FTTC and FTTP Isposure performance testing

[#1]

Hi guys,
We're interested in getting some independent performance monitoring on our FTTx lines. If anyone would like to help out then if you can take a look at the Isposure site and tool here that would be appreciated:
http://www.isposure.com
We're currently looking at the hows and ways of marketing FTTC so having some performance monitoring would certainly help out.
ADSL/2+ customers are welcome to take part too and would help with the comparison.

[#2]

Dave,
I'm happy to help with ADSL (I've asked to go on a 992.1 profile) when I get switched over. I have a lot of data from my current ISP and have also been involved with them investigating performance issues. Hopefully that experience might help.
When/ if I go FTTP, I'll be happy to help with that too.
With any luck, that will enable you to compare the two products at/ to the same premises too.
Paul

[#3]

Do you get any information back for people on SamKnows monitoring?

[#4]

Hi Dave.
Isposure:
Yet another speed test that has massive variations in results!
Testing on 2 machines, XP Pro SP3 and Vista Home Premium SP2
The first test on both machines gives a line test up of  31.33 Mb/s
Run the test again and it returns a result of 8.07 and 8.42  Mb/s
I’ll give it a few more days running in the system tray!
Test using mybroadbandspeed on a Centos 5.5 Linux server gives a very consistent set of results for the FTTP up connection. Averaging  28,333 Kbps (3.54MB/s)
However this test displays large shifts in the down speed , slower than the up speed at times!
Speedtest.net also seems to have difficulty with consistency. This test has multiple testing points, Paris and Milton Keynes have given me some of the best and worst results, often flipping if the test is repeated.
A good test is to download from Microsoft, service pack 3
WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe 316.4MB
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&dis...
Microsoft give a list of estimated download times,
12 hr 52 min for Dial-up (56k)
57 min DSL/Cable (768K)
29 min T1 (1.5M)
Me about 1 minute on PlusNet FTTP
My system took longer to decompress and copy to the selected storage folder.
For anyone using BT Option 2  even with the newly doubled usage allowance of 40 Mb as advertised in my September phone bill, may I recommend you order a CD
Happydays
Kevin

[#5]

Thanks, I'll feed back to them. I think a lot of the cases with these speedtests is that they just haven't been build for speeds that FTTP in particular can do.

[#6]

Hi Dave,
I've installed and run a few tests yesterday/today. So far the download is reporting ~30Mbps. But the upload is resolutely stuck at ~2.6Mbps.
Connection ISP      Line Speed Down Line Speed Up HTTP                      Ping        DNS
Home PlusNet plc 30.64 Mbps                  2.6 Mbps          195.76 KB/s  19 ms  19 ms 
speedtest.net & mybroadbandspeed almost always show an upstream speed of 7 or 8 Mbps.
Tom.

[#7]

No Macintosh version?

[#8]

09 Nov 2010 Home PlusNet plc 33.55 Mbps  3.03 Mbps  122.26 KB/s  16 ms  10 ms 
08 Nov 2010 Home PlusNet plc 28.47 Mbps  4.88 Mbps  335.32 KB/s  16 ms  14 ms

Got a funny feeling the Upload speed is a bit off, all other speed tests i have used shows my speed at around 8Mbps

[#9]

Hi Dave.
A few days of testing has confirmed my first impression of this software.
One Machine reports 81.55 Mbs and another 62.74 Mbs (see illustrations)
Both are on the same network node yet we have a 25% differential in the reported speed in the task bar.
One big concern if the detailed readings are true is the 7 Mbs Line up!
As a web developer and photographer using video, the up speed is more important with an asymmetric connection as this is the constraining factor.
(Inaccuracy of the up speed has also been highlighted by Tom  and Pogdin)
mybroadbandspeed.co.uk on a Linux web server has been giving me a consistent  and very respectable average of about 28 Mbs up
BT speedtester gives an up connection of 30000 k with 21818 kbps but Zero on another test. (Do any speed tests work constantly or is it my sixth sense that I always pick dodgy times to test?)
I have now  used a range of testing methods at different times of day and night and as yet not found any consistency.
I can confirm that for the first time ever my wife and I watched a full HD TV program stream in real time via the BBC iPlayer.
Without freezing or crashing the machine we also inadvertently downloaded in the background a windows updated at the same time. How cool is that.
They do say the proof of the pudding is in the eating and FTTP is very tasty!
So for now, lets just say 'I have a fast connection'!
Happydays
Kevin

[#10]

And to day I saw this in my system tray.
Happydays
Kevin.

[#11]

Couldn't see this in their FAQ, any ideas how much of our precious bandwidth they'd use each month?

[#12]

Gonna take a stab in the dark here and say probly not very much, i'm sure i read it on their site where it will only do one test per day unless you force it to do more.

PS. @Dave - Would you like some results posted here? Or can you get an idea by looking at their site?

[#13]

I am currently part of the SamKnows ISP performance monitioring programme, and have been since the end of April.  If any of this data is useful to anyone then let me know and I can download and post/send it.  I am currently on G.992.5 annex A with a current sync of 300 / 1,152 (very long line!). However the nice folks from BT Openreach  are out threading fibre runs and installing shiny new green cabinets around town. Once my 'cab' is installed and running I intend to join the FTTC trail (as I did with the ADSL2+/21CN). My exchange is NDASF and I am on Cab 101.

[#14]

The test only runs once a day so I don't think it will use a lot of bandwidth but I can see if I can find out. I should be able to see the results on their portal (I've not checked yet) so will let you know if I need any data.
ashgeo - would be good to have the Samknows data on FTTC too so let us know when it gets enabled.

[#15]

I've been hosting the SamKnows kit from phase 1. Been through ADSL, ADSL Max (the one with 800K up) and now ADSL2. If the training ever gets sorted and my order initiated it'll monitor the FTTC stuff instead. It'll be monitoring the FTTC after from the 26th if all goes according to plan  TVM Dave.