Some Serious Upload Issues, ISP Problem?

[ItZMuRdA]

Hi all,

Hoping some of you may be of assistance, although I'm fairly confident my issue is on my ISP's end and they fail to acknowledge it.

I've been live streaming on a daily basis using Open Broadcaster Software (and have also posted this on their tech support forums) for over a year now with great success; only in the past few weeks have I started to have frame drop issues with no major changes to my settings to cause it. Some days (like Thursday), it is terrific. I streamed for many hours at 3k bitrate CBR with absolutely 0 dropped frames the entire time. Yesterday, I couldn't even get my stream up at 3k, let alone 2k bitrate for more than 30 seconds before bitrate dropped so low into the red that it disconnected the stream. This happened three different times thereafter. As I said, I stream at 3k bitrate, yet my ISP currently quotes me 101down/35up (which is reflected by my 110down/37up score on speedtest.net -- don't hate me for quoting an Ookla test).

 

 

egardless of the inaccuracy of those tests, I think I should still be able to stream a measly 3kbps without having issues if I'm seeing more than 10x that on Ookla. When I use testmy.net, however, I got a rather awful 3.4mb upload speed with a 12mb test when connecting to the default (Dallas), and 5.1mb when connecting to Washington D.C. (the closest server in proximity to me) with the same test.

 

I actually believe that somewhere in here may lie the problem. I originally paid extra with my ISP for 50down/8up, but they recently boosted our service even higher to about 101down/35up, and I was grandfathered in as part of that change that happened on July 15th (documentation below). I made sure to upgrade my router (Netgear R6300) firmware and even took their advice and replaced my modem with the newest one they offer. I also upgraded any LAN/ethernet-related drivers, got a new ethernet cable, tried streaming from both my gaming and streaming PC (obv. with different motherboards), tried both the NY and VA twitch servers, and just about anything you can think of on my end. My ISP says everything looks fine on their end, and I'm sure it does, as whenever I run SpeedTest.net (which they suggest, sadly) I pass with flying colors.

 

Here's the info on my recent ISP changes:

 

I realize this isn't a testmy.net issue, but I'm hoping the bright minds here may be able to alert me to some sort of flaw that either I can fix, or that I can point my ISP in the right direction with, as I stream on a daily basis as a means of earning revenue and it is a huge bummer to let all of my viewers down with something that is seemingly outside of my control.

 

If there is any additional info that I can provide, or if you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks so much for your time and assistance.

[TriRan]

Well first and foremost streaming at a 3k bitrate is all well and fine but it also depends on what resolution your streaming I'm assuming at least 720p maybe even 1080p? back when I used to stream I streamed 1080p at 2.2k bitrate and it required a solid 3-4Mbps upload rate from what I read you need somewhere around 10Mbps upload to upload a 3k with a decent audio quality aswell at 1080p your upload should be plenty fast enough... The first thing I would do is bypass your router and connect your streaming computer directly to your modem and retest this will be a process of elimination so bare with us and if it turns out its your isp the only solution is to call and complain daily till its fixed I've had issues like that before aswell and my isp swore it was my issue when it turns out it was a bad amplifier at their local node in my neighborhood

[ItZMuRdA]

Thanks for the reply, TriRan. I do in fact stream at 720p, but I have an issue with dropping frames even when I'm just streaming my desktop, or heck even nothing for that matter. I did as you suggested and connected the streaming PC directly to the modem and ran it earlier today, literally just streaming my desktop at 720p through a capture card and repeatedly had the same issues. The dropping of frames I believe is related directly to the upload spiking, as the bitrate drops drastically (sometimes down to 0kbps) during the stream, followed by about 100~ frames dropped while it gets back up to normal speed.

 

I also just spoke to my ISP for 50 minutes on the phone but they once again can't verify any issue on their end. I'm going to try to arrange having a technician come out here and reproduce the issue while he is present, but if you have any other suggestions or useful bits of info that I can relay to my ISP, it is greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm sure you guys know how to use your own site, haha, but here's a link to my tests including a upload auto-test I ran earlier today if it helps you verify my issue at all.

 

https://testmy.net/quickstats/itzmurda

[TriRan]

Yeah there is some serious inconsistency in your upload rate and good that is exactly what I was going to recommend you do when I had issues it took them about a month to finally fix it during that time I had 2-3 tech's per week at my house i was even learning their names and they rewired my drop and house multiple times they changed out countless connections and splitters tried different attenuators and finally I got an actual maintenance tech to come out and check the local node

[ItZMuRdA]

Arranged for a technician to stop by tomorrow morning... now just for hoping that I can reproduce the issues when he's here. Thanks again for your help, if you have any suggestions as to things I should tell him let me know. I know they can be pretty frustrating to deal with sometimes, listening only to speedtest.net like a bunch of uneducated folks.

[TriRan]

Run an auto speed test at https://testmy.net/auto till he gets there the longer the better and do short intervals so he can see the fluctuation if he even hints that it is our servers tell him we are hosted in softlayer datacenters and they are some of the most powerful datacenters in the world with more then 20Gbps of network infrastructure and our servers run on multiple dedicated 1Gbps lines you can read more at https://testmy.net/legit-speed-test.php even he should know what that means and what kind of traffic it would take to saturate our lines

And sorry for the crammed messages I've been on my phone all day. Out with the family

[ItZMuRdA]

No worries, thanks for the help. He's coming shortly so I'll let you know how it goes!

[ItZMuRdA]

Well, he came and went, couldn't identify any issues locally at my house, however, someone back at "the department" was quickly able to find some serious ingress problems on the system. Sounds like it's enough to cause the problems I've been seeing, without knocking out my modem entirely. Hopefully this fixes it, they should have someone out there within 48 hours.

 

Thanks for your help, I'll report back just for consistency.

[TriRan]

Sounds hopeful and yeah let us know how it plays out love hearing success stories

[ItZMuRdA]

Hi again,

 

Just reporting back as I said I would. I never got that call back from my ISP, but it seems as though the issue is resolved. I've been able to stream daily for the past week or so at 3k bitrate, all day long, 0 dropped frames or any sort of indicators of interruption in service. My speeds on testmy.net are not much different, but don't seem to have nearly as much variance as before. While they aren't the speeds that I am being quoted, they are certainly sufficient for my needs, and apparently there was an actual ingress problem somewhere on the system end that they were able to localize and fix.

 

While I'd love to see higher numbers, I can't really complain and am happy with the practical results of this "fix" so far. Thanks so much for the assistance on this forum.

[TriRan]

Glad to hear it got fixed thanks for posting back