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The thread "Checking NTL 6mb speed" has not received any replies for a month. It has been automatically closed as a result. You may start a new thread on the topic if the information in this thread is not sufficient.
Does anyone know of a fail safe way of checking download speeds?
NTL installed cable broadband this week with me, I ordered the 6mb service. However after an hour or two I realised that it wasn't as fast as BTs 3mb I was using up a few days ago. I checked my download speed with the following sites:
While on the phone to NTL they told me to go to ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/TheOpenCD/releases/3.1/ and download the TheOpenCD. The transfer rate peeked at 675KB/Sec, the NTL guy told me that this proves I was getting 6mb download. Does this make any sense to anyone?
I had a look at my modem config and it shows the following below:
Cable Modem Operation Configuration:
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 6144000
Cable Modem Downstream:
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 40
Downstream Frequency : 418750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 4.6 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 37.6 dB
Does anyone know if the information in my modem config would effect my download speed?
Any replies or advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a million for getting back. I trust Irishisptest can test up to 100 megs so no need for a screen shot. To be honest, after my conversation with NTL tech support, I'm not convinced I'm getting the 6 meg download.
Do you know if my transfer rate of 675KB/Sec, means or shows that I'm getting 6 meg download, or what meaning this has? Or if the modem info I put in my first post means anything?
Thanks a million for getting back. I trust Irishisptest can test up to 100 megs so no need for a screen shot. To be honest, after my conversation with NTL tech support, I'm not convinced I'm getting the 6 meg download.
Do you know if my transfer rate of 675KB/Sec, means or shows that I'm getting 6 meg download, or what meaning this has? Or if the modem info I put in my first post means anything?
Many thanks again for your help.
toffo
if ntl tells you not to trust irishspeedtest they are tlkin through their arse tbh,
ive been usin this site for ages and never had a prob,675 sounds about right for a 6mb line,im on the same package and i get roughly the same results
Btw i normally get between 4.2 and 5.2mb speed
Last edited by peepsbates; 30th August 2006 at 03:35 PM.
I had NTL broadband installed today - couldn't bear to wait any longer for eircon to get their finger out and hook me up DSL (via any of the DSL providers).
irishisptest.com reports a download speed of 2.35Mb, and the file mentioned above downloads at about 250KB/s which about tallies.
Not great considering it's supposed to be 6Mb/s.
Upload speed is reported as 475Kb/s which is acceptable.
toffo, how did you log into your cable modem to get the stats?
Jeez, that is pretty crap speed for a 6meg connection alright.
I got installed with magnet about 3 weeks, I got the triple play. When I had my tv set top box turned off, I was hitting speeds of around 6megs but when I had the box turned on, it was only about 3megs and also my tv stations were getting all pixel blocked.
I rang them and they said that my line couldn't handle the whole 8 megs I needed for the broadband/phone and tv so to maybe loose the tv stations. By the way, this is after them supposedly doing a line check and telling me that my line could handle the 8megs.
Anyway, I downgraded my package to a 4meg connection, and now when I do a speed test, I'm hittin roughly from 4.5megs to 5meg.
Could the ntl tv be affecting the broadband speeds?
I also got NTL "6mb download speed option" a couple of weeks ago and have not seen it rise above 3.2 (0030 hrs) i am now wondering if this is just marketing hype or something else?
Their tech support have been impossible to contact. Any ideas? am i being realistic to expect 6mb as an average or have i been conned?
Speed is worse during day.
You may have seen from my thread that i am still having problems with my NTL cable broadband service (sic)
Engineer came to house last week and described an organisation in complete dissaray.
I cannot make contact with "customer services" - tried every day this week.
Prior to this, when i was called by NTL after having mailed comreg with an enquiry, they said the download speed was okay ( 6MB) and not to use Irish speed test because they cant test beyond 4 Mb ( sound familar?)
I was on Eircom DSL 2mb deal and that was MUCH FASTER than what i am getting now!
Contention or no contention i am going to make this an issue by taking out an Irish Times ad soon to get a general public response and Shame NTL into coming clean about this Misleading marketing .
I sent a message to casteneda saying that I still have no joy with NTL 6mb download. I posted my orginal post withanother board, boards.ie a while ago, here's the link to the replies.
To be honest I find this stuff very confusing. In my orginal post I said that NTL told me to download from ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/TheOpenCD/releases/3.1/ and check my speed from this. I was told that heanet is the only site in Ireland that allows a 6mb download. The heanet download showed I was getting 675KB/s speed.
Anyway, from the board.ie post someone told me that:
"675KB/s = 5.4Mb/s
REmember 8 bits in a byte, so multiply 675 by 8.
So yes you are getting very close to 6Mb.
The problem with all the speed tests at the moment seems to be that UPC (NTLs owners) haven't started peering in the INEX yet. A speedtest program hosted in Amsterdam would give you a more accurate figure."
I was also told that once NTL sign-up to INEX speed should get faster but I was also told that NTL may be connecting a number of subscribers through one connection in the server room or wherever, meaning that you'll never get 6mb download unless they upgrade their stuff.
So if you can understand this, well done, because I don't. The other thing is, when I was on the phone with NTL (yes I was one of the very lucky ones to get through to customer service) I was told there were very few sites that allowed 6mb download, so if this is the case what's the point of having a 6mb download.
If anyone knows more about this, please let us know.
