Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Bright House is Slow and Irritating

For the past couple months, the internet in my home has been very unstable. Up and down, up and down. At first, I thought that it was my roommates router, after setting up a Linksys WRT54GL and getting the same problems, we turned to the cable modem. Nothing. So whats the deal here?

When I ping www.google.com -t for a while, I get scary results:

Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239
 
That's a lot of timing out. And, it's been worse.

Nearly every other click, website, download, or IM is hesitated up to 2 minutes depending on the application and how hey implemented network errors.

I'm paying extra for the pro-package. My connection speed 3 months ago was registering on speedtest.net at 14mb. My average download was 500-600k/sec down and 300k/sec up, I'm starting to get a little pissed that I cant download anything from a respectable server faster than 40k/sec. Not to mention, it takes forever to just navigate around a website.

I have heard that somewhere between Bakersfield and LA is a broken connection and is therefore contributing to this mess, true or not, this sounds feasible. I have various friends all over Bakersfield who have the same issues. In the time it has taken me to write this blog, here are my pings:

Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=181ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239

Magically all better, WTF??? Any why am I still averaging 67ms to google.com ???

This is the kind of crap this is bugging the hell out of me. As a programmer I make a lot of FTP uploads and navigate the web quite often. It's pretty annyong chatting on yahoo about how google.com won't load. It's irritating.. existing connections work somewhat ok, but making NEW connections is iffy...

Bright House needs to get their shit together because I for one am tired of this crappy service. I was at a friends business and a Bright House employee came in to 'inspect the modem' and was greeted with "So, here to fix my internet?" his responce was "Well, I can't guarantee that"

So, could Bright House be sending out employees to keep people thinking it's their faulty equiptment? You decide.

If you are having issues with Bright House, please leave a comment and a sample of your pings by using ping www.google.com -t in cmd