Giganews Speed Issues

This is my first post, so hopefully it doesn't blatantly violate any of the expectations of this board.

I have had Giganews for a couple of years, and have never had any real issues with their service; I have 50mb down, and they were able to max it out almost constantly. Recently however, my download speeds have dropped to less than half of what my connection is capable of, usually hovering around the 30% capacity mark, using the same amount of connections as I have always used. I dug around their website for possible solutions, none of which had any effect (port changing, server changing, SSL or no, reset network equipment, etc etc).

Just to test out whether or not it was their service or something on my end, I signed up for an astraweb account and have been testing the two against one another. The speed issues have been alleviated when using astra as the provider rather than Giganews.

I have a certain amount of loyalty to Giganews, I feel like I have always gotten a quality product for my money from them, and would like to continue to use them as a provider, but was wondering if anyone else has been having this problem, and if they were able to find a solution.

Thanks for any help.

I waited until a lot of folks had read your post, but... a lot of 'missing' information.

1. WHICH Giganews? (and which 'plan' are you on)

2. Who is your ISP? (Also speeds/type, etc)

3. What is your path from your node/PC to Giganews?

4. Okay, since you're trying out Astra, what is that path with that (and which Astra)

That is the minimum, none of which you specified in your post.

I am embarrassed to report that it was more than likely an ISP issue. My suspicions changed today when I was getting unsatisfactory speeds from both Giganews and Astraweb. After a conversation with their online tech support, my modem's signal was reset and immediately I was getting 60% more down speed. I still want to answer the questions above, because I'm not sure how to interpret the reverse traceroute information, and any insight would be helpful.


1) Giganews Silver with SSL - The bandwith allowance is more than enough for me, and uncapped speed.

2) ISP - Comcast/Xfinity - Blast package 50down/10up

3) Path (assuming reverse traceroute?) [some information covered with "x"]

Giganews:

news.giganews.com

traceroute to myip, 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 gw1-g-vlan201.dca.giganews.com (216.196.98.4) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
2 g3-0.bb1.dca.giganews.com (216.196.96.62) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
3 te0-1-0-3.ccr41.iad02.atlas.cogentco.com (38.122.62.201) 1 ms te0-3-0-3.ccr41.iad02.atlas.cogentco.com (38.122.62.209) 1 ms te0-1-0-3.ccr41.iad02.atlas.cogentco.com (38.122.62.201) 1 ms
4 be2112.mpd22.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.5.234) 1 ms be2177.ccr22.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.41.206) 1 ms be2112.mpd22.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.5.234) 1 ms
5 be2150.mpd21.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.31.130) 8 ms 8 ms be2148.ccr21.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.31.118) 8 ms
6 be2063.ccr21.jfk05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.47.58) 19 ms be2059.ccr21.jfk07.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.222) 8 ms be2056.ccr21.jfk07.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.44.218) 8 ms
7 be2074.ccr21.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.86.226) 8 ms be2073.ccr21.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.0.230) 17 ms be2074.ccr21.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.86.226) 9 ms
8 comcast.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.13.162) 93 ms 58 ms 56 ms
9 he-0-4-0-0-cr01.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.83.93) 58 ms he-2-4-0-0-cr01.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.83.105) 56 ms 92 ms
10 he-0-2-0-0-cr01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.88.138) 79 ms 78 ms *
11 et-0-1-0-0-ar03.xxxxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.90.70) 81 ms 82 ms 82 ms
12 xe-0-0-0-0-sur01.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.85.174.86) 82 ms 80 ms 80 ms
13 te-17-10-cdn04.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.151.178) 109 ms 94 ms 82 ms
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * Max number of unresponsive hops reached (firewall or filter?)

news-europe.giganews.com

traceroute to myip, 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 vl201.gw1.ams.giganews.com (216.196.110.3) 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms
2 94.31.33.33 (94.31.33.33) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
3 ae1.cr1.ams5.nl.above.net (64.125.22.61) 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms
4 so-2-1-0.mpr2.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.31.182) 88 ms 88 ms 88 ms
5 xe-0-0-1.er2.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.27.65) 87 ms 87 ms 87 ms
6 above-comcast.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.12.210) 88 ms 88 ms 88 ms
7 pos-1-8-0-0-cr01.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.45) 89 ms 89 ms 89 ms
8 he-0-5-0-0-cr01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.88.150) 106 ms 108 ms 108 ms
9 et-0-1-0-0-ar03.xxxxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.90.70) 115 ms 115 ms 115 ms
10 xe-0-0-0-0-sur01.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.85.174.86) 117 ms 116 ms 121 ms
11 te-17-10-cdn04.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.151.178) 117 ms 117 ms 137 ms
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * Max number of unresponsive hops reached (firewall or filter?)

