FTTC in Londonderry - 5Mbit/s

A week ago, I got FTTC installed to my home in Londonderry (NILDW exchange) with the ISP Goscomb replacing ADSL from TalkTalk n�e Nildram. Download performance has been very disappointing.

Speeds per second:
Speed checker estimate: 30Mbit / 7Mbit
BT Engineer check: 37Mbit / 8Mbit
Actual speed: 5Mbit / 8Mbit.

I realise that the engineer's check is going to over estimate the speed as there is overhead to take into account (I wasn't supposed to see the result, probably to stop unreasonable expectations). However, my actual download speed is woeful. It does fluctuate quite a bit, I briefly got 34Mbit/s but often get 1Mbit/s - I think 5Mbit is about average.

I have a Belkin N300 router, which replaced a Belkin Pre-N router which had the same poor performance. Plugging the BT modem directly into a PC also gave the same poor performance. I have a PPPoE connection and the MTU set to 1458, as recommended by BT via Goscomb's support.

Goscomb's support, who it has to be said have been very good and helpful apart from the small issue of getting this fixed, are on it. Which is to say, they've asked BT to get on it. A week later and still no improvement - it's a 12 month contract, I wonder if I can get out of it as they're not delivering what they said.

Post result from http://speedtester.bt.com/

Well the problem appears to be ISP or equipment related as you appear to be SYNCing at 37Mb, therefore the line is capable of higher speeds.

and run all the tests - you should be prompted to run the third test as your rate is likely to be well below the minimum acceptable for that product.

Matt

Hi i live in derry as well and i got fttc and i am getting full speed where`s about do you live

Also on same exchange in Lisnagelvin area and i get full speeds 24/7 with BT Infinity

I live off the Limavady Road, probably just over a mile from the exchange (it's on Irish Street, right?). Johnct, where do you live?

I ran the speed tester a while ago and got about 6Mbit down. The third test (Tap3, I think it was called) wouldn't run. I will try it again when I get home. I'm regretting my choice of ISP, especially as the 80GB cap goes a lot quicker than I'd expected!

The fibre all goes over to NILDM though.

What does speedtest.net give you? what speedtest are you using?

Run the BT speedtest and post the IP profile.

I live near yep exchange on irish street i would say turn off the router for 15-30mins and reboot after this and do another speed test to see what you get
and yes your 80gig will go very quickly !!

Edited by deleted (Thu 11-Aug-11 18:25:12)

I've been using Speedtest.net for most of the tests and ThinkBroadband for a few - TB gives slower upload speeds than ST.net but still fine. For ST, I've mostly been using the Manchester host (thanks uno!) as it gives the best ping from my Manchester based ISP, but I've been mixing it up a bit with no significant difference between hosts.

If the fibre goes to the city centre exchange, then I'm probably closer to it than any of you guys. I don't know where the cabinet is. I will try the BT speed tester now.

your fibre will be connected to the irish street exchange lall the fibre is going though that
i would say your fibre cabnet is about 250 mets away going by the speed test you are connected at .

Hmm, I ran the BT speed tester.

Download speed achieved during the test was - 20393 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 12000-36743 Kbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is -36743 Kbps


Upload speed achieved during the test was - 4163 Kbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10000 Kbps

Using SpeedTest.net, I'm presently getting 13.4Mbit/s down and 5Mbit/s up. It has fluctuated quite a bit (no correlation with time of day), evidently the download speed is feeling good at present. Is my IP profile supposed to be negative?

In reply to a post by Johnct:

your fibre will be connected to the irish street exchange lall the fibre is going though that
i would say your fibre cabnet is about 250 mets away going by the speed test you are connected at .

Not true, the fibre goes through 21CN exchanges and NILDW is not enabled, it goes all through NILDM

A test on my line shows this:

FTTC Availability

FTTC availability Y
OHP district code NI
OHP exchange code LDM

Edited by BuckleZ (Thu 11-Aug-11 18:10:07)

i guess o2 must have helped you with that info !!

In reply to a post by Johnct:

i guess o2 must have helped you with that info !!

Or possibly the Openreach engineer who installed it?

a question with a question i thought you knew it all lol

Any exchange can get FTTC, it does not need to be 21CN enabled as it's not a requirement, but may be different in your exchange setup.

James

Yeh the exchange that your connected to does not need to be 21CN, but the connection will go to a 21CN exchange, in my area there is 2 21CN exchanges (one was only done recently) and all the FTTC cabinets are routed thruogh the older one, engineer said thats the way it happens in all the areas around here.

