Premier internet speeds are not consistent

Here's yet another speedtest result I am definitely unhappy with. 

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4172881816

@Jesiah

Looking from here I see two different unrelated issues working against you with regards to speeds.  One being poor signals reported by the modem.  You can try bypassing any splitters you have to see if that helps however this may require a technician to come out and troubleshoot.  Another issue that could be holding you back is whatever device you have connected to the modem doesn't appear to be gigabit Ethernet capable.  If you're using a router it may not be suitable for the tier of service you're subscribing to.  You could try bypassing it to see if speeds improve at all.

Hi ChrisL,

Thank you for the response, I really appreciate that.  I can understand poor signals being reported by the modem, and I'm actually suspecting that my modem is showing signs of age and use. I have already looked into getting a new modem using the Cox compatibility list on this site, so that will be one less piece of hardware to consider soon.  As far as the router goes, I've tried tests both with router and with only the modem wired straight to my PC, and everything tests have shown were roughly the same, there seems to be no dramatic improvement or decreases in speed.

I will consider a new router, but I am only going to look into that after the new modem arrives and I have that setup, because I think my router should be okay for the job, but if not, then I'll get that changed out too.  It's the modem I'm more worried about because it's refurbished.  The only strange thing is that I didn't seem to have quite as many issues as I do now before I switched addresses, which is when my issues started, not so much with the tier of service that I recently upgraded to.  That is the only reason I think there might be an issue with the line itself, but, I'm going to have to wait for when the modem comes in.  Perhaps the router as well depending on how everything checks out with the modem, before I try to narrow it down to it being the line itself.

I really appreciate the feedback quite a lot, thank you again.  Every bit helps to get these issues solved.

@Jesiah

I would agree too that addressing one variable at a time is probably best.  Should you get a new modem and still see slow speeds I'd try a simple test without the existing router directly to the modem first to see if that helps.

First off,  thank you for taking the time in writing a indepth post. Just out of curiosity, anyone on twitch I might know? I used to do some light streaming of SC2, but the game has lost it's new car scent to me. 

"I cannot broadcast without consistently dropping frames"

Could you give more info on this? Doesn't dropped frames refer to the decoder? Or do you mean the stream lags out?

" I've seen it max out the capacity a few times, but more often than not the tests seem to show it sometimes struggling to even push 3 to 4 megabits upload."

But if your stream bit rate is only set at 2Mb, shouldn't 2-4 be enough? It doesn't sound like a throughput issue, even if you aren't getting full speeds, sounds like you should still be getting enough for twitch. IE, if you drop your bit-rate, is the stream stable then? If not, you not for sure it's something else.

"Packet loss tests haven't even shown 1%, and the highest I've seen is 0.01%,"

Could you post one of the pings? Also, could you post a tracert to live.twitch.tv?

Finally, when did this problem start? Has it been happening the whole time you had the modem? Whole time had service? Etc.

Shwew, sorry for the really long delay in responding to this thread I started, especially to those who've responded and were awaiting a response (Health Edge and ChrisL)!

  Where to begin ... oh me oh my ...

I guess I'll start with modem / etc.  Replacing my modem did make a huge impact, I am achieving much better line speeds, I could actually push max speeds with the modem connected by itself, and even did some test streams with just the modem connected.  Unfortunately, I still seem to have some kind of issue with the connection itself, the line seems to just "dip" in speed, in set intervals no less.

Also, I got a new router to replace the old one.  So as far as modem and router goes, here they are:

SB6183 (Modem)

AC1600 / EA6400 (Router)

I'm pretty sure this hardware is plenty to support the setups in my home.  I don't have a huge extensive list of things connected to my router.  Literally two connected PC's via ethernet, one via wireless, and a wireless phone (that occasionally uses this connection).  There are two gaming consoles connected, but inactive most of the time.

That's it, there are literally 6 potential connections, and at most, there are 3 connected at once.  This information aside, I would like to let you all know that I have found the time to run my tests when I was the *only* person using the connection.  That means I did both tests with, and without the router connected.  And now the tests actually seem to show up pretty much the exact same between router / router&modem, so I know hardware should not be my issue anymore.  Also my PC is merely one year old with some pretty decent hardware inside.  If you need to know the motherboard, it's an ASUS Z78, so you can google it yourself and know I'm gigabit ready.  I promise, my hardware is fine.

So that leaves me with the fact I am still pretty reliably dropping frames, albeit MANY less frames now!  Thankfully.  I was dropping 10-15% of my total frames before, where as now, I drop about 1 to 3% of frames, which is still actually worse than what I generally experienced.

So, now, to respond to being asked exactly when these problems started.  They pretty much started when I moved to a new location!  I had *minor* troubles with the last location I lived at, but after some tech's came out when I was showing 3+% packet loss, I stopped having all those issues, and I had many stable streams that didn't drop any packets.  These days though ... T.T ... I have not had a single broadcast with 0% dropped frames.

