DSL Line doing funky chicken dance :\

[TheRidDlerX]

I have a fairly descent line (SNR/Line Att all in the green or better) and running 4Mb Uncapped from Mweb - throughout the day i when i need to download something i get a nice 220kb/s speed, sometimes 330. Between 5 and 11PM is goes to a CAPPED 100kb/s (doesnt vary, just stays there) and after 11PM its back to normal. I dont use torrent much, this is mostly HTTP and not even 24/7, im talking about an hour of downloading, sometimes 2, tops. Its gotten to a point that if i need something to use in the evening i have to make sure i download it before 5PM or else it will crawl to a halt and i can pretty much kiss it goodbye. MWeb Techs phoned me a few times after asking for help, we did a test with a Telkom Guest Account - same issue. They recommended phoning Telkom to check my line. Telkom says they register no issues on my line or the exchange whatsoever regarding congestion or hardware and will charge me if they send a tech and there's no evidence that it's them. The speeds so much don't bother me, i guess if there's nothing that can be done ill just downgrade to 2 MB. What im trying to solve is the issue i'm having where me game latencies go to hell (800+) when i'm downloading pretty much -anything-, regardless of speed. It feels like just opening that other connection is enough to make anything else unpleasant. But for now ill focus on the speeds. Since if i can download what i need quicker (which essensially im paying for) i can continue gaming.

What do you guys think?

Congested Exchange? -> Surely the capped speed would fluctuate as users logged on and off, this stays constant.
ISP Throttling? -> I dont think so seeing its the same when i use the guest or any other account.
If not congested exchange, mayb a hardwired throttle of some sort?

What can i do to pursue this further?

P.S This has only started happening the last 2-3 months, before that i used the line for more than a year with zero issues (full speeds any time of the day i needed it)

 

[Tim the Techxpert]

Hi there,
If it is regular between certain hours then it certainly sounds strange.
You say it stays constant at 100Kbps and after 11 goes back to 200 plus. It sounds like it is being throttled somewhere.
Have you asked your ISP if they are capping you because of the Fair Usage Policy? You do sometimes have to tell them that you have been downloading a lot as the operators can be embarrassed to tell you that you are on the high usage list.

Regards

Tim
Tim