Download speed

Coopes · Apr 22, 2006, 13:13:30

Confused.... I am downloading a file at between 780 to 830kbs yet my router is saying that I am connected at 2890 to 3300. How can this be

Coopes · Apr 22, 2006, 13:19:52

Just checked DSL Status reads
DSL Status
   Connection Status    Connected
   Upstream Rate (Kbps)    448
   Downstream Rate (Kbps)    2784
   US Margin    20
   DS Margin    0
   Modulation    MMODE
   LOS Errors    0
   DS Line Attenuation    52
   US Line Attenuation    61
   Path Mode    Interleaved

pazzaTgreat · Apr 22, 2006, 15:27:56

I don't really know how that could happen Coopes, but can anyone tell me how it could be with line stats like this:

Mode: G.DMT
Type: Fast
Line coding: Trellis On
Status: No Defect
Link power state: L0

Downstream Upstream
SNR margin (dB): 11.8 22.0
Attenuation (dB): 15.0 6.5
Output power (dBm): 15.8 12.0
Attainable rate (Kbps): 10432 1028
Rate (Kbps): 8128 448

NB the SNR margin down has varied between 9 and 14 over a 24 hour period

I have NEVER been able to download better than 6Mbps?

Surely these indicate near perfect Max conditions and my 10 days was up on the 17th. The line was stable so interleave not on, I have tried testing at all times of the day - yes I am that sad - but the very best I can get appears to be 750KBps which equates to 5.8 or 6.0 Mbps depending on whether or not you use 1024 or 1000 as your K unit.

I am not *unhappy* at that speed, but I am at the wide variance between 1 and 6Mbps that happens. I am annoyed that my line appears really good but I am not getting the requisite throughput.

Whew, rant over!

Any help / things I have missed gratefully received.

Jeff · Apr 22, 2006, 21:03:48

pazza, many ppl are seeing this, irrespective of their ISP. It`s a known fact that exchanges cannot allow everyone to download flat out at the same time, they don`t have the bandwidth for one. What we are seeing, unfortunately is contention. :\

Does your throughput vary according to the time of day? I know mine does and alas, my exchange status is red so BT are acknowledging that there is a VP issue.

Also, your throughput is within 30% of MSR so BT wouldn`t even consider it a fault on your line should your exchange prove to be uncongested

pazzaTgreat · Apr 22, 2006, 21:29:43

Jeff,

I know and understand that the contention issue is hitting everyone in terms of highs and lows - I don't believe enough was made of this before D-Day by BT.

My point was that I have been 'kicking the tyres' at all times of the day to see if I could ever hit max and it appears that I can't. I should have been able to see some burst speeds at near full rate at some point.

I know about the 30% too - I was gutted when I did the calculation

My exchange is in a small village in Scotland - I do not believe that many of the inhabitants have upgraded beyond 2Mb so I am almost certain that contention is not the issue and it does not appear to be a 'line fault' insofar as the modem continually reports perfect conditions.

I was really hoping that I had missed something obvious that someone could point out

What I think is the infrastructure leading to my small exchange is bottlenecked as we are a small village somewhat tacked on to a large-ish city, so until our friends down British Telecom actually start delivering, Max might actually prove to be more of a pain than staying at 2Mb

But as I have said here and other places - if they plan to deliver things like IPTV then the bandwidth MUST become available or it won't work.

Jeff · Apr 23, 2006, 01:41:04

Man, there is so much that we don`t know about MaxDSL yet. BT have been quite secretive on the technology that they use to determine who gets the lions share etc. From an IDNet point of view, if you feel that you should be obtaining better throughput, try a BT Speedtest which will indeed put your mind at rest and confirm that well, what you get is all yer gonna get :\

Have you tweaked your connection? May give you that bit extra, who knows?

Bandwidth ... big issue yes, I too believe that (and I think that you and I have had this conversation before) investment in infrastructure is necessary and a portion of the astronomical profits that BT have skimmed from blokes like us over the years should be invested into such

pazzaTgreat · Apr 23, 2006, 12:04:56

Yup, tweaked my connection to all currently proposed advice,

MTU is 1450, I found that I saw no discernable difference between using 1430 and the other stages I went through with finding the ping fragmentation limit (1450 for me)

Mind you,my rwin isn't that big, it's only 65535 but I am not sure if that will make any difference.

I'll try it though.

Nope - no difference b4 and after

I guess I'll just have to learn to live with 500KB + downloads then sigh ...

mamba · Apr 23, 2006, 14:14:49

it says my connection speed is 2.1 mbps on the network task bar but when i do speed tests on bt and adslguide i get some really bad results. It turns out that my upload is faster then my download, its rubbish. I am on my first day where testing is complete on the adslmax service and i am gettin the worst results ever.

Does any one have ne idea why?

pazzaTgreat · Apr 23, 2006, 17:31:25

Really need more info to go on before guessing

First check how contended your exchange is by going to

www.samknows.com

and see if your exchange is red, that might explain peak download contention.

mamba · Apr 23, 2006, 18:23:26

my exchange 'Harrogate' is all green apart from wireless it says, and simon said the line was showing as amber a few weeks ago.

Jeff · Apr 23, 2006, 21:18:34

Her`s some other online checkers too, Zen seems to be the first to update usually:

http://status.zensupport.co.uk/exchanges/

http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

http://www.nildram.net/support/tools/congestion_checker/

http://www.freedom2surf.net/mso/browse-vp.php

Mamba, welcome to IDNetters btw

Try a real time download from here which is a known good server. Go for one of the larger files and let it run for a couple of minutes then cancel, no need to d/l the whole lot

mamba · Apr 24, 2006, 10:15:40

thx for that

, they were all showing as green their to

i tried your download and was gettin 30k average

i hope it can be sorted $:-\$

pazzaTgreat · Apr 24, 2006, 19:28:17

Mamba - I'm going to ask something that might seem stupid -

Are you running any p2p software and have you got an up to date virus/trojan checker?