For eg in my area these are a few exchanges, NILDM, NILDW, NIBRH, NICRS, NICSI, NICDY

Out of them, only NILDM and NIBRH are 21CN enabled, any other exchange FTTC PCP cabinet is routed to either 1 of them 2 exchanges, i think they all actualy go through NIDLM as NIBRH was only 21CN activated in March

Edited by BuckleZ (Thu 11-Aug-11 19:56:00)

buckle we already got the info from adsl24 you were too slow !!!

1458 MTU? That doesn't seem right, I'm with Goscomb and I'm using 1492 MTU.

It's reverted to type - I did another BT speed test:

Download speed achieved during the test was - 1943 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 12000-36624 Kbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is -36624 Kbps


Upload speed achieved during the test was - 8180 Kbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10000 Kbps


This test was not conclusive and further testing is required.This might be useful for your ISP to investigate the fault.

I'm trying "further tests" now.

Where are you cmn, and what speed do you get? I don't think MTU should make much of a difference but it's worth a shot!

OK, here's the tap3 test, which is describes as the third even though I only did one before (perhaps upload and download count as separate tests).

This Last Test comprises of two tests

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
1622 Kbps

0 Kbps 36624 Kbps
Max Achievable Speed

> Download speedachieved during the test was - 1622 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 12000-36624 Kbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is -36624 Kbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
8220 Kbps

0 Kbps 10000 Kbps
Max Achievable Speed

>Upload speed achieved during the test was - 8220 Kbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10000 Kbps


Your service was found to be performing poorly.
Please raise a fault with your service provider, stating that the BT Performance Tester tool indicates poor service throughput performance after the third test.

Setting the MTU to 1492 didn't help either.

Must be ISP congestion issue, or a fault cause i have just ran a speedtest.. from http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/

Download Speed: 33775 kbps (4221.9 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 6548 kbps (818.5 KB/sec )

I'm 5min away from you...

I'm near Slough kind of, I have bonded FTTC with Goscomb and it's very fast.

http://speedtest.net/result/1411310564.png

it is not a congestion issue it is fault say to your isp again and see what they say

In reply to a post by cmn:

I'm near Slough kind of, I have bonded FTTC with Goscomb and it's very fast.

http://speedtest.net/result/1411310564.png

*drool*

I must look up bonded FTTC, I've never heard of that!

What made you not go for BT Infinity?

thats very good speed bt are ment to upgradeing speeds in the next few month so most people should get a big increase in download speed but the upload speed will only be half of your great speed

I heard BT were quite unreliable. That worked out well.

Also, there was a few issues like a static IP address costing more, and I think they might do things like slow Bittorrent.

Edited by deleted (Thu 11-Aug-11 22:18:42)

Ahh right, BT have been sweet for me, moved from sky LLU, no issues, top quality service.. only downside is the p2p shaping, but i rarely use p2p

!

Edited by deleted (Thu 11-Aug-11 23:40:04)

MTU should be 1492 for PPPoE, if you're on XP check your RWIN value via a tweak testing site as this can limit throughput if it's to small.

I'm on Windows 7, SpeedGuide.net gave this:

« SpeedGuide.net TCP Analyzer Results »
Tested on: 08.12.2011 07:52
IP address: 93.89.xx.xxx
Client OS: Windows 7

TCP options string: 0204059c01010402
MSS: 1436
MTU: 1476
TCP Window: 64620 (multiple of MSS)
RWIN Scaling: 0 bits
Unscaled RWIN : 64620
Recommended RWINs: 63184, 126368, 252736, 505472, 1010944
BDP limit (200ms): 2585kbps (323KBytes/s)
BDP limit (500ms): 1034kbps (129KBytes/s)
MTU Discovery: ON
TTL: 116
Timestamps: OFF
SACKs: ON
IP ToS: 00000000 (0)

That's using Win7's auto-tuning.

What ADSL speed did you guys get in Londonderry? I got 3 Mbit.

I got 20meg on Sky, and 22mb on TalkTalk - Line length was around 1.5km - Attenuation: 22.5dB

You got a 20Mbit ADSL connection?

Wow.

Maybe the line between my home and the cabinet is ancient and can't handle much.

dont believe everything buckle says !!

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

dont believe everything buckle says !!

:-/

I'd rather believe someone who puts their nickname to their comment and who appears intelligent and knowledgeable, thanks.