# Throttling?



## angelkiller (Jan 11, 2011)

Ok, sorry for these noobish threads lately. THE COMPUTERS HAVE CONSPIRED AGAINST ME!!!

So my internet connection has been slow as of the last two days. Youtube videos load sooo slowly even at 360p. I have to turn it down to 240p. Yuck. Even some streaming audio sites buffer super slow. My ping seems unusually high when I was gaming in BF2.

I'm currently in school, so it's their network and all. I've done some moderate torrenting in the past. Legality questionable. (I would argue that what I dl'ed is legal) So they might be throttleing because of that.

My network is super simple. Router is a D-Link DIR-615 running DD-WRT. There are two laptops that are connected wirelessly. QoS is enabled, but is only set to put bittorrent traffic on one specific port as the lowest priority. *Edit:* QoS turned off, same issue. Even tried resetting the router. No go.

One of the laptop is my roommate's. He does watch alot of streaming video, but he's always done this. We haven't had any issues until now.







I'm guessing that it's bing throttled because my upload is fine. My download speed should be at least equal to my upload, so clearly somethin's up.



Any guesses? Need more info? Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. Thanks.


----------



## streetfighter 2 (Jan 11, 2011)

This thread confuses me, as does the Snuggie, decaf coffee and wave-particle duality.

Why don't you email your network administrator (usually the IT department at colleges/unis)?  Obviously you'll want to make sure that the problem is external to your router first though.

You might write something like the following:


> _Dear Sir or Madam,
> The downstream of my tubes has slowed to an inhospitable level, much to my chagrin.  I have made any and all attempts to diagnose my tubular impediment but have been so far unsuccessful.  I am writing to you in the hopes that you will take it upon yourself to discover and abrogate my cylinder constipation.
> 
> Most respectfully yours,
> angelkiller, daemon of the interwebz_


----------



## angelkiller (Jan 11, 2011)

streetfighter 2 said:


> This thread confuses me, as does the Snuggie, decaf coffee and wave-particle duality.
> 
> Why don't you email your network administrator (usually the IT department at colleges/unis)?  Obviously you'll want to make sure that the problem is external to your router first though.


Uh-oh. What's confusing? (I didn't mean to make this thread as confusing as Snuggies!)

I would email the IT people, but I want to make sure that that's the issue. (as well as have evidence)


----------



## the54thvoid (Jan 11, 2011)

I probably wont help but i live in an old house with an old line with about 3-4 miles from the exchange.  My dl speed (realtime - not estimated) is about 500kbs (or 0.5Mbs).  I can watch streaming HD content from the BBC i-player website and my youtube speeds are fine (gaming pings are fine too).

If your screenie is of your dl speeds, i'd suggest they're not even 0.5Mb.  Do a thorough malware/virus/adware scan and then if it's not that and your pc is runnng fine, yeah, maybe you are being throttled (for being a pirate, arrhh!).

Though you'd think you'd get a warning email from the administrator to say either (a) you've been dl'ing illegally or (b) you're near your dl limit....


----------



## streetfighter 2 (Jan 11, 2011)

angelkiller said:


> I would email the IT people, but I want to make sure that that's the issue. (as well as have evidence)


I'd probably start with pinging your router then throwing some data around (ie. transfer some big files between you and another computer connected to your router).  If those speeds are consistent with expectations (of low latency/high transfer rate) then do a tracert to google.com and see how many hops you have till you're outside of your school's gateway.  Try pinging all the hops to your schools gateway (while varying the packet size ) and make sure they're all kosher (<10ms).  You can also try transferring some large files to someone at your school in a different subnet and see if that's fast.  Finally, try running speed tests at several servers to make sure it's not just a problem with the one server you were using.

Obviously you'll want to also scan your computer for viruses and whatnot.  That goes without saying though doesn't it?


----------



## angelkiller (Jan 11, 2011)

streetfighter 2 said:


> I'd probably start with pinging your router then throwing some data around (ie. transfer some big files between you and another computer connected to your router).  If those speeds are consistent with expectations (of low latency/high transfer rate) then do a tracert to google.com and see how many hops you have till you're outside of your school's gateway.  Try pinging all the hops to your schools gateway (while varying the packet size ) and make sure they're all kosher (<10ms).  You can also try transferring some large files to someone at your school in a different subnet and see if that's fast.  Finally, try running speed tests at several servers to make sure it's not just a problem with the one server you were using.
> 
> Obviously you'll want to also scan your computer for viruses and whatnot.  That goes without saying though doesn't it?



