# Opening Ports to increase bandwidth



## massahwahl (Oct 24, 2007)

I recently switched my dsl service from the 'Lite' version to the 4Mbps version which should be blazingly faster than what I had before but I have only noticed small increases in my download times, while downloading Counter Strike from STEAM it took almost 2 days and the download time would fluctuate. One second it would be going at maybe 54Kbps then it would burst up to over 400 Kbps but only for a few minutes, then fall back down to below 20. 

I contacted the dsl company (Windstream) and they walked me through a few generic test then said I would need to pay a tech $65 to come and look at my machine (ugh..hell no) Ive done several speedtests on it and again, get various results usually not very good though. 

So after trying several things Im thinking that perhaps there are ports I need to open on my router? Would this help and can someone instruct which ports need opened? Also, do I open them on both my wireless router and modem?


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## Punk (Oct 24, 2007)

Have you checked your firewall settings?


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## massahwahl (Oct 24, 2007)

I have Vista Ultimate and I am using the firewall provided with Vista. What do I need to look for or change?


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## Punk (Oct 24, 2007)

I don't how it works on Vista but maybe your firewall is blocking some access to your ports. Disable it for 5 min, download and see if there is a difference.


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## massahwahl (Oct 24, 2007)

Nope, trying to download HL2 right now but nothing.


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## Punk (Oct 24, 2007)

Hmmm.

What speed do you get?


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## Trizoy (Oct 24, 2007)

You need to remember that the download speed they give you is a burst speed, and in no way means you will EVER get speeds that fast.


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## massahwahl (Oct 24, 2007)

Yeah but before I upgraded I was getting around 20 Kbps now Im only getting around 50Kbps... I bump the internet up 3 tiers and only get an additional 30 Kbps? That does not seem right at all. 

Is it possible to get software or anything that would handle configuring it for better speeds? Or what do I need to do. Is it a port issue at all?


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## Punk (Oct 24, 2007)

I don't know if it's a port issue or if your internet is normal...

here is my SpeedTest:




I have a 1MB connection


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## massahwahl (Oct 24, 2007)

lol, yeah then there is a problem because on a GOOD speedtest I clock at about a 600. I broke 1000 one time...


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## INTELCRAZY (Oct 24, 2007)

ukulele_ninja said:


> lol, yeah then there is a problem because on a GOOD speedtest I clock at about a 600. I broke 1000 one time...



If you have 4Mbps and getting that, that's horrible... Do you have a contract service agreement with them? If I were you, I would cancel and get Verizon or some form of cable.


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## massahwahl (Oct 24, 2007)

Yes its a service agreement and yeah it sucks the big one. I dont want to believe that the service is at fault yet until I know I have all my settings correct. Their customer service is about useless because I cant talk to a freaking American, instead, I get Habib Whoever from India answerin my calls.


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## massahwahl (Oct 24, 2007)

Is there a way to edit anything in Vista Ultimate to increase my bandwidth?


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## INTELCRAZY (Oct 25, 2007)

ukulele_ninja said:


> Is there a way to edit anything in Vista Ultimate to increase my bandwidth?



I really wouldn't know... I am more of a plug 'n' play guy, I haven't ever heard of this type of problem...  Sorry

You could do one thing and that is check your router/modem... 192.168.1.1 in the address bar in FF or IE. Try to find the speed that the modem or router gives you and then we will know if it's service or your PC.


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## massahwahl (Oct 25, 2007)

Alright here are some speedtest results showing how drastic the differences are:













Something else I wanted to note, If I leave my computer on over night, when I try to get online the next morning without fail it will disconnect me sometime during the night, so I will have to restart my computer before the internet works again. Any ideas on that too?


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## Niranjan81 (Oct 30, 2007)

ukulele_ninja said:


> Their customer service is about useless because I cant talk to a freaking American, instead, I get Habib Whoever from India answerin my calls.



Try not to put the blame on the Indian sitting in India doing his job .. it was a "freaking american" company which sold u the product and not the Habib sitting in India ... grow up and learn to see where the real issue is rather than trying to look for a scapegoat.


