Personal computing discussed

Moderators: askfranklin, renee, emkubed, Captain Ned

 
drfish
Gerbil Elder
Topic Author
Posts: 5546
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 7:53 pm
Location: Zeeland, MI

*sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:44 pm

Was going to title this thread, "What are you ranting about RIGHT NOW?" but I was worried about trademark infringement... :wink: This doesn't really merit its own topic but if people want to add their own mini-rant maybe it would be good for our collective mental health (or the opposite, whatever)...

The mini-rant:
Charter wants me to upgrade me Internet speed, tells me I'm on the 15Mbps plan and I could be on the 30Mbps plan for $1 a month more. Various popular speed test sites tell me my connection is already ~40Mbps but Steam confirms my ~1.8MB/s downloads are equal to a 15Mbps plan. Way to go Charter, hard to sell speed upgrades when you're cheating on bandwidth tests. :roll: Of course I'm upgrading to 30Mbps...
 
ClickClick5
Gerbil Elite
Posts: 581
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Alaska
Contact:

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:51 pm

My dad's home connection was 7 Mbps/768 Kbps and he got a piece of mail saying he could get the 12 Mbps/5 Mbps connection for the same price he was paying then. So he said sure. Two months go by and they send him a new modem to use with faster speeds and they charged him $5 more per month to lease the modem for the new speeds. I checked his connection and found he was still on the old speed. After a few calls, they "fixed the error" and he had his faster speed.

Lovely internet providers.

*rolls eyes*
i7-5930k (4.1GHz), 32GB DDR4-2400, 2080Ti, GA-X99-UD3, Samsung 860 Pro 256GB (os/programs), Toshiba 5TB (games), WD VelociRaptor 500GB (games/scratch disk), Win 10 Pro x64
Check out my site for trance sets and other goodies! clickclick5.com!
 
derFunkenstein
Gerbil God
Posts: 25427
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 9:13 pm
Location: Comin' to you directly from the Mothership

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:54 pm

I live on the outskirts of a city of 35,000 people. Like, I'm not in the country - I'm within the city limits - but kind of on the edge of it. Yet the only ISP who can get reliable internet service to me is Comcast. If I were 300 feet north I'd be across the highway in (officially) a different town serviced by different equipment that is much closer to me - even where I am - than the equipment that services my home right now.

I'm glad I learned this lesson, though. If I hadn't figured it out the hard way I'd be oblivious this spring when we start house searches. Now I know to call different ISPs with the addresses of houses we consider to make sure I can get away from Comcast. I also know now (more of what I didn't know then) to check for good cell coverage inside the houses we consider, too. I didn't realize how badly house-to-house cell service can vary. If we intend to remain land-line-free, we'd best make sure we can get good cell service in our home.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Twittering away the day at @TVsBen
 
nanoflower
Gerbil Team Leader
Posts: 281
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 1:10 pm

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:08 pm

I don't know if Charter uses Powerboost or not but that could explain the speed you measured. Most of the speed testing sites don't take into account the temporary boost in speeds that Powerboost provides so you see a higher speed than what you would get if downloading larger files. Best way to test is to find a site that can deliver at high speeds and download something that is at least greater than 20MB in size (since that tends to be the amount boosted before the download speed drops to the normal speed.)
 
drfish
Gerbil Elder
Topic Author
Posts: 5546
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 7:53 pm
Location: Zeeland, MI

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:42 pm

Fair point but most testing sites seem to spike to around 60Mbps and then settle into the 40. Steam spikes around the same percentage before settling down as well.
 
paulWTAMU
Emperor Gerbilius I
Posts: 6257
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:14 am
Location: Dallas, Texas

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:05 pm

Social service style work steals your soul and makes a cynical SOB. If anyone here is thinking of pursuing it, DON'T. I've got applications out in oil and gas companies now. Time to see if I can join the family business (nearly all of us work in oil or pipelines in some way, shape or form).
Ugly people have sex all the time. We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion humans if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
 
druidcent
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2510
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:55 pm
Location: Earth, Sol, Milky Way
Contact:

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:20 pm

Great.. so when the speed test sites show me at .60 Mbps, and I'm supposed to be getting 25/6 Mbps, I should probably be concerned, if I weren't moving in a couple weeks..
 
paulWTAMU
Emperor Gerbilius I
Posts: 6257
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:14 am
Location: Dallas, Texas

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:31 pm

point six megs? Yuck!
Ugly people have sex all the time. We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion humans if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
 
nanoflower
Gerbil Team Leader
Posts: 281
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 1:10 pm

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 6:27 pm

druidcent, I would say so. :) Sheesh. That sounds like you've got some bad wiring/connectors somewhere to create that much of a drop. Call your ISP and complain.

