AOL slow at peak time - driving me nuts - Broadband Internet

JBB · 03-03-2010, 16:57

Help - I am with AOL and they are driving me around the bend. The problem I am having is that every evening after 5pm it is impossible to use any web streaming apps such as iPlayer or Youtube due to speeds dropping through the floor.

I have used a number of speed testers (mainly speedtester.bt.com) and have conclusive evidence that downloads speeds drop from 4500kbps (at 2pm) to around 350kbps during the evening.

Normal surfing slows down a little, but downloading (not streaming) seems not to change at any time (I get around 600-700kb)

I have spend many an hour onto the "Help" desk to no avail. Unfortunately it seems to have got worse since recently moving onto "dialbb.com" login.

BTW I do not use P2P software and have ensured khost.exe is not running on any user.

Unfortunately I have another 11 months to go in my current contract

Any thoughts? JBB

technoflare · 03-03-2010, 17:11

sounds like classic traffic shapping. you are lucky, i went to a relative on Tiscali (now part of AOL/Talktalk) and trying to use iplayer steaming or downloading in the evening was totally impossible. you may have a case for breach of contract if you are within th FUP limits but thats going to be hard to prove. Best get all your evidence together and put it in writing saying you want it fixed or the option to leave without penalty. check samknows and see who else has an LLU in your exchange. i left AOL and went to Freedom2surf (part of Tiscali and so now part of TT as well) and am now enjoying double speeds up and down with very little shapping.

dw2009 · 03-03-2010, 17:17

The issue would appear to be with people who are on non-LLU connections. You can find out if you're on a non-LLU AOL connection by looking up your exchange on this website: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php If you're non-LLU, then there'll be an "X" by "AOL" in the list on the bottom right of the page.

Non-LLU connections rely on the BT IPStream service, and AOL have to hire equipment and bandwidth from BT (to put it simply). With LLU connections, AOL use their own equipment so there are no issues with speed.

The official line from AOL about this is that it's congestion and that there's "nothing that can be done about it". Well, actually, if they hired more bandwidth from BT then the problem would be solved - other ISPs have had poor evening speeds on non-LLU connections, and purchasing more bandwidth from BT has solved the problem.

There's a massive thread on the Thinkbroadband forums discussing this issue: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/aol...onnection.html

JBB · 03-03-2010, 18:15

DW2009, thanks for the tip. I have looked on the website mentioned and am indeed on a non-LLU AOL exchange. I will look at the other thread, but if I were to move to an ISP that did have LLU should I fair better? Many thanks

dw2009 · 03-03-2010, 19:13

In theory, yes, you should receive a better service from an LLU connection. However, there are other factors which can cause slow evening services, such as exchange congestion.

The people in the thread on the Thinkbroadband forum checked their exchanges and they're not congested, which points to the fact that the issues are AOL issues. My exchange isn't congested either. You can check exchange congestion here - http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

Hope this helps!

JBB · 03-03-2010, 21:07

No, my exchange is not congested either. Incidentally, AOL keep advising running more and more speed tests and ringing them back to raise another fault with BT. Is it worth the effort (at 5p/min) or a waster of time?

dw2009 · 03-03-2010, 21:53

Personally I'd have thought they've got enough evidence now to realise that the congestion is happening in the evenings because that's when most people are using it. They must surely have their own network monitoring systems where they'd be able to see what speeds people would be able to achieve anyway!

I'd say it would be worth the effort (to keep pestering them) but if it's costing you money then it's probably not worth it! How long (i.e. how much money) does it take/cost to ring them up and give the result of another speed test?

JBB · 04-03-2010, 18:33

It costs me at least £1 a time - I am losing the will to even ring up and speak to another person who is completely and utterly useless. Hrmph

dw2009 · 04-03-2010, 19:01

If it's costing you that much then it's probably not worth it. Not to mention the frustration caused by someone reading off a script in the tech centre!

This thread here is interesting though - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1225720

So it looks like non-LLU services on most of the major ISPs are below par at the moment. It's mostly urban areas which have LLU-enabled exchanges, and most people live in urban areas. So I suppose ISPs aren't too bothered with the minority of their customer base who are on non-LLU exchanges!

Psychosis · 04-03-2010, 19:33

I'm LLU enabled (since last year). This is the first time in ten years of service that I've had a problem with AOL, but my download speeds (all day long) are down to 200 kb/s.

Nick666 · 05-03-2010, 21:25

I've got exactly the same rubbish from AOL

dw2009 · 10-03-2010, 00:43

It seems AOL is scrapping the old 2 & 4 Mb packages and is upgrading all connections to 8Mb.

This will surely just make their systems even more congested, especially in the evenings!

They should sort out their IPStream issues before upgrading the speeds of those on non-8Mb packages.