Also, I was asked if I was anyone recognizable on twitch.  No, I'm afraid not.  I am just a small time streamer, but I do it for fun, and with the hopes that some day I can be a part of GDQ (Games Done Quick).  That being said, having a solid line is very important to me because I tend to practice my speed running of games while streaming.  I have a small community, but they're awesome, I love them, and I don't want to give a half-assed quality stream, if you know what I mean.

I'd give out my stream name ... but ... I'm not really one for blatant advertising / plugs anywhere.  TBH I feel pretty self conscious about talking in anyone's chat simply because the end of my stream channel is "_TV" so it feels like blatant advertising.  That being said ... I feel it should make sense as to why I don't advertise here.  I don't know, it seems obnoxious if I do that, so please forgive me for not openly putting my stream channel here.  ^^;;

Oh, and as far as packet loss goes, I got that from megapath speedtests and pingtest.net.  0% to 0.010000 (repeating) %.  On both pages, mind you.  I've never seen worse than that, so thankfully packet loss doesn't seem to be the issue here!  I'm not sure what else to put ... and I'm truly sorry if my reactions (specifically about twitch) were offensive at all.  I don't mean to be that way, and out of everyone who has replied to this thread, I truly appreciate your time and everything you've put into responding!

Seriously, big thank you to all of you, even if I still have some issues.  I'm sure they can be fixed some how.  First world problems, after all!  ^_^

Thanks again, everyone.  Lots of love to all of you.  <3

(*Please forgive the emotional ... stuff ... just ... happy to have responses, and sorry for the late responses myself*)

Alright ChrisL, thank you for the update!  I will run tests / give some time to see if the firmware update is what I needed now.

I will report back here again once I felt like I've done adequate amounts of testing, thank you again, much appreciated!  Here's to hoping it's the fix I needed!  ^^

Alright!

My connection is looking pretty good and stable.  My dropped frames are well below 1% and that's with others using my connection.  So I am confident that if I were the sole person on this connection, I shouldn't have any problems! 

I just wanted to say thank you to both of you who helped me out.  Much appreciated, even if a majority of it was on my end, at least it's not horrible node congestion or anything like that, for which I am thankful.  Everything seems good, now to just try to tweak some internet settings 'round here to try to reduce bandwidth consumed by my family, haha.  T_T;;  I hate even getting near my limit ...

Anyway, enough of that ... just wanted to say thank you again!  So thanks!!!  =]  Have a good day / days!

Have a great day Jesiah! Let us know if you need additional assistance.

I hate to revive what should have been an old / dead thread, but I seem to be having issues with the connection still.

I've been weary of wanting to call out any techs however because I'm worried that I will be charged for something I feel should not be on my end.  I have years of experience with PC and Networking related issues.  I know how to set up a router and home network with little to no trouble at all and have gone as far as using dd-wrt firmware for some of my routers in the past, so I'd like to say I'm experienced, perhaps not professional expert level that some people attain, but you get my drift, I'm not a novice in the very least.

That being said, I'm confident everything on my end is good, but I still seem to be having some trouble.  And I guess my last resort is to hope I can get some techs out here to check the installation itself.  It's not the first time I've had a fresh line installed at an address and actually had to have techs come out and check the installation / line itself which then proved fruitful for my connection issues.

I quote, perhaps not word for word, from my last address and having to call techs out to the address.  "Whoever came out here last really didn't know what they were doing, you were going through splitters that were unnecessary."  Which came from the second tech who had to come out and work on the line prior to the installation itself, and after he did his work, everything was peachy keen.

Now, I don't understand much about the line itself outside of my home as I don't even mess with the part of the line that is not my responsibility.  I mostly don't mess with that kind of thing because A) It's not my responsibility and B) I most certainly don't want to be accused of stealing services, because I don't and never intend to.  That's just not how I operate.

That being said, could I please request some tech support to come out here and take a look at the installation?  There have been times where my signal just completely drops randomly for a brief moment, long enough to disconnect me from my broadcasting services and just kill my casts altogether, which really ruins the experience for both me and viewers.  This has happened three times now in the past week and it's really starting to cause some frustration.

I'm wanting to guess it's the line itself because at times it seems like if it's even a little bit breezy, I start having connection issues.  Or light rain, even.  I have not tried broadcasting in the middle of really bad weather, but that's generally when I would be shutting off my precious hardware in the first place.  I'm just getting the feeling that there is some kind of fault in the line itself somewhere that is out of my control.

Also as a last bit of information, I have also done broadcasts during what I would say nice weather (maybe breezy, but not windy) where I am the only one using the connection, and these issues still seem to consistently arise.  They are not as bad as they used to be, but they are bad enough that it is causing me to drop connection in the middle of broadcasts.  So any help on this would be seriously appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

-Jesi

Edit:  I forgot to add that I would have called in about this but I don't actually have a phone available at the moment and could not for the life of me figure out how to have an online chat assistant popup.  So please forgive my method of request.

Thank you for the reply TiffanyR!

I actually don't use wireless myself as I'm wired into the router, but that's still worth a shot, I'll try changing that up and see if maybe it does help a bit.  Really missing DD-WRT firmware now, it was very useful for figuring out what channels to use in my area that weren't being used.

Anyway, thanks again for the reply, I'll get on that right away.  =]