FTTP 330Mb trial - day 1, not as straight forward as it would seem!
Well arrived home from work eager to try the new superfast Fibre connection. Had been told that I might need to reboot OTN but decided first to try it and see if I needed to or not. So plugged Laptop into Router and tried a quick Speed test via ThinkBroadBand.Com., 9.9mb down and 9.9mb upload!!!! OK must need rebooting, so re-booted OTN and Router and tried again same result. What’s going on?
As router is in loft, decided to carry on investigations in office (back bedroom), tried BT site and this time speed was showing as 94mb down 29mb up. Must be ThinkBroadBand.Com, so tried site again and got similar results to BT. Why is it running slow when connected directly to router but faster (still not what I was expecting) when connected to a separate switch then router.
Decided to go back into loft and try again, but this time I decided to check line speed of connection to router first; 10mb. Aaaaargh!!!!!, seems my laptop and the Netgear router don’t want to auto negotiate at 1Gb instead deciding on 10mb.
So a few minutes later tried the speed test again, now starting to see results along the lines I was expecting.
Still not the 330mb that the line promises but starting to get there. Watching the router when I do the test I suspect part of the problem may now be the router can’t keep up with the speeds of the line. I also suspect that the speed test sites cant cope either so might need to look at different speed test sites.
Ok, so that explains why I was getting 10mb when directly connected to router, but why was I only getting 94mb in the office. Checked Switch which is a Gigabit Switch and connection from laptop was showing as 1Gb (this did auto negotiate). But the link light on the uplink to the router is only showing as 100mb. Disconnected switch from cable in office and pluged it directly into Router in Loft, now it shows as a 1Gb connection. Must be problem with cable, bit more digging, realised cable is only Cat5 (max 100mbs) not Cat5e, worse than that it is buried in wall, so is not going to be easy to replace, but will have too as that is only physical connection to office and with the speed of the Broadband being far in excess of wireless speeds I will need too if I want to see the full benefit of this new connection.
Luckily as wall is dry lined I should be able to pull the old cable through along with a new replacement (cat6 this time). But that is going to have to wait until tomorrow!
So a few Lessons
1. Make sure the physical connection between the PC and Router do actually connect at the speed you expect. For 330mb that means you have to connect at 1gb.
2. You can no longer get away with a wireless connection if you want to take full advantage of the speed.
3. Make sure your network really is up to the job. You need to be able to run at least 1Gb that means you need a minimum of Cat5e cable ideally Cat6.
However, I suppose what most people want to know is it any faster in reality. Unfortunately, even when connected directly to the router it did not seem any faster, but as I have spent most of the evening trying to sort out other issues its difficult to be sure. Hopefully, once I have replaced the wiring, and have installed the new router that Dave has sent out things will go a bit better.
As router is in loft, decided to carry on investigations in office (back bedroom), tried BT site and this time speed was showing as 94mb down 29mb up. Must be ThinkBroadBand.Com, so tried site again and got similar results to BT. Why is it running slow when connected directly to router but faster (still not what I was expecting) when connected to a separate switch then router.
Decided to go back into loft and try again, but this time I decided to check line speed of connection to router first; 10mb. Aaaaargh!!!!!, seems my laptop and the Netgear router don’t want to auto negotiate at 1Gb instead deciding on 10mb.
So a few minutes later tried the speed test again, now starting to see results along the lines I was expecting.
Still not the 330mb that the line promises but starting to get there. Watching the router when I do the test I suspect part of the problem may now be the router can’t keep up with the speeds of the line. I also suspect that the speed test sites cant cope either so might need to look at different speed test sites.
Ok, so that explains why I was getting 10mb when directly connected to router, but why was I only getting 94mb in the office. Checked Switch which is a Gigabit Switch and connection from laptop was showing as 1Gb (this did auto negotiate). But the link light on the uplink to the router is only showing as 100mb. Disconnected switch from cable in office and pluged it directly into Router in Loft, now it shows as a 1Gb connection. Must be problem with cable, bit more digging, realised cable is only Cat5 (max 100mbs) not Cat5e, worse than that it is buried in wall, so is not going to be easy to replace, but will have too as that is only physical connection to office and with the speed of the Broadband being far in excess of wireless speeds I will need too if I want to see the full benefit of this new connection.