Psychosis · 10-03-2010, 22:29

Nice to know that their 8mb package provides me with 3.2mb... half a mile from the exchange.

Rob22 · 10-03-2010, 22:39

The internet is always busy after 5pm.

you have to remember people are coming home from work about 6.00 in the evening, having a quick bite to eat, and then logging on about 7.00.

from about 7.00 onwards, the whole world and his rocking horse are online.

dw2009 · 10-03-2010, 22:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob22

The internet is always busy after 5pm.

you have to remember people are coming home from work about 6.00 in the evening, having a quick bite to eat, and then logging on about 7.00.

from about 7.00 onwards, the whole world and his rocking horse are online.

That's true, but the fact is that (as a general rule) on LLU connections, the speed decrease isn't as severe as it is on non-LLU connections. Therefore there are issues with the connections between IPStream and AOL.

Kargo · 15-03-2010, 19:34

When exactly is peak time?

dw2009 · 15-03-2010, 20:34

6pm - 12am I guess.

JBB · 15-03-2010, 20:54

My personal experience of slow downs with AOL generally seems to be after about 5pm until 11pm in the week and whenever they feel like it at the weekends.

BTW does anyone know the email address of anyone important at AOL so I can write a stroppy email. I am at my wit's end dealing with the most woeful "Technical Help Desk" I have had the misfortune to come across. Period.

thanks

DANCE OF DEATH · 15-03-2010, 21:25

My uncle has decided to leave AOL. Hopefully he'll get his MAC Code any day soon. When he phoned up he was told by the advisor that if he stayed they would turn his speed up. He was on an 8 Meg download package and only recieveing 2 meg download cheeky gits. His estimated line for Sky is between 10 -13 meg download.

So it looks like they are traffic shaping on purpose by the sounds of things.

JBB · 18-03-2010, 22:53

In a moment of weakness I wrote another stroppy email to AOL regarding appaling service and received the following reply:

Dear J***,

Thank you for telling me that, my name is ***, I am sorry that you have experienced this issue and I am confident that we can work together to resolve it.
It would appear that the details you have are not logging you correctly onto the network for some reason. What I will do is now purge your connection an generate a new username. I shall test this for you now and with this we should have this issue resolved once and for all. These steps can be done offline so you do not need to be on the internet for this.

So, being in a caring sharing mood, I tried the new logon details just in case... You've guessed it, the speed I am now getting according to speedtester.bt.com is 151 kbps on a line that is syncing at 7200kbps.

I give up.

Telekon24 · 18-03-2010, 23:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBB

In a moment of weakness I wrote another stroppy email to AOL regarding appaling service and received the following reply:

Dear J***,

Thank you for telling me that, my name is ***, I am sorry that you have experienced this issue and I am confident that we can work together to resolve it.
It would appear that the details you have are not logging you correctly onto the network for some reason. What I will do is now purge your connection an generate a new username. I shall test this for you now and with this we should have this issue resolved once and for all. These steps can be done offline so you do not need to be on the internet for this.

So, being in a caring sharing mood, I tried the new logon details just in case... You've guessed it, the speed I am now getting according to speedtester.bt.com is 151 kbps on a line that is syncing at 7200kbps.

I give up.

Yep the speeds are getting worse i had top speed of 0.2meg tonight
I have my MAC code and first thing tomorrow i'm going to use it after 9 years of being with AOL i'm out of there

dw2009 · 19-03-2010, 01:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBB

In a moment of weakness I wrote another stroppy email to AOL regarding appaling service and received the following reply:

Dear J***,

Thank you for telling me that, my name is ***, I am sorry that you have experienced this issue and I am confident that we can work together to resolve it.
It would appear that the details you have are not logging you correctly onto the network for some reason. What I will do is now purge your connection an generate a new username. I shall test this for you now and with this we should have this issue resolved once and for all. These steps can be done offline so you do not need to be on the internet for this.

So, being in a caring sharing mood, I tried the new logon details just in case... You've guessed it, the speed I am now getting according to speedtester.bt.com is 151 kbps on a line that is syncing at 7200kbps.

I give up.

I can't believe they're still trying to fob people off by implying that the slow evening speeds are isolated incidents!

Also you're either on their network or not on it - I don't see how "not being on it correctly" would cause slow speeds in the evenings!

JBB · 19-03-2010, 11:31

I know - crackers isn't it. Latest Speedtester.bt.com result - 4377kbps - and this is fairly typical outside Peak Hours.

I have a great graph in Excel showing the (odd) Up's and (many) Down's to share with someone at AOL that is not a call centre drone.

Now, just need to find out who to speak to...

technoflare · 19-03-2010, 11:37

you think AOL is bad for its service. you should try and and leave them....now that is tough...

dw2009 · 19-03-2010, 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBB

I know - crackers isn't it. Latest Speedtester.bt.com result - 4377kbps - and this is fairly typical outside Peak Hours.

