:

And having reread the "Troubleshooting" part of your guide (which I agree is very good), I can see what you and others were suggesting I do. Effectively I did perform an isolation test eventually (with the prompting of the ISP help desk)...

djrm

191 posts

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#189171 13-Jan-2009 12:14

This forum can be very catty at times (did previously say another word but was disallowed despite only meaning female dog). He was only asking for help/opinions, I don't think being all high and mighty achieves anything!

Anarkist - I think you should change your name. Taking sides with a corporate monolopy is not very anarchistic!!!!!

freitasm

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#189179 13-Jan-2009 12:30

djrm: This forum can be very catty at times (did previously say another word but was disallowed despite only meaning female dog). He was only asking for help/opinions, I don't think being all high and mighty achieves anything!

Not the forum. People attending the forum.

djrm

191 posts

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#189207 13-Jan-2009 13:52

Point taken

honem

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#189287 13-Jan-2009 17:27

djrm: This forum can be very catty at times (did previously say another word but was disallowed despite only meaning female dog). He was only asking for help/opinions, I don't think being all high and mighty achieves anything!

Anarkist - I think you should change your name. Taking sides with a corporate monolopy is not very anarchistic!!!!!

I don't see his posts as taking sides. Not all corporate monolopies are bad.

It's just that this forum gets a lot of posts from people whose first step is to blame the ISP. Anarkist has a thread that he's done a lot of work on which is all about the customer confirming if it's due to their equipment. For most of threads a little investigation solves the problem. If the ISP is to blame believe me we would be placing the blame squarely at their door.

For example I got a call whilst working at telecom about their internet not working. They were pretty irate too blaming telecom. After a wee talk , getting them to disconnect the phone in the bedroom with no filter on it and making sure they had the network plug plugged in (they moved it to the kitchen lol) i was able to get their internet working again.

So yes we are not afraid of blaming the ISPs. But only when blame is actually due.

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