Upload problems with Shaw off and on for a year straight, serious problems the last 5 months

[dietpepsirocks]

I am a Live Streamer on Twitch.TV.  Because of this, I notice upload problems more than the average person, because most people dont actually use their upload much.

About a year ago (or so) I came to this forum because my upload was inconsistent, and I was unable to stream to my audience properly.  Front line tech workers came out here, would say everything is fine and dandy, and I would spend months trying to convince them there was a problem.  Eventually, after complaining in this forum there was an engineer or tech that replied that they patched the problem and it fixed my internet.  This problem was actually between a specific time frame, I don't remember the time frame but it was like around 3 am to 11 am the problem would happen.

Guess what?  Some months later I had another problem.  Multiple technicians came out, screamed bloody murder, would send me to the notorious speedtest.net and say it looks like its working fine! We cannot find a problem!  Endless interactions with uneducated people at Shaw who are unable to diagnose problems that are complex within the network.

Well, luckily the last technician that had come out said he had an engineer that worked at Shaw that also was a twitch streamer.  Guess what?  He was able to perform some tests, and he said he found the issue within the node.  He then contacted an engineer by the name of Frank#3222, and he found the problem and fixed it.  Frank contacted me personally, and if I remember correctly he said something like an MTS modem was hooked up to Shaw infrastructure, somehow causing issues and hiccups being sent through the node (thats how I understood it anyways) and my internet was fixed again, after arguing with many Shaw front line workers.

Well, some time after, I had another internet problem (same thing, upload).  I ran diagnostic tests of uploads to different servers all around the country, including the US, and even did uploads to drop box to test to make sure it wasn't just one particular server that was the problem.  Well, guess what?  There was another major upload issue.  Because I had Franks number, I contacted him and he said he could see a major problem within the node between a certain time frame again, around 3:45 pm to xxxx time, I forget exactly.  He said he narrowed it down to a few streets, and some days later he said he narrowed it down to a specific address.  He said they booked a service call for the 26th of March, and as if today he told Shaw (but not me personally) that, that particular issue was "resolved".

According to my diagnostics, the "majority" of the problem is resolved, as in the graph of how inconsistent the upload is, is a lot better -- however, I am still receiving large hiccups in the upload, but its much more consistent than it was before.  For example, I can go 10+ minutes without there being an issue, and then suddenly the upload will go from 6000 bit rate, all the way down to 0, yes 0 bit rate for over 10 seconds straight, meaning HUNDREDS of dropped frames (which makes your stream unwatchable).

Every. Single. Time.  I have complained and ran these diagnostic tests on my internet, I have been rejected many, many, many times, and eventually someone at Shaw acknowledges the problem and fixes it.  I have had this problem for nearly 5 months now, and I'm sorry, but the front line workers are **bleep** near BRAINLESS when it comes to diagnosing these issues.  They try to send you to speedtest.net, or they check your internet connection within a 1-2 minute period, and assume you have a consistent, working connection.  They then try to blame Twitch.TV even though I have ran these diagnostics in many other places.  They have been giving me the run around for almost an entire year straight, and I have essentially helped them diagnose MANY upload problems which they originally denied.

I have been right every single time, when countless front line workers and "experienced" tech people have denied these problems exist, or want to blame something or someone else for the problem.  And here I am, trying to explain to them yet again, another problem with the internet and all they do is have these simpleton front line workers try to "Help" me by sending out techs who dont know what they're doing, and deal with very average problems that are not this complex, and I end up wasting my time.

I'm sick of helping Shaw find these problems, and them originally denying the issue(s) exist, and I'm tired of wasting weeks of my life helping them with these things, and I'm tired of paying full price for a service thats not working properly.

I know of a tech who works at Shaw that may be able to help me, but every time I ask Shaw to contact this specific person I know who deals with Twitch a lot, they dont contact him for me or let me speak to him.  This problem is NOT specific to Twitch, but not many people understand that your upload has to be consistent in order to Stream on any website.  Its like its foreign to some of these front line workers, they dont get the basics even, its incredible how uneducated they are.

Note: I have the Fibre+Gig.

[miX_]

I'm currently having some serious problems streaming as well. According to their speedtests I should be able to maintain a bitrate of 2000-2500kb (not very HD honestly but it's apparently the best I can get right now). Once I start streaming to twitch I get 100kb - 500kb which is horrendous. The number fluctuates like crazy with no way to fix it. A service tech just verified everything on my end is good but my upload is still terrible. Would be great if this could be resolved.

[dietpepsirocks]

Where are you from?

Never use speedtest like they tell you to.  It tells you nothing aside from your maximum speeds, its a snapshot in time of the internet over what, maybe 20-30 seconds?  Its not reflective of reality at all, and its also connecting to local servers.

Mine was VERY, VERY, VERY bad as in I had 50% upload losses.  Now, its sometimes 0.5% or up to 4%, but either way, its still unusable for streaming purposes.  Every time I have complained, its been a problem within the node, the engineers find the problem and the front line tech workers deny everything.  The Shaw customer support system is absolute trash.  They don't assign their smartest people no matter what it seems, unless an entire area goes out or something.

