Optimum Online Connection Issues?

WhyFi wrote: Not a fan? They can't be worse - like clockwerk, my connection just dropped... [quote=raisedeyebrow]FIOS?!!!!!!! :shock: :P

quite the contrary..been waiting for months. Like music to my ears.

Subject: optimum online: they're just not that into us

I'm receiving a crash course in broadband speed analysis. Thank you Hexatron for referring to Speedtest.net. I just added the app to my iPhone and discovered that my download speed is .57 Mbps at best. And the service drops in and out. I knew that it was very slow, because I am unable to watch anything on YouTube or Hulu. Has been happening for a few months despite many calls to Optimum. Every time (after being subjected to the indignity of following their computerized instructions before they allow me to actually speak to a "specialist" who isn't even located in the NYC area) they say that "everything looks fine" from their end, and then inevitably blame my router. My roommate has tried two routers, both out of the box and different brands, with no resolution to the problem.

I know that like any unhealthy (or in this case downright abusive) relationship, I need to call it quits, but I'm intimidated about finding someone new and anticipate with trepidation how much time the process will take (returning all of the paraphernalia, waiting around for the new guy to show up without having to take a personal day from work or using up valuable weekend hours).

It looks like the last post here complaining about these crooks was in June. Does anyone have any updates or advice? I have been looking in DSL, but thought I'd post here first to see if anyone had any suggestions... :oops:

i had a terrible time with our internet barely running and our DVR recording random things we didn't want -- so i called and complained and they sent people to rewire everything. from outside back to inside. now everything is great. with the way they do things (running wires up the sides of buildings free-form and letting them sway in the wind and eventually get ripped out by wind, etc.) i would see if a loose connection or old wires could be the issue.

jayce wrote: I called the State Atty General once again when the problems kicked in this week.

I tried calling optimum first, but once again they saw high packet loss on the line and insisted I be present so they could play around in my apartment again. i've been trying to get them to see that the problem is outside my building, but since they aren't getting many calls and complaints, its not working. They wanted me to endure my... no joke... 20th technician visit since January.

So... I am still a huge fan of involving the SAG's office. 800-342-3377
When I called them today they said that they don't get many calls for Cablevision anymore, so they were noting a dramatic improvement in Cablevision overall. I find this hard to believe. I really would recommend opening a ticket with them.

i know i'm too late on this, but i'm calling this week.

i've had 2 appointments broken... once when they said the guy rang the doorbell, the next when they claimed i cancelled the appointment. nice.
it would be funny if there were any cheap alternative.

huihui, glad to help.

Unfortunately, I was mistaken about the availability of FiOS, but they do say that they're working on it - keep an eye out for the trucks, they say...

As for my status with Cablevision... it's been fine for the last few weeks, since the barrage of visits. My best advice would be to keep calling everytime there's an issue - the more calls you log, the more they'll escalate the issue. Also, don't let the automated system take up your time, you can say "operator" and it'll get you to a person.

I think that I will still switch over when FiOS is available, but I need to start switching over my email address, my optonline.net email is, unfortunately, on everything...

Huihui - how many network devices do you have connected to your router? Just to be sure that it's not causing an issue, you can try takig it out of line and see what happens... You can also trying pinging other devices on your network to see if there's any packet loss within the network.

This isn't about internet, and I don't have cable anymore although Optimum is the only cable company that services my building...but I suddenly had no TV connection at all last night. Internet was working fine, but couldn't get anything but static on TV. Did this happen to anyone else?

thanks WhyFi! will try what you suggest. xlizellx, i did notice how lose the wire is outside of the front of our apartment.

hexatron - i'll keep calling optimum as well. looks like we live on the same block, so maybe enough complaints from similar addresses will encourage them to do something about the slow service. will talk to my neighbors and see if they have the same problem.

