Slow internet with files building up speed

[abdallasafwat]

I have been experiencing slow internet for a while now, and whenever I contact the ISP they deny that my speed is less than what I signed up for which is 2048KBps. The speed gets to be ok/good and then drops suddenly to an extent that videos load extremely slow, pages load ok sometimes and downloads reach really low speeds sometimes, I contact them, they do whatever, sometimes the speed gets back to normal, sometimes they say some nonsense and then in a while it returns, all of that with speedtest getting low speed results. Today, something really weird is happening. Speedtest reads normal between 1.1 to 1.7 megabytes per second, videos are extremely slow, downloads are not exceeding 30kBs but when I put 3 files to download they get to be around 30/20/20, sometimes more, sometimes less. so the speed doesn't actually split, it builds up. I am running a desktop and a laptop, both having the same problem, both running on ethernet, also the same problem is occuring on android tablet and ipad. the slow internet and very slow videos, so I can't see any problems related to my devices and of course I called the ISP, they replied in a cold way as usual by saying you are receiving your perfect speed and you are the one having a problem not us. Can anyone tell me what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to check? Change? I am going nuts, I changed my router 3 times btw and the problem is still occurring.

 

[thejackal85]

Let's start with the fact that your speed, by default, is not that fast. You're running 2MB down, which may sound like a lot for someone coming from DSL, but in the cable speed world, it's the very, very bottom. Case in point, I'm running 300MB down and my brother has a 1GB connection in his home.

But if your ISP is saying nothing is wrong, you've changed the router out and are experiencing the same behavior on multiple devices/connection types, it could just be the way that your ISP works. Who is your ISP?

 

[abdallasafwat]

Well 🙁 I am in Egypt, the max we can afford is 2MB, max speed here for individuals is 8MB which is extremely expensive. My ISP I doubt that you would know any in Egypt but for the Egyptians here that might stumble upon that answer, it is TeData. I am talking about speeds in all of Egypt is like that as we don't have optical fibers yet, so 🙁

Anyway, speaking for my speed that I paid for which is the 2MB, what shall I do, I mean I use multiple devices, multiple routers, wifi and ethernet, with and without switch, even asked the phone company to change the spot of my phone line as maybe it would be a bit dirty, and nothing, especially with that latest problem of speed, and the thing is, aside from the limited files speeds now that vary but doesn't exceed a number of KBs, the videos and websites load slightly better at times, and at times I sit for a whole lot of time waiting. As an example, I watch some online TV series, the episode which is 50mins that is not HD of course on websites like gorillavids and vidbull and those kinds of video sharing websites, I see the episode loading fast at time and playing smoothly and at other times, sometimes it's an hour after that, the speed drops, i restart the router many times, whenever I play anything, the same exact file, It literally takes more than 30 mins just to load the first tiny bit, and I cannot understand how speedtest now gives me around 1.5MB when I can't even load a video on the lowest quality.

N.B. I don't know if it is how my ISP is working as I don't remember ever experiencing this problem before, for the past 10 years with my ISP, I don't know what have changed


This is my latest speedtest result

 

[marko55]

Its a tough one to "fix" for sure. ISPs can go as far as throttling certain types of traffic if they choose to, and that can be hurting your streaming. Speed tests can be misleading as they don't accurately represent your connection performance to the entire internet. If you're streaming from one server in the web, it can be completely different than another based on many factors (peering performance between your ISP and the one that streaming server is on, how may people are hitting that server at the time, etc).

Depending on the consistency of your connection all the way to the streaming server, the connection can certainly vary and you'll see your video quality fluctuate like you are describing due to the nature of TCP.

Working with level 1 ISP support can be tough as they probably don't actually know what's going on if there's a problem deeper in their own core, or peering connections to other ISPs, which you are traversing to reach the sites you are surfing. Hate to say it but you're going to have to keep bugging them.