network speeds Comcast Throttling

[gutz00]

Hi, 

I've been doing a lot of large downloads and uploads recently on my home network. And these appear slow, so I will run a speed test and they magically get the speeds I pay for while the speed test occurs. So I recently began to use my PIA vpn more often and woah... I'm getting the speeds I pay for?!? How crazy, right?

 

Has anyone else had this problem with Comcast or any ISP for that matter.

 

I know they have gotten wise and can detect when a speed test occurs. But it's beyond ridiculous - it brings my speed from many Mbps to a few Kbps.

FYI - I generally use a wired connection. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by gutz00
Clarity

[DrMacintosh]

3 minutes ago, gutz00 said:

Has anyone else had this problem with Comcast or any ISP for that matter.

Comcast and some other ISPs located on the East Coast love to throttle. I've never experienced it with Spectrum though in SoCal. 

 

Without net neutrality, there isn't much that can be done. 

[gutz00]

8 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

East Coast

Midwest - Chicago Suburbs... maybe a bullet flew through a cable or something.  

[MrWittel]

It's probably the difference between megabits and megabytes. Your download speed should be 1/8 of the speed. So a ISP at 100 Mbps (megabits per second) will download a files at 100/8 = 12.5Mb/s

[TempestCatto]

Even with a VPN I get throttled. But that might be because I live in the oldest part of town, everything is underground and no one wants to run fiber or at least replace the old copper. I'm stuck with one ISP because of it, and boy does it suck ass. Also you might get throttled if you go over a certain amount of gigabytes within a pay period, so you using a VPN makes it appear as though you're not where you really are, and trick the ISP into giving you the rated speeds again (that's a guess, I could be totally wrong).

[gutz00]

1 minute ago, MrWittel said:

So a ISP at 100 Mbps (megabits per second) will download a files at 100/8 = 12.5Mb/s

I am currently seeing a speed if about 12 killobits per second without my VPN - closer to 25-30 megabits per second with the vpn

[TempestCatto]

Just now, gutz00 said:

I am currently seeing a speed if about 12 killobits per second without my VPN - closer to 25-30 megabits per second with the vpn

This sounds more like my theory of going over a certain amount of data within a pay period. After the next pay period (or two) it should reset and you'd see normal speeds again. (just my theory, that's what my ISP has written in their own fineprint)

[gutz00]

3 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

This sounds more like my theory of going over a certain amount of data within a pay period.

Ha! I wish I was close to my cap.

 

[Cyracus]

5 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

you might get throttled if you go over a certain amount of gigabytes within a pay period, so you using a VPN makes it appear as though you're not where you really are, and trick the ISP into giving you the rated speeds again (that's a guess, I could be totally wrong).

Nah, comcast just tacks on charges to your bill if you exceed 1TB in a pay period. Using a vpn all your traffic is encrypted so they can see that you're pushing and pulling data, but can't identify it to selectively throttle it, at which point they either throttle it all or not.

[Donut417]

On 5/7/2019 at 7:45 PM, gutz00 said:

Hi, 

I've been doing a lot of large downloads and uploads recently on my home network. And these appear slow, so I will run a speed test and they magically get the speeds I pay for while the speed test occurs. So I recently began to use my PIA vpn more often and woah... I'm getting the speeds I pay for?!? How crazy, right?

 

Has anyone else had this problem with Comcast or any ISP for that matter.

 

I know they have gotten wise and can detect when a speed test occurs. But it's beyond ridiculous - it brings my speed from many Mbps to a few Kbps.

FYI - I generally use a wired connection. 

Comcast does throttle. They got caught many years back throttle bit torrent traffic. Actually it was the FCC that caught them. They are the reason why the NN rules went in to effect. Due to Comcast's throttling Netflix had to pay a toll so its users on the Comcast network would get a good experience. So I would say depending on what type of traffic your generating could be why your getting throttled. 

 

On 5/7/2019 at 8:04 PM, TempestCatto said:

This sounds more like my theory of going over a certain amount of data within a pay period. After the next pay period (or two) it should reset and you'd see normal speeds again. (just my theory, that's what my ISP has written in their own fineprint)

No they just throttle certain traffic. Because they are bastards. Why would they care about how much data you use when they have a 1 TB cap. Once you pass your cap is $10 for every 50 Gigs. OR you can pay $50 extra a month for "Unlimited' which is about 10 TB of data, after that kind of usage you might get an angry call. Just from what I have read.