I have a great graph in Excel showing the (odd) Up's and (many) Down's to share with someone at AOL that is not a call centre drone.

Now, just need to find out who to speak to...

I did the same as you and managed to speak to someone who didn't read from a script, and the general consensus was that it's congestion in the evenings and nothing can be done.

03-03-2010, 16:57	#1
JBB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham Services: SKY+ HD (Samsung), SKY+ (Thomson) PVR3, PS3, Wii, Samsung LE40B650 Posts: 54	AOL slow at peak time - driving me nuts Help - I am with AOL and they are driving me around the bend. The problem I am having is that every evening after 5pm it is impossible to use any web streaming apps such as iPlayer or Youtube due to speeds dropping through the floor. I have used a number of speed testers (mainly speedtester.bt.com) and have conclusive evidence that downloads speeds drop from 4500kbps (at 2pm) to around 350kbps during the evening. Normal surfing slows down a little, but downloading (not streaming) seems not to change at any time (I get around 600-700kb) I have spend many an hour onto the "Help" desk to no avail. Unfortunately it seems to have got worse since recently moving onto "dialbb.com" login. BTW I do not use P2P software and have ensured khost.exe is not running on any user. Unfortunately I have another 11 months to go in my current contract Any thoughts? JBB

03-03-2010, 17:11	#2
technoflare Forum Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Leeds Services: Sky+HD, SonyHC90, AOL,N97 on 3, PS3, Wii, TX-46G10 TV, Slingbox Posts: 2,081	sounds like classic traffic shapping. you are lucky, i went to a relative on Tiscali (now part of AOL/Talktalk) and trying to use iplayer steaming or downloading in the evening was totally impossible. you may have a case for breach of contract if you are within th FUP limits but thats going to be hard to prove. Best get all your evidence together and put it in writing saying you want it fixed or the option to leave without penalty. check samknows and see who else has an LLU in your exchange. i left AOL and went to Freedom2surf (part of Tiscali and so now part of TT as well) and am now enjoying double speeds up and down with very little shapping.

03-03-2010, 17:17	#3
dw2009 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 175	The issue would appear to be with people who are on non-LLU connections. You can find out if you're on a non-LLU AOL connection by looking up your exchange on this website: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php If you're non-LLU, then there'll be an "X" by "AOL" in the list on the bottom right of the page. Non-LLU connections rely on the BT IPStream service, and AOL have to hire equipment and bandwidth from BT (to put it simply). With LLU connections, AOL use their own equipment so there are no issues with speed. The official line from AOL about this is that it's congestion and that there's "nothing that can be done about it". Well, actually, if they hired more bandwidth from BT then the problem would be solved - other ISPs have had poor evening speeds on non-LLU connections, and purchasing more bandwidth from BT has solved the problem. There's a massive thread on the Thinkbroadband forums discussing this issue: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/aol...onnection.html

03-03-2010, 18:15	#4
JBB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham Services: SKY+ HD (Samsung), SKY+ (Thomson) PVR3, PS3, Wii, Samsung LE40B650 Posts: 54	DW2009, thanks for the tip. I have looked on the website mentioned and am indeed on a non-LLU AOL exchange. I will look at the other thread, but if I were to move to an ISP that did have LLU should I fair better? Many thanks

03-03-2010, 19:13	#5
dw2009 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 175	In theory, yes, you should receive a better service from an LLU connection. However, there are other factors which can cause slow evening services, such as exchange congestion. The people in the thread on the Thinkbroadband forum checked their exchanges and they're not congested, which points to the fact that the issues are AOL issues. My exchange isn't congested either. You can check exchange congestion here - http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/ Hope this helps!

03-03-2010, 21:07	#6
JBB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham Services: SKY+ HD (Samsung), SKY+ (Thomson) PVR3, PS3, Wii, Samsung LE40B650 Posts: 54	No, my exchange is not congested either. Incidentally, AOL keep advising running more and more speed tests and ringing them back to raise another fault with BT. Is it worth the effort (at 5p/min) or a waster of time?

03-03-2010, 21:53	#7
dw2009 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 175	Personally I'd have thought they've got enough evidence now to realise that the congestion is happening in the evenings because that's when most people are using it. They must surely have their own network monitoring systems where they'd be able to see what speeds people would be able to achieve anyway! I'd say it would be worth the effort (to keep pestering them) but if it's costing you money then it's probably not worth it! How long (i.e. how much money) does it take/cost to ring them up and give the result of another speed test?

