Pgoodwin1

My modem status is below. Questions about your quotes - trying to be sure I understand what you're reeling us. 1.When you say Downstream SNR should be lower than 30 dB, I assume you mean that the noise is more than 30 dB down from the signal. So my 37-38 dB is good? 2. Downstream power says about 3 to 3.7 dBmv. That gives about 9.3 dB to about 11.5 dB. Does that sound about right? 3. My Upstream power is 45.8 dBmv, or about 33 dB above 1 mV, which is < 55 dB, so that's good? 4. For upstream SNR, I don't have a noise level so I don't know how to calculate the SNR dB. Am I interpreting things correctly? Hardware Information System: ARRIS DOCSIS 3.0 / PacketCable 2.0 Touchstone Telephony Gateway HW_REV: 5 VENDOR: Arris Interactive, L.L.C. BOOTR: 1.2.1.61 SW_REV: 7.5.63.SIP.PC20.TW MODEL: TG862G

Have a great birthday CA3LE

What are Correcteds and Uncorrecables? This is my cable modem status. I reset the event counters a couple of days ago. I don't know if this looks normal or not.

I get slow speeds even when the ping times on all the hops are 1/10 of the big peaks below. I don't know if these events are significant. I don't know what the probability of experiencing one is due to the small interval of time that the ping event is going on. The big peaks are always on the final hop. And they don't occur very often.The plot below is 500 data points wide over several days. So it's not something that is happening regularly, or I should say regularly enough to capture all of them. I don't know whether it's significant or not. Aren't ping test packets only like 64 bytes? I don't really understand how much more likely a 25 MB speed test is to overlap one of those slow downs. For instance if a piece of the speed test was 64 Kbytes, maybe it's 1000 times more likely to occur at the same time as the slow peak period on any given hop??? My engineering work experience was in analog engine control circuit design which isn't doing me much good here. Haha.

Hopefully after calling this issue in a few times, they'll agree to get a tech out here. It's hard to find a specific slow loading website that is consistently slow even during peak hours. I have to stay up into the middle of the night, or get up in the wee hours of the morning to see if it's really faster. And even then you don't know if it's a bandwidth limitation of that particular website or along the path to it. The speed test here is the best way to capture the issue.

Yeah. I do. Not sure what to do to get to that next level. I know just enough to describe the problem, but I don't know what to present to them. There's no mechanism for sending them data, and I don't have the technical expertise to tell them what to do. They just blew it off as not their problem, and I don't know how to determine whether their equipment is the problem, or like they said, it's some other non-TWC path issue. They basically said all they do is provide access to the Internet and that my access is running full speed according to their speed test. They did say that if I could find another TWC customer in the Cincinnati area but not in my neighborhood area that could get to the Dallas server during peak periods without the speed loss, that would be evidence. So maybe I'll try to get some friends to get on TMN and run some tests. They want me to identify specific websites that load slowly. When I said virtually everything slows down, that wasn't acceptable.

So basically Time Warner is telling me that the Internet system of the United States between Cincinnati and Dallas is a lot less capable than the Internet system between Cincinnati and Washington DC. I don't know what kind of data I need to compile to convince them that there is a problem, if indeed it is their problem. I asked if there was a way I could send them data or pictures of data, and they said no, that I could chat with an online rep, or call in like I did. Not sure I have the technical skills and software to isolate the problem. But I'll take any suggestions.

Well I talked to Time Warner today, and basically they blamed the internet. The guy tested using what he termed a 400 Mbps business class T1 to the Dallas Server and got 50 Mbps and claimed that his effective speeds were the same 1/8 to 1/10 that I was experiencing. He basically said that the usage load problem was the Internet and not TWC. And that without specific instances of websites loading slowly, he couldn't help me. He did some ping testing of what he claimed was checking his system. He claimed that with all the testing he did on his end during the 15 minute phone call, there were no issues showing. He mentioned that 75 customers are on my local network system, but the system has a capacity of 400 customers. I've analyzed the TestMy results over the past 30 days. The first two pictures show the change in speed versus hour of the day using data I exported from TestMy and plotted in Excel. The next pictures are the typical performance - taken today, I included a TraceMy result, and the last picture shows what the TWC Speed Test shows within seconds of completion of the results in the prior two pictures. Note the extreme slowdown during peak usage hours on the Dallas server path results. The trend on the Washington server is similar but doesn't degrade nearly as much during peak usage hours NOTE - At 2 AM, my TestMy speeds are very close to the 43Mbps showing in the TWC speed test result. The 8 Mbps results today at 4 PM or so are typical for that time of day.

Thanks for the response CA3LE. I understand more than I did. And I agree, I don't see anything that looks indicative of an issue when I look at the TraceMy plots. They're actually pretty consistent regardless of time of day. I have seen a few long ones every now and then but they were always unique events and never repeated. And I haven't seen one of those in quite a few weeks.

