Giganet speeds on install

Our service went live today and I'm on one of Giganet's Full Fibre 500 packages

Running a speedtest via Fast.com it comes out at a max of around 370Mbps (that's with a laptop wired directly into the router provided by Giganet). Connecting the laptop directly to the ONT (with a Windows software PPoE connection) only yielded around 130Mbps (I guess because the PPoE client in the router is hardware accelerated?)

Is that expected/reasonable considering the packageI'm paying for?

I did give their tech support a quick call and was advised that new connections take a couple of days to settle down. I know that FTTC and ADSL have training periods for line stability but I didn't think that FTTP had anything similar.

Edited by Memphis (Wed 23-Nov-22 14:06:05)

Does your laptop run Windows and does it have any third party security software?

Hi, yes it does run Windows and it has an Antivirus program installed (Avast from memory).

To be fair to the laptop is it knocking on a bit (HP Elitebook 2nd gen Core i7 but maxed memory at 16GB and a chunky 2TB SSD). The LAN port is a gigabit one and the cable my laptop is using is Cat6.

@Memphis,

Are you aware that Windows has it's own built-in Anti-Virus? Windows Defender....It always puzzles me why people go to the effort of downloading and installing another Anti-Virus when Defender does EXACTLY the same thing. In my mind that's like adding an additional engine into a car that already has a perfectly good one. Would you add an additional engine to a Ferrari???

Just my 2 pence worth....take it or leave it....

Yours,

In reply to a post by mking90031:

@Memphis,

Are you aware that Windows has it's own built-in Anti-Virus? Windows Defender....It always puzzles me why people go to the effort of downloading and installing another Anti-Virus when Defender does EXACTLY the same thing. In my mind that's like adding an additional engine into a car that already has a perfectly good one. Would you add an additional engine to a Ferrari???

Just my 2 pence worth....take it or leave it....

Yours,

A tad off topic but for what it's worth, I've never seen Windows Defender intercept a web page based nasty whereas Avast has done so on a few occasions.

Running a speedtest via Fast.com it comes out at a max of around 370Mbps (that's with a laptop wired directly into the router provided by Giganet). Connecting the laptop directly to the ONT (with a Windows software PPoE connection) only yielded around 130Mbps (I guess because the PPoE client in the router is hardware accelerated?)

Very much sounds like it’s your laptop that can’t keep up.

The point has been made about anti-virus/malware software and this does have a huge impact on headline network throughout beyond 300-500 Mbps if the base hardware can’t handle it/ is knocking on a bit. Windows is also more resource hungry in this respect compared to Linux or MacOS.

You could try booting your laptop using a USB stick install of Ubuntu and then rerun the speed tests and see how you go.

PS - fast.com is a notoriously ambitious (in terms of results) speed tester. Use Ookla or the one from here to get more honest results.

In reply to a post by Memphis:

A tad off topic but for what it's worth, I've never seen Windows Defender intercept a web page based nasty whereas Avast has done so on a few occasions

I’ve seen it do this twice, once on Win7 and once on Win10, but most people now use adblockers which solve this mess.

I have the 150/30 Giganet package with my own router (ASUS AX86U) and I see precisely 150 down and almost 30 up from our quiet rural area. It was at full speed on day one.

A suggestion in order to test whether it might be the Giganet router or the laptop having difficulty keeping up is to see if you can borrow a personal (and hopefully more powerful) router from a friend for a day. Also try testing the speed via wifi on a modern phone or tablet at home to see if it is just the laptop struggling.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Windows is also more resource hungry in this respect compared to Linux or MacOS.

Really?

If using fast.com or other web based testers, ALWAYS use a Private Browsing / Incognito / InPrivate window.

Third party antivirus software in 2022 is changing parts of a complicated operating system. I trust Microsoft to know their product much more than a tiny, desperate for money, so-called security vendor. Most corporates I know use Defender with the extra cost 365 management tools for traceability.

I have recently signed up to the Giganet 500/70 package and I get full speed on wired using the router provided by them.

In reply to a post by PeterhADSL:

I have recently signed up to the Giganet 500/70 package and I get full speed on wired using the router provided by them.

Thanks. Do you mind me asking what sort of ping you get when on wired and which speedtest your're using?

In reply to a post by Memphis:

In reply to a post by PeterhADSL:

I have recently signed up to the Giganet 500/70 package and I get full speed on wired using the router provided by them.

Thanks. Do you mind me asking what sort of ping you get when on wired and which speedtest your're using?

I am getting 11ms - this is what Speedtest.net returns. I get more or less the same on thinkbroadband too.

https://www.speedtest.net/result/13982330717

In reply to a post by PeterhADSL:

In reply to a post by Memphis:

In reply to a post by PeterhADSL:

I have recently signed up to the Giganet 500/70 package and I get full speed on wired using the router provided by them.

Thanks. Do you mind me asking what sort of ping you get when on wired and which speedtest your're using?

I am getting 11ms - this is what Speedtest.net returns. I get more or less the same on thinkbroadband too.

https://www.speedtest.net/result/13982330717

Thanks. I tried a direct PC to ONT and noted my ping had dropped to 2 ms. I then reconnected the Giganet router and got the following with the PC hard wired to it:

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/74f422ff-d2e7-...

Around 458Mbps which is better than 370Mbps. I could see the network traffic in Windows Task Manager bursting to around 480Mbps so I'll try it tomorrow with a different (newer) machine and see how it looks then.

Edited by Memphis (Wed 23-Nov-22 23:03:03)

what are Giganet like?

would you say they have better latency that other providers on City Fibre networks>?

In reply to a post by Q3_666:

what are Giganet like?

would you say they have better latency that other providers on City Fibre networks>?

Bit of a tough call for the OP to answer the latency comparison, unless they have some experience of other providers over CityFibre in their location.

But given they only went live on CF a week ago, how could they know? 😀

Sorry I should have made myself clearer, it was a question to all Giganet users here. Some places have had City fibre for quite some time now. gaming /latency is my priority, but also don't like traffic shaping in any way. I'm a really light user myself mainly just gaming, but I don't like an ISP restricting me in any way.

I am on Giganet 150/30 in a quiet rural location in Scotland. If I use Speedtest.net to the Giganet Portsmouth server, Speedtest.net usually reports 152 down, 29 up with latencies of 18ms and 16ms respectively. Of course Speedtest tends to report the best case speeds and that is a direct link to a Giganet server.

When I switch to TBB for my test I normally get about 149 down and 29 up with latencies that vary between 25ms and 32ms.

I should add that at the moment I am experiencing what appears to be an ipv6 routing issue where my single thread speed is around 40Mbps and the multithread is exactly twice that at 80Mbps with latencies of around 32ms. After asking Seb at TBB we think it is routing from Giganet to TBB that is causing it. If I swap to an ipv4 test location it gives me the full 150/30 at around 32ms.

I do get full download speeds at all other locations apart from the TBB ipv6 test site.

Giganet over CityFibre in Reading - 150/150 package, installed last September: we actually get 152 download/531 upload consistently all the time using the Speedtest Windows app to the Giganet server - yes, you read that right! For some reason our upload appears not to be capped - I've heard this about other CityFibre users too. Nice to get more than we are paying for Pings to servers in the London area around 6ms, low jitter that occasionally experiences periods of spikes but no noticeable slowdown.

Edited by Stargazer99 (Wed 18-Jan-23 22:13:56)

For the sake of completeness - worth nothing that Giganet sell over Openreach, CityFibre and their own Giganet fully owned fibre network depending on where you are in the country - an apples for apples comparison is going to be a bit more complex!