TWC throttling or disonnecting RR users?

[aaron]

I have been having a lot of inexplicable problems with my RR service lately. I lose all connectivity for 1-120 minutes at a time. A reboot of the modem and router sometimes helps, but most of the time it is just down until it randomly comes back all on it's own. I've had numerous service calls, none of which ever solve the problem (and are very annoying as they talk to you as if you are the lowest common denominator of computer user; "Click Start at the bottom of the screen", etc).

I've been able to pinpoint it to whenever I am using a lot of bandwidth on Usenet (you can essentially saturate your connection on Usenet, and I average about 50GB/month), so I wondered if TW had gone down the Comcast path of throttling or interrupting service for heavy users. No one on the phone seemed to know much about anything, so I logged into the live chat at help.rr.com. The rep I talked to there pretty much confirmed my fears, because he dodged or refused to answer all direct questions about whether TW will disconnect you for using a lot of bandwidth.

Is anyone else having similar problems?

[basshive]

Just want to confirm your issues. I have been having the same problems. Heavy on usenet. When I fire up some downloads to giganews I have watched bandwidth go from 15meg to 1 at times. My understanding is TWC is infact using some throttling and or shaping during peak times on heavy users. //www.dslreports.com has some stories and forum posts about it. I have not heard of anyone being disconnected however *knock on wood*

[TPK]

Just want to confirm your issues. I have been having the same problems. Heavy on usenet. When I fire up some downloads to giganews I have watched bandwidth go from 15meg to 1 at times. My understanding is TWC is infact using some throttling and or shaping during peak times on heavy users. //www.dslreports.com has some stories and forum posts about it. I have not heard of anyone being disconnected however *knock on wood*

Wow, if TWC is doing that, I will never EVER switch back to TWC ever again....  Not as long as there are services available that still do not throttle the internet bandwidth level that I AM PAYING FOR

[jkool]

I also just noticed a huge drop in bandwidth, downloading from USENET. It happened Monday @ 6:00PM, prime time I guess.

Thought (Hoped) it was a one time thing ...

[Tom Snyder]

When you're downloading and noticing a drop in speed, are you running a separate speedtest to make sure the throttling is happening on your end?

The slowness could be your source throttling their speed.

[basshive]

The speedtest is not indicative of showing if you are being throttled or not. The traffic is being shaped/prioritized by TWC. They have confirmed this themselves sadly

[basshive]

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18468495

http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r20089678-TWC-Update-on-Time-Warner-traffic-shaping

[PWFD81]

Just thought I would chime in here,  I too have been having issues with my RR over the past two weeks or so.  I use Vonage for my home phone service so I have noticed some audio drop outs and people I am talking to have some issues hearing me from time to time.  TWC told me those issues are due to me not using TWC Phone Service :bang:  Like that has ANYTHING to do with it.!.  I notice everday site I go to are a bit slower as well, even this MKE HDTV Site which is almost all text!  That shouldn't be.  I too as you said have had my Modem reboot from time to time for no reason.  I did the Trouble Shooting with TWC and they said something is wrong due to my speeds I was getting on Speedtest.net.  TWC had me run it with them on the phone.  TWC had a service guy come to my house yesterday .  I knew due to posts on Forums and other Speedtest I have done around the block that this isn't a issue with "my stuff".  The guy TWC sent should be making $100+K a year.  Great guy was up front with me I was very happy.  Granted nothing was fixed but he was honest with me.  He told me he has been dealing with this issue all over for the past couple of weeks.  Speeds are down and TWC has not told anyone why or that there is even an issue.  He is getting hit with it daily though.  So, since this guy was so nice and Honest I asked him about the "Navigator" Software update.  I said can you tell me if people are leaving TWC and Bitching about the update.  He said no, I can't tell you.  BUT YES!  People are bitching all the time.  The are even having service calls due to customers thinking something is wrong due to the slow speed of Navigator.  He did tell me that my April 1st EVERYONE will have Navigator.  I told him 1 of my three boxes are updated.  When the other two get the update I am rolling with DTV.  He said TWC will be sorry to loose you as a customer but I don't blame you! :wave:   What a guy!  Sure TWC might not like a guy like this BUT I give him all the credit in the world!.  He came to my house to look at an issue.  Checked out everything in the house to make sure I "really" didn't have an issue and spoke the truth.  That's what sales and service is all about.  He didn't BASH TWC just said the truth about issues TWC is having NOW.  He did say all the proper things as a good employee should say like TWC will have update and we will have more HD content to come BUT also sided with a true HD geek like me stating that the 1-100 analog SUCKS and TWC is WAY behind on everyday HD channels.

