Suspected 'throttling' by TWC . . .

weh · 04 May 2009

I've read about throttling and know that the FCC has -- at least, temporarily -- come out against it, including handing out fines for its use. Regardless, I suspect that I am a victim of its practice.

I installed a small utility called NetWorx which monitors communications activity. When I start a download, it indicated a quick ramp up to a level near my theoretical DL maximum (actually, about 85% of TWC's claimed DL speed). However, within about 4-6 minutes (varies somewhat), during an extended download, the pattern changes. I get a series of pulsed data bursts instead of the continuous data stream. As best I can tell, I'm getting about 2.5 seconds at full speed followed by a 7.5 second pause -- 6 per minute. The file download panel in FireFox still reports full speed and predicts download time accordingly; however, actual download time is consistent with my observations -- essentially, 4x the estimated download time (not counting the initial ~5 minutes worth).

And it doesn’t matter which browser I use. I’m getting the same results when I download using Chrome, IE8 and MS’s download manager. (It's happening now, ownloading the new RC files from MS.)

I've experimented with my computers and get full speed transfers over my internal network connections. I've also reconnected my router so that one of my computers "pretends" to be the internet and I “download” files from it (connected to the WAN port) to my newest computer (the one in my specs) and I still get full speed -- no pulses. I can't believe that my computers or router are causing this phenomenon.

Any comments or observations from the resident experts?

Digger · 05 May 2009

could be........ could also be the -db noise/ratio at your cable modem, off the pole effectively. What about running modem straight into a pc? same results? what about ping -t your isp dns server(s)..... see what that gives you then email a copy to their support.

weh · 05 May 2009

Digger said:

could be........ could also be the -db noise/ratio at your cable modem, off the pole effectively. What about running modem straight into a pc? same results? what about ping -t your isp dns server(s)..... see what that gives you then email a copy to their support.

Happens with the cable modem connected directly to the computer, too. (I just tried it.) I don't have a second cable modem to switch out, so can't test that.

The weird thing is the delay. According to speedtest.net, I consistently average about 6.85 Mb/s download speed (upload, 0.35Mb/s; ping, 18-22 ms). I just tried downloading a 3.04GB file (you can guess which one

). It 'flowed' perfectly for about 6 minutes 25 seconds before switching over to 'pulse' mode. I paused the download, waited 1 minute, and resumed. It 'pulsed.' I paused again, waited exactly 5 minutes, and resumed. It flowed steadily for about 5 minutes 40 seconds and then began pulsing again. It's like someone -- or, rather, some software -- is watching, just waiting to pounce on a button to trigger the shift in mode.

Big brother is alive and well....

Digger · 05 May 2009

weh said:

Happens with the cable modem connected directly to the computer, too. (I just tried it.) I don't have a second cable modem to switch out, so can't test that.

The weird thing is the delay. According to speedtest.net, I consistently average about 6.85 Mb/s download speed (upload, 0.35Mb/s; ping, 18-22 ms). I just tried downloading a 3.04GB file (you can guess which one

). It 'flowed' perfectly for about 6 minutes 25 seconds before switching over to 'pulse' mode. I paused the download, waited 1 minute, and resumed. It 'pulsed.' I paused again, waited exactly 5 minutes, and resumed. It flowed steadily for about 5 minutes 40 seconds and then began pulsing again. It's like someone -- or, rather, some software -- is watching, just waiting to pounce on a button to trigger the shift in mode.

Big brother is alive and well....

yea, sounds like some sort of QOS possibly going on there. I would start bugging the techs, 2nd tier techs to be specific, and keep having them come out and check your lines... i know that most isp's state the "up to" in their contracting words, but also, they have to keep and reach a minimum of 90% of their advertised bandwidth to the customer or you can request them to pro-rate your account till it gets fixed.