Problems connecting to MediaFire. Throttled??

[Elmer BeFuddled]

I'm wondering if I'm being "throttled" by my ISP. We are "Free" and unlimited(!!), UK and ISP is TalkTalk (Carphone warehouse.)

Over the last two weeks I can measure the speed at which ANY MediaFire page opens with a sundial, even on a rainy day or at night! Eventually (maybe 15 minutes), I'll get through the Homepage and login ritual.

Trying to upload is an even bigger headache. A small zip file (under 100kb) took over 20 minutes last night.

Every other web page from my bookmarks loads like Billy Whizz. So I've done a little experimenting.

I get the same problem from other file host sites like Hotfile, FileFactory etc.. Rapidshare (although it's never been the fastest to load a page for me) is pretty much the same as it's always been. Photobucket no problem and uTorrent still like a rocket (well fastish!). Every time FF closes it's set to delete all apart from Browsing History. I run CC at least twice a day, I've tried IE8 and I've tried IE8 and FF in no-addons / safe mode. And it's still the same, everything OK except MediaFire.

Speedtest gives an averager 6.0Mbps download and 0.8Mbps upload with a ping of 49ms.

My step-daughter has been downloading a lot of film TV programmes of late and I've been relatively busy, but not as busy as I've been in the past. So that's why I suspect throttling.

Is there a way I can test this at all?

 

[TorrentG]

Try setting your router to use 4.2.2.1 as it's preferred or default dns address.

Then open an elevated command prompt. Type the following command then press enter:

ipconfig /flushdns

 

[Elmer BeFuddled]

Thanks Torrent. When the step-daughter takes a break from her lappy, I'll give it a go.

 

[Ian]

It wouldn't surprise me if it's Talk Talk throttling the downloads - they are notorious for doing things like that.

If anyone in your household has an o2 phone it may be worth looking at them for broadband, as the broadband charge is greatly reduced. I'm paying something like £7.50/month for "unlimited" (seems so anyway) broadband that is as fast as I'd need .

 

[TrainableMan]

You might also try clearing your cache and cookies.

 

[Elmer BeFuddled]

It wouldn't surprise me if it's Talk Talk throttling the downloads - they are notorious for doing things like that.

As I say, its only been the last couple of weeks. Strangely it didn't happen six to eight weeks ago when we renewed/changed our contract with TalkTalk. Weird that!!

You might also try clearing your cache and cookies.

I do that quite regularly, every time FF shuts, which is a lot!

 

[Ian]

I did some digging and found this page on Talk Talk:

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/legal/tiscali-product/traffic-management-policy/

The network traffic generated by customers is identified according to its application type. Some types of traffic are more sensitive to delay and packet discard than others. The traffic management system will look to provide the optimum performance for the benefit of the majority of users and applications.

Because you're mainly having problems with file hosting sites, I think they could be doing this to you - although if you give them a quick call they can confirm it .

 

[Elmer BeFuddled]

Nice read that.

Well, when I say nice.....

 

[Elmer BeFuddled]

A late update.

Funnily enough I'm now back up to full speed with MediaFire and other file sharing sites.

This miracle occurred on the 1st of this month!!

 

[TorrentG]

Could be a policy change on the 1st. Sounds like it to me. heh heh