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BT Speedtester

artmo
Aspiring Champion
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Registered: ‎12-08-2007

BT Speedtester

I have been trying to use the BT Speedtester for the past hour without success.  After entering my phone number and clicking on 'Go' I keep getting an error message telling me 'it's busy'
Surely there has to be a better system than this!
25 REPLIES 25
HPsauce
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Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: BT Speedtester

That's typical I'm afraid of busy periods.
What specifically do you need to know?
artmo
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Registered: ‎12-08-2007

Re: BT Speedtester

Quote from: HPsauce
That's typical I'm afraid of busy periods.
What specifically do you need to know?

I was just wanting to test my speed before posting a question on the forum.  I'll try again later.
HPsauce
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Re: BT Speedtester

There are plenty of other speed testers, including one on PN's own web site...
http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/
pierre_pierre
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Re: BT Speedtester

HP you should know that PN will ask for the BT test if you ask a definite question of them
HPsauce
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Re: BT Speedtester

Of course, that's why I enquired what artmo was interested in.....
He said he was going to ask a question in the Forum, not raise a query with PN....
artmo
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Re: BT Speedtester

Quote from: HPsauce
There are plenty of other speed testers, including one on PN's own web site...
http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/

Yes, I use the PN one a lot. It's very good and reliable.
When I get back from hols maybe I'll drop a line to Ben Verwaayen at BT and ask him to investigate the problems we all seem to have with the BT Tester.
artmo
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Re: BT Speedtester

HPsauce and Pierre-Pierre,
I was just going to ask a question and assumed a BT test would be required.
What I was interested to know is as follows:
Some time ago with a lot of help  from spraxyt I got my speed up to a respectable 5.5MB.  This was done by resetting my RWIN to 136000 and my MTU to 1500.  These are the settings showing in Dr. TCP.
When I run the tweak test, however, the RWIN shows as 137240 and the MTU as 1400.  When I check on Speedguide.net I get 1360 and 1400.  Both sites suggest setting MTU to 1500.
There is a comment on the second site to say if I am using a router (Voyager 210) 'it could be limiting your MTU regardless of Registry settings'.
I am just wondering why my Dr.TCP is showing different figures to the test sites and if there is anything to be worried about as my speed is OK?
I am using XP.
Apologies for this lengthy post but hope it makes sense.
HPsauce
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Re: BT Speedtester

Personally I'd like to understand that as well.. Cool
I'm absolutely NOT an expert on RWIN and MTU but can see different recommendations from different sources.
I currently take a "suck it and see" approach on the basis that "received wisdom" says:
MTU too high can be a problem, so if in doubt reduce it a little.
RWIN too low can be a problem, so if in doubt make it the largest of all the recommendations you get.
What I haven't seen anywhere is a detailed, reasoned, logical argument on how to set each one and WHY. Or what difference it makes if you don't get it exactly right.....
spraxyt
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Re: BT Speedtester

By default the Voyager 210 uses an MTU of 1400 on the WAN (Internet) side and 1500 on the LAN (computer) side. DSLreports sees the WAN side and reports the MTU as 1400; DrTCP shows your computer setting which is (and should be) 1500.
With regard to RWIN, DrTCP knows the rule that RWIN should be an even multiple of MTU-40 (1500-40=1460) and sets the actual value to respect that. 137240 = 94 times 1460.
So you are communicating efficiently with the router and one can assume the router knows what it is doing and communicates efficiently with external sites. It might be possible to increase throughput slightly by increasing the WAN MTU on your router to 1500, but some users report problems on particular sites which using the smaller value eliminates.
My suggestion is to leave the settings as they are.
David
artmo
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Re: BT Speedtester

Hi Spraxyt,
Thanks for the explanation.  In my case a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and it just caused me to worry ;).
When you got me to adjust my settings a while back we decided not to set the router MTU to 1500. Since your tutorial everything has been well with my speed so as you say, leave well alone.
Thanks.
artmo
jelv
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Re: BT Speedtester

If you can't increase the MTU on the router you should put the MTU on your PC down to 1400.
Of all the combinations, having the PC MTU higher than the router MTU is the worst.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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HPsauce
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Re: BT Speedtester

That's interesting and I've never seen it anywhere before.
Can you explain why please?
(I do happen to have set mine the same as it seemed sensible)
jelv
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Re: BT Speedtester

MTU path discovery should mean that the smallest MTU between the PC and the server  is used - sometimes this doesn't work properly (or it is turned off at some point along the route. What will then happen that a message of say 1500 reaches a device (router/switch etc.) which has a smaller MTU the message then has to be split in to two messages. It is then stuck together again at the other end. Having your router smaller than your PC can lead to messages being split as they pass through your router. This can make quite a difference as twice as many messages have to be transmitted.
I've seen a wireless laptop slowed down dramatically because of this - the router MTU was increased to match the laptop and the speed from a speedtest almost doubled.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
shutter
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Re: BT Speedtester

Quote

I've seen a wireless laptop slowed down dramatically because of this - the router MTU was increased to match the laptop and the speed from a speedtest almost doubled.


I am running a Dell Inspiron 2200 laptop..... with the PlusNet supplied Voyager 2091 wireless router..... My download speed is 997 (usual average over several days and times of days) and my upload speed is 374.
How can I find out if my router is configured to the same speed as the laptop?  I don`t really have a speed issue, as I don`t play online games, nor do I use the iplayer, type downloads.... I just download the occasional utility, and general surfing the net....