Zabeus Posted July 13, 2013 CID Share Posted July 13, 2013 More than learning about TestMy.net's methodology, I'm hoping this will clue someone in on the type of issue I might be having. I've got a known issue with my Internet speed being excruciatingly slow or cutting out at certain times of the day. I'm having trouble getting AT&T to send a tech without charging me $99. I don't have another modem to test with. Anyway, webpages load sometimes and not other times. Sometimes half the content loads. YouTube doesn't work at all. SpeedTest.net either isn't able to even complete a test (returns an error because it's so slow) or it's around 70kbps to a local server. (When things are fine, it should be around 5Mbps) Yet trying TestMy.net consistently returns >5Mbps for the Dallas,TX server. This despite barely being able to do anything online. The weird thing is its results ARE consistent with SpeedTest.net if I choose "Multithreaded" mode or a different server. Examples: https://testmy.net/db/I7VYOFy https://testmy.net/db/pnR2SKi Why would this be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA3LE Posted July 13, 2013 CID Share Posted July 13, 2013 Hi Zabeus, Welcome! I hope you like what I've built. After reviewing your results I'm see what you're saying. I think that this is due to routing issues on your providers network. One way to diagnose this is to go to https://testmy.net/mirror and try a few more servers. You're in Oklahoma, next door to my Texas server, the issue must not be effecting all routes. Actually very common with routing problems. I would contact my provider. Share your TestMy.net results, it will belp them see where the problem may be. Logging results from the other locations will help them too. If your IP changes a lot make sure you login when you test and click "Your Results" - then share the URL in the address bar that has your username. I don't see anything logged under your username yet. https://testmy.net/quickstats/zabeus is your personal results page. The issue is showing up in multithread because the routes to some of the servers you've selected must be effected. I highly doubt that you have any issue on your end, this is most likely AT&T's fault or one of the intermediary providers they use. Complain! I bet it will help in your case. -- please update this topic after it's resolved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA3LE Posted July 13, 2013 CID Share Posted July 13, 2013 Just to recap, don't let them charge you... a tech shouldn't need to come out. Your TMN results have pretty much proven a routing issue, which is outside of your home and outside of your control. Part of the reason TestMy.net exists is to give consumers the ammunition they need to get their ISPs to take notice of obvious issues like yours. I hope it helps get your connection back on track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zabeus Posted July 13, 2013 Author CID Share Posted July 13, 2013 Hi CA3LE! Thanks for providing this free service, and for the quick reply. I took your advice and did the test on each official mirror: https://testmy.net/quickstats/Zabeus So I'll see what AT&T has to say now. CA3LE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA3LE Posted July 13, 2013 CID Share Posted July 13, 2013 Not a problem, you're welcome. Looks like you're getting normal speed to Dallas TX and Seattle WA. That information will help them... note that all of my official mirrors are constantly monitored and quality tested against each other... everything is running smoothly on my end. The discrepency between the servers almost always points to routing issues. Especially because the difference is so drastic and the fact that you're able to pull your speed to some servers. Let us know how it goes. If you don't understand what routing and peering are here's an offsite Article explaining routing and peering I found on Google. Also wikipedia has lots of good information on the subject, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering#How_peering_works iceb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zabeus Posted July 21, 2013 Author CID Share Posted July 21, 2013 Hey CA3LE, just letting you know that they finally resolved the isslue. Tech support was useless even with the new information, and it took multiple calls to get them to send a technician out. When I complained, someone changed a setting on the line that made it stop working at all, and tried to tell me it was still working. "We cannot change it back. Your line is good sir!" They even tried to say that if it's not the modem, the testing sites must be at fault, even though other people were getting good results in the logs. Your explanation gave me confidence that it wasn't a problem with my modem, and we were correct. After a couple hours of troubleshooting, working on the equipment outside, and the tech having people on the phone do things like "change the atm path", he finally realized it was a bad line card in the box where the fiber and phone line connect. After replacing that card everything is working again. Here are the new test results: https://testmy.net/compID/992214742650 Not as fast as I'd like, but probably as good as it will get with the current setup. As you can see there are still speed differences between servers, but nothing drastic. Thanks again for this website. CA3LE and IDOCSortino 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA3LE Posted July 21, 2013 CID Share Posted July 21, 2013 glad to hear... please spread the word. ISPs often try to blame TMN, I'm used to it. I'm glad that you didn't take their word at face value. I bet that you are too. Note to others that read this... the people you talk to at your ISP are normal people and they rarely "know it all". Often you will know more about your situation than they do. Use this site as ammunition to keep them honest and get what you're paying for. If someone tells you that it's TMN's fault... tell them you want to talk to the next level of tech because they don't know what they're talking about. Remember, this site has been a trusted resource probably longer than your ISP has existed. Testing broadband is all that TMN does. Really happy that you're running more consistantly, that's what we're here for. IDOCSortino 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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