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My speed test download speeds are fine in the middle of the day, but drop way down at night. I'm paying for 8,000 Kb/s high speed, and sometimes in the middle of the day, that's what I get. But then it starts dropping, and by 8 pm (and on weekends) it is often down to about 400 Kb/s. (Upload speed remains normal.) Too slow to even watch YouTube videos. My cable company tells me that they are reading correct values from their end. The repair man has been here three times, and cannot detect any problems, even switching out my modem and replacing wiring connectors. Ive increased my RAM, but that has had no effect. I've reset my computer clock for the wrong time, to ensure that I do not have a virus that is telling my computer to obstruct download speeds at certain times of the day. Still no change. My cable company refuses to acknowledge that there is anything on their end that they can find, and blame it on my computer. But my conputer has no way of knowing that it is REALLY 8-pm. I suspect that my cable company cannot handle it when they try to water too many lawns from the same hose, and all the kids are simultaneously downloading terabytes of music to their iPods. But they refuse to acknowledge that that could be the case. Any suggestions?
While cable companies ALWAYS oversubscribe their networks (just as web hosts, voip phone providers - everyone - does), you can't rely on any Internet "speed test" sites to be accurate, unless it's run by your ISP, and even then there are things that could skew the results.
Using the "hose" analogy, the Internet is a network of hoses and valves, all owned and operated by different companies. There could be a "valve" in between you and the speed test site that's owned by some 3rd party and is the source of the bottleneck and your apparent lack of speed.
The ISP can only guarantee (and I doubt they actually "guarantee" anything) the bandwidth from your modem to the edge of their network. Anything beyond that is outside of their control.
That said, I agree that the most likely cause is the oversubscription of their network.
As someone mentioned, drop your plan to a cheaper one if you're not satisfied with the performance of your connection. The cable company has already done everything they can (replaced modem etc) short of upgrading their infrastructure (which they aren't going to do just for you ), and residential agreements never come with a service level agreement, so you're pretty well "hosed" when it comes to getting all the bandwidth you're paying for.
im using a wireless adaptor downstairs fron qwest on a dell vostro
shows
speed 11.0m.o mbps and on the dround 34.0 mbps
what is going on with the signal?
There could be a "valve" in between you and the speed test site that's owned by some 3rd party and is the source of the bottleneck and your apparent lack of speed.
GL
Whatever the "valve" is, it is also impeding all downloads in general. When my speed-test site indicates less than about 1,000 Kb/s, I can't watch YouTube videos because they do not download fast enough to keep ahead of the play, and they keep jerking to a stop. So is is more than an "apparent" lack of speed. Stuff doesn't download, which is my "apparent" lack of speed.
Whatever the "valve" is, it is also impeding all downloads in general. When my speed-test site indicates less than about 1,000 Kb/s, I can't watch YouTube videos because they do not download fast enough to keep ahead of the play, and they keep jerking to a stop. So is is more than an "apparent" lack of speed. Stuff doesn't download, which is my "apparent" lack of speed.
The "valve" in my analogy could be a peering point, a specific router, your modem or even your PC. There are lots of "hops" that a packet traverses when going from point A to point B on the Internet, and the "valve(s)" causing your problem could be anywhere along that path.
I think you missed my point, though. I wasn't saying that you're not getting the data quickly - I was just saying that it's possible that your ISP isn't to blame. I also said that it's likely that they are.
I know we disagree a lot in the politics forum, but I'm trying to help you here (as I have in the past).
The "valve" in my analogy could be a peering point, a specific router, your modem or even your PC. There are lots of "hops" that a packet traverses when going from point A to point B on the Internet, and the "valve(s)" causing your problem could be anywhere along that path.
I think you missed my point, though. I wasn't saying that you're not getting the data quickly - I was just saying that it's possible that your ISP isn't to blame. I also said that it's likely that they are.
I know we disagree a lot in the politics forum, but I'm trying to help you here (as I have in the past).
Thanks, I appreciate it. However, if the speeds are always high during midday hours and always very very low during night time hours, that would lead me to believe that it is obviously not sonthing within the confines of my own house. But rather, the problem is somewhere where the data transmission conditions vary predictably by time of day. Would you concur with that conclusion?
I don't have a router, it goes direct wall=>cable splitter=>modem=>PC. Wall hardware, modem and splitter have all been changed, to no effect. Everything before Wall is the bailiwick of the cable company. Giving credit where credit is due, it's SuddenLink. Geek Squad told me they are by far the best in town.
I've seen this same effect.. with my cable provider and even somewhat with my ADSL provider..
But that doesn't change the fact that bottlenecks betweens routers do happen to be sure of this you must test various points on the internet and or run traceroutes.. do the ms of your 1st and 2nd hop happen to be up higher during these peak times.. can you see a router overloaded by running a comparison of traceroutes between peak and non-peak times..
The bottom-line is if you can't convince the cable company to fix the problem.. your only other real world option is to seek another provider.. you should be happy to at least have cable as some people in this world and/or post on this forum deal with satellite.. a way worse denominator.. I think within only a short period of time (5 years maybe) we will see a wimax and possible LTE rollout provide a new availability of data everywhere.. (in major cities) There is one other way to fix it.. but since that doesn’t deal with real world norm.. I won’t mention it..
I would suggest you also consult your forum type at dslreports.com
A tool used to watch routers that is used by people like me who are into web servers.. is called "pingplotter" you can give that a try if you like..
Ask your neighbors if they are seeing the same thing. If it's a generic (is that the right word?) problem then you know it's not "just you".
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), and residential agreements never come with a service level agreement, so you're pretty well "hosed" 
when it comes to getting all the bandwidth you're paying for.