[miX_]

Saskatoon, SK. I've tried testmy.net and speedof.me and they both have the same results 2-3mbps (MegaBITS), sometimes lower. Last stream I had probably 60%+ dropped frames purely do to network issues without me even realizing until people started listening to the audio only stream. It's definitely un-useable for this scenario.

If it's being advertised as "UP TO 100mbps upload speed!" and what they actually get delivered to my PC is 3mbps, that is abysmal.

I upgraded to the GIG+ to up the limit so I could actually broadcast decently, but it didn't even change my upload speed. At ALL.

[mdk]

@miX_ -- I upgraded to the GIG+ to up the limit

The network adapter in your computer can only send/receive up to 1000 Mbits/second. If you have two computers simultaneously sending/receiving, and you have the "Fibre+ Gig 1.5" service, the sum of the two downloads will be 1500 Mbps, and the sum of the two uploads will be 100 Mbps.

What values do you get with the Shaw Speed Test? When testing with just one computer, you should get 1000 download and 100 upload.

If you open a command-line prompt, and enter: tracert www.microsoft.com

do you get output similar to:

  4    10 ms    10 ms    11 ms  rc1bb-be20.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.75.245]    --- V(an)C(ouver)
  5    13 ms    16 ms    15 ms  rc3ar-tge0-6-0-16.ed.shawcable.net [66.163.76.42]
  6    11 ms    10 ms      9 ms  a23-11-242-9.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [23.11.242.9]

for Microsoft's "colocated" server that seems to be in ED(monton) ?  Post your results into here.

This Speed Test is meant to confirm that your equipment, and your connection to a nearby SpeedTest-server, is working correctly. Connecting to a site like "speedtest.net" connects, through Vancouver, to a server in California. So, that site will show you the speed of traffic that goes a long way, as opposed to the Shaw Speed Test, which is "local" to you.

If you are in Saskatoon, Shaw has a network segment between Saskatoon and Edmonton, which should be fast. But, Edmonton is a "hub" for traffic from northeast BC, northern Alberta, further north, and north-of-Saskatoon.

If you contact a Shaw Agent, ask them to remotely logon to your cable-modem, and view the "signal-strength" reaching it. Bad signal-strength means slow speeds.

[rstra]

@miX_ Unless the Shaw.ca is out of date, the gig plan looks like it is only 25 up? The 3 up your getting now still is pretty bad.

[dietpepsirocks]

And you remember me, dont you?

Well, every single problem I have had so far has been problems in the node.  Engineers on the ground have found the previous problems but now I'm fighting with Shaw, yet again, about consistency of the upload.  Shaw is so bad.  In an endless loop of upload problems with this company, its absolutely insane.  They should be paying me for finding all these problems with the internet.

[miX_]

Hey, I appreciate the trouble you've gone to helping. Here's that tracert result;

Tracing route to e13678.dscb.akamaiedge.net [2600:1407:f800:5a4::356e]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 2604:3d09:e37f:eb70:1256:11ff:fe8d:3367
2 15 ms 13 ms 9 ms 2604:3d00:d900:9::1
3 14 ms 22 ms 13 ms 2604:3d00:f840::22
4 13 ms 10 ms 13 ms 2001:4e8:0:8340::2e
5 20 ms 18 ms 17 ms 2001:4e8:0:82ad::1
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 37 ms 41 ms 33 ms 2001:4e8:0:b048::6e
8 33 ms 34 ms 32 ms g2600-1407-f800-05a4-0000-0000-0000-356e.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [2600:1407:f800:5a4::356e]

Trace complete.

I had a tech come to the house, he says everything is good from inside, but the strength of the signal could be a bit better.

I wasn't told upon upgrading that my area wasn't yet wired to benefit from the Fibre+ plans, so I might undo that. I don't want to swear on the Shaw boards, but S-Tel has Fibre in my area, only 300 down but 150 up seems to be pretty appealing right now.

[dietpepsirocks]

try this speed test and tell me the results https://performance.cira.ca/

[mdk]

@rstra -- Whatever page you were viewing was either a "cached" copy on your computer, or "stale" information.

From a Shaw web-site:

Fibre+ 300

Fast speeds on 12 devices.
Ideal for working from home, streaming, and occasional gaming or video calls.

* Up to 100 Mbps upload speeds(9). Enter your address for upload speeds at your location.
______________

Fibre+ 750

Fibre+ Gateway modem
* Up to 100 Mbps upload speeds(9)
______________

Fibre+ Gig
Ideal for up to 20 devices
Up to 1 Gbps(9)
* Up to 100 Mbps upload speeds(9)
______________

Fibre+ Gig 1.5
Up to 1.5 Gbps(9)
* Up to 100 Mbps upload speeds(9)
______________

9 Connection speeds may vary based on modem equipment, client device capability, building wiring, internet traffic and environmental conditions. "Up to" speeds are based on optimal conditions. Maximum download speed for a single hardwired device connection is 940 Mbps. Additional wired or wireless device connections are required to reach maximum download speeds of up to 1Gbps or 1.5Gbps (i.e. 2 or 3 x devices concurrently running at 500 Mbps each).