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Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

ceedy
Grafter
Posts: 39
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

In the past with our old exchange and other various ISP's , the actual  versus  advertised speed difference was always Huh explained away by  various excuses ,  old exchange , copper wires, overcrowding?? etc etc ..
the usual old hogwash!! ,
When we went to Plusnet ... our usual 4-5 on an 8mb line  jumped to 7.9 so close enuf!!  Smiley
But now on NEW  fibre  why is there a very similar situation,  we should be getting 40  instead get varying speeds up to a max of 37-38 depending on the wind direction.?
No Excuses should really cut it any more as  we do have the option of 76 on our  line  ? . so why is 40  not 40 ?

Also the Fiber Router's Wifi  will randomly stop working, LAN is OK  ,  and the router needs a number of power cycles to start up again.
Also the range is very poor compared to the previous P-Net BB  Router,.

Ta     Chris
11 REPLIES 11
w23
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Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

Plusnet's "40Mb/s Fibre" is advertised as 'up to 38Mb/s'.  Wink
Call me 'w23'
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
gleneagles
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Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

But that's not good enough.
Say you are getting 3 or 4 Mb/s download on Fibre is that ok ?
What it should say is that the minimum speed on fibre would be X.
It 's hardly fair that fibre users, of which I am one are getting lower speeds than someone on ASDL.
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w23
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Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

Quote from: ceedy
we should be getting 40  instead get varying speeds up to a max of 37-38 depending on the wind direction.?

Unless I misread or misunderstood something?
Call me 'w23'
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
elfish
Grafter
Posts: 235
Registered: ‎22-02-2009

Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

@OP, are you sure that actual throughput was 7.9Mbps? ADSL, the max is around 7Mbps even when sync'ing at full rate (8128).
The 40/20 package will only give you up to 38Mbps due to many factors, for example; protocol overheads. This applies to the 80/20 package as well (up to 76Mbps).
sjptd
Grafter
Posts: 494
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Registered: ‎01-09-2014

Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

What elfish says is correct.
Also, you say But now on NEW  fibre  why is there a very similar situation,  we should be getting 40  instead get varying speeds up to a max of 37-38 depending on the wind direction.?  I assume you are on FTTC, Fibre to the Cabinet.  The fibre to the cabinet is new, but there are still the same old copper (or aluminium) wires from the cabinet to your house, and these limit your speed.  You should have been given estimates when you signed up with Plusnet fibre; you can see these at http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome and enter your telephone number.  The speeds they quote are the line speeds not allowing for the protocol overhead that elfish mentioned.  The  estimates allow for your line distance from the cabinet, but cannot take into account all the variables inherent in these old wires; that is why they quote quite a wide range.
The old overcrowding issue still applies as well.  You have bought a contended service, where you are sharing resources with others.  For guaranteed speeds you would need an uncontended one, which is MUCH more expensive.
It may well be that PlusNet advertising did not make these issues as clear to you as they should have done.  The 'up to' is certainly in much smaller print then the 38Mb (which should really be Mbps anyway, but never mind ....)
ceedy
Grafter
Posts: 39
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

Ok I understand all this ...
But to be a bit pedantic , I was offered 40  not 37-38..  It was all done over the phone,  I rang up P-net to negotiate another deal as my BB was running out , and was offered Fibre as it  has just been  fired up in the village, and was offered 40  or 76 ?.
that's it .. no mentioning of  anything else,  hence my  "why is 40 not 40"  Wink .
And yes the last few yards of connection  ( I can see the Fiber box  just up the road )  is still our old 40 year old copper..
But  I was offered 76?  then but some of the reasoning on here , I will still only get 38 ?,  if 76 is possible ,I must still ask  then why isn't 40 @  40?  Grin
sjptd
Grafter
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Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

Your sync speed probably is 40Mbps or even well above that, and very likely you are getting that speed in 'raw' data delivered to the modem.  The 38 is what you get in immediately 'useful' data. 
The guy on the phone was inconsistent (incorrect) giving a choice of 76 or 40,  he should have either said 80/40 or 76/38.  He should also have said that it was an 'up to' speed, especially the 78.  Maybe he should also have explained the 40/38 difference, though I suspect most people would find having that discussed on the phone to be a little too detailed.
By the way, If you have a separate Opereach HG612 you can unlock it and see your actual sync speed.  That will give an idea of what speeds you would get for paying the extra for the 76 package.  I went for the lower package even though I would get around 70 on the 80 package.  One feature of PlusNet is that they offer up to 20Mbps (18.7Mbps in real data) on upload even on the lower level package; most (all) other ISPs only offer 10Mbps upload on the 40Mbps download package.
ceedy
Grafter
Posts: 39
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

  We have an ECI  fibre  modem...
C.
Andrue
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Registered: ‎12-01-2015

Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

Think of it like sending a letter. You're posting more than just the paper the letter is written on. You're also posting the envelope and a stamp. The protocol (think: 'language') that the internet uses needs data to be addressed and needs some other things as well, flags to control how the packet is handled and checksums to look for corruption. All of that takes a chunk out of your bandwidth. There's a really in-depth article about it here:
http://packetpushers.net/tcp-over-ip-bandwidth-overhead/
TCP/IP overhead as a %ge varies but if I remember correctly it will never be less than 3%, and will be higher for smaller packets and IPv6.
So you'll never get more than 97% of your sync speed as actual throughput and that's ignoring losses resulting from transmission delays and retries.
hillyfields123
Grafter
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Registered: ‎16-09-2014

Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

The ECI fibre modem can be 'unlocked' to give router stats too.
It's a little more involved but still do-able if you're (fairly) comfortable using a soldering iron and a serial console.
ceedy
Grafter
Posts: 39
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

Re: Speed not quite as Advwertised/Offered and Wifi Problem

thanks for all the replies ... have have to leave it there.. for the time being ..
Off to start another thread on the  Fibre  Router . Roll_eyes