Optimum Online Connection Issues?

^^^ one thing to keep in mind with CableVision - they will (severely) cap your upload speeds, and only your upload, if they think that you're hosting a server or filesharing. You might want to ask specifically about any imposed caps to rule it out.

That being said, it's probably just their sucky service...

Their first effort is always to blame it on your hardware - a splitter, a router, a cable... anything.

It's possible that you've seen a dip that needs to be addressed, but it's also possible that you're seeing some slow-downs due to heavy traffic when people get home from work. I would give it a try when you wake up in the morning and decide whether or not to go in.

Edited to add: I'm seeing the same speeds as you right now -

WhyFi wrote: Oh, for those playing along at home, thanks to all of my documented bitching, I've been credited roughly $200.

...but I'm still getting ready to jump ship at a moment's notice.

Would love to find out what it took. I love getting money back.

BrookFetish wrote: Would love to find out what it took. I love getting money back.

Well, this was over a period of (probably) 6 months. I had more than 7 service calls, I had three periods of complete outage in excess of a week and towards the end, I called to have my account noted on a daily basis. Also, I think that one sympathetic CSR consolidated and reposted all of the previous service issues so that it took less digging for the department that actually issues the credit.

It was just good enough this morning that I stayed home, although using InDesign remotely was paaainful. Getting slightly better times now, but nothing compared to what friends in other cities get.

seriously

Now that my connection is pretty solid, I think that it's time that I move on to another issue - speed fluctuation due to (I assume) local usage.

It's getting to be really bad, and I've started to document it - during the morning/day, downloads are consistently in the 12-14 mb/sec area. In the evening/night I'm in the 0.5 - .08 mb/sec region which makes stuff like Netflix Watch Instantly frustrating to the point of being impossible.

I've been looking, but I'm not seeing any minimum speeds that they're required to meet - anybody have any insight?

** Edit - just had an online chat with a service rep/tech - no guarantee of speed what so ever... and, of course, he was quick to point the finger at anything else as a potential cause and reiterated, many times, that there's no guarantee. He did admit, however, that 1/30th of the advertised speeds, during peak usage, is unacceptable. Yay.

FiOS here, yet? **

Here's what I'm getting tonight over a wireless connection and I have the "boost" package which has max download of 30Mb/s. I will post a hardwired connection right after this one.

mg wrote: Is it extra-bad around the neighborhood tonight?

My results were similar to yours -



It seems, to me, that they've simply over-sold their bandwidth in the area and that this, compounded with shoddy wiring, is the core of the problems that people are having.

Interesting thing happened last night - I followed the click-through to upgrade to Boost. I wanted to see what it entailed (that and the fact that I'm putting together a a server at home, and the regular Optonline service forbids hosting a site, but it's allowed with Boost) and I was surprised to find that I'd being seeing the speed change immediately... which I did.

A few minutes earlier, I was at about 0.68 mbps down / 2.07 mbps up. After the modem reboot and, (presumably) server re-route, I was seeing speeds in the same vicinity as perplexed - 28ish down, 5ish up.

So, what does this tell us? The physical wiring is fine to support the bandwidth , they have the immediate capability to provide service at the advertised speeds, but they're holding back their best hardware while their "regular" customers suffer with overtaxed servers during peak usage...

I still look forward to FiOS, but I plan to make as much noise in the meantime, in an effort to not pay for the upgrade.

WhyFi wrote: Interesting thing happened last night - I followed the click-through to upgrade to Boost. I wanted to see what it entailed (that and the fact that I'm putting together a a server at home, and the regular Optonline service forbids hosting a site, but it's allowed with Boost) and I was surprised to find that I'd being seeing the speed change immediately... which I did.

Regarding the Boost: the first month is free, if you cancel before the month is up. Their billing system isn't up to keeping a track of whether you've had your free trial previously. I run a server, and whenever my other line has trouble, I switch on the boost and move it over. That'd be ca. 4 free first months so far.

I was just thinking - I'm one of the main contributors in the thread, but I've switched to their 'Boost' service, so I don't have any issues at the moment (I upgraded because I want to host a small server at home, being able to actually watch something streaming on Nexflix is a nice benefit) and I no longer have a way to collect slow-down data on my connection... but what I will have shortly (2-3 weeks) is a server that could host a simple site dedicated to the compilation and dissemination of the data... then again, it might be best to host a "Cablevision Sucks"-type site on an independent, 3rd party network...

In any event, I've just purchased, for 12 months, the url www.optoffline.net. If someone wants to run with the ball on their own, I'll be happy to hand over the keys to the domain name. If contributors are patient enough to work with my schedule and learning curve (I've never put together a site... ), I'd be willing to give it a go in the coming month - any and all assistance from more experienced persons would be welcome.

What I would propose is to test and document the DL speeds at various times of the day, with emphasis on the transition from off-peak hours to the peak usage hours. We should see a predictable, STEEP dip from 5PM through 9PM. I think that each sample should be accompanied by:

*a link to the speed test result (like - http://www.speedtest.net/result/598114746.png)
*a link to a ping test result taken immediately afterward
*geographic location/IP address for good measure.

Any other ideas?

whooooo

I've been having a lot of pages simply time out lately, and gchat's been really spotty.

See my above post - my offer still stands but I need people to volunteer to collect UL/DL data at various times of the day, peak and off-peak. I firmly believe that they're overloading the servers and I firmly believe that they're not going to do anything about it without a concentrated bitching effort.


...or until a bunch of people jump ship when FiOS is finally available.

^^^ that thought actually crossed my mind - if there's one company in the world that would base it's short-term business plan on losing customers in droves, it would have to be Cablevision.