Broadband speed

Hi,

Very new to all of this, so sorry if I am asking a stupid question.

I have just run the speed test and got an average 'httpx6' download speed of approx 3.2Mb/sec., my current ISP supplies approx 1 Mb/sec. Should I be contacting them and asking for a higher speed to be delivered?

If the speed test shows an average speed of 3.2 Mbps then they are delivering it, the test only reports what can be delivered.

Do you have the link to the test, and what sort of broadband service are you using

Hi,

Hope this is what you requested;

Direct graph button
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13942...

HTML Graph Button With Link To Full Results
<a href="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=13942820039429196976"><img alt="My Broadband Speed Test" src="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13942820039429196976-mini.png" /></a>

If not let me know and I will try again!

I am using a standard ADSL broadband delivered by Talktalk

Hi,

Note the higher speed in this test, I re did the test to get the links to mail you

Hi

Have just re done the test to see what speed I get and this time it was approx 9Mb/sec., why the very different speeds?

Okay the speed to believe in your case is the tbbx1 values, since the graph shows a big spike for the HTTP suggesting either ISP is up to something or there is some AV software getting in the way of the testing hence a very odd looking shape.

Your latency is also VERY bad, 3 seconds is very poor, and is most likely why the httpx6 mis behaved.

To rule out flash as the problem try http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/ispa

Otherwise looks like ISP is delivering around 1 Mbps. What modem do you have, can you get the ADSL statistics out of it http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/stats/routers.html#hg532 shows the standard TalkTalk router

Hi

Tried the labs.thinkbroadband.com/ispa and it doesn't give a downlaoad speed at al and gives an upload speed of 0.29mbs

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13942...

<a href="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=1394283755698515255"><img alt="My Broadband Speed Test" src="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/1394283755698515255-mini.png" /></a>


ADSL STATISTICS
Mode
Routing
ADSL Mode G.dmt
ADSL Type Annex A
Status Up

Downstream Upstream
Rate(Kbps) 1760 448

SNR Margin(dB) 5.0 15.0
Attenuation(dB) 63.5 31.5
Output Power(dBm) 16 12

Super Frames 1319861 1319861
RS Correctable Errors 1109 51
RS Uncorrectable Errors 0 0

HEC Errors 0 0
Total Cells 125 163
Data Cells 5553391 804626
Bit Errors 0 0

By AV do you mean audio visual or something else?

I only have my telephone and broadband on the line supplied by Talktalk speed is too slow to have anything else.

AV = antivirus

Your sync speed is correct for your long line. Those speedtests are suspect. Perhaps your AV is getting in the way. Can you turn it off for the duration of the tests?

Because some bit of software is messing with the test by the look of it.

Without access to the PC to determine precisely what is running on it then hard to be sure.

Do web pages open fast, i.e. do they take 5 seconds before anything happens at all, or is the page arriving within a second or so.

Andrew

Hi

Its the 5sec rather than instant

Hi,

Turned off my AV and got the following results!

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13943...


<a href="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=139435924124071324400"><img alt="My Broadband Speed Test" src="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/139435924124071324400-mini.png" /></a>

Okay much more sensible, are web pages working any better?

Which anti virus package is it?

Hi,

Not sure if I sent you this or sent it to myself by mistake. So re-sending

Turned off my AV and got the following results!

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13943...


<a href="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=139435924124071324400"><img alt="My Broadband Speed Test" src="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/139435924124071324400-mini.png" /></a>

Hi,

Its the AV software from Talktalk, think it was originally called F-Secure.

I turned the AV back on as soon as I had done the speed test, so didn't think to check the webpage loading speed.

Hi,

Is there anything that I can do to improve my connection speed or is it as good as its going to get?

How will the OnLincs project deliver a higher speed? They say everyone should get at least 2Mbps or higher.

'Should get' - implies the project has finished, when in fact they are only just starting.

