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"NTL Broadband Problem"

Does anyone else here have a 64k modem and NTL's broadband service? I was wondering if anyone else has the horendous page loading times. I mean, come on NTL, it's supposed to be broadband and this page took 15 seconds to load. On my old modem (56k v90) it was pretty damn quick, but ever since I changed it's got terrible. It's not just SR either. Hotmail took ages and I've already got the images and stuff cached. As far as my understanding of this goes:

64k is 64 kiloBYTEs per second;
there are 8 BITs in a BYTE;
that makes 8 x 64 which is 512k (about 10 times quicker than normal)

The page load time should be more or less instant, but it isn't. It's too late to phone an NTL technician now, but if anyone else here has the same problem, or knows a solution (maybe I'm doing something wrong) could they let me know because it's a bit of a hefty price to pay when the only visible advantage is permanent connection.

Cheers for reading

Monkeyman

Thanks for showing me the error of my ways. I was thinking of just getting really drunk and then giving NTL what for when I finally get through.

That might not help though.

monkey_man wrote:
> But BITS is what I said in the first place wasn't it? Oh well.

Bytes... you can see it below. The calculations you posted were correct in themselves, but wrong when applied to modem/broadband data transfer speeds.

Anyway, a 512K cable modem doesn't mean half a megabyte per second - it's around 512,000 bits per second - or 64kbytes per second. Still far quicker than a standard modem - or it should be, anyway.


> I've got a P200 with 64meg of RAM. I've got a 56k V90 modem that
> I've always used and it was fine - a lot quicker than the broadband is at the moment.

If a 56k modem requires a P150, then you might just find that it's your processor that's slowing you down.

Anyway, good luck with NTL - their phones queues are horrendous!

But BITS is what I said in the first place wasn't it? Oh well.

I've got a P200 with 64meg of RAM. I've got a 56k V90 modem that I've always used and it was fine - a lot quicker than the broadband is at the moment. I'm still trying to get through to NTL, but I keep getting caught in queues.

Cheers for your help though.

monkey_man wrote:
> I have to disagree with you there Wookie, it really is BITS. I have a 512k
> modem, there's no doubt about that, but the quickest it's ever downloaded at
> over the two weeks I've had it is 75k! Web pages load slower than my regular
> dial-up connection.


BITS is what I said - kbps is kiloBITS per second, not kiloBYTES...

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/ sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci212436,00.html


Bandwidth is expressed in BITS per second, not bytes...

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/ sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci211634,00.html


So you really need to reverse your calculations. A 512kbps (kilobit per second) cable modem will get you, on average, 64-70 kiloBYTES per second downloads, where as a 56k (kiloBIT) modem will get you around 6 kiloBYTES per second; highest I ever get on my ananlogue 56k modem is around 4.8 kilobytes per second.

It's not all dependent on *your* connection, though. A lot depends on the servers you are getting files/pages from, too. My cable modem speed has been as low as 20-odd kbps from some sites, and as high as 110 kbps from others. Special Reserve's pages are amazingly quick for me.

To be fair, I've had no problems whatsoever with my NTL connection, or my PC IRQs; I have my graphics card, sound card, analogue modem, Ethernet card and video capture card - all working fine.

It might be worth getting them to check that they've actually set you up to use the right service; in my area (Northampton) they provide two services - 64k and 512k - make sure they've set you up on the right one.

Which cable modem do you have? They used to use a Motorola unit which apparently gave several people problems; they now use Terajet, which is reportedly much better.

The engineer I spoke to when ordering my connection stated that although the cable modem would work on USB with both 64k and 512k connections, they recommended the use of a 10base-T Ethernet card to get the very best out of the 512k service.

Also, exactly how old is your PC, and what speed processor do you have? There are 56k modems which require a Pentium 150MHz CPU in order to work, so it could simply be that your connection speed is being limited by your system.

Cheers Bob - I've been trying to hassle them, but I keep getting caught up in queues (presumably of other people trying to harass them). NTL are evil - I'll go on record as saying that. I'm renting a cable modem off them that requires either a 10Base cable or USB. I have a fairly oldish computer that has neither, but I wasn't told that I need them until I actually read the box the modem came in. But still, like a good little trooper, I went down PC World and bought a network card with a 10Base connection. The card didn't work (not NTL's fault, but I'll find a way to blame them). So I took it back and exchanged it - It still didn't work. It turns out that my sound card is set to the same IRQ and a conflict occured - cheap excuse to buy new soundcard methinks! So now I'm without sound, I have a stupidly slow Internet connection - not to mention the three different spellings of my surname and the wrong account number they sent me.

So in conclusion, NTL are evil. Even more evil than those Nazis in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc.

So there NTL! Up yours!

Ok, I have ADSL 512k. It downloads files at around 60k but this is 60 kiloBYTES which is at least 12 times faster then my dial up did. As for web sites these forum pages load nearly as quick at home as they do at work. I suggest hasling NTL as they seem to be limiting the web page download speed (evil NTL).

I have to disagree with you there Wookie, it really is BITS. I have a 512k modem, there's no doubt about that, but the quickest it's ever downloaded at over the two weeks I've had it is 75k! Web pages load slower than my regular dial-up connection. Imagine having to wait 20 seconds to bring up the open forums list on this site. It's absolute hell. The worst thing is I have to ring an 0845 number just to get help. I haven't managed to get through yet because I've had to wait over ten minutes each time I've phoned - which I'm not prepared to do again. Basically I'm paying for a service which I'm not getting and I'm not a happy bunny about it.

A quote I herd or read somewhere.

"The speed of the intenet is only as quick as the slowest link" (or somthing like that)

Aye, but you do use a higher percentage of your connection for transfer, so it's quite a lot faster.

It's not kiloBYTES, it's kiloBITS, which is different.

64K isn't realistically much better than a decent 56k modem connection... get the 512K option - I have it, and it's wonderful!