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## paratwa (Oct 31, 2007)

Niranjan81 said:


> Try not to put the blame on the Indian sitting in India doing his job .. it was a "freaking american" company which sold u the product and not the Habib sitting in India ... grow up and learn to see where the real issue is rather than trying to look for a scapegoat.




Now that's funny! 


Got to www.dslreports.com and click on the tools tab up top. Then try the tweak test. After you run it, it will give you tips on what can be changed to increase your speed.


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## massahwahl (Oct 31, 2007)

Niranjan81 said:


> Try not to put the blame on the Indian sitting in India doing his job .. it was a "freaking american" company which sold u the product and not the Habib sitting in India ... grow up and learn to see where the real issue is rather than trying to look for a scapegoat.



right well America should stop outsourcing and handle their own companies locally. Gee sorry for thinking I should be able to understand the customer service person trying to help me.  I need to grow up?

Anyway,

I wanted to do the tweak test but it says they dont recommend Vista users do it. Is i tstill ok to use it?


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## paratwa (Oct 31, 2007)

I did not know it won't work with Vista. Just one more reason I am going to stay away from Vista. Nothing seems to work with it!


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## massahwahl (Oct 31, 2007)

Yeah if you go look at the page with the test it has a little disclaimer that they dont recommend using it on Vista machines. I doubt it would really hurt, but I dont want to risk it.


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## Niranjan81 (Oct 31, 2007)

ukulele_ninja said:


> right well America should stop outsourcing and handle their own companies locally. Gee sorry for thinking I should be able to understand the customer service person trying to help me.  I need to grow up?



Ya u need to grow up and understand that the problem here is not about the nationality of the person trying to help u but the product that u bought. The Indian customer rep is going to tell u just what his/her American employer has asked him to speak. So it does not matter whether the customer rep. happens to be Habib from India or Adam from America ; they are both going to tell u the same answer.That's what I wanted u to understand.


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## paratwa (Oct 31, 2007)

My problem with out sourcing is, I can not understand the people they out source it to. Which is a very frustrating thing to have to deal with. How can I communicate a problem, or understand the solution if I can not understand them, or they can not understand me.

I think that out sourcing is very bad for the company's doing it. It makes their customers very frustrated, and by doing so, they loose any chance of having them as repeat customers.


And yes it pisses me off to have to deal with these people in other country's. 

I have no idea of how many times I have had to deal with out sourcing. Usuall I get so frustrated I hang up. I have repeatedly asked to speak to someone else, only to get someone that has a worse accent. 

I have nothing against the people them self's, just that they are hired to speak to English speaking people, and they can barely speak it them self. Very frustrating!


Don't get me started on how people spell here in this forum. Arrgh! They are just as bad as the people on the phone. I just can not understand them.

Anyways, end of rant, and no this was not directed at anyone in particular. 

Now back to the issue at hand, and I am sorry I hijacked the topic.

Try a few of these links. They might help you.

http://tweakhound.com/blog/?p=29

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/TCP-IP-Limit-AutoPatch.shtml


http://text.dslreports.com/forum/r19161187-Microsoft-discusses-Vista-upload-tweaks-This-will-show-you~mode=flat

http://text.dslreports.com/forum/r19134859-Cable-Vista-Home-Premium-has-taken-away-my-Internet-speed~mode=flat

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/01/CableGuy/default.aspx


If you do some more searching, you should be able to find more links to fix your problem.


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## massahwahl (Oct 31, 2007)

Awesome thank you Paratwa!

Thank you for getting us back on the topic at hand. This was not supposed to turn into a lame political debate


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## Niranjan81 (Nov 1, 2007)

paratwa said:


> My problem with out sourcing is, I can not understand the people they out source it to. Which is a very frustrating thing to have to deal with. How can I communicate a problem, or understand the solution if I can not understand them, or they can not understand me.
> 
> I think that out sourcing is very bad for the company's doing it. It makes their customers very frustrated, and by doing so, they loose any chance of having them as repeat customers.
> 
> ...