drfish, if you are seeing 40Mb/sec with Steam on a game download then I think they are just trying to upsell you. Or maybe trying to sell you something that they are already giving you for free even if it isn't what you are paying for. I've seen that before where they provision a customer for one speed while charging them for another due to some glitch or human error along the way. Though normally it's not in the customer's favor.
 
drfish
Gerbil Elder
Topic Author
Posts: 5546
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 7:53 pm
Location: Zeeland, MI

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:21 pm

The 40Mbps would translate to 5MB/s as Steam displays it (bits vs bytes). So I know I'm really on the 15Mbps plan because my 1.8MB/s ends up being 14.4Mbps if you multiply it by 8. Being on the 30Mbps plan should give me ~3.5MB/s Steam downloads. The rant was about how stupid it is for Charter to cheat on bandwidth tests if they are trying to sell higher speed grades to their customers (burst or no).

paulWTAMU wrote:
Social service style work steals your soul and makes a cynical SOB. If anyone here is thinking of pursuing it, DON'T. I've got applications out in oil and gas companies now. Time to see if I can join the family business (nearly all of us work in oil or pipelines in some way, shape or form).


I've heard this from a number of friends. I've also know a number of people very happy to be in the gas and oil game.
 
paulWTAMU
Emperor Gerbilius I
Posts: 6257
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:14 am
Location: Dallas, Texas

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:45 am

Honestly, it isn't my clients that try my patience the most....
Last edited by paulWTAMU on Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:50 am, edited 2 times in total.
Ugly people have sex all the time. We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion humans if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
 
Ryu Connor
Global Moderator
Posts: 4369
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Marietta, GA
Contact:

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:09 am

Way too much R&P there.
All of my written content here on TR does not represent or reflect the views of my employer or any reasonable human being. All content and actions are my own.
 
vargis14
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1900
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:03 pm
Location: philly suburbs

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:19 am

I dropped RCN that was good to me for years. I had 20 dwn and 2 up for over 5 years but the price kept going up until it was unacceptable. I liked that they did not have a download cap like comcast.
So after waiting for 2 years seeing fios trucks a block away or around the corner they became available so i started 7 months ago or so with 35 down and 15 up........Fios gave me 40+ down...it seems like they always give you 5-7 mbps extra speed, thats fine with me.
So i looked on the website and they had 75 down and 35 up for 5$ more, so faster is better so i went for it. Well i ended up with 85 down and 35 up and my steam downloads hang around 10.5mbps, so i am very happy with the performance. Plus TV picture is a good bit better then rcn since they do not compress as much.

All in all Fios is a great provider in my eyes...but i heard stories of bad bad service. Luckily i have not needed any :)
2600k@4848mhz @1.4v CM Nepton40XL 16gb Ram 2x EVGA GTX770 4gb Classified cards in SLI@1280mhz Stock boost on a GAP67-UD4-B3, SBlaster Z powered by TX-850 PSU pushing a 34" LG 21/9 3440-1440 IPS panel. Pieced together 2.1 sound system
 
SuperSpy
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2403
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:34 pm
Location: TR Forums

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:19 am

Took a look at my frontier dsl bill, and noticed a $7 'modem rental fee'.

Not knowing anything about dsl modems, I thought 'how expensive can they be?' Sure enough, they cost like 30 bucks on newegg, so I got one and got it installed. I call up frontier to ask them who the send their modem back to and they tell me the modem rental fee can't be taken out, even if you return the equipment. :evil:
Desktop: i7-4790K @4.8 GHz | 32 GB | EVGA Gefore 1060 | Windows 10 x64
Laptop: MacBook Pro 2017 2.9GHz | 16 GB | Radeon Pro 560
 
MadManOriginal
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1533
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: In my head...

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:03 pm

drfish wrote:
The 40Mbps would translate to 5MB/s as Steam displays it (bits vs bytes). So I know I'm really on the 15Mbps plan because my 1.8MB/s ends up being 14.4Mbps if you multiply it by 8. Being on the 30Mbps plan should give me ~3.5MB/s Steam downloads. The rant was about how stupid it is for Charter to cheat on bandwidth tests if they are trying to sell higher speed grades to their customers (burst or no).

paulWTAMU wrote:
Social service style work steals your soul and makes a cynical SOB. If anyone here is thinking of pursuing it, DON'T. I've got applications out in oil and gas companies now. Time to see if I can join the family business (nearly all of us work in oil or pipelines in some way, shape or form).


I've heard this from a number of friends. I've also know a number of people very happy to be in the gas and oil game.


