Recently I had to "choose" a broadband Internet provider. After having my "choices" narrowed down for me by a serious lack of competition ( I hear U-Verse is on its way some day), I went with my first, last, and only choice, Time Warner. Despite feeling trapped, the Time Warner customer service rep wooed me with promises of a new broadband paradigm, Roadrunner "turbo." For some reason this "15 Mbps down, 2 Mbps" up Internet was cheaper than the default 8 Mbps/ 1 Mbps option of yesteryear, so I pounced on the deal like a caged tiger given extra scraps of meat at dinner.
All seemed fair. I signed away my first born and promised to tattoo the Time Warner logo on my body, and Time Warner promised to possibly show up in a 4 hour window. After installation, the problems began. I noticed slower loading times than I had previously with Roadrunner.
So I ran a series of speed tests at speakeasy.net [1]. The results showed all servers on Speakeasy returning almost exactly 1500 Kbps, that's 1.5Mbps, Time Warner's basic rate. Not 15 Mbps, 1.5 Mbps. I called Time Warner to chat about the issues with my service, and to see when the "turbo" would take effect.
This is where things get interesting. Apparently, had I never called, I would have simply been provided the basic bandwidth, while paying the "turbo" price. The technical department said that what can happen is that the turbo signal does not "attach" to a particular line that the cable modem is on. The explanation was vague, but the lesson is clear, check the bandwidth you're getting from your broadband Internet provider by using a tool like speakeasy.net [1], and don't take it for granted that the install was done properly.
This seems to be especially true these days with Time Warner's Roadrunner "turbo" Internet.
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