Anyway, sorry for my long reply, just thought I would share the info with you all.

[leprechaunshawn]

Call me stupid, but what does throttling or shaping data mean?

[Gregg Lengling]

I've noticed big problems for the last 2 days, sending email fails times out all sorts of things.  Today I got home and wanted to upload a 2 meg file to my FTP server (ham radio) in Switzerland.....was timing out so I did a speedtest.  Used speedtest.net and tried the Germantown server, I was getting 2.5 megs down and 20kb up, tried Chicago and got 6.8 megs down and 450kb up, but the upload really never finished.  Tried rebooting the modem twice no change, so I tried to call Customer Support...what a joke.....first time it said goodbye because I didn't want to use the IVR to troubleshoot and my subsequent calls didn't give me that offer, just put me into queue and then announced hold times were in excess of 45 minutes.  

Sounds like they have big problems...I may reactivate my directv and get ATT Dsl until Uverse fires up in my neighborhood.
  (ps hope the upload of this to the website works)

[PWFD81]

I've noticed big problems for the last 2 days, sending email fails times out all sorts of things.  Today I got home and wanted to upload a 2 meg file to my FTP server (ham radio) in Switzerland.....was timing out so I did a speedtest.  Used speedtest.net and tried the Germantown server, I was getting 2.5 megs down and 20kb up, tried Chicago and got 6.8 megs down and 450kb up, but the upload really never finished.  Tried rebooting the modem twice no change, so I tried to call Customer Support...what a joke.....first time it said goodbye because I didn't want to use the IVR to troubleshoot and my subsequent calls didn't give me that offer, just put me into queue and then announced hold times were in excess of 45 minutes.  

Sounds like they have big problems...I may reactivate my directv and get ATT Dsl until Uverse fires up in my neighborhood.
  (ps hope the upload of this to the website works)

If I wasn't in love with Vonage, I too would do the DSL with AT&T but AT&T makes you have there phone service too.   I have heard VERY good things about Uverse though.  Might be a good choice for you when Uverse hits us all!

[Gregg Lengling]

If I wasn't in love with Vonage, I too would do the DSL with AT&T but AT&T makes you have there phone service too.   I have heard VERY good things about Uverse though.  Might be a good choice for you when Uverse hits us all!

You have old information, AT&T will give you DSL on a dry loop you no longer need to have POTS with them.

[PWFD81]

great news!!  Thanks!

[Mark Strube]

I have RR Turbo, I normally get 15mb down, 1mb up. I still get that when running speed tests, however my web browsing has been painful lately. Once sites connect, at times it endlessly hangs on waiting for the server to respond to download images or load the page. I have a feeling this is a result of them experimenting with their new throttling methods, which is screwing everything up. Sadly there's currently no competing service that can give me these download speeds at anywhere near the price. DSL at this speed is still hundreds of dollars per month... if these DSL companies wanted to take on RR, they could - they'd just need to have more competitive pricing.

[markd]

Sadly, I too have been experiencing all these issues for at least a couple weeks now.  What I can't seem to figure out is why TWC seems to be so ignorant.  They're already feeling the pinch of competition so why would they do things to further alienate the subs they still have!?  They just don't seem to get it.  If they keep up their shenanigans, they're only going to continue to lose.