You're right you have 15Mbps judging by large downloads. I wouldn't say Charter is 'cheating' on bandwidth tests though, as noted by nanoflower it's just a 'powerboost' (Comcast's name) style burst speed. It's not Charter's fault that the burst speed is what the bandwidth test sites like speedtest show, unless you're talking about a test provided by Charter itself. You could also look at it as Charter providing more than your plan speed, even if only for short bursts, while your sustained speeds match the plan you've got.
 
drfish
Gerbil Elder
Topic Author
Posts: 5546
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 7:53 pm
Location: Zeeland, MI

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:19 pm

MadManOriginal wrote:
It's not Charter's fault that the burst speed is what the bandwidth test sites like speedtest show...


What other legitimate reason could there possibly be for "boosting" the speed of the first 20MB of a download?
 
SuperSpy
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2403
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:34 pm
Location: TR Forums

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:44 pm

drfish wrote:
MadManOriginal wrote:
It's not Charter's fault that the burst speed is what the bandwidth test sites like speedtest show...


What other legitimate reason could there possibly be for "boosting" the speed of the first 20MB of a download?


It has the effect of appearing faster for 'normal' use, like web page viewing (most web page impressions are under 20MB).
Desktop: i7-4790K @4.8 GHz | 32 GB | EVGA Gefore 1060 | Windows 10 x64
Laptop: MacBook Pro 2017 2.9GHz | 16 GB | Radeon Pro 560
 
ludi
Lord High Gerbil
Posts: 8646
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2002 10:47 pm
Location: Sunny Colorado front range

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:52 pm

drfish wrote:
MadManOriginal wrote:
It's not Charter's fault that the burst speed is what the bandwidth test sites like speedtest show...


What other legitimate reason could there possibly be for "boosting" the speed of the first 20MB of a download?

Could be part of a broader QoS management scheme. Most of the things people download these days, other than streaming media, are going to be things like smartphone app updates, photos from Tumblr and Facebook, email attachments, etc. These are usually under 20MB and it makes sense to quickly clear them out of the system even if there might be some adverse effects on the connection while that's happening, such as increased packet loss or latency spikes. On the other hand, a fat wad of Windows Updates or a 2GB media download should not be permitted to degrade the connection quality for 30+ minutes, so those get throttled after a while.
Abacus Model 2.5 | Quad-Row FX with 256 Cherry Red Slider Beads | Applewood Frame | Water Cooling by Brita Filtration
 
Rakhmaninov3
Graphmaster Gerbil
Posts: 1282
Joined: Thu Jun 13, 2002 2:10 am
Location: Murphysboro, IL

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:52 pm

drfish wrote:
MadManOriginal wrote:
It's not Charter's fault that the burst speed is what the bandwidth test sites like speedtest show...


What other legitimate reason could there possibly be for "boosting" the speed of the first 20MB of a download?




Helps you get those song-size files and websites in the blink of an eye, too
GO CARDINALS!
 
drfish
Gerbil Elder
Topic Author
Posts: 5546
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 7:53 pm
Location: Zeeland, MI

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:00 pm

Ok, better reasons than I expected. :oops: HOWEVER, I would argue that webpage loading is more a factor of latency than bandwidth in most cases and I would also submit that for downloading things like MP3s or apps the difference between 3 seconds and 5 seconds is pretty meaningless (and a lot of apps are a lot bigger than 20MB anyway).

I think you guys are missing the point of this being a rant thread. :P Feel free to rant about my irrational ranting though. ;)
 
ludi
Lord High Gerbil
Posts: 8646
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2002 10:47 pm
Location: Sunny Colorado front range

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:11 pm

drfish wrote:
I think you guys are missing the point of this being a rant thread. :P Feel free to rant about my irrational ranting though. ;)

Oh, I'm stuck on a 1.5 mbps DSL connection, because it's either that or deliver the Ring of Power to Comcast, while my office tower 3 miles away is parked on a fiber backbone and I can get in excess of 450 kB/s downloads at my workstation. My sympathy for people with throttled 40mb connections is, shall we say, limited :P
Abacus Model 2.5 | Quad-Row FX with 256 Cherry Red Slider Beads | Applewood Frame | Water Cooling by Brita Filtration
 
druidcent
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2510
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:55 pm
Location: Earth, Sol, Milky Way
Contact:

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:50 pm

I'd rant about crappy officiating in the NFL, but I'm still to drained from watching the Denver/Baltimore game on Saturday..
 
MadManOriginal
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1533
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: In my head...

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:57 pm

This isn't as intense as a rant but something that bothers me...Google getting off relatively scot-free with no slap on the wrist and a wink-wink 'be nice!' in the recent FTC investigation when they are doing things completely analogous to what Microsoft got smashed for in the 90s. We'll see if the DoJ, which did the MS prosecution in the 90s, is any different but I haven't heard anything about a DoJ investigation.
 
tanker27
Gerbil Khan
Posts: 9444
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: Georgia

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:00 pm

MadManOriginal wrote:
This isn't as intense as a rant but something that bothers me...Google getting off relatively scot-free with no slap on the wrist and a wink-wink 'be nice!' in the recent FTC investigation when they are doing things completely analogous to what Microsoft got smashed for in the 90s. We'll see if the DoJ, which did the MS prosecution in the 90s, is any different but I haven't heard anything about a DoJ investigation.


