TWC RoadRunner Speed Boost?

[jtr1962]

After getting in the area of 10 Mbps for the last year or so I had heard RoadRunner bumped the speed to 16 Mbs. Turns out I'm even getting a bit more than that:

Anyone else experiencing similar speeds now?

 

[Stereodude]

Are you paying for the premium / faster internet?

 

[Stereodude]

I get just about 7Mbit/sec down and 512kbit/sec upload here (bypassing wireless) from RoadRunner via BrightHouse Networks. I think that's what I'm supposed to get.

Oh, and your IP is showing in that screenshot.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm getting a super-speedy 4Mb down and 512k up...exactly what I'm paying for.

 

[Stereodude]

I'm getting a super-speedy 4Mb down and 512k up...exactly what I'm paying for.

Cable companies aren't exactly know for overdelivering. It goes against their business model of providing the least / worst possible service they can without losing too many customers.

 

[jtr1962]

Are you paying for the premium / faster internet?

No, just standard which was recently bumped from 10 to 16 Mbps. This surpised me because prior to the most recent speed bump I was getting just under 10 Mbps late nights (and usually less other times). Now I'm getting 20+ Mbps late nights. Maybe they just opened the pipe all the way, figuring it would be 16 Mbps or less most of the time, rather than dealing with the overhead to cap it at 16 Mbps.

Oh, and your IP is showing in that screenshot.

Fixed. Thanks!

 

[udaman]

No, just standard which was recently bumped from 10 to 16 Mbps. This surpised me because prior to the most recent speed bump I was getting just under 10 Mbps late nights (and usually less other times). Now I'm getting 20+ Mbps late nights. Maybe they just opened the pipe all the way, figuring it would be 16 Mbps or less most of the time, rather than dealing with the overhead to cap it at 16 Mbps.


Fixed. Thanks!

really, I see an IP addy up there, did you change it to a bogus IP? My d/l speed is about 1/500th of that

 

[Stereodude]

really, I see an IP addy up there, did you change it to a bogus IP? My d/l speed is about 1/500th of that

It was fixed before. I'm not sure how it changed back.

 

[ddrueding]

It is still missing from mine, though I had to do a forced refresh of the page for it to take effect.

 

[jtr1962]

It was the original one on mine also until I refreshed the page.

 

[Handruin]

This is what I'm seeing through Charter. I think once I upgrade my router I'll get faster downloads, but what I'm most interested in are upload speeds.

 

[sechs]

I'm not sure that I'd be bragging about 498Kbps up.

Are you folks actually using all of this bandwidth? I rarely use the 6Mbps allotted to me.

 

[Mercutio]

I use whatever they give me, upstream at least. Downstream much less often.

 

[jtr1962]

I'm not sure that I'd be bragging about 498Kbps up.

Are you folks actually using all of this bandwidth? I rarely use the 6Mbps allotted to me.

I'm not bragging about anything. I just wanted to see if anyone on TWC was getting more than the advertised 16 Mbs.

By the way, my service was down most of yesterday. When it came back I did a few more bandwidth tests. Best result was 26695 Kbps. I read up a little more about so-called Powerboost. It appears to be a way to temporarily increase speeds when doing large downloads, provided the network has the bandwidth. I would surmise then that there is no longer any hard cap on download speeds. Since this is being offered at no extra charge, my guess is it's not costing TWC anything. They probably just changed things to take advantage of any extra bandwidth which was previously doing nothing when the hard 10 Mbps cap existed.

And yes, I do wish my upload speeds were a little better, perhaps around 1 or 2 Mbps. Still, I'm not complaining. I still remember was I was on 56K about three years ago. Besides tying up the phone for hours, it was as slow as molasses.

 

[sechs]

I can't speak for Time Warner, but the little text in the Comcast ads note that it's only for the first ten seconds of a download. Useful, I suspect, for starting a media steam; but, if you're downloading something big, it's just a slight bump up.

The only reason that I went with the 6Mbs down is because it comes with the 1Mbs up. That extra download is all the "powerboost" that I need....

 

[ddrueding]

IIRC, Powerboost is calculated from a running average. If your average used bandwidth for the last x seconds was less than your rated speed, you will get a boost up to y MB/sec until your average speed is the rated speed.

 

[Pradeep]

One thing to keep in mind is TWC is experiencing significant customer to Verizon FIOS where available, I believe a few days ago Verizon won approval to proceed with their TV offering over FIOS in NYC.

 

[Pradeep]

jtr: TWC does have an option called Road Runner Turbo which should get you to 15mbit (or more in NYC?) down / 2mbit up. It's a $10 monthly increase in your RR bill.

 

[timwhit]

One thing to keep in mind is TWC is experiencing significant customer to Verizon FIOS where available, I believe a few days ago Verizon won approval to proceed with their TV offering over FIOS in NYC.

I wish they would offer service in Chicago. I don't like Comcast very much.

 

[Mercutio]

At least in Chicago there is cable industry competition. Where I live there is only one municipality that doesn't have an exclusive franchise with Comcast so that residents can choose to get Wide Open West.

Oddly enough, pretty much everything Comcast offers is about $15 a month cheaper there than what I pay.

 

[timwhit]

At least in Chicago there is cable industry competition. Where I live there is only one municipality that doesn't have an exclusive franchise with Comcast so that residents can choose to get Wide Open West.

Oddly enough, pretty much everything Comcast offers is about $15 a month cheaper there than what I pay.

You would think that since I can get Comcast, RCN or AT&T for internet/tv the prices would be lower, but they're not. I guess an oligopoly isn't any better than a monopoly.

 

[sechs]

The issue is: People Are Stupid(tm)

When AT&T rolled out U-verse here, their regular prices were competitive with Comcast's promo rates. So Comcast lowered their promo rates and increased their regular rates. Folks get drawn in by the lower initial rate, but don't follow-up on it.

Also, people don't try to get a better deal. My sister is moving later this month. She and her roommate would prefer to get U-verse, as it's cheaper; but it's not yet available where they will be. So, they were going to go with Cox, paying the going rate. I suggested that she contact Cox, asking them to match the U-verse rate; by simply calling, she got a six-month deal on their triple-play package that works out to less than they would have paid for U-verse.

These companies aren't so dense as to not take advantage of people's inability to save themselves money.