geusnet terribly inconsistent

[sherpagoodness]

ive got greenville electric utility service (geus) for internet, Comcast refused to upgrade lines in the past so the city started its own cable service. they advertise as much as 6mb on a standard package, i can pull 4mb most of the time but my download speeds range from 100kB/s to high 200kB/s. why the high bandwidth and terrible download speeds? the bandwidth test seem to read quite inconsistent, and my signal to noise ratio seems to flutter +/- .5db. i have a BEFCMU10 linksys modem, everything seems to be up to date im on the vanburen 4000 pack in cablenut, im running a 1GHz regal splitter b/c i have a tv tuner card and it doesnt seem to make a difference with or without. any advice is appreciated.

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 4710 Kbps about 4.7 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)

Download Speed is:: 575 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net (server1)

Test Time:: Mon Jan 30 2006 05:52:10 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)

Bottom Line:: 84X faster than 56K 1MB download in 1.78 sec

Diagnosis: Looks Great : 19.6 % faster than the average for host (geusnet.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-KY0FVQNCD

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 3656 Kbps about 3.7 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)

Download Speed is:: 446 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net (server2)

Test Time:: Mon Jan 30 2006 05:52:32 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)

Bottom Line:: 65X faster than 56K 1MB download in 2.3 sec

Diagnosis: 90% + Okay : running at 92.96 % of your hosts average (geusnet.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-035UWG9H8

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 2704 Kbps about 2.7 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)

Download Speed is:: 330 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net (server1)

Test Time:: Mon Jan 30 2006 05:53:17 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)

Bottom Line:: 48X faster than 56K 1MB download in 3.1 sec

Diagnosis: May need help : running at only 69.12 % of your hosts average (geusnet.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-2YLXPVRCJ

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 3708 Kbps about 3.7 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)

Download Speed is:: 453 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net (server1)

Test Time:: Mon Jan 30 2006 05:53:55 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)

Bottom Line:: 66X faster than 56K 1MB download in 2.26 sec

Diagnosis: 90% + Okay : running at 94.86 % of your hosts average (geusnet.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-FXQB5JSWG

modem connection

Acquire Downstream Channel 855000000 Hz  Locked

Connectivity State Operational Operational

Boot State OK Operational

Security Enabled BPI

Downstream Channel

     

 

Lock Status Operational

Modulation 256QAM

Channel ID 0

Provisioned Rate 6291 Kbps

Symbol Rate 5360.537 Ksym/sec

Downstream Power 2.6 dBmV

SNR 36.6 dB

Upstream Channel

     

 

Lock Status Operational

Modulation QPSK

Channel ID 10

Provisioned Rate 256 Kbps

Symbol Rate 2560 Ksym/sec

Upstream Power 33.0 dBmV

----------------------------

Browser/OS = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1. Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Notes: Read the Analyzer FAQ if the above is not your IP address.

TCP options string = 020405b40103030201010402

MTU = 1500

MTU is fully optimized for broadband.

MSS = 1460

Maximum useful data in each packet = 1460, which equals MSS.

Default Receive Window (RWIN) = 256960

RWIN Scaling (RFC1323) = 2 bits (scale factor of 4)

Unscaled Receive Window = 64240

RWIN is a multiple of MSS

Other values for RWIN that might work well with your current MTU/MSS:

513920 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of

128480 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 2)

64240 (MSS x 44)

bandwidth * delay product (Note this is not a speed test):

Your RcvWindow limits you to: 10278.4 Kbps (1284.8 KBytes/s) @ 200ms

Your RcvWindow limits you to: 4111.36 Kbps (513.92 KBytes/s) @ 500ms

MTU Discovery (RFC1191) = ON

Time to live left = 56 hops

TTL value is ok.

Timestamps (RFC1323) = OFF

Selective Acknowledgements (RFC2018) = ON

IP type of service field (RFC1349) = 11110000 (240)

Precedence (priority) = 111 (Network Control)

Delay = 1 (low delay)

Throughput = 0 (normal throughput)

Reliability = 0 (normal reliability)

Cost = 0 (normal cost)

Check bit = 0 (correct, 8th checking bit must be zero)

DiffServ (RFC 2474) = No valid DiffServ equivalent. See the TCP Optimizer documentation, or RFCs 2474, 2475, 2597, 2598, 2873.

