FTTP expected speedtest results

Hi all,

I have had Ultrafast installed on a 900Mbps package. My providers own test via their app shows over 900Mbps to the hub. Real world testing, including a Gbit Ethernet Connection never goes above 400Mbps. I am in no way unimpressed with the speeds being achieved but am I missing something as to why I don't get the speeds of up too 900Mbps to my devices?

Thanks,

Nelix01

This has quite often come down to the testing device not being up to running the speedtests at higher speeds. A few have posted here with maxed out speed tests and it has turned out to be a combination of their hardware/OS just not managing to drive the speed tests any faster. Trying with a Linux install may actually show a different result that is more in line with the speed of FTTP.

Probably device you are running speedtest from is maxing out. Windows? run taskmanager and look at processes.

Yeah, its a new windows laptop I am using for Gbit testing. CPU around 12% and Memory 45%.

I have also tested with a new iPhone 13 and iPad Pro, getting the same results.

Please dont say you're testing via WiFI

Only using Wi-Fi for a comparison against the Ethernet test.

Are you testing via the ISP supplied router or your own? Presumably directly in to the router

Which FTTP network and ISP?

Yes, using BT supplied Smarthub 2 on Openrech network.

Try another wired device if you can. Also turn off any 3rd party AV/Firewall on your windows device.

In reply to a post by nelix01:

Yeah, its a new windows laptop I am using for Gbit testing. CPU around 12% and Memory 45%.

I have also tested with a new iPhone 13 and iPad Pro, getting the same results.

The high-level speed test results may show similar for phone (via WiFi) and PC/laptop via cable connection but could be for very different reasons.

For example the BT SH2 only supports the 802.11ac WiFi spec rather than 802.11ax (WiFi 6) spec, so that alone will cap possible wireless speeds to well under 900 Mbps and more like 500 Mbps.

There is still very much a good chance that your PC even though it is relatively new could be in itself throttling network speeds as noted, due to issues that have been mentioned related to third party AV, anti-spam, firewall etc software. Even when deactivated - often the system will continue to behave poorly in speed tests until the software is completely and totally un-installed - due the the nature of how and how deeply embedded it is within windows and its networking stack.

Testing with a non-windows machine or booting the machine in question into linux via a USB stick, as suggested, are usually good means to prove or disprove this.

Just trying to be pragmatic. It's not always straightforward diagnosing where the issue(s) lie with gigabit broadband.

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 11-Feb-22 18:59:15)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

The high-level speed test results may show similar for phone (via WiFi) and PC/laptop via cable connection but could be for very different reasons.

For example the BT SH2 only supports the 802.11ac WiFi spec rather than 802.11ax (WiFi 6) spec, so that alone will cap possible wireless speeds to well under 900 Mbps and more like 500 Mbps.

There is still very much a good chance that your PC even though it is relatively new could be in itself throttling network speeds as noted, due to issues that have been mentioned related to third party AV, anti-spam, firewall etc software. If when deactivated. Testing with a non-windows machine or booting into linux via a USB stick are usually good means to prove or disprove this.

Just trying to be pragmatic. It's not always straightforward diagnosing where the issue(s) lie with gigabit broadband.

That or the laptop is defaulting to WiFi even when ethernet is connected.

In reply to a post by nelix01:

My providers own test via their app shows over 900Mbps to the hub. Real world testing, including a Gbit Ethernet Connection never goes above 400Mbps.

This will boil down to the details of the test. A "multi-threaded" test - one that opens multiple connections concurrently - will show faster speeds than a "single-threaded" test - a single TCP stream. It also depends on exactly where the test server is located.

The maximum throughput of a single TCP stream is very sensitive to tiny amounts of packet loss and to the round-trip time. So if you test to a server which is further away, you'll get slower results.

If you're interested, the formula is here.

Example:
- test server is 0.01 seconds away (10ms round-trip time)
- packet loss is 0.0001 (1 in 10,000 packets)

Maximum throughput of a single TCP stream is:

1460 / 0.01 / sqrt(0.0001) = 14,600,000 bytes/sec = 116.8 Mbps

Thanks everyone. I suspect that I was being a bit greedy when testing and not seeing 900Mbps exactly. I am more than happy with real world performance of the service.

I don't know if this helps but, my Smart Hub from BT would only provide upto 450 Mbps download (I have the 900/110 service through BT themselves). However, switching over to my Linksys router gives me the full speed without issue.

Edited by simguy83 (Sat 19-Feb-22 16:16:33)