Comcast problems? 2010-01-12

[VirtualLarry]

Is anyone else on Comcast having issues? My friend was having laggy internet, and I updated the router firmware, but that didn't fix it. (Same old router firmware before wasn't laggy, so it likely wasn't that, but I figured I'd try it.)

Friend is located in MA. Going to speedtest.speakeasy.net, he had 20000Kbit/sec download, and one time, 400Kbit/sec upload, to NY, NY server. Seattle, WA server was 2700Kbit/sec, and like 100Kbit/sec upload. Worse than my 3Mbit/768Kbit DSL! Normal speeds (paid for) is 12000Kbit/sec down and I think 2000Kbit/sec up. Upload seemed very constricted, which could be affecting his download speeds too.

Later on, I did some testing, and the NY, NY and Wash, DC servers both showed 20000Kbit/sec down, and around 6-7000 Kbit/sec up. So that seemed to indicate that the problem was not with the local comcast leg, but rather something further up the internet. Seattle, WA still had the lousy connection, 100Kbit/sec upload.

Is this anything that would be fixable locally, or by comcast locally, or does this indeed look like some sort of upstream issue? I'm trying to contact a couple of other friends on Comcast to have them run some tests for me too.

Edit: For comparison, my Verizon DSL, also in MA, gets 2800Kbit/sec down, and 501Kbit/sec up, to Seattle, WA. 2878 and 502 to NY, NY.

Edit: Well, I had a different friend that is in the next-door town try a speedtest, and he gets something like 2000Kbit/sec upload to Seattle, WA, and 6000Kbit/sec upload to NY, NY. Download in both cases seems a bit low, something over 8000Kbit/sec.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Thank you for contacting Comcast technical support! Your call is not very important to us. One of our agents will be with you shortly (this is a lie).

Oh, by the way, our menu options have recently changed.

 

[Vipersfate]

Well, connecting to Seattle will definitely get you worse speeds than connecting to NY and DC servers. It's quite a bit further away.

I've been having issues with comcast for quite some time actually. Their speeds just aren't what they are supposed to be, and the latency is frustrating (I play a lot of online games)

for Seattle, I'm pulling 20Mbps down, 4Mb up. And for NY I'm getting the same speeds. BTW, I live in Indiana. So it may be something with his connection. If you get a chance and some time, call em up and do a line test.

 

[kornphlake]

I'm on the opposite coast (oregon) I just got 19000/1800 from the Seattle server, and 10000/1700 from the server in NY, Chicago gave me 14000/1800. I think I'm on the 12 mb/s tier. No problems that I've noticed from this side of the country.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I'm testing his connection today, and from MA to NY, NY, 28000 down, 7000 up. To Seattle, 9000 down, and 3000 up. So something appears to be fixed.

I blame Comcast.

PS. Would other users torrenting on the local node also cause the upstream to become saturated? Can I blame the neighbors for this issue too?

 

[gsaldivar]

I would also check just-ping.com and Comcast forum over at broadbandreports.com

Good luck!

 

[Nothinman]

Not seeing any problems in PA with Comcast.

DC: 3018/654.8 KB
Seattle: 1593.4/352.6 KB

If the download file was bigger I think the Seattle numbers would eventually average out close to the DC ones too because it starts off relatively slow then at ~35-40% spikes and finishes in around a second and a half.