[PodcastMN] comcrapst cable makes me kick things

[Graeme Fehr]

a'right, this is a mini vent session, and also a plea for help if it is something on my end.

I've been having problems for about 2+ months with Comcast's great high speed service when ever I am doing an upload.  For me, I didn't really notice the problem, because the main night I'm doing any uploading is when i'm doing ITRadio's live broadcast on Ustream.tv.  Over the past week, something very strange happened that gave me a huge reason to call...  A SIMPLE FTP TRANSFER TO MY SERVER!!!!

I was trying to send a 100+mb file to my server and the upload starts out great, 250+kb upload speed, but that drops faster than I can slam a Mtn Dew.  In about 5 min, it goes from 250 to 100kbs.  By the time that upload finally compleated, it was down to 50kbs.  Now, you could say it might be the server, but i've tested this on 3 different hosted servers (dreamhost is my main server)... 

BUT, the problem that happens when i'm uploading anything now, is any computer running on the router, including the one doing the upload has a serious, serious, serious lag.  It takes a good 5 seconds for the title of a website to show up, then another 5-10 seconds for the page to start showing up on the screen, and if there are pictures (even on yahoo), it takes longer for those to show up.  But as soon as i stop the upload in the middle of a page loading, that page loads like the internet doesn't have a lag.

I have switched and tested 2 different brands or routers and updated the firmware on both, same issue.  i have gone straight from the modem to the computer and tried an FTP upload and attempted to access websites and the same problem happens.  On Saturday, I had a Comcast Tech show up for two hours, check the lines in my place, switched out the modem, tried both straight in to the computer and through the router and the same thing happens.  The tech even saw the problem and couldn't give me an answer.  I am on the low 6mb plan on comcast, and i upgraded to 8mb right before he left to see if this would eliminate the problem.  I had to wait 2 hours for the change to happen.  I waited 3 just to be safe... tried it out again... the same, if not worse.

I call up customer service AGAIN and this time, threw a huge fit because they wanted to send another tech out, change the modem and go from there... YET THEY JUST DID THAT 4 hours earlier.

Now, i live in an apartment, so they tried throwing that line on me, but i have NEVER had a problem doing a simple FTP where it bogs down every computer, let alone just the computer doing the upload (i've tested uploads on 3 different machines as well).  and not until the past few months have I experienced a lag when doing a live Ustream.tv broadcast.  I have tested my speed at speedtest.net and trust me, the numbers show there are a problem (and comcast has seen this as well when i've been on tech support calls).  When not doing an upload, even on the 6mb plan, i had ping rates of 34-48ms.  when i do an upload... good luck at the Ping rate anywhere under 300ms; usally it is 600+ms.  My upload speeds when i'm not doing the upload are almost near 2000, but if i check while doing an upload, i've seen as low as 38kbs to 245kbs, and that is just testing it with an FTP transfer.

My parents live in Eau Claire, WI and have Charter highspeed which is slow compared to Comcast's speeds, yet over the holidays, my dad was downloading/uploading on a hardwired iMac using Aquisition, at least 3 laptops were wireless being used, AND i was broadcasting for well over 8 hours on Ustream doing a stupid "Snow Cam" And never once was there any sort of lag what-so-ever on any computers accessing anything online while multi-uploads were happening.

Is there anything I should try other than asking them to check the outside lines?  we're also experiencing problems on our digital TV service as well.  And I have read quite a bit about comcast being assholes and capping upload speeds because of Torrent users, but I'm not doing any torrent work.  I'm just doing a simple broadcast, with skype, or a simple FTP upload.  IF i bring up the upload cap, is there a way i should bring it up to them?

Also, one last thing... when i was doing an upload yesterday testing the speeds, I did website pings to various sites, and my ping times never went under 600ms, but as soon as an upload was done, those pings would never go past 90ms.

Sorry for the long rant, thanks for listening and any help would be great! i swear i could get better service switching to a 28.8kbs modem!


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Graeme Fehr
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http://www.tourettesradio.com - ITRadio's Website
http://www.tpxradio.com - TPXRadio Website
http://www.stickam.com/profile/tpxradio - ITRadio/TPXRadio Live Show Page.
ITRadio is live every Thursday from 7-9CST.
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