Ping to the router is good (3ms)
My desktop isn't functional atm and my roommate's out, so I only have one computer
I did a tracert to google. TBH, I'm not sure how to interpert the results. Looks like step 4 is unusually high and it's on my school's network.
I pinged every hop on my school's network with 32, 64, 128, and 256 bytes of data. (I wish I knew how to write scripts) Almost always, the average ping was under 50ms. Sometimes under 10ms. To my surprise, alot of requests timed out. Especially at number 4. But overall, the pings were good. (nothing excessive)
I was not aware that you could transfer files across different subnets.
Tried different servers on two different sites, all exhibited similar behavior.
Ms Security Essentials's quick scan found nothing, and the full scan has been running for 45min now. Nothing so far.
I've been considering copy pasting your letter and sending that.


----------



## streetfighter 2 (Jan 12, 2011)

angelkiller said:


> Ping to the router is good (3ms)
> My desktop isn't functional atm and my roommate's out, so I only have one computer
> I did a tracert to google. TBH, I'm not sure how to interpert the results. Looks like step 4 is unusually high and it's on my school's network.
> I pinged every hop on my school's network with 32, 64, 128, and 256 bytes of data. (I wish I knew how to write scripts) Almost always, the average ping was under 50ms. Sometimes under 10ms. To my surprise, alot of requests timed out. Especially at number 4. But overall, the pings were good. (nothing excessive)
> ...


3.)  Admittedly I'm having trouble interpreting them too, they're really blurry!  
It appears that the fourth hop had 2 drops before it responded.  Your low speed connection might be because you're having trouble getting past whatever the fourth hop is.
4.)  The timed out requests are not good.  That could cause your connection speed to drop if your connection is routed through those nodes.
5.)  You can transfer files over the internet can't you?  Why not your school's subnets then? 

Also, my letter was a joke and unless you've personally met some of the people in the IT department it would be strongly inadvisable to send.


----------



## Kreij (Jan 12, 2011)

May I ask a few questions ?

1) What is your normal download speed?
2) Why are you obfiscating the traceroute endpoints in your picture? We cannot check the endpoints from other locations without at least their IPAs.
3) Do you have to log into the school network to use it, or are they assigning you a static IP or caching your MAC address?
4) Define "Moderate Torrenting".
5) Got any beer? lol J/K


----------



## angelkiller (Jan 12, 2011)

streetfighter 2 said:


> 3.)  Admittedly I'm having trouble interpreting them too, they're really blurry!
> It appears that the fourth hop had 2 drops before it responded.  Your low speed connection might be because you're having trouble getting past whatever the fourth hop is.
> 4.)  The timed out requests are not good.  That could cause your connection speed to drop if your connection is routed through those nodes.
> 5.)  You can transfer files over the internet can't you?  Why not your school's subnets then?
> ...


Hmm. I'm not following you on the transfer thing. How would I go about transferring files on a friend's computer? I have no access to it. The only way I know of is to do that would be to setup a ftp server or something similar. When I want to transfer something on my local network, I just use the built in Windows thing. Have I missed something?




Kreij said:


> May I ask a few questions ?
> 
> 1) What is your normal download speed?
> 2) Why are you obfiscating the traceroute endpoints in your picture? We cannot check the endpoints from other locations without at least their IPAs.
> ...