You should be in line for some form of upgrade, but it may require you to change provider e.g. it could be a fixed wireless scheme that TalkTalk do not sel..

Looking back at your stats, can you confirm the price you pay for your broadband? Since it does not look like TalkTalk LLU, but rather their offnet product. The offnet product is renowned for poor speeds i.e. speed tests being a lot lower than the modems actual connection speed, and that is what you are seeing.

You might find changing to a provider like BT, PlusNet, Zen, IDNet, AAISP will improve your results. You won't connect any faster, but might get better use of the small amount of speed you have.

Just did a quick cut and paste - pay the line rental annually as its cheaper

Advance month charges

TalkTalk Broadband 25 Feb 14 - 24 Mar 14 £15.32
TalkTalk Essentials 25 Feb 14 - 24 Mar 14 £7.50
Line Rental 25 Feb 14 - 24 Mar 14 £0.00
Anytime UK Calls Boost 25 Feb 14 - 24 Mar 14 £5.50
Caller Display 25 Feb 14 - 24 Mar 14 £0.00
Super Safe Boost 25 Feb 14 - 24 Mar 14 £2.00
Total advance month charges £30.32

Many thanks

Ouch so £22 per month for the broadband, which shows it is the Offnet

TalkTalk is known to under invest in offnet capacity, even if its a small exchange and has the more expensive PlusNet pricing their unlimited is cheaper http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/plusnet/package/13...

Standard price in the smaller exchanges is £16.99 if you move the phone to them too and a good chance (but no guarantee) that you will see closer to the 1.5 Meg more of the time.

OK, can you recommend some reading for me because the jargon/technology is way over my head. As starters where can I find an easy to follow primer which tells me the basics such as what is OffNet?

Offnet - off network - i.e. TalkTalk have their own data network in 96% of the UK, but outside of that area is known as off net and as they have to pay more due to the low volume they purchase in these areas they tend to under invest.

Some reading material for you:- http://www.robertos.me.uk/ and also http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

TalkTalk have their own data network in 96% of the UK, but outside of that area is known as off net

Isn't it more to the point that TT don't have their own equipment in exchange and so are using BT's? Isn't it still then handed off to TT's own network? So perhaps 'Off-net' is misleading.

The Off-net transits a big chunk of the BT Wholesale network to where its handed over, and it is this chunk of network and the price TalkTalk pays that are the bottle neck, rather than the fact it is a BT Wholesale DSLAM, or BT equipment in the exchange.

I would talk about how Datastream fared badly years ago with Tiscali when it was still a BT Wholesale DSLAM, but too many terms to confuse poster.

In short - leave TalkTalk, don't join Sky as they probably have not unbundled exchange.

It uses WBC just like any other non-LLU service, and is handed over at MSILs at WBC node(s). The MSILs and transit from them to TT routers are the bottleneck.

Thanks for all of the advice, I think its clear what your recommendation is.


Just one follow up, I have been using ping graph to monitor my connection, not speed but drop outs in connectivity. Is it possible to send you one graph of drop outs for your comment? Its a period at about 03.00hrs when I see approx 6 min loss in connectivity and three of these in quick succession? I see quite a lot of these (at all times of day but worse after dusk and before sunrise), sometime single loses and sometimes in runs of 3 losses of connectivity, my router doesn't always show a red light but I loose connectivity (indeed most often it shows 3 green lights).

Hope this makes sense

Thanks

Just use the share option and post the link and am sure one of us will take a look.

You have a very long telephone line, so some drop outs may have to be accepted. One assumes you've done the usual testing from the test socket, unplug all extension wiring etc

An ADSL line can show ping errors without the DSL sync dropping, i.e. you get bursts of errors that create slows downs, but not bad enough to force the modem to resync. Since a resync takes 10 to 30 seconds, for short bursts of noises most routers will accept the errors and hope that things will recover, if errors persist the modem will drop the line and reconnect.

Not sure that I understand the "use the share option and post a link" can't I just e-ail it as an attachment?

