What is the CONNECTID?

[WhiskerBiscuit]

Are these unique to each user?

[CA3LE]

They're as unique as IP addresses but don't give away any of your personal details.  ConnectID's are something made up to give you a unique ID but also protect your identity.

[touchPC]

can you please explain why am I getting multiple connectid's in mt test with hugely different speeds when I am the only user?

see attached snip file 

[043999]

I can't see how they're unique because i'm getting someone else's results mixed into mine, unless our ISP has somehow given us the same IP address and we are both frequently using this site to figure out why our internet is so bad.  The guy did say they ran out of IP addresses and i'm not allowed to access my router...something's fishy.  i've been doing 10 minute interval tests but the results page shows tons more.

[Pgoodwin1]

On October 25, 2015 at 8:23 PM, touchPC said:

can you please explain why am I getting multiple connectid's in mt test with hugely different speeds when I am the only user?

see attached snip file 

 

These results are not just your personal results. This is the results for Optus from the database with the test data logged here for that provider for multiple users. Your results are only those two data points where the connect ID ends in 97724 (where touchPC is shown). If you want to see just your personal results, use the "Results" link on the home page.  https://testmy.net/quickstats

Edited August 23, 2016 by Pgoodwin1
Added URL for results link

[Pgoodwin1]

2 hours ago, 043999 said:

I can't see how they're unique because i'm getting someone else's results mixed into mine, unless our ISP has somehow given us the same IP address and we are both frequently using this site to figure out why our internet is so bad.  The guy did say they ran out of IP addresses and i'm not allowed to access my router...something's fishy.  i've been doing 10 minute interval tests but the results page shows tons more.

 

Something is odd. I see results for 59066749816 connect ID that give the user as eriksonjw and 043999. I'll let CA3LE answer this one.

 

if you use the Results link on the home page, you should see only your results. I'm not sure what the Connect ID issue is with more than one user.

[mudmanc4]

From here it looks as if the ISP is dynamically setting the addresses, and as the OP stated 'ran out of IP's' could mean someone is always getting bounced, as the TTL [ or lease time ] settings must be low.

 

This is also very common with many satellite and wireless ISP's

[043999]

yes it's a wireless ISP and i'm certain they are grouping multiple people under an IP address, who knows how many.

 

i'm not very educated about networks, i know a little.  what i don't understand is if this ISP strategy would result in poor internet for me.  I've had a lot of issues and lately it's been almost unusable for what i primarily use the internet for, online gaming (low latency is king!)

 

also, would multiple people speed testing every 5-10 minutes on the same IP affect each other in the group?  If you look back at the connectid me and someone else have been testing it hard lately.

[Pgoodwin1]

The good news is that your speeds are almost always 2-4 times faster than eriksonjw.

 

what's your ISP plan download speed limit?

[CA3LE]

As long as you're logged in when you test and search your results by username you'll only see your own results.  The connectionID is created based on your IP address so if other users have your same public IP they'll have the same connectionID you have.  The next version has some tricks up its sleeve that will further differentiate users on the same IP address and toggle the option to exclude connectionID results not logged under your username.

 

You should toggle that option, on My Results near the bottom of the page.  Database driven option so once it's selected you can clear cookies or switch browsers and the setting will follow you.

 

Should look like this if you're wanting to hide results that weren't specifically taken under your TMN account.

 

[043999]

i'm actually pleased there is some overlap so i can see i'm not the only one having internet issues with the ISP.  Every time i talk to them they swear up and down i'm the only one with issues.  My plan speed is 2-5 megabit.  I had started with the 5-7 megabit plan but realized i averaged about 1 megabit.  It's a wireless ISP, i have a radio and dish on my roof aimed at a tower on a mountain.  the tricky part is eliminating radio interference in my house.  perhaps this other user has more radio interference.  But I basically can't run my air conditioning if i want to use the internet.

[CA3LE]

16 hours ago, 043999 said:

It's a wireless ISP, i have a radio and dish on my roof aimed at a tower on a mountain.  the tricky part is eliminating radio interference in my house.  perhaps this other user has more radio interference.  But I basically can't run my air conditioning if i want to use the internet.

 

If the antenna is aimed at the mountain... how does interference within your home cause issues?  What kind of proximity is the antenna to the A/C fan motor?  I think the only way it would make sense for your connection to have issues when the A/C is running is if a strong electromagnetic component of the unit were in fairly close proximity.  Those motors can definitely do that.  If that's the cause, relocate your antenna further away from the motor.  Even just an extra 5 feet away can make a big difference.  

