ISP Tweaks (to ask the Network to do for you)

[Nass86]

Hi guys,

I'm moving from a 5ghz Millimeter wave broadband service provider in my village (30mb download, 8mb upload) to a landline based, standard broadband (non fibre) service (50mb download and between 5mb - 8mb upload)

Years ago I remember hearing there were things you could ask your network provider to do for your line.

The only one I can remember is to:

"Reduce the Gain to increase speeds"

I remember this working over 10 years ago, however there was a sweet spot and if you reduced it too much it made the connection way faster but would also become unstable and behave like it was disconnecting/reconnecting.

Are there other things OBS streamers have had success in asking ISPs to do to, for example, lower the ping, increase the speed etc?

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Gain has to do with signal, that is has to work in conjunction with your modem (DSL, cable, etc)
depending on wired infrastructure, tweaks can cause noise and other problems for yourself and/or others.
So personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Though be clear to provider you are streaming, so upload bandwidth stability is important to you.
Once you get modem and router, then there are online forums for specific ISPs and modems for you to possibly check Signal to noise rations, etc [dslreports.com being the one I use, now covers much more than DSL]

The network is what it is. And ISPs aren't going to re-architect their network to lower ping rate for a single user [unless rural ISP with a few dozen customers only]. You mention village and those rates imply DSL. From network termination point (local telco office, usually) to your house has limited capabilities. To increase that means running brand new wires, and possibly requires an intermediate connection (which, unless you are village mayor and/or own the ISP, don't count on this at low consumer rates.. it is expensive to do this)
And your village network termination point only has so much bandwidth feeding it. So giving User A more bandwidth in 2021 (vs say, 1990s with limited customers connected) most likely means taking from someone else, or provisioning more bandwidth for the entire village [nice to have, but also expensive, and only needed if bandwidth fully consumed]. And increasing village bandwidth won't help your house to network/DSL termination point (which is limited by the old copper phone lines)

Now, that isn't to say, all DSL implementations are well done, and optimizations not available. But what is possible depends on the tech in use both at head-end and your modem, and the type and condition of village wired infrastructure.

 

[koala]

It's today, not 10 years ago. The ISP quality is probably different in every country, but where I live, you pick the line (speed) and options from the web site of your provider, order it, and get a line that works in 99% of cases. You cannot do and don't need to do anything, you just use the line, and it works as you ordered. If you are the unlucky 1%, you have bandwidth and connection issues due to a bad line or defective hardware, and you have to sort this out with the ISP. But usually, you just order and use the line.

 

[R1CH]

Sounds like you're moving to a DSL based ISP, disabling interleaving will help reduce latency but whether it's safe depends on the quality of your signal.

 

[Nass86]

Thanks guys.

Yeah - I'm in Cyprus which has the usual variants of ADSL / Fibre plus some Wireless / 5ghz options in villages but fibre is not available where I live and I've been painfully trying to get the 5ghz one to work on my live stream and it's making me anxious all the time because it can be absolutely outstanding most of the time then unpredictably bad.

I know the owner of the 5ghz internet company and I've been wanting to support him by remaining his customer but I need try something that won't make me worry.

There are enough variables and settings to change on OBS and all the cameras and DJ equipment without also worrying whether my internet will randomly drop out.

So I'm opting for a fixed line DSL service and open to optomisations like reducing the gain and disabling interleaving. Can only try and see if it makes it better or worse.