It is possible that unknown to you, your machine is downloading stuff, but I reckon it sounds like something has gone wrong at the exchange with rate setting that shouldn't have. $:-\$

Jeff · Apr 24, 2006, 20:17:55

Agreed, that ain`t right

kuja · Apr 24, 2006, 20:44:36

my speeds have been proper sheet for 2/3 days now. getting speeds of a 512k connection. it seems so slow after you've been on 2mbit for a year

edit: and my exchange is green!

Jeff · Apr 24, 2006, 20:46:54

What are you like off-peak Kuja?

kuja · Apr 24, 2006, 20:54:06

about 2mbit throughput. during the first few weeks i was getting 5-6mbit throughput (750kb's) now its around 2mbit

i know the speeds can be up and down but during the day it should be much better than 2mbit, compared to what most of you are getting

synched at 8128mbit (10day period over quite a while ago)

Xbandito · Apr 24, 2006, 20:57:02

In the same boat here.......speed down to 790kbps

An Jeff.....I am not awake when its classed as "off peak" not like some

Exchange is green and 10 day cooling off period is well an truly over

mamba · Apr 25, 2006, 20:53:14

Quote from: pazzaTgreat on Apr 24, 2006, 19:28:17
Mamba - I'm going to ask something that might seem stupid -

Are you running any p2p software and have you got an up to date virus/trojan checker?

It is possible that unknown to you, your machine is downloading stuff, but I reckon it sounds like something has gone wrong at the exchange with rate setting that shouldn't have. $:-\$

yeh i made sure every time i did a speed test that my connection wasnt in use

and i am using mcafee anti virus & firewall + lavasoft adaware so i hope that does the trick lol.
The only thing i will say is that been on adslmax, i have a slow connection but it is always on even at peak times. but the problem is its always slow

Xbandito · Apr 25, 2006, 22:53:52

Mamba, are you using a router/modem or a modem ?

pazzaTgreat · Apr 25, 2006, 23:36:48

Ok Mamba and kuja

First - this does appear to be a BT issue and is ISP wide with regard to speed variance but ...

can either supply current sync rate and SNR margins to see if it might be a line fault or anything else we can easily identify or discount?

If you register at L8NC.com, you can have your account pinged and analysed for line faults which can help with ISP or BT issues but I must confess I am stumped at the moment.

My observations with regard to the MAX product at the moment are

a) as we say up here it is up and down like a brides nightie ...m
b) the line stats are much more critical as it appears to be a FULLY RADSL product, meaning that it will only adapt to the highest STABLE (using apparently unknown criteria) rate

c) BT are playing their cards so close to their chest it might as well be poker we're playing here and not ADSL connections.

Scott · Apr 26, 2006, 08:07:01

Quote from: pazzaTgreat on Apr 25, 2006, 23:36:48
c) BT are playing their cards so close to their chest it might as well be poker we're playing here and not ADSL connections.

You know...if I were a more cynical induhvidual...I would suggest that there is a lot more wiggle room on the margins for error being supported with regard to MaxDSL and that BT are erring on the side of caution in order to maintain 'manageable' speeds until ADSL2+ comes along and they can trumpet that products speed increases and justify the upgrade ?

kuja · Apr 26, 2006, 09:35:39

Quote from: pazzaTgreat on Apr 25, 2006, 23:36:48
Ok Mamba and kuja

First - this does appear to be a BT issue and is ISP wide with regard to speed variance but ...

can either supply current sync rate and SNR margins to see if it might be a line fault or anything else we can easily identify or discount?

If you register at L8NC.com, you can have your account pinged and analysed for line faults which can help with ISP or BT issues but I must confess I am stumped at the moment.

My observations with regard to the MAX product at the moment are

a) as we say up here it is up and down like a brides nightie ...m
b) the line stats are much more critical as it appears to be a FULLY RADSL product, meaning that it will only adapt to the highest STABLE (using apparently unknown criteria) rate

c) BT are playing their cards so close to their chest it might as well be poker we're playing here and not ADSL connections.

Hi,

I've been synching at this speed since I upgraded - 1st april, my cap went off then aswell:

Router: DG834 V2
DownStream Connection Speed    8128 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed    448 kbps

Line Attenuation    35 db    11.5 db
Noise Margin    9 db    22 db

The Noise Margin drops to around 4/5dB during the evenings, but I've only lost sync 2/3 times since 1st april.

Surprisingly, my speeds yesterday were at 6mbit. However, 6pm onwards I was back to 512k speeds. To be honest, I don't get it. I don't really understand network/internet technology, but, this is why I'm baffled and I'm sure others are too:

During peak times we should be expecting 2mbit speeds but its no where near that. I was on 2mbit before with constant DL rate of 240kB/sec throughout the day, and now I can't even get that anymore.

Are BT using different hardware etc thats different from the original 512k/1mbit/2mbit connections?

mamba · Apr 26, 2006, 12:01:10

Quote from: Xbandito on Apr 25, 2006, 22:53:52
Mamba, are you using a router/modem or a modem ?

well i used speedtouch 330 usb before but then i saw it said u shouldnt use it so i am now using a ethernet router with only one connection to my pc.

I have registered at L8NC.com and will look at it more 2nite

mamba · Apr 26, 2006, 17:21:58

well rang up idnet and they said its bts fault, which it always seems to be. Apperently they cant complain bout this problem to BT but if i switch onto a 1meg connection apprently they can.
bt suxs! grr i wish i could get ntl lol or telewest