entrappedmind

Yesterday's & today's test results, running a 50MB test every ten minutes (https://testmy.net/quickstats/entrappedmind). No idea whatsoever why it spent a little over a day spiking from one extreme to the other as opposed to the predictability I'd grown accustomed to, but now it appears to be back to struggling again, at least for the moment. Still hoping to hear back from anybody with some sort of suggestion, especially since I'm now on day three of the ISP's techs ignoring my emails. Can someone at least reassure me that my suspicions of throttling are just paranoia?

Not sure what's going on today. Seems like maybe they're attempting to fix whatever is going on (after assuring me nothing is wrong then ignoring my emails for over two days). Rather than maintaining ~100Mbps from 12a-12p and ~4Mbps from 12p-12a as it had been predictably doing (see attached), it's now attempting to maintain ~100Mbps, but dropping to ~4Mbps at seemingly random intervals. Anyway, that being said, here's the 100MB manual test results I recently got. Doesn't appear to be a whole lot of consistency there, either. Any other ideas? Anybody? My wall's getting quite a dent from figuratively bashing my head into it over this.

On a whim, I did a couple tests as you suggested @Pgoodwin1, with a manual file size of 100MB. I sandwiched 4 manual 100MB tests on either side of a scheduled 40MB test. The results were surprising, though I feel like it's got to be completely coincidental. Once my speed drops for the day (which based on past days' tests should be between now and 1:30), I'll try a few more manual 100MB tests, and see if these results were an aberration or not.

That's only because I'd set 40MB as a minimum after seeing earlier tests top out at 1-6MB when my bandwidth dropped, based on past conversation I read here. The "better" test results have a higher file size because the test automatically ramps up past the 40MB minimum and retests at higher file sizes when my speed actually allows it to. Furthermore, I'd tried setting a higher minimum, but A: the test took too long to complete (100MB at 500kbps takes a little under a half hour) and B: provided no better result. Basically, I noticed the same thing two days ago, but already ruled it out. Good eye, though - thanks for the suggestion! Any thoughts regarding my last post, above? The mystery Level3/CenturyLink hop?

Another update... It appears I've found the problem. Remember those traceroutes? Well, using the Looking Glass at each of the providers to reverse traceroute from them to me, I was able to discover something. A hop that doesn't exist on my traceroutes. One hop shared by every trace. What's worrisome is that Level3/CenturyLink - where every byte of my data is funneling through - has this (https://www.centurylink.com/business/help/network/overview-of-traffic-shaping.html) featured somewhat prominently in their offerings. This info, coupled with that hop being hidden in my own traces, coupled with their reluctance to take any action whatsoever... It makes me wonder. Am I being deliberately throttled - which they've guaranteed numerous times in writing that they do not do - or am I just paranoid? Any advice on how to proceed?

Another update to my latency test (https://testmy.net/latency?gID=cxz1isdkhv), my recent speed tests, and comparison tracert's and ping 1.1.1.1 -n 100 for @Sean.

Sounds as if we're of an entirely like mind. Thank you for your insight (and attention), at least! You'd certainly think so... That is rule #1 of business, after all... But with them having a monopoly on broadband access in my area (and many others nearby), popular opinion seems to be that they don't care whether or not their customers are happy, only that they pay. Case in point is their outright refusal to lift data caps or waive overage fees for people under lockdown. Sorry, off on a bit of a tangent there. EDIT TO ADD: Current Latency test: https://testmy.net/latency?gID=6padd20cj5 Current ping 1.1.1.1 -n 100 and tracert comparisons for @Sean and screencap of recent speeds attached.

Thank you for your response, Pgoodwin1. I've tried that for over a week. They continue to claim there's nothing that can be done on their end. Here is a redacted-where-necessary copy/paste of all communications I've had with support thus far: https://pastebin.com/wcZjy2FZ Buckeye Broadband - tech support conversations by entrappedmind.txt

Hi Sean, thank you for your reply. Probably pointless to diagnose anything at this specific moment, as my speeds increased to normal overnight (as pictured below), but I'll add the current results and also re-test and reply again in an hour or two when my speeds inevitably drop.

Adding the traceroutes I referenced in my original post, in case my description of what was occurring wasn't clear.

After getting nowhere despite a week of back-and-forth with my ISP's tech support, I've finally decided to seek answers elsewhere. Asking here because A: this is where I'm doing much of my testing and B: because I noticed moderator mudmanc4 running tests on my provider and getting considerably better results (which would invalidate much of what the ISP is attempting to tell me). My plan calls for 100 down/5 up. Over the past couple years, I'd gotten used to just accepting the fact that at "prime" times, my speeds would drop to 30 or 40. Well, recently, they've been dropping to 2 or even 1 - and beyond. I've tracerouted the typical DNS servers (Google, OpenDNS, etc), and found that at the times my speed is decreased, my ping is spiking from the ~15 to ~125 - just as the data hops from tier 2 (MaxxSouth) to tier 1 (HE, NTT, Cogent, and Level3). ISP claims this is unrelated and irrelevant, I don't think I agree. Feels too coincidental. Originally, I had been using Speedtest.net for my testing. Those results: https://www.speedtest.net/results?sh=347ff22b5677a4a0107c1c787541b437 Since I discovered the scheduled testing here yesterday, I've switched. Those results: https://testmy.net/compID/123093662818 Where do I go from here? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Or is the ISP simply trying to frustrate me into giving up so they don't have to address an issue? I'm at my wits' end. Thanks! EDIT: After reading other threads, I ran a latency test, too: https://testmy.net/latency?gID=wmkv7k0wty EDIT2: Wired connection, as I didn't specify before. And for reference, this is the intranet speed test result: http://buckeyebroadband.speedtestcustom.com/result/6d79a3a0-738e-11ea-a16c-a1e437aa21e6