Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Internet boffins
  • Offroading
    Free Member

    Hi,

    Does anyone know if there is some software available that can be used to determine what speed my ISP is limiting my connection to ?

    Im paying for 4mb Broadband at the momment. It NEVER gets anywhere near that and when i do speed tests it always without fail tops out at 3.33mb but normal runs at less than 3mb sometimes as low as 0.8mb

    Add to that, that after 11pm till 7 am it’s supposedly uncapped and faster. I started downloading a 300mb file at 10pm tonight, running at a pathetic 96kbps, the speed has now dropped to 14kbps. Seeing as i need the file looks like its going to be a late night.

    Frankly im getting miffed off at my ISP telling me lies regarding speed, capping and such. Unforunetly i don’t have much other options becuase im so far from an exchange i can’t receive normal broadband through a cable and instead have had this very expensive wireless/radio system installed which so far is miffing me right off.

    Spongebob
    Free Member

    So is this service over the mobile network or a hardwire connected?

    I should imagine broadband over the cellular network as being pretty damn slow compared to landlines or cable, even if you are on 3.5G. Of course, you won’t always get even 3g. The slowest; 2g will have data speeds that are hideously slow. The type of service will depend on which cell you are attached to. The ISP can also determine the quality of service you get, i.e. put you at different levels in the food chain so to speak. If someone with a higher priority service taps in to the network, your service is reduced or “throttled” until they are finished.

    With ADSL over a telephone line, speeds tail off dramatically as you get further from an exchange. Your ISP can tinker around with the gains and speed capping profiles, but I believe each speed profile is dynamic within a certain range. So it takes a few days for the system to work out the optimum speed for your connection then settles at this rate. Capping the line speed can actually do you a favour by allowing the line to run error free, which is better than loosing service isn’t it?

    No ISP will guarantee a maximum speed, they always state “up to” and state that this depends on certain circumstances.

    If there is a lot of additional traffic from the exchange, this will slow things up quite a bit at certain times of day.

    You said you can’t get a cable connection. Do you mean ADSL, or Cable, or both? Need more information.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    I have an 8Mb line, I sync at 7.6mb. Off-peak (3am) I can get 600-700kbps, on-peak I get ~50-60kbps, it’s down to congestion on the local exchange and probably bandwidth throttling. The only thing you can identify is what speed you sync at and yours DL rate with something like thinkbroadband.com. I suspect you’re simply seeing the same congestion problem that everyone sees, on top of the fact that yours on a wireless/3G? link which will be slow to start with depending on your location.

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    samuri
    Free Member

    read your small print. No ISP ever guarantees a maximum connection speed, ever. I’m on 8Mb but the chances of getting anywhere near that are laughable. All ISP’s will issue statements, quite often not even in small print which states ‘Speeds of *up to* 4Mb’.

    The phrase ‘up to’ clearly includes the number zero.

    If you’re getting up to 3.33Mb then that’s excellent on a 4Mb link. That pretty much covers your 4Mb if you include a reasonable overhead. I’d be chuffed to bits with that.

    You’ve tried a speedtest site, yes?

    http://www.speedtest.net/

    StuF
    Full Member

    I use this one

    Offroading
    Free Member

    Morning all,

    OK this is my setup:

    In the loft is a box with an antena attached to it. This box has a cable running down the house into my router which then goes into the PC.

    The box in the loft is picking up a signal from across the street where there is a second box placed on a rooftop. This box picks up the signal directly from the BT Exchange miles away. So it’s all wireless im basically going straight into the exchange via a series of signal boxes.

    There are only 12 users on this system so im a little bit suprised if congestion would be an issue here ?

    The only other thing we have is a standard BT phone cable with ancient copper wires. The signal coming through this and the fact we are so far from the exchange meant that option wasn’t worth looking at, a few other residents in the street have it and honest to god it is painfully slow taking 5 mins + to load google mail for example.

    I (try to) use speedtest every day and the speed varies as i said sometimes it will say 3.3mb others it will be down to .08mb for the download speed. I do know that the upload speed is set to 0.6mb regardless though which makes uploading pics a tedious task.

    The thing which is annoying me is i understand how the “UP TO” system works as an average over 24hrs but i don’t consider that when my net sometimes get faster at the higher end of 3mb for 30 seconds in a day i don’t consider that as 4mb. The fact is it is more often than not hovering around 1mb for the day then as last night happened plumets to 9kbps.

    stevemcnalls
    Free Member

    I’m a bit confused – are you saying you have a direct connection to the local exchange?

    Even with this there will be contention within the exchange which cannot be avoided. Add to this the quality of the cable you have, the distance from the exchange, number of users, etc and I would say you are doing well to get the speed you have.

    Steve

    Offroading
    Free Member

    Yes i have a direct connection to the exchange but it’s wireless – the signal does not go through the copper cable it comes down from the loft via a normal ethernet cable into the back of the router.

    stevemcnalls
    Free Member

    So a wireless signal from the Exchange.

    OK, you still have internal exchange contention to compete with and of course that good old SNR [/url] and SQNR of your wireless signal between the exchange and your box.

    As you say there are other users also.

    Still I think you are doing OK.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Doesnt sound too bad to me, 12 users on a “normal” wireless link will slow it down a LOT, who knows what technology is being used to do your wireless link, i dont that’s for sure, but what I think you’re missing is the fact that the congestion occurs at the exchange, not at your end. The fact that theres 12 users at the end of your spur off the exchange can only make matters worse unless that link is a very fast link.

    I effectively have a direct wired link to the exchange (thats all your phone line is), which is 300 yards from my house (hence syncing at 7.6mb) but it doesnt stop the congestion at the exchange dragging me down to dial-up rates at times.

    samuri
    Free Member

    wow, I am seriously impressed you’re getting 3mb out of that ever. There are twelve people using it where you are but presumably the entire wireless setup is used by many more if there’s lots of repeaters.

    Either way, any wireless system is going to be far more prone to noise and the overhead is much, much greater than that of a wired system.

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