Line speed confusion
Hi all,
First off let me just congratulate any Plusnet staff reading this. Doing business with you guys is a pleasure compared to hell that is Talktalk!
It seems that people actually listen to customers and respond to their problems. Thankyou.
I recently had a linefault which is now repaired.
I am somewhat confused as to what sort of speeds I should be seeing on my adsl2+ connection (Plusnet Extra). I am lucky in that I can see the exchange from my window, I have line sync speeds in excess of 21Mb/s and a BT profile speed of 19.4Mb/s.
I am not seeing these sorts of speeds in testing.
I raised a support message to this effect and my Plusnet 'line speed' has now been raised to 19Mb/s (in less that an hour!) but I'm still not convinced my speed is what it should be.
The test at speedtest.bt.com seems to be mostly broken at this point, it works for me about one time in 20 so it's not much help. Speedtest.net seems unreliable, it always shows a new result.
mybroadbandspeed.co.uk seems to be showing consistent results of over 13Mb/s which is nice but I can't replicate those numbers in real world downloads. For instance the test files at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html seem to be capped at 8Mb/s for me. Is that traffic shaping I'm running into? Are there any uncapped servers I can download from for a test?
Also my upstream sync speed is 444kb/s which seems low, I was expecting ~800kb/s Can that be raised at all?
Thanks in advance for any answers.
Steve
First off let me just congratulate any Plusnet staff reading this. Doing business with you guys is a pleasure compared to hell that is Talktalk!
It seems that people actually listen to customers and respond to their problems. Thankyou.I recently had a linefault which is now repaired.
I am somewhat confused as to what sort of speeds I should be seeing on my adsl2+ connection (Plusnet Extra). I am lucky in that I can see the exchange from my window, I have line sync speeds in excess of 21Mb/s and a BT profile speed of 19.4Mb/s.
I am not seeing these sorts of speeds in testing.
I raised a support message to this effect and my Plusnet 'line speed' has now been raised to 19Mb/s (in less that an hour!) but I'm still not convinced my speed is what it should be.
The test at speedtest.bt.com seems to be mostly broken at this point, it works for me about one time in 20 so it's not much help. Speedtest.net seems unreliable, it always shows a new result.
mybroadbandspeed.co.uk seems to be showing consistent results of over 13Mb/s which is nice but I can't replicate those numbers in real world downloads. For instance the test files at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html seem to be capped at 8Mb/s for me. Is that traffic shaping I'm running into? Are there any uncapped servers I can download from for a test?
Also my upstream sync speed is 444kb/s which seems low, I was expecting ~800kb/s Can that be raised at all?
Thanks in advance for any answers.
Steve
You need to re-establish the PPP session after we update your profile for it to be applied. This is done automatically but can take a few hours so if your profile was moved in 'less than an hour' then it's likely this hadn't had time to take effect.
I can see that this has now been done and you should see a marked improvement.
If you'd like to go for the uncapped upstream then this is no problem, just raised a ticket as had been advised
I can see that this has now been done and you should see a marked improvement.
If you'd like to go for the uncapped upstream then this is no problem, just raised a ticket as had been advised
Haha! Great forum. Thanks for the replies.
@Epyon.
I've tried the bbmax test and, like the mybroadband test, it is showing a consistent ~13Mb/s. The downloads from thinkbroadband are what originally caused me the suspect I was capped somehow as they always peak at slightly below 8Mb/s (950kB/s).
@MisterW
Is that capped by default? I thought that was a function of the connection type rather than capping. 512k, less overhead, for adsl max and 1M, less overhead for adsl2.
@Ben Trimble
Yes I thought that it might take a while for settings to propagate through but I've tried resetting my connection a number of times to no effect. I am now seeing speeds of 13Mb/s from test sites but not in real downloads.
Does uncapped upstream cost more? I assumed I'd get ~800k on adsl2+ by default. Thanks for acting on that so swiftly though.
@MJN
Thanks for that test file. The results of trying to download it are exactly the same as the thinkbroadband files, limited to 8Mb/s. An interesting result though.
Something I had never really considered before is that my download speed is being throttled by my upload speed. Obviously to transfer a file you need two way communication for IP. I noticed that when trying to download any of these files my upstream bandwidth is maxed out. Is it possible that remote sevrers are not able to send the data any faster because they have already maxed out my ability to reply?
Once again thanks for all the rapid responses!
Steve
@Epyon.
I've tried the bbmax test and, like the mybroadband test, it is showing a consistent ~13Mb/s. The downloads from thinkbroadband are what originally caused me the suspect I was capped somehow as they always peak at slightly below 8Mb/s (950kB/s).
@MisterW
Is that capped by default? I thought that was a function of the connection type rather than capping. 512k, less overhead, for adsl max and 1M, less overhead for adsl2.
@Ben Trimble
Yes I thought that it might take a while for settings to propagate through but I've tried resetting my connection a number of times to no effect. I am now seeing speeds of 13Mb/s from test sites but not in real downloads.
