[NvJazBas]

Hi guys this is Jaz

Okay I'm just making this post so I can get help as this area is something I'm really weak on.

Recently I've been getting more and more frustrated by internet issue (lag and spikes) during games both ladder and tournaments and because of the fact I don't know anything about internet "things", I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to say after calling ISP therefore I cannot really discuss what I need to do or w/e

So the issue is that I have lag issues certain time of the day..
Some things that I find not so usual(whether its relevant or not, I'll just point everything out):
Lag is fine during after 2amish or Noon, but 8pm~2am is the peak lag hour
On my router, Ethernet is constantly going on and off (not green->red->green->red, but green->non->green->non. this didn't happen before..)
youtube videos takes ages to download..(this usually didn't happen aswell)
My ISP is Korean ISP called "megatel"
I'm not using unlimited but enough to make myself feel that its unlimited
When I call them, they say peak hours are supposed to slow down the internet. Is this true?
Internet suddenly disconnects one or two times a day EVERYDAY. I don't know for sure but it seems about the same time everytime it happens

Any more info required to help me please post in details how to provide the information (eg. go to this and this to check this.) as I'm super computer noob...

Please help me solve this problem.. Anything I can ask my ISP, arguements or w/e would be helpful aswell..

Btw, I live in NZ

[mGGAequitas]

i'm by no means an expert but have had some experience and will try my best to help.

generally during peak hours the internet will slow down a bit, however it shouldn't really be so bad that it affects you much. a different isp may be able to do a better job here, but if it is due to heavy traffic, not much you can do.

i'm not sure what you mean by the ethernet light, can you still access the internet when it goes red? is it slow/laggy when it's red?

as for disconnects, it could be due to something on the isp side or on your side so next time it goes out ring up and ask if it should be working. or check on your router to see if the physical is down.(in your internet browser enter the ip of your default gateway, password is 'admin' usually.)
Do you have another router? I had a problem with my internet disconnecting because my 2nd router kept changing my dns server for some reason.

in cmd, run "ipconfig/all" and when your internet disconnects do the same and see if there are any differences (in particular dns servers, subnet mask and default gateway)

[Scope_IV]

Router model?
Is the router connected to a modem?
What type of internet is this, cable or some kind of college network?
The flickering is normal. Flickering is activity on the network.
As long as it is flickering, how fast is the on off?
The internet on the WAN(internet)port should be red and the ethernet ports should be green.
Peak Interent load can be a big problem especially with small ISPs.
Are the youtube videos slow all the time?

[|Erasmus|]

generally the slowdowns are just caused by them overloading their exchanges, so when it's actually busy it does run slow for everyone, but they don't have to put in the extra infrastructure when it's only slow for a period each day.

That is purely an ISP issue, so I don't really know what you can do about it if the ISPs position is that the internet is 'supposed' to slow down like that. If enough people complain and keep complaining when being fed that stupid line to get them to stop they may fix their exchange overloading issues, but it's not likely.

[Pretz]

korea isp in NZ is such a thing even possible? oh and all this said, it is the ISP's fault. but really, if you experience so much lag at peak time, so much that it's noticable AND you d/c 2 times a day.. i think you should re-evaluate who you want your isp to be.

i used to be with telecom when they first brought out their joke unlimited plan. try playing a online game when you disconnect every 2-3 mins... i'm talking about 100 disconnects a day.. it was so bad they had to refund the whole country for that month in particular which amounted to millions. after that, i have no tolerance for disconnects what-so-ever.

[NvJazBas]

Thanks for the replys. Its almost 3am here so I'll reply in details tomorrow!

Thank yous o much

[Delraich]

Have you tried the old standby solution for a lot of computer problems: turn the router off for a while (pull the plug basically) and then turn it back on again.

Quick Comments

PiG:

resetting will sometimess give temp relief :)

[Pretz]

Originally Posted by Delraich

Have you tried the old standby solution for a lot of computer problems: turn the router off for a while (pull the plug basically) and then turn it back on again.

no, these problems are most definitely isp related

[PiG]

I've had experiences where some ISPs slow down everyones net during peak hours by retarded amounts and only fix it if u complain angrily. Sometimes they stll won't fix it though...

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by PiG

I've had experiences where some ISPs slow down everyones net during peak hours by retarded amounts and only fix it if u complain angrily. Sometimes they stll won't fix it though...

I don't think they're allowed to just randomly slow you down for the hell of it.

But if it's cable internet, and it's only your exchange that's overcrowded, they can put you on a nearby one no problems. This isn't an option for ADSL though because of the signal attenuation. Your speeds will drop quite a bit as you get further from the exchange.

Quick Comments

PiG:

but i swear they do it anyway!

[Scope_IV]

If it is in the contact they can do what they want. I use to have a contract that had a peak speed lower than the an unpeaked speed. However that was satellite not cable. Either just ring and complain a bunch or read the contract through and see if there is anything in it.

[SanG]

Come to australia, more specifically QUEENSLAND.

[Bloodmyst]

ok, I'm going to give you a list of things to try.

1. Check what your PC is doing between 8pm - 2am. Is your computer trying to run updates in the background? It could be a regular occurence due to a set schedule on your PC. Do you have anti-virus running during this time?

- Look at Event Viewer by typing in "Eventvwr" in the start menu search (assuming Win7). Now go into the left pane, and check everything under windows logs and see if you can find anything unusual during your "lag periods." Everything here has a time stamp.

2. Disable/Renable your connection via Windows. There is a bug that was in Vista where it was actually the OS's fault for drop outs and lag. The fix (although temporary) was to disable/renable the connection. Not sure if this happens with Win7, but it's worth a try.

3. Replace the data cable and your filter/splitter at the wall.

4. Update your virus definitions and do a virus scan. You never know! Also, run Malwarebytes as well... This thing has picked up many things that others haven't.

5. Update the firmware on your router.

6. If all this fails.... time to ring up the ISP and TELL them to fix it... if not you will take your business elsewhere.

EDIT: Sometimes they may actually change your ports over at the exchange. When this happens, if said port/line is not configured correctly, it can throw your line out of sync resulting in lag and time out issues. The point is, this is all their side of the fence and only something they can fix. This has happened to me a few times here (I'm with Telstra), in such cases they will monitor your line for 48 hours in order to rectify the problem.

[rezyn8]

Good points from Bloomyst! Couple of other things to do:

Take some speed snapshots when you experience lag and when you don't via www.speedtest.net - this will help you explain the differences in service quality you are experiencing to the ISP.

Let us know what model Router/Modem you are using - there can be an issue as some models can overheat and degrade performance - there might also be known issues with the config and you may need to change the connection settings (AnnexM, G.Lite for DSL modulation etc). You can also look at your connection stats in the modem interface - these can be helpful when talking to the ISP as well.

Also check your ethernet and phone line cables - I had a problem with my connection a while back and I had to change the ethernet cable.

You can also try changing the ethernet port on the modem that your ethernet cable is connected to - some ports just fail after extended use.

A lot of the time the exchange is overloaded due to increases of people taking up broadband and increasing your contention ratio - ie you are all trying to squeeze into the same pipe and there is not enough bandwidth to go around. If this is the issue then a fault needs to be raised with your ISP so TNZ can increase capacity - it won't happen straight away but at least they can flag it as an issue.