Sorry , but I just don't agree with whatever u said. Not fighting but really feel the need to put my point across. Am an indian and though have never worked in call centre , i know a lot of my friends who do. 
    The very first thing a person is tested on at the interview is his/her english proficiency. Once the candidate passes that then he/she is then trained on what is called as the "neutral" accent which means they are trained to speak in a manner which is understood by most english speakers. Am I saying that every person working there speaks well? No. But then he/she should not be hired. It is not that person's fault that they were hired. It was the company who recruited them that were at fault. 
    I am working in the US and have called up customer service reps here and have had both good service and bad service. Do I start putting the blame on "an american" for bad customer service or do i put the blame on the XYZ company for hiring a bad employee? Thats my point.
    Habib might be the problem here but Habib from India is not the problem.If the customer rep is a problem then it's a different matter but if the outsourced customer rep is the problem then lemme congratulate u on being the newest member of the "i hate india and indians because they took our jobs" club. 
     Not fighting here but cannot sit quietly and be a spectator to pointless country bashing.


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## massahwahl (Nov 2, 2007)

[/QUOTE]
    Habib might be the problem here but Habib from India is not the problem.If the customer rep is a problem then it's a different matter but if the outsourced customer rep is the problem then lemme congratulate u on being the newest member of the "i hate india and indians because they took our jobs" club. 
     Not fighting here but cannot sit quietly and be a spectator to pointless country bashing.[/QUOTE]

I mentioned that it was Windstreams customer service that sucks...and if you lived here you would understand why that 'club' has so many members. How would you feel if your country did nothing to stop large companies from sending thousands of jobs oversees because they could get away with paying workers in another country a fraction of what they would pay them in your country? Its not fair to either party involved. Yes, I should not have implied that 'indians are bad people' or anything negative about you, your country or your people, if I did then accept my apology. It is extremely frustrating though when people like myself lose jobs solely because a company decides to outsource to another country.


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## Niranjan81 (Nov 2, 2007)

ukulele_ninja said:


> I mentioned that it was Windstreams customer service that sucks...and if you lived here you would understand why that 'club' has so many members. How would you feel if your country did nothing to stop large companies from sending thousands of jobs oversees because they could get away with paying workers in another country a fraction of what they would pay them in your country? Its not fair to either party involved. Yes, I should not have implied that 'indians are bad people' or anything negative about you, your country or your people, if I did then accept my apology. It is extremely frustrating though when people like myself lose jobs solely because a company decides to outsource to another country.



Well I can see that u do have some prejudice against outsourcing and I think u as an individual have a right to have your own opinion but I really thought that blaming the poor guy sitting in India who is just doing his job was uncalled for . I would like to apologize myself if someone thinks I used this post for stating opinions out of topic. Peace!


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## massahwahl (Nov 2, 2007)

No problem, you shed some light from the otherside of the perspective. Nothing wrong with that. Peace out.


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## eoLithic (Dec 7, 2007)

ukulele_ninja said:


> Alright here are some speedtest results showing how drastic the differences are:
> 
> 
> 
> ...









And I thought mine was bad


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## CentralViking19 (Dec 7, 2007)

opening ports is only for outgoing connections like a webserver, ftpserver, P2P program, ect in which people are downloading files, music, ect from your computer, the opened port allows them to connect to your computer and receive the file

for example, if you were to install windows IIS 5.0 for XP, you would have to open port 80 on your router to your computers local IP, this gives your webserver outside access to the internet


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## CentralViking19 (Dec 7, 2007)

comcast internet is awesome! you should all get it...

thats with my sucky Linksys WR54GTS router
just wait until my D-Link gigabit ehternet and QoS router comes in next week!


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## CentralViking19 (Dec 7, 2007)

eoLithic said:


>



jeez is thats fast

what connection? dsl, cable, t1, fiber?


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## eoLithic (Dec 8, 2007)

CentralViking19 said:


> jeez is thats fast
> 
> what connection? dsl, cable, t1, fiber?



Cable


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