 

Get that thing up in the air on a pole!   

 

 

... hey seriously, if my only choice was wireless internet, that's what my house would look like. 

 

[043999]

the dish is on a pole attached to my chimney, which puts it at about 25 ft from the heat pump's condensing unit.  There are a lot of things that can cripple the radio even if it's 25 ft away.  It operates on 2.4 ghz so baby monitors (we have none), other people's routers (occasionally i see a neighbors router in my wifi list but that's very infrequent), ham radio operators.

 

Motion lights caused major problems for me, there were a lot made with 2.4ghz radios, so whenever the motion light sensor on my front porch saw infrared movement it would then turn on the radio and double check that something was there.  So ironically while sitting at my computer adjacent to a porch with a motion light it was seeing me through the wall being frustrated with my internet and continuing to broadcast radio making me more frustrated with my internet.  At least this is my best theory.  I turned off the motion lights (they have a normal switched light mode) and that problem was fixed.

 

However I either have more radio interference that i can't account for or my ISP sucks.  It's probably a little of both (or a lot of one) so solving the rest of my problems has been difficult.  I haven't suspected the actual condensing unit per se, but the whole house surge protector that it's attached to.  But you're right, that kind of noise probably doesn't travel more than a few feet.

 

I have suspected network congestion for a while, of course my ISP denies that.  I didn't realize until this week that we were sharing an IP address, which i guess i should have figured out long ago.  I've been told they are moving to ipv6 soon, but who knows when that will happen.  I inquired about a static IP but i'm pretty sure that will require their $150 business plan instead of my $60 2-5mb home plan.  A majority of the time i'm home, nights and weekends, i probably average less than 2 mb.  It makes cord cutting a real drag.

 

I've sent logs from here to the ISP on several occasions but they say they don't see any problems.  I have zero other options other than satellite so I can't just cancel and find someone else.  I reached out to eriksonjw but i totally understand if they don't want to talk to some random dude on the internet.

 

What i was hoping to find out here is if there was some setting i could tell them to change that would improve performance for shared IPs (i don't get access to my router)

 

You mentioned TTL?

[Pgoodwin1]

19 hours ago, CA3LE said:

As long as you're logged in when you test and search your results by username you'll only see your own results.  The connectionID is created based on your IP address so if other users have your same public IP they'll have the same connectionID you have.  The next version has some tricks up its sleeve that will further differentiate users on the same IP address and toggle the option to exclude connectionID results not logged under your username.

 

You should toggle that option, on My Results near the bottom of the page.  Database driven option so once it's selected you can clear cookies or switch browsers and the setting will follow you.

 

Should look like this if you're wanting to hide results that weren't specifically taken under your TMN account.

 

 

I forgot that feature was there.

[mudmanc4]

2 hours ago, 043999 said:

[...]

 

You mentioned TTL?

Rephrase could be necessary here. TTL would be 'Time To Live' which may not be relevant here.

 

The ISP has the ability to set how long the specific IP lease time is per request, in combination with many other variables.

 

For instance; you turn on your machine, which asks 'who has' an IP in said range set in adapter config, the modem DHCP server will reply I 'I do' and lease your machine [computer] and IP address in the LAN subnet range. 

 

The modem must also go through much the same process in order to make a connection to the 'tower' in your case, which leases out an IP within the ISP LAN ie: your  WAN.

 

As an example, the standard IP lease time in a DHCP server might be 86400 seconds, or 24 hours. Therefore if he see's no activity within 24 hours, the IP is then placed back in the pool of available IP's

 

The only issue I have with an ISP claiming to 'run out of IP's' , is they would create another subnet on a VLAN and run the Que on their end if they themselves have run out of throughput. As in this case, there are no static IP's, which they could actually implement as well.

 

The more likely case is not running out of IP's, which truly sounds absurd in this case ( due to the fact a company which cannot afford to place more towers for more clients, would likely not have exhausted the tens of thousands of IP subnet possibilities to actually run out all pools), but leaning more so the poor connectivity to clients due to geographical obstacles, and or tower placement/ availability due to {place any 100 of 1000000 reasons here} ; where clients constantly disconnect and reconnect, and MAC address / ARP caching is not being utilized; or properly.

/just guessing here

 

Also might want to consider grounding= everything you can find to run a ground wire to/ from, safely.

[043999]

Mudman, thanks for the info.

