Hi all, I'm having a bad time with my ISP and slow connection speeds and am hoping you could give me some things to look for on my end that may cause such problems and maybe some ideas I could bounce off of them for their end.
First off, being out in the sticks, we can't get cable or DSL. We are on a microwave connection rated at 1Mb. The problem is that measured speeds (via speedtest.net and butt dyno testing) are all over the place. Sometimes it's 1 meg plus and sometimes it's .12 meg. Not cool when you're paying for meg service.
Facts that I can provide:
-Radio/receiver is properly lined up with the tower and indicates via a series of LED's, good signal.
-Typically the connection slows at night, most notably during the 9 and more often, the 10 o'clock hour. Sometimes is slower during the daytime too.
-According to speedtest.net, when speeds are down, ping times are way up. Usually when speeds are good, ping is typically around 20ms. When speeds are in the toilet, ping times are around 100-200ms.
-Sometimes speed will be slow for a few minutes and other times for several hours.
-Was told by the installer (their brains) that they use some sort of system that gives constant speed, not "burst speed". I've noticed that sometimes it almost acts like I get a "burst" of speed, as pages will initially load fast, but the rest of the content will come much slower. This can also be seen on speedtest.net with their speed dial and graph. I'll see a very short spike of a higher speed, followed by a much slower speed to finish.
-This occurs on all browsers.
-After calling and complaining (during the day), they would review my connection and deem it to be "okay". I told them of the time related issues and they told me that they'd camp out and watch for issues. After a return call, they said that they've still not "seen" any issues - even during times I knew to be slow. So either they weren't looking at that time or there really isn't anything wrong.
-Computer is custom build with AMD 2.7 x2, 4 gig of ram and XP (SP 3)
-Automatic updates are set to inform me they are available, but not auto (they tried to pin it on that until I looked)
-Computer is well maintained, running service utilities like CCleaner, Spybot, Malwarebytes and Avast. No issues have been found over the course of multiple scans.
So, the question remains- what could be the cause of the issue? My end, or theirs? What can I do or look for? I did ask if maybe there was another member sucking up mega bandwidth, but they told me that it's unlikely because they have "so much speed in that area". If they've got so darned much speed, then why do they only offer up to 1.5 meg?
I may be forgetting something, so ask away if you don't see anything useful...
edit: added My Service Provider
First off, being out in the sticks, we can't get cable or DSL. We are on a microwave connection rated at 1Mb. The problem is that measured speeds (via speedtest.net and butt dyno testing) are all over the place. Sometimes it's 1 meg plus and sometimes it's .12 meg. Not cool when you're paying for meg service.
Facts that I can provide:
-Radio/receiver is properly lined up with the tower and indicates via a series of LED's, good signal.
-Typically the connection slows at night, most notably during the 9 and more often, the 10 o'clock hour. Sometimes is slower during the daytime too.
-According to speedtest.net, when speeds are down, ping times are way up. Usually when speeds are good, ping is typically around 20ms. When speeds are in the toilet, ping times are around 100-200ms.
-Sometimes speed will be slow for a few minutes and other times for several hours.
-Was told by the installer (their brains) that they use some sort of system that gives constant speed, not "burst speed". I've noticed that sometimes it almost acts like I get a "burst" of speed, as pages will initially load fast, but the rest of the content will come much slower. This can also be seen on speedtest.net with their speed dial and graph. I'll see a very short spike of a higher speed, followed by a much slower speed to finish.
-This occurs on all browsers.
-After calling and complaining (during the day), they would review my connection and deem it to be "okay". I told them of the time related issues and they told me that they'd camp out and watch for issues. After a return call, they said that they've still not "seen" any issues - even during times I knew to be slow. So either they weren't looking at that time or there really isn't anything wrong.
-Computer is custom build with AMD 2.7 x2, 4 gig of ram and XP (SP 3)
-Automatic updates are set to inform me they are available, but not auto (they tried to pin it on that until I looked)
-Computer is well maintained, running service utilities like CCleaner, Spybot, Malwarebytes and Avast. No issues have been found over the course of multiple scans.
So, the question remains- what could be the cause of the issue? My end, or theirs? What can I do or look for? I did ask if maybe there was another member sucking up mega bandwidth, but they told me that it's unlikely because they have "so much speed in that area". If they've got so darned much speed, then why do they only offer up to 1.5 meg?
I may be forgetting something, so ask away if you don't see anything useful...
edit: added My Service Provider
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