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General discussion

Where is all my bandwidth going? And how do I tell?

Dec 13, 2013 7:13AM PST
Question:

Where is all my bandwidth going? And how do I tell?


I don't have fiber to the home, so I am limited to my cable Internet connection. I'm currently paying for the fastest residential Internet my cable provider offers. Using Speedtest.net, I routinely get 20Mbps down and 4Mbps up. Advertised speeds exactly. We have TWC/Road Runner in the San Antonio area.

We have wired Gigabit Ethernet in the house.
iMac (Mavericks) (on all the time)
Sony PC (Windows 8.1) (on all the time)
HP LaserJet P2055dn (on all the time)
Two DirecTV HD DVRs (standby or on all the time)
Apple TV
Xbox 360

Two "Smart" TVs
Pioneer AV Receiver (AirPlay)
Two Sony BluRay players (one is a combo AV receiver)
Apple Gigabit Router (on all the time)
File Transporter (on all the time)

All of these are wired. Occasionally we'll connect a laptop, usually a MacBook Air or Pro, to the Ethernet instead of just connecting wirelessly. We have two iPhones and an iPad connected wirelessly to the network when they are home. We rarely connect the laptops to the network wirelessly -- usually just pick up the iPad. Then of course there are the apps (that I know about) that are running on the desktops. Dropbox, SkyDrive, FileTransporter, and iTunes. We hope to eliminate (or consolidate) and only use SkyDrive, once our workplace adopts it/allows it in addition to Dropbox. Until then, we are using all three Dropbox-style apps.

I think the performance issues we are having are community-related, and not necessarily our own doing. I have taken the time and effort to go around and unhook each device and retest. I really thought DirecTV was the hog, but disconnecting both simultaneously did nothing to the network speed. At various times tonight, after 6 p.m., the network seems to really slow down. Netflix, for example, will often go from a nice near-HD resolution to really bad, pixelated/JPEG artifact-looking quality to keep up. A DirecTV on demand that comes through the Internet might take 30 minutes before we get the "ready to watch" prompt. Off the satellite, voila, instant movie.

Even during this time, Speedtest shows advertised speeds. Hmmm. Download something and it sure seems slow.

Is it me, or my cable provider, reaching capacity?

Thanks.

-Submitted by: Jack P.

Discussion is locked

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Part of the problem is cable architecture
Dec 20, 2013 7:45PM PST

As has been mentioned before, cable is a shared line. The long-distance circuits in modern cable systems flow through fiber-optic lines, but convert to copper for the neighborhood drops. Each drop can service up to 224 homes, so you potentially can be sharing your line with up to 223 other families at any given time, as well as with other members of your household.

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Jack
Dec 21, 2013 12:32AM PST

I live in close proximity to the area that you do. I have neighbors right beside me that use TWC and wireless. I however use the local phone company service and need to share my story with you. I have had the very same issue and I use Fios from the provider.

I got angry one day and forwarded all my speednet test results (they can be saved) to the tech and cus svc dept
after talking to them on the phone regularly. Here's the catch, they WILL NEVER TELL YOU that the lines are shared. You end up like here in this forum learning about it the hard way. And it is always the slowest link in the route wherever it may be. For example I get a great test speed from Corpus Christi but when I select Austin (closer to me) the ping goes off the scale and the speed sucks.

I have b**ched at the techies to solve it. They tell me it can't be done. What kills me about all of it is there is no more infrastructure nor backbone nor equipment to be built. It has all been paid for ten years ago. You and I are pure profit to them. Here's what I did. Not that it mattered. I explained very carefully that it I did not see some improvement over the next year, I am moving on, they can keep their suckie service. You now have created a new problem for me, I was gonna go to TWC instead, now I have few options, maybe start up my own company........ Happy

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A lot of my clients in Texas report the same...
Jan 7, 2014 2:34PM PST

I wonder how that Google fiber in Austin is panning out?

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Bandwidth
Dec 21, 2013 12:54AM PST

So far no one has mentioned cable splitters. The feed line into the home to the cable modem should not be split again prior to connection to the modem. And any splitters used for TV connections should have the proper capacity. (I don't think 900hz works for HD TV any more).

