[colug-432] talking to your ISP

[Rick Hornsby]

Got an unsolicited email from Timewarner.  They're bumping my speed from 10 to 15 for free.  Supposedly.

Here's where I can't figure out what I'm supposed to tell them, or the best way to show evidence that something is seriously wrong(?):

KCMO to the following locations, downstream speeds right now: 

-> Columbus RR speed test: 30Mbps (?!)

Via the speakeasy.net tests at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
-> Chicago: 6Mbps
-> Dallas: 15.3Mbps
-> Atlanta: 1.05Mbps
-> New York, NY: 26.65Mbps (?!)
-> Washington, DC: 0.91Mbps

Via the dslreports flash speed test:
-> Denver: 2.5Mbps (other than Kansas City itself, the geographically closest of all)
-> Los Angeles: 4.0Mbps

Via speedtest.net:
-> Kansas City: 2.67Mbps (this is where I start to get kinda pissed)
-> Kansas City: 3.11Mbps
-> Indepedence, MO (~30mi from KCMO): 25.6Mbps (...?)
-> Overland Park, KS (basically, SW Kansas City): a really sucky 0.34Mbps (was 1.0 on a re-test)

I know there are a lot of factors that go into a download speed, and that download speed itself isn't everything.  I know that some servers can be overloaded, and that some links can get saturated.  These figures are all over the map - both the location/distance and the speed.  I expect something far more consistent than this mess - even it is 3Mbps, or 6Mbps, or the full 15.  I certainly don't expect the kind of nonsense for the numbers for Kansas City[1].  Am I wrong?

Is this even TimeWarner's fault?  I can't figure it would be the local office, unless they're somehow fudging the numbers or doing something else nefarious to make the Columbus and NYC speeds seem way faster than they really are --- maybe there is something really screwy with my cablemodem?  It seems like whatever this is, is well beyond my modem?

Could the TimeWarner "speedboost" caching nonsense be throwing the numbers off (I haven't and refuse to intentionally subscribe to that bit of marketing BS)?  Does anyone know if the speedtests take that sort of thing into account?

Maybe I just need to call during the day and talk to technical support as suggested?  Is there a way to increase my odds of getting a tech support person who might be knowledgeable?

-rick


[1] I recall, some many years ago, a time when Ohio State and Time Warner had a peering agreement.  All was happy in the land of the remote X session, so few hops that it was.  Then something happened.  The peering agreement went away.  Packets from two blocks north of campus flew all over yonder on their way over to KRC (Ohio State's main data center where all traffic goes in and out of, or did at that time) - Chicago, Cleveland, sometimes New York City!  X sessions were now slow and nearly impossible.  I don't know why it happened or what went down, but it was annoying to say the least.