1) I' can't remember my normal download speed, but as I recall, it was around 10Mbps. Nothing even close to this.
2) I blurred the info to protect my identity. I wasn't sure how revealing that info was. Whatever though, here's the original.
3) I'm not sure exactly. I do have to log in initially, but only once and I connect fine after that. The login system says that it's powered by 'Cisco Clean Access', which has apparently changed its name since then to 'Cisco NAC Applience'. If that helps at all. 
4) Moderate torrenting as in I download something (which would complete in ~20min) and then I try to seed it to a 1:2 (down:up) ratio. I don't seed 24/7, but I may seed for 6 or so hours a day. And that's not _every_ day. I don't consider my use excessive by any means. uTorrent says in the last 31 days I've downloaded 7.6 GB and uploaded 5.6 GB. However, my router shows this for December 2010. The difference is my roommate, who watches a ton of tv online. And also some of the totals that uTorrent reported was downloaded at my house.
5) No beer unfortunately. :shadedshu No beer =/= sober


----------



## streetfighter 2 (Jan 12, 2011)

angelkiller said:


> Hmm. I'm not following you on the transfer thing. How would I go about transferring files on a friend's computer? I have no access to it. The only way I know of is to do that would be to setup a ftp server or something similar. When I want to transfer something on my local network, I just use the built in Windows thing. Have I missed something?


You haven't missed a beat actually.

I was assuming you had a similarly technically inclined friend in, perhaps, another dorm or location whereby the subnet would be different.  You could then transfer a file over whatever your preferred vector might be (FTP, SSH/SFTP, etc.).  Chances are your school and/or one of your classes has provided you with a login/pass to a school server with which you could transfer a file as a test.

Honestly my technique is really more about finding where the slowdown starts, but is not very efficient at discovering what is causing the slowdown.  Kreij is probably a better source for such a method.



angelkiller said:


> 2) I blurred the info to protect my identity. I wasn't sure how revealing that info was. Whatever though, here's the original.


OMFG I HAZ UR IP, IZ BACKTRACE U!1 
Dude, your IP isn't shown in a tracert.  Although I guess we do now know that you're at NC state.  

The first 4 hops are on (your and) your schools network then the next 5 hops are through the NCREN network and finally out to google servers.  Looks to me like whatever is slowing you down is related to the fourth hop and/or something wrong with the NCREN network (which I think is unlikely).  It's certainly possible that the Cisco NAC Appliance is enforcing restrictions on your connection because your roommate watches too much internet TV.

You might want to try unplugging the WAN port from the router and plugging it into your laptop, then login to the Cisco NAC Appliance and see if your connection still sucks.

You may also want to try getting beer.


----------



## angelkiller (Jan 13, 2011)

Ok, the issue is my router. I plugged an ethernet cable straight into the wall to my computer and everything works. So something in my router is causing the slowdown.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to sulk in my noobishness.


----------



## Skywalker12345 (Jan 17, 2011)

i would make sure bitcommet or whatever torrent app isnt running that will kill ur d/l speeds


----------



## wolf (Jan 17, 2011)

good to see the issue fixed but;

what is so confusing about a Sunggie? you only have to wear one to immerse yourself in the warmth of understanding


----------



## Easy Rhino (Jan 18, 2011)

angelkiller said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/110113/angelkiller-speed-test-good.png
> 
> Ok, the issue is my router. I plugged an ethernet cable straight into the wall to my computer and everything works. So something in my router is causing the slowdown.
> 
> Now if you'll excuse me, I need to sulk in my noobishness.



how many ISPs deliver higher upload bandwidth than download bandwidth


----------



## remixedcat (Jan 18, 2011)

I noticed the same thing too....

and I have 4 snuggies! LOL


----------



## Bo$$ (Jan 18, 2011)

Snuggies, bane of existance...
Snuggies were the devils creation!
i would rather die of not being able to use my hands for 2 mins than wear a snuggie


----------



## remixedcat (Jan 18, 2011)

oh why? they are so comfy and they are excellent for using as towels too!


----------



## Bo$$ (Jan 18, 2011)

they look so retarded, if i want to use my arms i wear a sweater or jumper.
i can understand women wanting one, but im not the lazing around type


----------



## angelkiller (Jan 18, 2011)

Easy Rhino said:


> how many ISPs deliver higher upload bandwidth than download bandwidth


I have no idea. I ran the test again and my upload is still higher. Can't explain that one. Maybe download speed is somehow limited when a user uses a large amount of bandwidth? (eg a user starts downloading a huge file so speeds are capped at 80% of max or something)



And  at the Snuggie comments.


----------



## Easy Rhino (Jan 18, 2011)

well if everything is fixed then we can all move along...


----------