That's it, all a pain in the $$$$, I have a horrible feeeling someone is getting conned somewhere.
very few sites allowing 6mb download is complete and absolute rubbish. Its due to UPC's currently attrocious routing that a number of their pipes are congested and the chances that yoru traffic goes through one of them at some stage is about 95%. The pipe that leads to heanet is probably the lightest used one they have, hence why they tell everyone to only trust that.
if yiou can only get 6mb/s on 1 in 100 sites, then its not fair to call it 6mb/s
I also have NTL's so called 6mb broadband max package. It is the biggest shambles to ever present itself on the Irish broadband market.
During the day my max speed is 1.9 megs but as if ritualistic it drops to 0.2 megs everyday at 17:45-180.
The upload is ok it seems to remain at the expected 450kb/s or in and around.
I have contacted ntl over 30 times over a period of two months with regard to this issue speaking with agents and supervisors and team leaders in their callcentre.
Their technical support team have the facility to ask you to reboot your modem and wait thirty seconds. If this does not resolve the issue, as it didnt, then you would need to wait for one of their "broadband tech support" agents to call you back.
When I first contacted NTL the day the internet was installed in early november 2006 I was promised one of these calls. It was not only until 5 weeks and many phone calls later that I actually recieved this call. I was also promised by various Team Leaders in the NTL callcentre that my issue would be priotritised.
Anyway I got the call and the agent did absolutely nothing. I am employed for one of the major DSL internet providers in the UK which also provides on cable lines in the UK and I could safely say that I was much more knowlegable then he was when it came to the technicals of broadband internet. On several ocasions he simply uttered " I think you need to speak to someone who knows more about this". The agent did not test anything or ask me to check anything on my PC but simply advised me that a lot of customers were due to be bumped and that I should notice an increase in speeds after that.
Im sure you have already guessed that they did not.
After the terrible experience I had with NTL I finally came to the conclusion that it was a hopeless cause and that the only option was to cancel.
When I contacted the cancellations department I was pleased tha the agent there seems to be able to do a lo more than agents before but still made promises without delivering on them.
I think its safe to say that ntl is a shambles as sed before.
My next step is to downgrade my service to their 2meg connection as this is the maximum speed i have ever attained.
Until recently, I've had no problems with NTL's "6Mb" offering, usually getting download speeds of around 5.5.
Today, however, my download speed (as tested by www.irishisptest.com and various other sites) is consistently LESS than 1 Mb.
OK, so they're allowed the occasional glitch (assuming things are back to normal tomorrow!), but their appalling customer service/technical support is inexcusable. Their website is useless, the 1800 number is permanently busy (average on-hold at least 20 mins) and their e-mail support.... well, let this speak for itself:
"Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your e-mail sent to the ntl Customer Support Team.
Your query has been given a unique tracking number for your reference - xxxxxx.
Customer Notice:
We would like to inform you that from Friday 22nd December until early January 2007 we will be upgrading our e-mail service. Please note that this may delay our response time to you to resolve your query during this period.
If your email query is urgent, please contact our call centre on 1800 321321 where our customer service team will be available to address your query. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to you.
In the meantime you may wish to look at our Web Site www.ntl.ie for further information."
It's now the 22nd of January, and the "early January" notice is still there. Calling 1800 321 321 urgently, or getting any up-to-date info from their website is, needless to say, a joke.
I could have written your story myself.
All you say and describe is the same for me. Last time i called (for the 8th time) i asked how many calls were logged..... 3. No call back, no replies to emails. I was promised an engineer 2x, but saw no one. Not that an engineer can do a lot as my connection goes to the level of a very bad joke after 6pm and is back to normal at around midnight. And this every day since December 29th 2006. before that... i didn't have any complaints at all about the service.
NTL is great as long as it works, you have a problem... then you are in deep ****.
I have 3Mb connection, but in December 2006 went down to 2Mb, upload speed was ok at 300 kbs. made several calls to support service and they said they were upgrading the services and all will be OK. Now end of January 2007 and speed still 2MB,but upload speed is now 20 or 30 kbs, also last couple of weeks I am disconnected every two or three minutes aspecially if I am on the P2P sites, but also happening with MSN and other download sites. ie. CNET. com ,but don't get disconnected very often when surfing sites that just read stuff. I called them, after a few standard question operator said they will send engineer, but they will let me know when the engineer will cal, I am still waiting for the cal to tell me when the engineer will call, but I don't think engineer can do much in my house, I believe they are blocking P2P file sharing sites, operator said that they do not blocks any sites, any one else having these problems.
Last edited by ALIKIM; 31st January 2007 at 04:03 AM.
Using an alternative Speed Check Loading Speed Test gives even worse results - the speed test is on an uncontended 10mb pipe in Leeds, UK - a 6mb Chorus (NTL)connection appears like a 2mb DSL connection with Netsource (Magnet). Unfortunately that is what I was replacing - v. unimpressed.
just got ntl this week moved from bt 3mb to ntl 6mb my average download is 4 .99mb which is not bad by what i have been reading, notice it drops a lot on saturdays but, the information NTL supplies is crap but no login for emails or no web modem interface, and no way to access your actual download to tell you weather you have gone over the limit.
The thread "Checking NTL 6mb speed" has not received any replies for a month. It has been automatically closed as a result. You may start a new thread on the topic if the information in this thread is not sufficient.
Checking NTL 6mb speed 
6mb or not 6mb - that is the question! 
Bad to worse... 
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