Ask an ISP Network Administrator anything

[Lincoln]

^Title

Shoot!

[Panda Pyjak]

Why is my internet so slow?

I'm promised 100/10 and I'm getting 500 kbps down. and 70 kbps up! What the fuck! I want my money back!

[Lincoln]

I assume you're promised 100Mbps down and 10Mbps up? I'd also like to think you're having copper technology due to asymmetric speeds coming from VDSL (very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line). Do you live in the middle of nowhere?

A. Attenuation on the copper line is bad (there's probably many repeaters on the line that amplify the signal, but in the end it might result in loss of speeds (this is if you're getting your connection straight from the DSL).

B. If you live in an apartment building then you're most likely using some copper-hybrid-optic solution. If so, then there is a network switch somewhere in the house that splits connections between customers and it has an uplink of 1000Mbps - optical cable that runs to MC (media converter) and into the switch (SDF or ODF is also possible).
Switches usually have 20 ports that are assigned for customers and for copper-hybrid-optics technology they're usually 100Mbps each. If the 1000Mbps uplink is overloaded by customers behind the same switch then some customers behind the switch might have some issues with speeds.

C. The VDSL card or switch is having high BER (bit error rate) and ISP never cared to fix it/check it.

D. ISP has made a mistake assigning your speeds. We make mistakes too.

I don't know, man... depends - I need more details.

[Bang]

Why is my internet so slow?

I'm promised 100/10 and I'm getting 500 kbps down. and 70 kbps up! What the fuck! I want my money back!

I had that problem with my last house, the cables (broadband, in Norway, I know el oh el) were old and could only deliver 10 mbit down and 0.5 up.
Also as Lincoln said sometimes when switching to a new operator, they make a mistake with assigning the proper speed.

[Lincoln]

Copper can actually transfer quite high frequency signal, copper being old can only mean high attenuation.

@Panda
Have you even called the ISP and complained? Ask them to send technicians to measure the line parameters.

[Panda Pyjak]

@Panda
Have you even called the ISP and complained? Ask them to send technicians to measure the line parameters.

You don't even know how many times I've done that. Their answer: "Sorry for the inconvenience. We will call you in 3 days to check internet connection speed. Can you leave us your number?"

And they never call back.

I think it's unfair, that we're paying for internet + 2 phones + 1 TV about 55 € in fact, I can't even watch HD channels on TV. The phones disconnect automatically sometimes. My internet provider is located in my country (Slovenia) and it's AMIS d.o.o. located in Maribor. I've had SiOL, located in Ljubljana (near me), but the internet was shit and my neighbors are still having shitty connection with it.

[Lincoln]

Lol, sounds like a pretty shitty ISP. Meaning they don't do documentation properly.

If you have an option to change the provider then you can always consider that.

[Panda Pyjak]

I mean, I wouldn't care if I would live in a country with more than 10M people. But I live in a god damn country with 2M people, which only about 50% of it are having internet connection, about 70% are using SiOL, 20% Amis, the rest are other internet companies, that cannot give internet signal to our home.

But anyways,
continue with the topic.

[Lincoln]

I don't think population really matters. Estonia has a population of 1.3M for example.

Tell you what, fill a complaint towards the ISP. They hate to see people complain (or even worse seeing people ending the contract with them).
By complaining you would either get them to check what's wrong ASAP or you'll get a compensation cause of all the suffering... or they won't give a fuck, cause that's how it rolls in their company.
It all depends on how far you are willing to go (example would be getting on government law level, complaining about false advertising).

[Sgt. Mittens]

Who killed Olof Palme?

[Lincoln]

Who cares

[Honky Donk]

Why won't the municipality let us have fiber where I live?

[Lincoln]

That's a new one. I don't think I have ever heard municipality denying this.

Maybe they simply don't like technicians working in the area for no reason, since there's maybe very little demand for fiber at where you live? I think you would have a better answer to this.

[Bluestar]

When do you predict that Estonia will have 1gbps/1gbps ? How often do you look at people browsing history ? Is it legal ?

[Lincoln]

1Gbps DL/UL for customer use probably in ~1-2 years. Another department fiddles with packet sniffing (it's called "abuse" team) and it's illegal if there is no legal base.