Network Woes =-(

kmiklas · Oct 14, 2016

I've been on Comcast cable for a little while, but I've noticed a lot of traffic around 3pm. My terminal tends to get laggy. I'm on IB TWS, but I'm fairly certain that it's not them. I have a nice Linux workstation set up, but in desperation, I had to connect from my Mac through my iPhone hotspot!

Verizon FIOS is not in my area so I had Verizon DSL installed two days ago. THREE TIMES now, in the middle of a trade, I've been disconnected I've heard that an incoming call on DSL will interrupt your connection.. anyone have any experience with this?

So, I'm back to cable, because it's the best available. Hopefully I'll get good enough where I can afford a private line (T1?) or other.

Hard enough getting started with trading, let alone when efforts to take profits are interrupted by network problems. I missed about 2% of profit from those three disconnects.

wartrace · Oct 14, 2016

If you can get a good 4G signal it might pay to look into getting a Cradlepoint router and getting a wireless USB modem. I can't get any type of landline internet (Cable/Fiber/DSL) where I live so I use a cradlepoint router with two different 4G providers. I have the MBR1200B model
https://cradlepoint.com/products/mbr1200b which has both load balancing and failover. Load balance draws from both internet connections. Failover switches connections when one goes down. In your case you would hook up the comcast connection in the ethernet port and have one usb modem connected. Comcast goes down you will still be connected via the USB modem. If you have it set to load balance if your comcast slows down it will draw 4G data.

lovethetrade · Oct 14, 2016

kmiklas said:
I've been on Comcast cable for a little while, but I've noticed a lot of traffic around 3pm. My terminal tends to get laggy. I'm on IB TWS, but I'm fairly certain that it's not them. I have a nice Linux workstation set up, but in desperation, I had to connect from my Mac through my iPhone hotspot!

Verizon FIOS is not in my area so I had Verizon DSL installed two days ago. THREE TIMES now, in the middle of a trade, I've been disconnected I've heard that an incoming call on DSL will interrupt your connection.. anyone have any experience with this?

So, I'm back to cable, because it's the best available. Hopefully I'll get good enough where I can afford a private line (T1?) or other.

Hard enough getting started with trading, let alone when efforts to take profits are interrupted by network problems. I missed about 2% of profit from those three disconnects.

An incoming call shouldn't interrupt your DSL connection if you have filters on your line. I use a 4G phone with USB tethering as backup in the event I get disconnected from my DSL.

kmiklas · Oct 14, 2016

lovethetrade said:
An incoming call shouldn't interrupt your DSL connection if you have filters on your line. I use a 4G phone with USB tethering as backup in the event I get disconnected from my DSL.

Any idea why I keep getting these hiccups? I don't get them through Comcast.

lovethetrade · Oct 14, 2016

kmiklas said:
Any idea why I keep getting these hiccups? I don't get them through Comcast.

Could be a noisy line. Listen to your dial tone for any static or noises. Other than that, maybe your provider can run a test or set a more stable profile.

dealmaker · Oct 14, 2016

kmiklas said:
I've been on Comcast cable for a little while, but I've noticed a lot of traffic around 3pm. My terminal tends to get laggy. I'm on IB TWS, but I'm fairly certain that it's not them. I have a nice Linux workstation set up, but in desperation, I had to connect from my Mac through my iPhone hotspot!

Verizon FIOS is not in my area so I had Verizon DSL installed two days ago. THREE TIMES now, in the middle of a trade, I've been disconnected I've heard that an incoming call on DSL will interrupt your connection.. anyone have any experience with this?

So, I'm back to cable, because it's the best available. Hopefully I'll get good enough where I can afford a private line (T1?) or other.

Hard enough getting started with trading, let alone when efforts to take profits are interrupted by network problems. I missed about 2% of profit from those three disconnects.

As a full-time trader you need 2 providers. Second provider being cheap back up.

comagnum · Oct 15, 2016

When your DSL drops if you can try streaming a video that you have not watched before to make sure its not cached. That is a good test to determine if the DSL & ISP are the problem or IB. If you can't stream a video when IB drops just let your Telco know the times of your drops. If they don't find a problem and it persists ask them for 'class A', and if all else fails escalate to a manager - calling back at regular intervals so as to keep the repair going. I have worked at global carriers for a long time - the above info will get any DSL problem fixed. DSL is superior these days to T-1 except for the repair time, with DSL problems the squeaky wheel gets greased. If you want a bullet proof network there are devices that allow you to bond any combination of DSL, 3G/4G, & cable onto a load balanced WAN with a routeable IP address (Mushroom Networks - Truffle Lite) - this box also has a SPI firewall. That gives you extra speed and lots of redundancy.

kmiklas · Oct 15, 2016

comagnum said:
When your DSL drops if you can try streaming a video that you have not watched before to make sure its not cached. That is a good test to determine if the DSL & ISP are the problem or IB. If you can't stream a video when IB drops just let your Telco know the times of your drops. If they don't find a problem and it persists ask them for 'class A', and if all else fails escalate to a manager - calling back at regular intervals so as to keep the repair going. I have worked at global carriers for a long time - the above info will get any DSL problem fixed. DSL is superior these days to T-1 except for the repair time, with DSL problems the squeaky wheel gets greased. If you want a bullet proof network there are devices that allow you to bond any combination of DSL, 3G/4G, & cable onto a load balanced WAN with a routeable IP address (Mushroom Networks - Truffle Lite) - this box also has a SPI firewall. That gives you extra speed and lots of redundancy.

I plugged back in to my Xfinity line and trading was smooth and uninterrupted thereafter.

Something with this DSL line. Even my video is hanging up more than usual.

Tim Smith · Oct 31, 2016

comagnum said:
If you want a bullet proof network there are devices that allow you to bond any combination of DSL, 3G/4G, & cable onto a load balanced WAN with a routeable IP address (Mushroom Networks - Truffle Lite) - this box also has a SPI firewall. That gives you extra speed and lots of redundancy.

And by the time you waste time, money and effort doing that, you might as well do what everyone else does when they become serious about wanting a "bullet proof network" .... get a leased line.

comagnum · Oct 31, 2016

What era are you from? A leased line is a thing of the far away past when the only broadband service as a leased line via T1. It was very expensive, and only had 1.5 Mb Bw - a joke compared to what we have today, not to mention it had no redundancy. The bullet proof network I mentioned has multiple WANs with different carriers, had Bw 100's times larger than leased line and a lot of redundancy , it is very affordable and with diverse WAN's on seperate carriers your chance of down time are removed from the equation. Dude, I put in leased lines for decades - that service is virtually extinct now. Maybe next time know what you are talking about!