AOl - Bad ping

[Dannyuk]

I like to play online gaming but for the past few months this has been impossible. The thing is my ping, between 5pm to about 11.30 my ping is around 500+, normally before or after the time period i mentioned its around 50-60. What is the problem any ideas?

[chutchy100]

I have had same problem for same period, do not try ringing them, they are a waste of space, they have you trying allsorts of useless garbage and come up with every excuse under the sun apart from owning up to ripping you off each month. They had me doing allsorts, same things everytime i rang and they have an escalation process where the monkeys that answer insist on reading a script, then you get to level 2, then level 3. All of them are unhelpful and do not listen to what you are saying. In a nutshell, they will ask you to run MSCONFIG, Unplug SKY, if wireless change it, reset router, spyware removal,change dls filters, use master socket etc etc. During one call, i was doing speedtests online and it wouldnt even work it was so bad, then the person i spoke to said 80kbps was an excellent transfer rate and that my car would not go fast on a busy road. After that paticular call I had enough, AOL are a member of ISPA, go on their site and complain, you will get a callback within 48hrs. I did this and have an english person i can speak to now at AOL who actually helps, i have emailed them all my speedtest results showing that i cannot get over 500kpbs during peak times (obviously theyre throttling and wont own up to it) and after 12pm to 12am i get no problems, up to 6.5meg (need i say more). After a further 1.5weeks of waiitng, they are now going to send an engineer to my house, i can tel you know they cannot do anything, basically, my intention is to port to another ISP free of charge, they have to alllow me to do this if the engineer cannot fix it which i know they cannot do. Afterall, this is a simple case of peak time throttling, it is allover the web and i know a few other people locally to me with same issue.

[Dannyuk]

That's the thing my upload and download are fine i am getting the same speeds i do all the time http://www.speedtest.net/result/522391133.png, but my ping is still 500+, can it be the ports they are blocking?

[chutchy100]

I know that if the games you play have any p2p enabled then yes they may have throttled those ports, especially if your download speeds are fine. Try looking for any peer 2 peer, usually in a downloader for patches etc. I play warcraft and an engineer told me this but as i have such ridiculous speeds it didnt help me.

[Dannyuk]

Well i play Darkfall most of the time (A mmo like wow), thats were it effects me most

[tommy t]

Hi, from the speedtest result you posted,i assume you are on a 2mb connection???,if so speed seems around average,(ok) as for your ping times,do you know where (location) of the server that you connect to?,as if it's for example in the states then the problem could also be related to part of the route (path) to the server,or the problem could be with the server it's self,both of which are beyond any isp's control,
first try typing tracert at the command prompt followed by the address either i.p or dns, ie,"tracert uts.ubi.com", or it's ip adress,to see if any of the hops are bad and where they are,if within uk then aol,and good old bt are to blame,(the joy of ip stream)you could also try asking them to decrease the level of interleave on you connection,but they would probably not have a clue what that was, nevermind alter it lol(the same can also be said from some other isp's too)
check out the following site: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

to find out how far from the connected exchange you are,plus which LLU operators are enabled in it,the only 2 isp's that will change interleave/fastpath are ukonline and be-there (o2 doesn't)if you can only get 2mb,then ukonline if in your exchange do have a 2mb llu service,im not 100% sure if they will alter interleave levels on this product,but it will not cost you to find out as they also have a freephone support (uk based) i have used them for over a year now without any problems,i regularly play a game called tom clancy's vegas 2, the server(uts.ubi.com) is based in canada,all the conections are routed thru it as it uses a game lobby system without it no one could see live games that were being hosted,my ping is usually around 95ms (thats what i see) but according to players who join my game most say it's 60 or less depending of their connection,and their local,i hope the info i have supplied is of some assistance to you,

[Dannyuk]

The server is in Germany but i did a speed test to the German server and it was fine. I have up to 8meg internet but i live in a small village called Emley our phone lines only handle 2 meg, and only certain internet isp's are available (cant get cable or anything). But it cant be the server cos like i said before peek times my ping is fine.

From the link u gave me this is what i got http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MYFLO.

Also when i ring ISP's none of them can guarantee me a good speed, they say they don't have there own equipment round my area, so they have to use BT's or something like that.

[tommy t]

[QUOTE=Dannyuk;230675]The server is in Germany but i did a speed test to the German server and it was fine. I have up to 8meg internet but i live in a small village called Emley our phone lines only handle 2 meg, and only certain internet isp's are available (cant get cable or anything). But it cant be the server cos like i said before peek times my ping is fine.

From the link u gave me this is what i got http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MYFLO.

Also when i ring ISP's none of them can guarantee me a good speed, they say they don't have there own equipment round my area, so they have to use BT's or something like that.[/QUOTE

yeh, i had a look at your exchange,no easynet or be,infact not much choice at all,pitty,there isn't much that can be done to decrease your response times to the server,as you only have ip stream avail to you,(bt network) which is congested and re routed hence lag city,lol,looks like your stuck with it ,for now anyways,you could possibly be able to play cod4 or other games that don't use a master server for connecting,just so you can see the server lists,no log in ect,as if there is servers based within the uk you should get a lower ping,plus cod4 is still just about playable with a ping of 150ms