Is My ISP Screwing Me? Yes! but HOW?

January 29, 2010 8:03 AM

So I have an 'business' internet connection in my office which is supposed to be SDSL with a speed of 512kbps upload and download. But my expeience (browsing, streaming, voip, skype) doesnt match the quoted speed. Is my ISP screwing me? LONG!

The office building I am in has internet hardwired into it and you dont really have a choice of getting your own ISP. This is nothing new in serviced offices business as this is how these guys make money on top of the rent. My inclusive package on the face of it is sufficient for all my use (browsing, streaming, voip, skype etc) but fails to perform. When I test the speed on the usual speed testing sites it shows the speed to be what is promised by the supplier but I cant keep a skype call alive for more than 30 seconds and everything else is painfully slow.

When I contacted the ISP they say 'we dont support voip or skype so we cant comment on it and because you are getting the speeds we promised this is the end of the matter. If you think you need a faster connection then please pay us £x a month and we will upgrade you to a 1024kbps line'.

As a test, I installed wireless internet on my computer using a 3G modem and the experience is considerably better especially for streaming and skype and the speeds shown on the meter are actually slower than office line.

Now, I know that the headline speed is not everything when it comes to internet experience because they use things like 'QOS', ''throttling, 'port blocking' etc.

Can anyone please:

1. Explain in lay terms what these 'tricks of the trade' are?

2. Is there an easy diagnostic that I can run on my line and give the ISP a printout to show them why I dont get the experience to match the speed.

BTW: I know that the ISP is doing the best to maximise its profits and abuse the contractual position they have - I just want to know how I can prevent myself from being screwed more than they would normally be able to get away with. Thanks

posted by london302 to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Port Blocking - This is when your ISP prevents a certain type of traffic. If your ISP were doing this on the port Skype is using you would be unable to make any calls

Throttling - This is when your ISP limits the quantity of data they accept within a specified period of time. Your ISP may be doing this with your Skype calls, but I doubt it. Skype audio calls use up to 128kbps during a session. That's a large chunk of a 512kbps link, especially if you're doing other things, but it's very little to an ISP.

QoS - This is where your ISP makes a guarantee that if you want to make a Skype call, the 128kbps you need, from the 512kbps you have, will always be available, regardless of what else you are doing with the link. QoS would help your situation, but, even if they could offer it for Skype calls, they would charge a premium.

Your 3G modem card is probably 2-3 times faster than the 512kbps service you are paying for. If you're doing anything else on the link while making a Skype call, you'll get drops. 512 kbps isn't a lot. At 1024 kbps you'll see fewer drops, but you may still see them if there is any other traffic going over the link.
posted by IanMorr at 8:45 AM on January 29, 2010

512kbps is way to slow for much of anything other than browsing unsophisticated pages and text based e/mail. You shouldn't expect it to do much more. Your ISP is right, you're getting what you're paying for.

The problem isn't with them, it is with the landlord that is forcing you to live in the 90's!
posted by HuronBob at 8:47 AM on January 29, 2010

512k is not much . I think this is a matter of expecting a faster conenction then what you have.
posted by majortom1981 at 8:49 AM on January 29, 2010

Odinsdream's link is the best way to find out if you are getting anywhere near the speed you are paying for. 512kbps is considered slow these days, but you should be able to hold a decent skype conversation without problems.
goddamn kids I remember when 28.8kbps was smokin' hot
posted by samj at 8:59 AM on January 29, 2010

In my experience, a 512k dedicated internet connection would be just fine to complete the tasks you describe above. The co. I work for has 45 people and we have 2 T1's (3MB) of dedicated service. Even with very internet-heavy applications, the service is just fine.

However, depending on where you are, it is very possible that what the ISP calls a "business grade" internet connection is not purely dedicated. This means that your internet speed could vary considerably because may just be a consumer internet connection with a "business" label. Cable TV companies use this practice in the US often. Does the advert for the ISP say "up to 512k"? A dedicated connection would be 512k pretty much around the clock.

Also note that dedicated internet connections are very expensive - a large enterprise co. here in the US could expect to pay between 200-400 USD/month for a 512k connection, depending on their spend of telecom services and the location of the service. I can imagine a smaller co. could be paying more.
posted by alrightokay at 9:02 AM on January 29, 2010

I'd suggest that if your office building landlord "forces" you to use one specific ISP you should start looking for a new office when your lease is up. This may actually be a violation of telecom regulatory act rules, at least it would be in Canada... I'm not sure about the UK. You should be free to choose any DSL ISP you want if you have a copper loop running from your office to the building's basement wiring closet, and from the wiring closet to the local CO/exchange.
posted by thewalrus at 10:10 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

"but I cant keep a skype call alive for more than 30 seconds" - then you have some kind of weird UDP packet loss problem going on, or intentional interference with VoIP. You can even use skype by itself on a 56kbps dialup modem, a full duplex skype call uses about 34 kbps per second each direction.
posted by thewalrus at 10:11 AM on January 29, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks all for your input. I have now used Odinsdream's link and the result is here.

Latency numbers look big to my untrained eyes but netalyzer doesnt think they are that bad. What seems really bad is buffering:

Network buffer measurements (?): Uplink 5400 ms, Downlink 5600 ms

We estimate your uplink as having 5400 msec of buffering. This is quite high, and you may experience substantial disruption to your network performance when performing interactive tasks such as web-surfing while simultaneously conducting large uploads. With such a buffer, real-time applications such as games or audio chat can work quite poorly when conducting large uploads at the same time.

This seems to explain my experience.

Can any of the experts here tell me if this is likely to be badly configured network or intentionally reducing downloads/download speeds to save costs for the ISP?

Can you find anything else that might be addressable?

Thanks
posted by london302 at 10:32 AM on January 29, 2010

Best answer: I wouldn't say it's badly configured or designed to intentionally reduce downloads, no. The link is probably optimized for what the ISP generally expects you to use it for. It might work well for Skype alone, though it's probably optimized for web browsing or streaming. Either way you're never going to be able to do both at the same time and it's still a small link. You're trying to suck a water melon through a garden hose.
posted by IanMorr at 11:11 AM on January 29, 2010

Response by poster: Ian Morr, thanks for your analysis. The reason why I went down this road was because Skype and other providers claim bandwith requirements for successful calls to be a fraction of 512kbps. Even when I am not browsing it is impossible to have a SIP call on this line. What gives?
posted by london302 at 1:33 PM on January 29, 2010

I think your expectations are too high. My home link is 3 megabits per second up, 16 megabits per second down.

512 kilobits is about 64 kilobytes per second.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:42 PM on January 29, 2010