I just wanted to check in. I've been on speakeasy dedicated DSL (6 MBPS Down) for a few months now and everything is running great. I got Vonage for my phone line and that seems flawless so far. I did drop my cable TV service and have been living on itunes, hulu, and netflix instant (pc attached to my TV), and it has been great. The best thing is KNOWING my internet connection will work. I'm looking forward to vios when it comes to town, but I'm so glad I took the time to dump cablevision.

I'm still confused by everyone's internet issues with Optimum (Cablevision), there must be some serious infrastructure issues from building to building.

I constantly get rates like this, I just ran this on speakeasy.net against the NYC server:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 26650 kbps (3331.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 5037 kbps (629.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

I have the boost for Optimum online which theoretically should give me 30000 kpbs downstream/5000 kbps upstream max. I also have 3 phone lines via Optimum Voice and Optimum TV.

Is anyone else have positive experiences with Optimum like myself?

I should follow up with that I am VPN'd into my company 24/7 and use this during peak business hours along with my wife who works for the same company. I just ran another test below to confirm:

perplexed wrote: ...there must be some serious infrastructure issues from building to building.

Yes, there are - even between individual units of the same building - have you seen the work they do? It's laughable. I think that yours is rare case.

Here's mine - pretty normal for me, when I'm actually connected


I'm not a Boost customer, nor will I be. They dangled that over my head a few times during the month-long battle to get usable service. "Well, sir, Boost service is up to X times faster than your current service." "Yeah, well, my current service is zero, so it would still be zero, wouldn't it?"

When we first moved in I was having some cable tv issues but they installed an amplifier at the main splitter and I have not had any problems since.
As far as internet goes I don't seem to have any problemsl with connection or speed issues

Pretty pathetic. I'm not directly connected to the cable modem, but indirectly over an 802.11g router (although that shouldn't be the rate limiting step based on my speed test). For the people with faster connections, are you wired, or wireless?

Carni - I have a wireless laptop that I connect through a wireless router.

I connect through a router shared by numerous devices, and the tests I posted were hardwired since I need the best speed possible for my work laptop. I can also confirm that my neighbor across the hall and down one floor was having some of the same issues noted in this thread. I've also looked at the mangled wiring job at the back of my building, and also am amazed that my signal is as good as it is.

I also did another test over wireless-G this time:



This is why I prefer to be hardwired into the router.

Subject: optimum online woes continue

So I'm back to follow up about my optimum online induced woes:



i've think i've narrowed down the problem since i last posted. i've called optimum multiple times. they kept saying over and over that it was my router. finally sent a technician out today and he claimed that my modem was old and replaced it. from what i can see it looks like the same brand and version as the previous one. such b.s. he was here during the day. thing is, i have actually come to notice that my speed problems and connection failures occur from 6 pm and worsen the later it gets. and this occurs whether i use the router or connect directly to the modem. when the tech guy left today i was hitting about 10 mbps so it was difficult to convince him that the problem was not the modem but the wiring. Now at 11, i can barely get over 1 mbps.

so after talking to them tonight (after being on hold for 15 minutes) they are sending a "senior" technician tomorrow. the only reason why this is even happening is because my office at work is being painted so i have some flexibility to work from home. so lame!!! how do people with families deal with this? speaking of socialism, i bet there are socialist countries with faster internet than what we have.

will post tomorrow with the outcome. how can they get away with charging so much and providing such poor service? we need to revolt!

I really think that these guy's (the techs, that is) numbers are based on the number of house calls they make, not the number of problems that they actually resolve... They're always lookin' to replace a wire or the modem, have you sign their little yellow invoice and get the hell out.

Subject: Re: optimum online woes continue

huihui wrote:
i have actually come to notice that my speed problems and connection failures occur from 6 pm and worsen the later it gets.