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Not unusual
Dec 21, 2013 1:44AM PST

As several others have noted, a cable internet connection is like an Ethernet connection, where each connected device shares the entire bandwidth. If all other devices are inactive, available bandwidth to a single device is the maximum. If everybody sharing the cable internet connection is downloading movies, throughput nearly grinds to a halt. I have the same problem here with 30mbps service from Charter. Various on-line tests show a high degree of variability in the effective throughput of the connection. I also have a Verizon Network Extender here to allow VOIP cell phone calls, because we are in a valley out of range of any cell towers. The Verizon Network Extender, brain-dead device with only LED idiot lights to tell you what is going on, sometimes works perfectly, sometimes causes garbled speech, and sometimes behaves like a broken unit. And it switches back and forth from one state to another unexpectedly. Verizon is really no help, and Charter, too.

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slow banwidth
Dec 21, 2013 2:22AM PST

Just because you're paying for 20, doesn't mean you're going to get 20.
It goes according to how many people are on that node in your neighborhood.
And how many people are connected to the same server you are connected to.
All websites limits the user bandwidth they can use, so they can serve everyone who connects to them.
It can be, the server that you're connected to, is using a t1 connection. So they would only be limited to, I think 1.5 megs.

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Netlimiter would be very helpfull
Dec 21, 2013 5:38AM PST

The people at netlimiter.com have a good program I used to find programs that were accessing data on the Internet without my knowledge. Any file that has a hook into the web is listed and can be limited or blocked. I think they gave a free trial but I bought ver 3 and 4 is in beta and was promised upon completion.

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QoS Setting
Dec 21, 2013 5:50AM PST

Check your router's QoS setting - give the unit you're using for video the highest priority. (But if you're using VOIP, give IT the highest, the video high.) Your other units may be doing their thing while you're watching a movie, e.g. getting updates.

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It's most likely not your provider....
Dec 21, 2013 9:04PM PST

I'm using a tiny pipe (1.5 up, 4 down) on AT&T DSL. While I can being gaming (WoW) and downloading from download.com (a Cnet site), a friend can be downloading a very large file from my server, and the wife can be watching Netflix, all at the same time, normally without interruption. We did this as a test, it worked flawlessly and I was still downloading.

We currently have two servers, two desktops, two laptops, two phones, TV, Tivo, printer, etc, one 24port 100M switch, and two Cisco routers (because I can) running it all through a simple DSL gateway, it's not the Internet speed that's causing the problem. We can sit in the living room, watch something on Netflix, and it will go from 1080p (the 5 bar display) down to the 3 bar display.

It's not your nor my network bandwidth, it's the Netflix servers.

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Bandwidth Issues
Dec 21, 2013 10:32PM PST

I have gone through the exact same routine to identify my bandwidth issue. With the addition of having the cable company out to my house numerous times to check the quality of the equipment, cable and connections. After new modem, cable and connectors the cable technician suggested the problem as being poor down line amplifiers that are the property of the cable company which are located on the wire poles running down the street. The poor signal quality can be seen when running the "speedtest.net" diagnostic (Google it). Instead of the signal looking like a tall section of cleanly cut grass, it looks like the jagged peaks of the Alaskan mountain range. I don't have the specialized equipment to check the signal-to-noise ration but I'd bet it is equally as bad. Being in a rural location, (outskirts of Flagstaff Arizona) seems the only solution is to go with "Dish" to get the consistent speed and signal quality desired.

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Where's My Bandwidth Going?
Dec 21, 2013 10:54PM PST

Looks like there is no real answer to this one. What is needed is a trace a la MVS/zOS but Windows doesn't have a decent one to tell where all the time is going (or does it?). A process map with CPU time, IOs issued and stoarge occupied would be invaluable. Microsoft please note.
How do I exit this thread forever?
Terry Tortoise.

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CPU/GPU combination bottleneck
Dec 22, 2013 7:54AM PST

Central Processing Unit (CPU), the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU)

With little time at this end of the year to read all the great replies, I'm quickly putting this up as a possible cause hoping no-one beat me too it! I know you are using a TV but they have similar hardware.

If your current hardware is mismatched, a bottleneck can be created where the data gets held up until the knot gets sorted out. I don't know much about all this yet as I'm just learning about this very thing myself but this FRAPS is a really good site.

http://fraps.com/

Then there's VSYNCH! Yes it's a bloody minefield out there.

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Schools Out
Dec 25, 2013 11:10PM PST

One thing we've noticed is that around 3:00 or 3:15 PM every day our speed comes to a screeching halt. It appears school is out for the day and lots of kids are suddenly using up bandwidth. I don't know if this correlates with your situation or not.