I doubt, the government needs Google to spy on us by proxy.
(\_/)
(O.o)
(''')(''')
Watch out for evil Terra-Tron; He Does not like you!
 
tanker27
Gerbil Khan
Posts: 9444
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: Georgia

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:20 am

So my rant is managers who fail to understand how to manage. I am always amazed to see incompetence, ignorance, and inability to lead in managers. The biggest thing of this all is those managers who fail to understand "punish in private and praise in public". I cannot tell you how many times on a daily basis I see this broken.

The second biggest thing is I am constantly amazed at how these Piss-poor managers survive and yet they still seem to get the best projects, the promotions, and all the kudos for what their team has done for them.
(\_/)
(O.o)
(''')(''')
Watch out for evil Terra-Tron; He Does not like you!
 
just brew it!
Administrator
Posts: 54500
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:51 pm
Location: Somewhere, having a beer

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:45 am

tanker27 wrote:
So my rant is managers who fail to understand how to manage. I am always amazed to see incompetence, ignorance, and inability to lead in managers. The biggest thing of this all is those managers who fail to understand "punish in private and praise in public". I cannot tell you how many times on a daily basis I see this broken.

This is near-universal. You've heard of the Peter Principle, yes? "Employees tend to rise to the level of their incompetence."

Managers should also act as BS filters -- a buffer between those above them and those below. All to often, the reverse is true; they are BS amplifiers and/or generators instead.

tanker27 wrote:
The second biggest thing is I am constantly amazed at how these Piss-poor managers survive and yet they still seem to get the best projects, the promotions, and all the kudos for what their team has done for them.

Most managers are good at making themselves look good to their superiors, whether they're any good at managing or not.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
Glorious
Gerbilus Supremus
Posts: 12343
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2002 6:35 pm

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:40 am

MadManOriginal wrote:
We'll see if the DoJ, which did the MS prosecution in the 90s, is any different but I haven't heard anything about a DoJ investigation.


This is verging into R&P, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The US government and Google are very, very good friends.
 
drfish
Gerbil Elder
Topic Author
Posts: 5546
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 7:53 pm
Location: Zeeland, MI

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Thu Jan 17, 2013 7:36 am

WTH Netflix? A content provider imposing restrictions on ISPs? Have you learned nothing??? :x

Edit: ...and another one, WTH won't Charter let me use my existing modem when I upgrade to their 30Mbps plan? Its a perfectly good DOCSIS 3.0 model that I'm sure would work fine. Just turn up the freaking dial and give me more bandwidth! :roll:

Edit 2: ...and another one! Those freaking "I love my job, blah, blah, blah" comment SPAM. Why is is nearly everywhere? All of Gawker's sites, Anandtech, RPS, why can't they shut it down? :o
 
derFunkenstein
Gerbil God
Posts: 25427
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 9:13 pm
Location: Comin' to you directly from the Mothership

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Sun Jan 20, 2013 5:27 am

Based on Ars Technica's write-up on Netflix HD it seems they're trying to get ISP's to be "compatible" by signing on to Netflix's own CDN.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/01 ... -super-hd/

doesn't make it any less annoying - I'm on Comcast and can't get the highest-quality streaming, either. Not that it matters; if it's 7mbit then we're talking 3.1GB/hour. With my now 300GB limit (which to Comcast's credit they say they're not enforcing right now) and other stuff going on with my internet connection, that won't take too many episodes of Dora the Explorer and Arrested Development to hit.

edit: Actually it would be all the episodes of Arrested Development a total of 4 times each. I guess that's not as bad as I thought.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Twittering away the day at @TVsBen
 
jss21382
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1655
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2003 8:20 am
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Contact:

Re: *sigh* [insert mini-rant here]

Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:38 am

drfish wrote:
WTH Netflix? A content provider imposing restrictions on ISPs? Have you learned nothing??? :x

Edit: ...and another one, WTH won't Charter let me use my existing modem when I upgrade to their 30Mbps plan? Its a perfectly good DOCSIS 3.0 model that I'm sure would work fine. Just turn up the freaking dial and give me more bandwidth! :roll:

Edit 2: ...and another one! Those freaking "I love my job, blah, blah, blah" comment SPAM. Why is is nearly everywhere? All of Gawker's sites, Anandtech, RPS, why can't they shut it down? :o



They don't have a provisioning for your modem, that's all. I have a motorola sb 6200 I'm not using that should be supported.
X2 3800+ @ 2.3, 2GB Mushkin pc3200, Lanparty Ultra-D, X850XT @ 560/585

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 1 guest
GZIP: On