[trogers]

Carry out this Network Diagnostic Test and post the result of 'Statistics' and last 2 paragraphs of 'More Details':

http://nitro.ucsc.edu/

[sherpagoodness]

TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.3.3d

click START to begin

Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Done

running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 172.95Kb/s

running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 1.03Mb/s

Your PC is connected to a Cable/DSL modem

Information: Other network traffic is congesting the link

estimate = 1.51 based on packet size = 11Kbits, RTT = 90.15msec, and loss = 0.006703911

The theoretical network limit is 1.51 Mbps

The NDT server has a 8192.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 709.96 Mbps

Your PC/Workstation has a 250.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 21.74 Mbps

The network based flow control limits the throughput to 1.60 Mbps

Client Data reports link is 'T1', Client Acks report link is 'T1'

Server Data reports link is '10 Gig', Server Acks report link is 'T1'

[trogers]

Try this ccs file and then test download speed at this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90&p=&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2f1%2f6%2f5%2f165b076b-aaa9-443d-84f0-73cf11fdcdf8%2fWindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe

[sherpagoodness]

i cant get more than 250 kb/s down and it seems like its dropping lots of packets, the speed bounces quite a bit and then it will sit still for awhile. my bandwidtch on the test sites seems to be reading about 2.5 mb.

[trogers]

Your test report says - "Your PC/Workstation has a 250.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 21.74 Mbps. The network based flow control limits the throughput to 1.60 Mbps"

This means that at the time you did the test, your netwoek was very busy and you are able to receive a throughput of only 1.6 Mbps from them.

Your comp was set at a very high throughput of 21.74 Mbps which will create excessive packet losses.

My ccs file reduced your comp's throughput by half.

As for increasing noise in your signal and fluctuating speeds, a common cause is electrical noise from some electrical devices near to your modem/router or connection cables. When the modem and router are placed next to each other, speed may fluctuate.

Read the following links and see if you may have a similar problem:

https://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1885

https://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=117

[sherpagoodness]

alright i seperated the router and the modem by about 3 feet...i seem to be getting better download speeds and more consistent bandwidth results, but it still seems like im dropping packets and the nitro test is still indicating i have alot of congestion....what now? i can tell we are close. i also noticed my downstream power is now fluctuating from 1.6 dbmv to 2.1----im gonna try some different coax i have see if that makes a dif

[trogers]

Also do not place your modem or router directly on the comp tower as the AC power box is usually mounted at the inside top of the tower.

The last 2 paragraphs of 'More Details' (nitro test) show the throughput limit of your comp setting and the throughput limit of your ISP network. Check to see if they are similar. Both limit values should be above your advertised speed.

[sherpagoodness]

this is with the best coax i can find...the modem is near the outlet the computer is farther away than the router which is about 2 and a  half feet away from it but on about the same level. the only thing close to the cable modem is the power cord for my power strip (is that a possibility?). i tried a genesys II  2 way splitter as well and it made my downstreampower read 0.0 or 0.1. this is with your ccs file

estimate = 2.01 based on packet size = 11Kbits, RTT = 87.44msec, and loss = 0.004032258

The theoretical network limit is 2.01 Mbps

The NDT server has a 8192.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 731.93 Mbps

Your PC/Workstation has a 125.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 11.21 Mbps

The network based flow control limits the throughput to 2.03 Mbps

Client Data reports link is 'T1', Client Acks report link is 'T1'

Server Data reports link is '10 Gig', Server Acks report link is 'Ethernet'

[trogers]

You should complain to your ISP! It is now 2-5am of the early morning when traffic is low and you are provided only with a 2.03 Mbps throughput.

With such a throughput, your download speed will not exceed 1.8 Mbps (90% of 2.03) at best.

This means they have too many subscribers in the same network using a limited amount of bandwidth.

[sherpagoodness]

im in apartments....the download power and snr never stays consistent, is that normal?

[trogers]

If the speed fluctuates widely within minutes (eg. between consequent speed tests), then your line quality is the most likely fault. The fault can be any point between your comp to the modem to the wall connection point. Some instances, it can be the wiring in the building.

But if speed fluctuates at different times of the day, the most likely problem is traffic load on your network.

But it is now low traffic, so it seems that your ISP is only giving you a 2 Mbps line. Check to confirm with them. You should only pay for a 2 Mbps bandwidth.