If it was OK when the guy left, and slows down in the evenings, it is probably that node (or whatever the technical term for it is) is oversubscribed...My understanding is that there is your cable connection (And probably everyone in your building and several buildings near you) are hooked up to a hub that a lot of customers in a particular area share (I think it can be up to a couple hundred accounts). That hub in turn has an uplink that is used to talk to the internet (Or more probably, the Cablevision backbone that can access the internet)...If only a few of your neighbors are using their cable internet access, you get full speed of that uplink (subject to bandwidth caps)...Unfortunately, if everyone around you are doing bandwidth-intensive activities, such as BitTorrent, etc. that uplink becomes saturated and your connection will in turn be slowed down...

I only know the outlines, and probably have the terms wrong, but it sounds like the problem may be further upstream (ie cablevision needs to split customers into different segments or increase the bandwidth to that nodal location)...The only way to fix quickly may be DSL or fios...

Speaking of FIOS, it's available now in the Newswalk building on Dean between 6th and Carlton--Internet and phone only. No ETA yet for FIOS television. And a new condo dev on the the same block advertises 'FIOS ready' or somesuch. So hopefully fiber goodness is gradually creeping into PH.

Subject: break through?

apophis36 wrote: [quote=huihui]
i have actually come to notice that my speed problems and connection failures occur from 6 pm and worsen the later it gets.

If it was OK when the guy left, and slows down in the evenings, it is probably that node (or whatever the technical term for it is) is oversubscribed....


Looks like you are correct apophis 36. the technician was here today and was annoyed that guy before him didn't actually bother to check the wiring in back of the building. fortunately my neighbors on the first floor were home and could let the technician easily out into the backyard. In the meantime, found out from them that their speed was really slow as well.

He mentioned the term "node" and that the issue was a "system" problem, which corresponds with your explanation. Apparently mine and a neighboring building on underhill and st. johns are experiencing this issue. (If anyone on the block has same problem, call them and relate this story; might be an even broader problem.) He said that an engineer would be sent out to resolve the issue and that if I didn't notice a difference to call on Thursday. Hoping, hoping... if nothing changes, going to get rid of optimum and go to Verizon DSL once and for all, and then wait for FIOS... :idea:

I seriously doubt that switching to FIOS will solve all your problems considering Verizon's track record with service, and as a price comparison you will be paying more for the service for comparable up/download speeds.

I dropped Verizon as a provider almost two years ago and couldn't be happier.

...and I'm down again... This is two days after seeing a bill from Ghettovision without a credit for downtime. I gave them a call to complain and they were able to offer me a fantastic $11 credit. I bought a burrito to celebrate, but the credit wasn't enough to justify chips and guac, too...

This is getting a little old - at what point can we consider something like a class-action? It's not like high-speed Internet is a nice-to-have novelty - it's depended upon as the most dominant form of communication in the world.

same. it's becoming hard to get important things done.
reaaally leaning towards verizon, though i'm sure it's terrible. it can't get any worse than this without unplugging completely.

I've been down since Monday morning. The only thing keeping me from changing is the fact that I've (stupidly) got my optonline.net email on just about everything: business cards, online log-ins, etc, etc. I've been thinking about registering a domain name so that I can have a proper email address that's not ISP provided and not gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc... What a pain in the ass.

Unfortunately, the process of leaving them will be long as well. Start it now. Get Verizon or whomever to come and set you up. Once they have, quit cablevision. It's really the only way to solve your problems. It will be a pain in the ass and more expensive, but in the end you will be far less miserable.

Trust me.

Just make the call to get it started.

My connection hasn't gone down, but it's been slow as shit the last few days.

Funny, I just retested, and did better than last time.



I still maintain that things have been running slower than usual.

its been a bad two weeks for us. called for service 3 times fourth tomorrow.......sux!

I've been having the same problem for over a month - service is generally slow but from the afternoon and later it becomes REALLY SLOW - techs from ghettovision were here 3 times - did nothing - always told me the problem is outside and I should wait 48 hours and that it will be fixed. I am in washington avenue and empire in crown heights.

here's the test i ran just now - it's much slower later in the day.... urg !