You can

Hi,

Did you receive my e-mail and attachments?

Yes but not absolutely clear what the graphs are showing, a ping of around 40ms normally, but then gaps where you get nothing for 6 to 10 mins. During those gaps have you lost internet connectivity completely?

What are the router lights doing during one of these gaps, and most importantly what are the router stats.

When the ping goes high I loose connectivity, the router lights stay green for 5.5 mins of the 6 mins and then the internet light goes red.

Router stats mirror the above comment and show no problem until the last 30 secs when they show a loss in connectivity and then I get connection back.

I will collect matched ping and router stat graphs and send them.

just sent

Why can you not just post them here? This is a forum, you know?

Upshot is 5 to 6 minute gaps, which one assumes is loss of connection.

They also report gaps in router stats monitoring and modem dropping connection if I understand correctly.

The joy of a long line, that may be subject to AM radio interference

if I knew how too, I would

Image hosting service such as flickr (others are available) and then link to it in a post.

We don't take images directly in posts, as you can be sure people would abuse the system, thus only feasible if the effort to police the few bad eggs was worth it.

The BQM just needs the direct link to tbb posting here of course, no need to upload an image.

Just Copy&Paste and + for the speedtest:
Link to this result:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

They were not using BQM but another ping tool

Hi,
I am the first to admit that I get confused with all these different speed checkers. I have had fibre since August 2013 and I'm still not sure what speed I'm getting. I've been checking numerous sites and get a variety speeds from them. I recently found thinkbroadband but I'm still confused. The most recent result on this site is shown here:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

There are various figures here and I'm not sure which is my actual speed. The reason I say this is that I have also been downloading a 200MB file daily from this site since 22/01/14. My Sky router says I'm connected at 40Mbps so a 200MB file should take 40 seconds to download. The time taken has been as low as 75 seconds or as high as 118 seconds giving me a fastest speed of 21.33 Mbps or a slowest speed of 13.56 Mbps (files have been downloaded at various times of the day). This is a lot lower than the HTTP speeds on the thinkbroadband speedtest results.

A simple explanation as well as any advice will be very, very welcome.

If you are running windows xp your rwin value is probably too small and needs tweaking

How to tweak will leave those on a keyboard rather than phone to answer

Re MrSaffron's post:-

DrTCP
or
TCP Optimizer.

One of them has an automatic tweaking option, so I preferred it as working things out is hard. I think it was TCP Optimizer. Whichever it is, it also had a "Save current settings" option as well in case you wanted to revert it.

Thanks for the replies.

I tried TCP Optimizer and the guide to using it on SpeedGuide.net. I tried to read the whole document but it is way above my level of understanding. Luckily there is a quick 4 step guide in "section 2. Using the program". Before trying this, I downloaded a 200MB file from thinkbroadband.com and it took 78 seconds giving me a speed of 20.513Mbps. After using the 4 step guide and rebooting, I downloaded another file which also took 78 seconds. So no difference whatsoever.

I also ran a speed test on this site and the burst http x 6 speed is 40.1 Mbps even though Sky has it capped at 40 Mbps.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

I was hoping for a simple explanation for all this but it looks like there isn't one.

I really do appreciate the replies I've had but I'm no further forward in understanding the difference between the speed test results and file download results. Think I'll try and see if there is a book called Broadband for Dummies!

Thanks anyway.

The tbbx1 looks more like congestion, and without giving detail the tbbx6 by requesting the data multiple times can work around around congestion.

Most testers provide one figure so you are oblivious to many things. A handful report a figure that would be not dissimilar to the burst figure.

Difference between the burst and average, on a connection where software and connection are behaving they should be almost the same. In your case burst looks to have been affected probably by AV/firewall software.

So currently result looks like some congestion on the Sky network

There is a broadband for dummies, but this sort of stuff is invariably missed out as they devote pages to bits and Bytes, url, hyperlink etc