Does uncapped upstream cost more? I assumed I'd get ~800k on adsl2+ by default. Thanks for acting on that so swiftly though.
@MJN
Thanks for that test file. The results of trying to download it are exactly the same as the thinkbroadband files, limited to 8Mb/s. An interesting result though.
Something I had never really considered before is that my download speed is being throttled by my upload speed. Obviously to transfer a file you need two way communication for IP. I noticed that when trying to download any of these files my upstream bandwidth is maxed out. Is it possible that remote sevrers are not able to send the data any faster because they have already maxed out my ability to reply?
Once again thanks for all the rapid responses!
Steve
Ah! Thanks for that.
I'm seeing some weird results now. I just recorded an upload speed higher than my modem is reporting the sync speed
If they are re-profiling the connection I guess anything could happen. I'll wait for things to settle down and re-test.
I suppose I'm like a lot of people in that I get absolutely obsessed with download speed for about a week and then forget about it for six months. In general use it makes very little difference to me whether I'm getting 8Mb/s or 15. It's only occasionally when I have a large download to do or I'm trying to stream something unusual that I notice what the download speed is.
Thanks again for useful information. Why didn't I come over to Plusnet years ago?
Steve
I'm seeing some weird results now. I just recorded an upload speed higher than my modem is reporting the sync speed
If they are re-profiling the connection I guess anything could happen. I'll wait for things to settle down and re-test.
I suppose I'm like a lot of people in that I get absolutely obsessed with download speed for about a week and then forget about it for six months. In general use it makes very little difference to me whether I'm getting 8Mb/s or 15. It's only occasionally when I have a large download to do or I'm trying to stream something unusual that I notice what the download speed is.
Thanks again for useful information. Why didn't I come over to Plusnet years ago?
Steve
Hmmm,
mybroadbandspeed along with the bbmax speed test are showing:
Or something very close to that.
However by attempting to download many large files from several different locations I was able to achieve this:
Can't complain about those numbers! 
Except that my upstream sync speed is still showing as 444k.
More testing fun!
Steve
mybroadbandspeed along with the bbmax speed test are showing:
Or something very close to that.
However by attempting to download many large files from several different locations I was able to achieve this:
Can't complain about those numbers! Except that my upstream sync speed is still showing as 444k.More testing fun!
Steve
Hmm,
I realised my modem firmware was quite old so I updated it and was imediately re-capped at 8Mb/s. Downgrading the firmware brought the rate back up again. Acutal line sync speed was unchanged.
It seems as though I am being limited on a per session basis. I.e. I have to downloading at least three files to max out the connection.
Steve
I realised my modem firmware was quite old so I updated it and was imediately re-capped at 8Mb/s. Downgrading the firmware brought the rate back up again.
Acutal line sync speed was unchanged.It seems as though I am being limited on a per session basis. I.e. I have to downloading at least three files to max out the connection.
Steve
Uncapped upstream is free
I just tried the test file that MJN linked to and managed 32mbps and the slowest part of my connection from PN Towers is the 100mbps ethernet card in my computer!
I always recommend Speedtest.net for testing higher speeds as their servers seem pretty reliable - testing now gives me speeds of 85mbps which is pretty much the maximum you can pull through a 10/100 ethernet card (in my experience, anyway!). Choose a London server as that's where your connection is routed through, regardless of the geographically closest server which will be chosen for you by default.
I just tried the test file that MJN linked to and managed 32mbps and the slowest part of my connection from PN Towers is the 100mbps ethernet card in my computer!
I always recommend Speedtest.net for testing higher speeds as their servers seem pretty reliable - testing now gives me speeds of 85mbps which is pretty much the maximum you can pull through a 10/100 ethernet card (in my experience, anyway!). Choose a London server as that's where your connection is routed through, regardless of the geographically closest server which will be chosen for you by default.
Quote from: Ben Uncapped upstream is free
Excellent!
I cannot get mode than 8Mb/s for any single file. Something weird is going on.
Could be time to go back to basics and do some checking.....
My modem is still showing 444k upstream sync:
Yet I am clearly able to achieve better then that?
I haven't been able to get BT's speedtester to work at all in last few days. I'll try it again.
Steve
@Epyon
Thanks for that site its seems good, consistent and without the ridiculous flash animation of speedtest.
@Spraxyt
I don't think it is but I'll certainly check. Like I said I think it's time to go back to basics for some fundamental testing.
Right now I am capped at 8Mb/s no matter what I do but it may be a busy time, I like to test at 1am if possible to rule out any network congestion. Of course that's when any network engineering is likely to be taking place.
Steve
Thanks for that site its seems good, consistent and without the ridiculous flash animation of speedtest.
@Spraxyt
I don't think it is but I'll certainly check. Like I said I think it's time to go back to basics for some fundamental testing.
Right now I am capped at 8Mb/s no matter what I do but it may be a busy time, I like to test at 1am if possible to rule out any network congestion. Of course that's when any network engineering is likely to be taking place.
Steve