I’m having some problems with my internet connection. For most uses it just appears to be kind of slow, but for live streaming it’s been very poor for the last couple of days because it keeps cutting out for a few seconds at a time, even when it’s just sound.
When I call my ISP they’re condescending as usual and tell me they can’t detect any problems.
Does anyone know of a test I can use to show them exactly what the symptoms are? I know a little bit about the subject but it’s difficult to explain it when you call tech support because they don’t listen to what you say - they just seem to pick key words (like the damned Office Assistant) and guess at what my question is. I suppose I need something like the speed tests you can find but with more of a focus on consistency rather than average speed. Ideally, it would test my connection continuously for a few minutes and tell me how many times the speed drops off, even if just for a second.
You might also want something like Pingplotter to check the latency.
It also sounds like you should email tech support rather than speak to them.
Which is your ISP? If it’s Tlk-Tlk you need to move. They’re notorious. Since you’re in London, BT may offer their Infinity product, and Virgin their cable. I’m with BT (but not Infinity) and was with Virgin / NTL cable before at my old address. A colleague is with Be and very happy. A mate is a reseller for Entanet.
Connection consistency is not going to be a huge concern for your average home user ISP. Speed dips here and there are part of the territory as they have no control over when local traffic in your area may spike.
If you are getting below average speeds for your package there may be an issue with your computer (virus or virus that AV software killed but did not totally repair damage to things like winsock or TCP, perhaps a twitchy firewall install)
My ISP is Virgin Media (through cable). I was planning to email them but I wanted some “documentation” to go with it.
And yep, I understand that consistency isn’t a priority but it’s literally dropping low enough that what I assume is a 64kbps audio stream cuts out frequently.
I know it’s not an issue with my computer, or a wireless connection, since I have the same problem with two computers, one of which is connected via Ethernet.
I’ll look into Smokeping when I’ve got more time. Thanks for that.
Back when they were NTL their service used to be quite good, but then, their offices were down the road.
I did once have problems with my NTL connection, and after a visit from an engineer which didn’t resolve the issue, I walked round. This resulted in a more senior engineer visiting and he found that the neighbourhood distribution box had been damaged by kids. They were sitting on it and kicking the door. The damage was quickly fixed and I had an excellent link thereafter.
