Level 3 blames Internet slowdowns on ISPs' refusal to upgrade networks | Ars Technica

Fri Mar 21 00:00:16 UTC 2014

On 3/20/2014 7:32 PM, Jimmy Hess wrote:
> Then there is this whole matter of end-to-end connectivity. Just
> because your WAN device links up at 8 Megabits, does not mean you have
> been guaranteed 8 Mbits end-to-end.

Have run into this one more times that I care to count.  We're running
very marginally loaded links all around, and have setup "speedtest" site
locally to prove the issue is not local.  Our upstream Commodity
provider also has "speedtest" peer, and we can also point people there. 
You can point people to them to prove it's not between us and the next
hop.  Of course some folks just don't get it :)

You chase down the squeaky wheel complainers, and find them running IE
with a dozen toolbars, a few P2P clients, adware out the wazoo, and
other things I can barely bring myself to think about, let alone admit
in a public forum :)  And doing it over wireless, while they're
microwaving their dinner, and ignoring their wireless printer they never
bothered to disable since they plugged it in wired.  While playing XBox
with their wireless controllers, listening to Pandora over their
BlueTooth headset, while their roommate is watching Netflix (wirelessly)
on their smart TV, with the wireless subwoofer and back speakers.

Yeah, end-to-end guarantee?  It's difficult enough to prove you have the
first hop covered.

Plug the damned thing in the wall, download Malwarebytes / Spybot /
something, and deal with the real problem here, dude :)

"Your internet sucks!".  Or as a recent Tweet from a student mentioned,
"Fix the Mother Effing wireless in the dorms".

(The dorm with the 802.11n / gig ports on the APs / etherchannels back
to the data center, nonetheless).

Jeff