Luckily as wall is dry lined I should be able to pull the old cable through along with a new replacement (cat6 this time). But that is going to have to wait until tomorrow!
So a few Lessons
1. Make sure the physical connection between the PC and Router do actually connect at the speed you expect. For 330mb that means you have to connect at 1gb.
2. You can no longer get away with a wireless connection if you want to take full advantage of the speed.
3. Make sure your network really is up to the job. You need to be able to run at least 1Gb that means you need a minimum of Cat5e cable ideally Cat6.
However, I suppose what most people want to know is it any faster in reality. Unfortunately, even when connected directly to the router it did not seem any faster, but as I have spent most of the evening trying to sort out other issues its difficult to be sure. Hopefully, once I have replaced the wiring, and have installed the new router that Dave has sent out things will go a bit better.
Nice write up and some great detail for anyone considering 300MB broadband.
I found Speedtest.net gave me the best results
This link shows you all my results for different servers http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=46a5e1c3ee57b27586c8e82db6a74cb5&ria=0 ,notice the server hosted in London by Namesco gets me pretty much 300MB everytime which is odd as nothing else comes close
Everything I download ( which is where I need THIS speed ) is handled by my mini server/NAS which is hardwired via CAT5s to the router which intern is hardwired to the ONT via CAT5e. Everything else I need to do like streaming HD TV via iPlayer, browsing etc works fine over my wifi bottleneck from all my wifi devices.
I guess the question has to be asked is there a need for broadband of this speed ?
Si
I found Speedtest.net gave me the best results
This link shows you all my results for different servers http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=46a5e1c3ee57b27586c8e82db6a74cb5&ria=0 ,notice the server hosted in London by Namesco gets me pretty much 300MB everytime which is odd as nothing else comes close
Everything I download ( which is where I need THIS speed ) is handled by my mini server/NAS which is hardwired via CAT5s to the router which intern is hardwired to the ONT via CAT5e. Everything else I need to do like streaming HD TV via iPlayer, browsing etc works fine over my wifi bottleneck from all my wifi devices.
I guess the question has to be asked is there a need for broadband of this speed ?
Si
Hi Adam,
Well got the new Cat6 cable run and so I can now test from the office. Still awaiting delivery of the new router from PN but at least I don’t need to perch a laptop on top of some old boxes to test now.
Anyway tried SpeedTest.net as Si suggested and whilst cant get quite the same results I am now seeing well over 200mbs on a regular basis. Below are a few examples I have just done.
As you will see from this link the results are very variable depending on the hosting site and location http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=0c7d8228b2097413e3471f0e4a2fb844&ria=0
I suspect the reality is that the ability of the test site to cope with these speeds and the performance of the router are now playing a big part in the results.
Whilst the results demonstrate that the line is performing around the speed I would expect, most of the time I can’t really notice the difference in everyday use. However, VPN to work (also in MK) does seem a little more responsive but I have no real way of validating that. Also work only has a 100mbs connection so I don’t see how it can be all that different.
I will see how things go and report back once the router has arrived and been installed. Any idea what has been sent? For reference I have the NetGear N300 currently.
Gary
Well got the new Cat6 cable run and so I can now test from the office. Still awaiting delivery of the new router from PN but at least I don’t need to perch a laptop on top of some old boxes to test now.
Anyway tried SpeedTest.net as Si suggested and whilst cant get quite the same results I am now seeing well over 200mbs on a regular basis. Below are a few examples I have just done.
As you will see from this link the results are very variable depending on the hosting site and location http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=0c7d8228b2097413e3471f0e4a2fb844&ria=0
I suspect the reality is that the ability of the test site to cope with these speeds and the performance of the router are now playing a big part in the results.
Whilst the results demonstrate that the line is performing around the speed I would expect, most of the time I can’t really notice the difference in everyday use. However, VPN to work (also in MK) does seem a little more responsive but I have no real way of validating that. Also work only has a 100mbs connection so I don’t see how it can be all that different.
I will see how things go and report back once the router has arrived and been installed. Any idea what has been sent? For reference I have the NetGear N300 currently.
Gary
