Video Quality/Internet Connection Help

[caireen]

For the last week, whenever I log into MFC, my bit rate has been 140-400 kbps. In the past it's always been 900+. I've run speed tests and my internet speeds haven't changed from what they were previously- I live in a part of Mexico without great service and pretty shitty upload speeds, but they've always been enough in the past (just under 1mbps). I've run speed tests to servers in the US too- Seattle, LA, Chicago- all my speeds are consistent to how they've always been.

I've tried resetting my modem. I've updated flash. I've logged into MFC on both Firefox and Chrome and streaming both HD and standard. I've tried logging in on my macbook (I usually cam from my PC). I've tried wirelessly and with my ethernet cable (in case there was something weird with the cable).

NOTHING has worked. I'm not very computer-ey, so can anymore think of something I might have missed that could solve the problem IF it is on my end? I thought I would post this.. just in case.. so thank you for any suggestions, if anyone has any!

 

[ramblin]

If nothing else has changed, I can only think of a few possibilities:
1) There's a (temporary?) problem on MFC's end.
2) There's been a change in how traffic is routed between your internet service provider and mfc's servers.
3) Your internet service provider has chosen to limit bandwidth to MFC in particular.

For both 2 and 3, if your internet service provider is definitely ok with adult work, you could give them a call. Alternatively, maybe you could use a high speed VPN like https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/?

 

[Alisa]

Same thing happened to me last year! I tried everything and I'm pretty good with computers myself. Then I messaged MFC and they were unable to help me. I couldn't stream for a week. Then it magically went away and never returned.

 

[weirdbr]

Same thing happened to me last year! I tried everything and I'm pretty good with computers myself. Then I messaged MFC and they were unable to help me. I couldn't stream for a week. Then it magically went away and never returned.

Whenever those issues happen, try a VPN (and if you already use one, try a different one) - it can get you to MFC via a different route that can be working a little better. I have/had (it keeps going away and coming back) the same issue and there's not a lot you can do other than try a VPN or another ISP.

In theory if you can prove that the issue is MFC's (or is on the datacenter that they use), you could mail MFC support to see if they fix it, but in my experience for this type of problem you need really hard data to force them to act and fix their stuff.

 

[Alisa]

I use three different VPN providers (HMA, Private Internet Access, IPVanish) and none of them solved the issue for me. At the time I cammed from two different locations and had two different ISP.
I still think it was an MFC issue although they claimed it's not on their end.