Astraweb

Traceroute from us.news.astraweb.com:
Hostname Best Worst Avg
0 gw.eqnx.sj.astraweb.com (216.151.153.1) 0.26 0.36 0.30
1 te-0-10-0-5-pe01.11greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (66.208.233.241) 3.56 6.07 5.03
2 pos-2-6-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.87.149) 5.16 6.05 5.64
3 he-0-15-0-0-cr01.denverqwest.co.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.89.138) 29.94 33.59 32.07
4 he-3-12-0-0-cr01.denver.co.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.89.33) 31.21 32.68 31.90
5 he-5-11-0-0-cr01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.185) 55.36 56.26 55.89
6 et-5-0-0-0-ar03.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.93.190) 67.18 67.48 67.31
7 xe-0-0-0-0-sur01.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.85.174.86) 67.42 67.69 67.53
8 te-17-10-cdn04.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.151.178) 74.92 92.27 84.20

Traceroute from europe.news.astraweb.com:
Hostname Best Worst Avg
0 gw.sara.ams.astraweb.com (193.202.122.1) 0.22 115.16 23.23
1 xe-5-2-0.edge5.Amsterdam1.Level3.net (212.72.41.25) 0.42 30.89 6.56
2 4.69.162.145 (4.69.162.145) 76.45 76.99 76.59
3 ae-57-222.ebr2.Amsterdam1.Level3.net (4.69.153.205) 76.31 76.38 76.35
4 ae-48-48.ebr2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.143.82) 76.17 76.28 76.23
5 ae-43-43.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.74) 76.31 78.57 76.78
6 ae-48-48.ebr2.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.69.201.50) 76.31 76.87 76.45
7 ae-1-51.edge1.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.69.138.194) 76.39 77.34 76.65
8 comcast-level3.NewYork2.level3.net (4.68.127.2) 89.12 91.72 90.13
9 he-0-2-0-0-cr01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.88.138) 107.91 112.48 110.09
10 et-0-1-0-0-ar03.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.90.70) 115.12 128.11 122.09
11 xe-0-0-0-0-sur01.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.85.174.86) 115.61 176.47 129.56
12 te-17-10-cdn04.xxxxxxx.xx.xxxx.comcast.net (68.86.151.178) 130.98 138.13 134.84

I had the same loyalty issue with Giganews... switched to AW (as you have in your trial) at the behest of a friend.

Been riding high on AW for over 4 years now and save about $15USD per month and have enjoyed better speeds & nary a problem* since. (Besides they accept PayPal billing which I personally like.) ;)

(Sunday nights can be a pain at times. Beck38 can will fill you in more about that.)

(I sometimes think perhaps its a big download drain with all the new HBO/Pay Channel crap downed starting around 10-10:30pm EST Sunday night., but its just a unfounded theory perhaps. IDRKT) :alien:

I posted a really long reply that answered the questions that Beck38 asked, but after hitting submit it disappeared.

Long story short, turned out to be an ISP issue embarassingly. I did some more testing today and around 8pm tonight I was getting terrible speed from both providers, unlike last night. So, I talked to their online support, they reset the connection my router had to their infrastructure, and all is right again in the world... with either provider.

If I have the opportunity, I'll get the information back and repost the reply that I originally made today.

Great! :)

Of course, you do realize that the 'speeds' you are 'quoted' on a Comcast consumer-level (non-commercial or non-'business-class') line are highly 'variable'. In other words, not anywhere near the word 'guaranteed'.

This is particularly the case when dealing with isp's that 'filter' or otherwise 'choke' certain protocols on a fairly consistent basis, like UUCP/NNTP (or others). so keep that in mind. The way around that (for this and other reasons, like isp's that are heavily invested in 'deep packet inspection'), if it becomes a thorn in your side, is to get on a VPN. Since you appear to be in a physical area where there may be multiple 'high bandwidth' isp alternatives ('competition') you need to keep that in mind.

Hope you don't run into those problems, but you need to read up on folks 'reviews' someplace like 'DSL Reports' and the like to get a grip on what's happened in the past and what may be coming down the pike.