Technical questions. I get the trace below (pretty much the same regardless of the time of day). I see it originates at a Dallas server. Is that the same server that's used when testing down and up speeds? i.e. Is the path the same for the speed tests as it is for the TeceMy.net trace? The reason I'm asking, is that I'm assuming that the test is a short duration one during each hop compared to say a 25 MB download speed test. I'm just guessing here that the ~22 mSec avg per leg is telling me that the path hardware latency is OK and that my issues with low speeds during high usage hours of the day is due to the number of users doing things that last considerably longer than the TraceMy test events. Even during the worst high Time Warner usage hours I get virtually the same TraceMy results even though my download speeds are 8x slower than off-peak usage hours. Just trying to get educated here on what the data is telling me. I did the trace below right after registering a horribly slow download speed of 8 Mbps versus a 30+ Mbps speed during off hours. Also, would this trace be considered normal or reasonable for a 50 Mbps max download service?

CA3LE. I've amassed quite a bit of data on your site here in the last 7 days. It's very repeatable that my download speeds slow down by a factor of 8 from here to the Dallas server, and by a factor of about 2 to the Washington server during the afternoons and evenings. By 1AM the times improve and by early morning the times are about what I'd call normal. So TWC definitely has a traffic bottleneck during high usage hours. I've confirmed the TMN test result on Speedtest.org where although their actual speeds aren't as believable as TMN, they show basically the same bottleneck (they happen to have a Dallas server and a NJ server that show almost the same results as here on TMN to the Dallas and Washington servers. I don't believe in their numbers per SE, but the trends versus hours of the day are the same. What's totally unbelievable is that TWC's speed test shows between 45 and 50 Mbps no matter what time of day it is. They don't indicate where the server is, but it must be in my front yard. It's total BS. I've got a whole slew of screen shots on my iPad of all the TMN results over the past 7 days. The story is clear, so it's time to call them and confront them with this issue. During peak usage hours, I could achieve the same download speeds I'm getting with a 10 Mbps cable modem. During low usage hours with the Arris gateway they recently gave me, I get over 40 Mbps regularly to the Washington server here and about 30 Mbps to the Dallas server. So I know there's nothing wrong with any of the equipment at my house. I'll let you know what they say after I talk to them.

Hi Tracy. I'm having issues during the evening hours when I use the Dallas server. I have no issue when I do TMN speed tests to then Washington server, although it is still slower than during off-peak hours. I haven't done much investigating on the issue other than using an OOKLA Speedtest app on my iPad where I've gotten considerably slower speeds when picking a server in Tennessee than picking one the same distance in a different direction. But the network of servers that app has gives really inconsistent and widely varying speed results when picking different servers in the same city. I'd be interested in hearing what your findings with your ISP are on this issue as you progress on the issue. So post back when you hear anything significant.

Thanks CA3LE. I will take some time and study the network map. I too think there is congestion somewhere in TWC's path to the Dallas server. I've checked speeds using some speed test sites other than TMN, and while I don't think their speeds are at all indicative of any real speed numbers, I can see a difference in the results on thos sites - slower in the evening, just like I'm seeing here. I have an iPad app called OOKLA Speedtest, but I can't get results that I believe. I think there's huge variation in the various servers they have on their pick list. Some of them just must not have much bandwidth. I sometimes see 100% difference between different servers in the same city. I have had faster times using that app when I choose a server on the East coast and similar slower times choosing a server that is south of here (like the Dallas server is). But I don't have a lot of faith in their server system. On one of them, my download speeds were slower than my upload speeds. And I will look at Trace in Ky. Thanks

Curiously again it's more normal in the morning

CA3LE. I still consistently get slow times on the Dallas server during the evening hours. When I switch to the Washington server, my download speeds are almost 2x what the Dallas server data shows. And when I use the CDN Alt Push Route to Dallas, it's roughly 3x. The key for the data below is the "star" is Dallas, the "flag" is Washington, and the ones with just the Apple are the CDN Alt Push Route to Dallas. This phenomenon is repeatable every night between say 8 PM and midnight EDST. The TraceMy.net results look OK to me, but I don't know where that test takes me geographically. Here's what the Dallas, Washington and CDN Push test curves look like. Many times the Dallas server averages will be under 10 Mbps. Any thoughts about how to determine what the issue(s) might be? Also, why do you think the CDN Push Alt server connection would be so much faster?

