Netflix Releases Fast.com Proves Comcast Throttles

[bcredeur97]

i got 120mbps on speedtest and 130 on fast

 

*shrug*

 

Cox is our ISP (they use comcast stuff, some type of partnership they have)

[Misanthrope]

On 6/5/2016 at 9:42 PM, gamerking said:

you have to go in person to where they have their office  sending a letter they dont do nada. in person you will get results 

You might trigger him into going all Taxi Driver on him

[LAwLz]

On 5/20/2016 at 2:42 PM, LAwLz said:

If this only has a server in the US then you CAN NOT use this to determine if you are being throttled or not. You will get lower speeds connecting to the US from for example Sweden regardless of your ISP throttling you or not. 

Decided to look into it today. Fast.com is hosted by Akaima so it is perfectly legitimate to use it for testing if you get throttled even if you are not in the US. You will be connected to a server near you. I got connected to one in Denmark.

[Mattb6288]

I have Cox in az. i pay for 50mbps and get 65 over wifi and 75 wired. 

[Briggsy]

Not being throttled myself, but I wonder what is the peak Bandwidth needed to stream highest quality of Netflix? If lets say it was 30Mbps (I'm making up numbers), then technically an ISP throttling you to that number wouldn't be detrimental to your Netflix experience. But then that brings up the point that you can have multiple netflix accounts streaming off the same connection, so would the throttling occur per stream, or for the entire connection. I doubt smaller ISP's would even have this capability, but I wouldn't put that kind of algorithm past big ISP's, where they could throttle you to the ceiling of what they think Netflix needs.

[jasonvp]

On 6/7/2016 at 9:23 AM, Michael McAllister said:

If people are not receiving even close to the speed they paid for, that is problematic.  It has nothing to do with "how the Internet works".

I love it when network engineers come on here and tell everyone how network speeds, bandwidth, and testing is all supposed to work across the Internet.

 

Oh.  Wait.  You're not a network engineer and likely have absolutely no idea what it means to build a backbone (psst: I am and do).

Quote

If the server is local and they still receive slow speeds, that could be an indication of throttling and is worth investigating.

And it could just be an indication of bandwidth exhaustion between your ISP and the source of your download.

 

Look folks: oversubscription is a way of life for ALL ISPs.  There's no way they can provide a 1:1 level of bandwidth for every single customer they have.  High bandwidth circuits (think: 40G, 100G, etc) are getting less and less expensive as time goes on, but the router interfaces that power them are not.  Love it or hate it, network gear is fookin' expensive and always will be.  There are Cisco routers that cost more than your house(!) and their weight is measured in tons.  That's just a "for instance"; the problem is that each interface an ISP has to add to that router sends the costs of it skyrocketing even further.  This is due not only to purchasing the interface, but the annual maintenance charges on it.

 

It ain't cheap to run an ISP with a backbone.  You can not realistically expect or force a business (which answers to its investors, not its customers) to give expensive bandwidth away for free.  Getting the government involved is the wrong thing to do because they will fuck it up.  Like they do everything else.

 

You bought bandwidth X to your house.  You didn't buy bandwidth X to anywhere on the Internet, you just bought it between your CPE and the upstream ISP equipment.  That's.  It.  I'm sorry if networking reality sucks for you, but, there ya go.

[Qub3d]

Looking just fine here. Although, since I'm working and living on a college campus, I get the benefit of their awesome speeds.

[JoeCoke]

Wow, I have a 120mbps plan from comcast and I'm not getting throttled. I'm actually really suprised.

 

[jollander]

I'd really like to see a poll that gives us some regional info. Something tells me that throttling is more common in NA.

 

[North America] Are you being throttled by your ISP?

1. Yes

2. No

[Sotuh America] Are you being throttled by your ISP?

1. Yes

2. No

[Europe] Are you being throttled by your ISP?

1. Yes

2. No

[Africa] Are you being throttled by your ISP?

1. Yes

2. No

[Asia] Are you being throttled by your ISP?

1. Yes

2. No

[Australia] Are you being throttled by your ISP?

1. Yes

2. No

 

[All] What type of connection are you paying for?

1. Fibre

2. Cable (Coax)

3. DSL

4. 3g/4g

5. Other

 

[jasonvp]

11 minutes ago, jollander said:

I'd really like to see a poll that gives us some regional info. Something tells me that throttling is more common in NA.

I'm pretty sure folks at home have neither the skills, access, nor tools to determine if they're purposely getting throttled.  So your poll is doomed to opinion, and your questions should probably be reworded to, "Do you think you are being throttled?"

 

Again, it's the whole "think you know" versus "actually knowing" what's going on.

[jollander]

35 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

I'm pretty sure folks at home have neither the skills, access, nor tools to determine if they're purposely getting throttled.  So your poll is doomed to opinion, and your questions should probably be reworded to, "Do you think you are being throttled?"

 

Again, it's the whole "think you know" versus "actually knowing" what's going on.

Good point. We can't tell for sure.

 

I was, however, referring to the whole point of the thread. Testing Fast.com and comparing to Speed Test and telling the results through the poll.

[Octagoncow]

I have a 25mbps plan from Comcast and I actually get about 30mbps down on average. Don't get me wrong, I still hate Comcast; but, it's nice to know that they don't throttle 100% of their customers... Probably just like 75%

[IGJoe2192]

I have Comcast (Xfinity) 120Mbps service and Fast.com went up to 110Mbps... 

 

 

[jasonvp]

18 hours ago, jollander said:

I was, however, referring to the whole point of the thread. Testing Fast.com and comparing to Speed Test and telling the results through the poll.

Fair.  I think the title of the thread could be adjusted a bit.  Netflix's tool doesn't prove anything other than getting bits from their servers is (potentially) slower than getting bits from the Speedtest servers.  That could indicate throttling.  It could indicate overwhelmed servers.  It could indicate overwhelmed peering router interfaces.

 

That's my whole issue with this.  Bear in mind I'm not siding with ISPs or Netflix.  I'd just rather not see a well-intended tool turn into a mini-hysteria, specially if the data it's providing isn't enough to come to those conclusions.

[goodtofufriday]

On Time Warner. Should be hitting around 300 download. Only get 180