 

geographical obstacles are a concern.  Other than some leaves and branches the tower is pretty unobstructed and i figure if most of the time (conveniently when i'm not home) i can get max speeds then it's not a geographic or obstruction issue.)

 

I'm having trouble distinguishing between radio interference and network congestion mostly because i see my speeds plummet when i get home, which is when the air conditioning cranks up as well, then speeds go back up closer to midnight which is about when my AC shuts down.  This also corresponds to when i'd expect network congestion.

 

I would go around grounding everything but I really have no electrical ability whatsoever so doing it safely is a concern.  I also wonder if tracking down any more radio interference is just a wild goose chase and the low speed is all the ISPs fault.

 

is there a way to determine my time to live without having access to the router?  Maybe it's set ridiculously short.

[mudmanc4]

@043999 I would not suggest doing anything electrical or at heights that your not already familiar as well as knowledgeable about, so good choice to stay back on that one.

 

Any setting I suggested in the previous post, would be on the ISP side, nothing you or I could control.

 

Of course I believe  proper 'aligning' in your case is important, which may or may not be end user capable.

 

No access to the router at all?  Were you issues a Linksys router ? Is this Comcast or Lumos?

 

What does this IP get you ? http://192.168.100.1

[043999]

that ip cannot be reached.

 

i had my own router and didn't know until they showed up to install that i wouldn't have access to the router.

 

it's Lumos.

 

i'm not at home right now but my auto speed tests are plummeting like usual this time of day..it's either the AC or the kids home from school causing congestion.

[mudmanc4]

Run a trace route to testmy.net

 

start > run > cmd > type:

tracert testmy.net

 

Please copy / paste the output

Edited August 25, 2016 by mudmanc4
When running a trace route we do not use http, just the domain name

[043999]

ran a trace route to testmy.net:

 

Tracing route to testmy.net [64.111.22.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    10 ms    21 ms    16 ms  172.16.1.254
  3    13 ms    15 ms    15 ms  64-4-100-205.unassigned.ntelos.net [64.4.100.205]
  4    38 ms    35 ms    33 ms  lumos-netwo.ear2.chicago2.level3.net [4.35.101.58]
  5    40 ms    41 ms    44 ms  8-2-14.ear2.chicago2.level3.net [4.35.101.57]
  6    66 ms    61 ms    64 ms  ae-2-3502.ear3.denver1.level3.net [4.69.207.57] 
  7    60 ms    64 ms    57 ms  4.34.32.38
  8    62 ms   224 ms    63 ms  g7-42-edge5.core1.cos1.vis.data102.com [64.111.16.72]
  9    64 ms    77 ms    66 ms  po1-core01.dist07.cos01.vis.data102.com [64.111.16.195]
 10    62 ms    61 ms    61 ms  testmy.net [64.111.22.10]

Trace complete.

 

[mudmanc4]

No I messed up with the http protocol, sorry about that.

 

What do you get when you goto http://172.16.1.254

 

Could you also have a peek at the router [and or if combination] and say what branding and or model number?

[043999]

i get an edgemax router login.

 

they installed on my own router, a tp-link wdr-3600.

on one service call they left me one of their routers they setup so i could swap to see if there was a difference, it's an airRouter HP.  it didn't make a difference on my internet speeds but it wasn't gigabit so i don't use it.  nice profit on their end though...they charge $99 for for a $40 router.

[mudmanc4]

Edgemax, interesting. Try using:

Admin: ubnt

Password: ubnt

 

On the TP-Lnk you have access to this correct?

 

[043999]

well should i really be accessing their router?  not that i'm not curious but i don't want to violate some agreement and lose my service, they are my only unlimited option currently

 

i have no access to the tp-link either.  they set it up and changed the password, which i'm not used to and i specifically bought that router because i was familiar with the interface since i use them at work.  they have truly locked me out which is frustrating.  i don't know if locking people out is necessary to keep the average person from meddling or there are truly a lot of settings they need to turn on to even make things work i find it odd, no matter what they are doing, that everything has to be set on the router.  but i'm a networking novice.

[mudmanc4]

You have a point on their equipment. Might want to read the TOS.

 

At the same time look and see if them setting up your router on their system somehow makes it their property. Chances are your not going to get in without a hard reset either way. And not knowing some of their settings, you could lock yourself out from any connection at all, and could incur charges to have them make a service call to set it back up again.

 

Ubiquity is a great company, and growing. They just hired one of the founders / former maintainers of PFsense, top notch in his field.