04-03-2010, 18:33	#8
JBB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham Services: SKY+ HD (Samsung), SKY+ (Thomson) PVR3, PS3, Wii, Samsung LE40B650 Posts: 54	It costs me at least £1 a time - I am losing the will to even ring up and speak to another person who is completely and utterly useless. Hrmph

04-03-2010, 19:01	#9
dw2009 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 175	If it's costing you that much then it's probably not worth it. Not to mention the frustration caused by someone reading off a script in the tech centre! This thread here is interesting though - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1225720 So it looks like non-LLU services on most of the major ISPs are below par at the moment. It's mostly urban areas which have LLU-enabled exchanges, and most people live in urban areas. So I suppose ISPs aren't too bothered with the minority of their customer base who are on non-LLU exchanges!

04-03-2010, 19:33	#10
Psychosis Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Gender: Female Location: Stoke-on-Trent Services: Sky Digital Posts: 13,070	I'm LLU enabled (since last year). This is the first time in ten years of service that I've had a problem with AOL, but my download speeds (all day long) are down to 200 kb/s.

05-03-2010, 21:25	#11
Nick666 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 148	I've got exactly the same rubbish from AOL

10-03-2010, 00:43	#12
dw2009 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 175	It seems AOL is scrapping the old 2 & 4 Mb packages and is upgrading all connections to 8Mb. This will surely just make their systems even more congested, especially in the evenings! They should sort out their IPStream issues before upgrading the speeds of those on non-8Mb packages.

10-03-2010, 22:29	#13
Psychosis Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Gender: Female Location: Stoke-on-Trent Services: Sky Digital Posts: 13,070	Nice to know that their 8mb package provides me with 3.2mb... half a mile from the exchange.

10-03-2010, 22:39	#14
Rob22 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 9,459	The internet is always busy after 5pm. you have to remember people are coming home from work about 6.00 in the evening, having a quick bite to eat, and then logging on about 7.00. from about 7.00 onwards, the whole world and his rocking horse are online.

15-03-2010, 19:34	#16
Kargo Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: UK Services: Sky Digital, Turksat 42E, Freeview HD, AOL Broadband, iPod Touch Posts: 4,464	When exactly is peak time?

15-03-2010, 20:34	#17
dw2009 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 175	6pm - 12am I guess.

15-03-2010, 20:54	#18
JBB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham Services: SKY+ HD (Samsung), SKY+ (Thomson) PVR3, PS3, Wii, Samsung LE40B650 Posts: 54	My personal experience of slow downs with AOL generally seems to be after about 5pm until 11pm in the week and whenever they feel like it at the weekends. BTW does anyone know the email address of anyone important at AOL so I can write a stroppy email. I am at my wit's end dealing with the most woeful "Technical Help Desk" I have had the misfortune to come across. Period. thanks

15-03-2010, 21:25	#19
DANCE OF DEATH Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Gender: Male Location: 22 Acacia Avenue Services: Sky, Sky Unlimited Broadband, Windows 7 32 Bit HE Posts: 949	My uncle has decided to leave AOL. Hopefully he'll get his MAC Code any day soon. When he phoned up he was told by the advisor that if he stayed they would turn his speed up. He was on an 8 Meg download package and only recieveing 2 meg download cheeky gits. His estimated line for Sky is between 10 -13 meg download. So it looks like they are traffic shaping on purpose by the sounds of things.

18-03-2010, 22:53	#20
JBB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham Services: SKY+ HD (Samsung), SKY+ (Thomson) PVR3, PS3, Wii, Samsung LE40B650 Posts: 54	In a moment of weakness I wrote another stroppy email to AOL regarding appaling service and received the following reply: Dear J*, Thank you for telling me that, my name is *, I am sorry that you have experienced this issue and I am confident that we can work together to resolve it. It would appear that the details you have are not logging you correctly onto the network for some reason. What I will do is now purge your connection an generate a new username. I shall test this for you now and with this we should have this issue resolved once and for all. These steps can be done offline so you do not need to be on the internet for this. So, being in a caring sharing mood, I tried the new logon details just in case... You've guessed it, the speed I am now getting according to speedtester.bt.com is 151 kbps on a line that is syncing at 7200kbps. I give up.

19-03-2010, 11:31	#23
JBB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Nottingham Services: SKY+ HD (Samsung), SKY+ (Thomson) PVR3, PS3, Wii, Samsung LE40B650 Posts: 54	I know - crackers isn't it. Latest Speedtester.bt.com result - 4377kbps - and this is fairly typical outside Peak Hours. I have a great graph in Excel showing the (odd) Up's and (many) Down's to share with someone at AOL that is not a call centre drone. Now, just need to find out who to speak to...

19-03-2010, 11:37	#24
technoflare Forum Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Leeds Services: Sky+HD, SonyHC90, AOL,N97 on 3, PS3, Wii, TX-46G10 TV, Slingbox Posts: 2,081	you think AOL is bad for its service. you should try and and leave them....now that is tough...