Hi from SW Ohio in the US. Great speeds

I haven't made the leap yet. I have a mid 2010 iMac, an iPad 2, and an iPhone 4. I haven't jumped to iOS 7 yet either. I posted on Apple's Support Community for iPhone and iPad asking how my two models were doing running the new OS. Lots of iPhone 4 users unhappy that a simple upgrade slowed their phones down. Many of them were fine but it took a complete wipe and a set up as a new device to get them to work right. As for Mavericks, I'm gonna let the jury chew on it for a while and see how things go. One bummer for me is that apparently Mavericks will not allow the use of iTunes 10.7 (I think because it requires the 64 bit iTunes 11). Unfortunately Apple did away with multiple windows in ITunes 11. To me, that's very important managing multiple playlists. We have these huge iMac screens which allows you in iTunes 10.7 to have your library plus multiple playlists showing, and drag and drop amongst them. In iTunes 11 you get only one window, and you can't add a song to multiple playlists without incessant mousing, selecting, and scrolling. Keep us posted on Mavericks though. It does have some great features.

I'm using an AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Generation). It's a great one too. I'm not actually using it as the router, but as a wireless switch that feeds my old D-Link DI-604 which performs the actual routing function. I did it that way so that I could put the router in the basement with all the Ethernet lines running to it through a gigabit switch. The house has wired ethernet in most rooms. That way I could put the AirPort Extreme upstairs in a central location. It has good range too, thru walls into the garage and out onto the deck. The AirPort Extreme, D-Link DI-604 router, and the D-Link DGS-1008G gigabit switch are rock solid reliable. Literally, the only time they ever get reset is when the electric power goes off. Wish I could say the same about the Time Warner equipment. The jury is still out on the Arris gateway from Time Warner. It's new here and came with a recent upgrade to faster Internet and phone service with their Signature Home plan. The Cisco DVR they have me is erratic and I think it will need to be replaced.

Got a TWC Signature Home plan upgrade a week ago. Two DVR boxes plus a 3rd player - can watch recorded programs of either DVR on any of the 3 boxes. Came with 50 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up (old service was 15/1). Came with bundled phone service. New total bill for cable/internet/phone is only $10 more per month when Cincinnati Bell phone bill is eliminated. 1 day avg is in my signature below. so far pretty good. Speeds are generally 2-2.5x (down) and 3-3.5x (up) over what they were. Still quite a bit of variation during download tests to Dallas server; less variation on Washington server.

R.I.P. EWO

I hope you find something. That's why I use Apple products and iTunes.

Welcome from SW Ohio...in the burbs of Cincinnati

Hi from SW Ohio in the US, in the burbs of Cincinnati. Begin building your results history. Gather data at different times of day. If you can, hook a laptop right to the Ethernet port of your modem and see if the results are the same. If they are, then either their modem or their equipment outside of your home is the issue...unless your computer is just overly resource starved.

Welcome Obie, from SW Ohio in the US

I'd highly recommend the iPod over any other player. Most aftermarket stereos have digital USB interfaces for iPods, and the organization of the music into songlists using iTunes results in a far better user experience in a car than having to scroll through lists of artists, or song titles or albums titles. With iTunes you can easily make lists of songs, rate them, sort by rating and make smart lists to pull in songs to a list based on whatever criteria you pick. It's far superior to any other music organization software. There are others, but none of them are even close to the flexible power of iTunes. If you don't have a huge music library of ripped CDs or purchased digital music, a smartphone can likely hold enough songs for you. As for your stereo, if it has a tape deck, it's probably an older model, and may not even have an Aux input. If it does, you can just plug into it from the headphone output of any MP3 player or smartphone. The sound quality isn't quite as high us using a digital input from an iPod or a smartphone. If you don't have the Aux in or USB inputs on your stereo, the only options you have without buying a new car stereo is a Cassette Adapter or an FM Modulator. The Cassette Adapter looks just like a cassette with a wire honing out of it that you plug into your MP3 player. When you insert the cassette, it plays through your tape heads, and it has the same rotating hubs that a cassette has. These devices sound just OK, not great, but about as good as any commercial cassette recording. They aren't very reliable. They don't cost much, but I had one where the cassette hub bearing froze and it ruined my cassette player - it wouldn't eject, and the payer got damaged when I tried to ease it out-it just wouldn't come out. The option (FM Transmitter) has an FM transmitter in it. You plug your MP3 player into it and tune your car FM radio to a specific station. The adapter transmits a signal to your car radio antenna. The transmitters don't have much power, so the signals can be interfered with, and even the FM channels on your stereo (where there's no station) will have a lot of background noise. I don't recommend either of these solutions. You'd be better off buying a new car stereo. You can compare models and manufacturer's features and spec online at Crutchfield. Or you an do some online research on reviews by people about local car audio stores. Those places can recommend the right equipment for your budget. I bought a Pioneer Pioneer DEH-X9500BHS CD receiver, and it's a really nice looking and sounding unit. Many of the better car stereos these days can interface with either an Android phone or an iPhoe digitally, and virtually all of them will interface digitally with an iPod. Many of them have BlueTooth and will connect your phone so you can talk hands free. So,e of them even have voice command.