Acceptable speeds

What is the norm for whats classed as acceptable speeds?

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Your DSL connection rate: 2912 kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 736 kbps(UP-STREAM)

IP profile for your line is - 2500 kbps

Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1154 kbps

Test time 19:20

Does this fall under that category?

I would expect your data rate (last figure) to be nearer the 2500 mark as that is what the 2500 figure is.

Did you have anything else running / using the internet at the time - other PCs, wireless connection. Is your PC wired or wireles?


Try some of the other speed test sites to see what they say. Also try at other times of the day.

Supplying your line stats from your router/ADSL modem will help identify why it is slower than it should be.

Edited by deleted (Mon 01-Dec-08 19:42:28)

That test was wireless but have ran wired ones too, have also used different testers.

If testing, I make sure nothing else is running and only one machine is testing.

Morning,

I've just had a look from this end and we weren't seeing any gold drops around the time that you're reporting.

I'd probably have to point towards possible network congestion, although reports from various other ISPs suggest that the internet was broken last night. Mine was certainly a lot worse than yours!

Ok further tests carried out today, my exchange no longer has the red path, all green.

Used to TBB Meter using 5mb files and result was 1500 on normal test, 433 on port 81 and 158 on port 8080.

Connection speed and ip profile still the same and margin stil stable at 6db.

I didn't think the final test was going to complete, see screenshot, the ping tool had to up the ante to accomodate.

I'm getting the feeling Plusnet is not the provider for me, it doesn't seem to be happening, this traffic shaping may have benefits to others but I don't feel I'm seeing any of this benefits, whatever they may be.

Graph to show the recent tests on TBB:

http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=plusnetpoorspeedqs5.jpg

As for who has the worst connection, have a look at this shocker :

http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=plusnetlowspeedsqo9.jpg

I did follow the procedure to try and test further but it never seems to work.

Do I need to give 30 days notice to leave Plusnet? I'm not on any long contract as such.

Hiya,

I'd definitely ignore some "ridiculous" speed reports via the BT Speedtester. I've seen a number of them recently and it's not indicative of the speeds that you're getting with us.

What are you generally trying to do online, is it mainly web/streaming that you're getting poor speeds on?

Just doesn't seem to be any reliability/consistency there, it's up and down like a yo-yo.

I don't do p2p, gaming, streaming, just use the internet for browsing.

Heaviest useage would be when dealing with the likes of Snapfish, but even that is minimum.

Why are the speeds so low on the ports 81 and 8080, is this the norm?

I'm seeing some tests around 2000 at moment which is good but I'm really after that anytime I use the internet, or more often than not.

I've looked into the management set up you have and it seems you are penalised for not being a gamer and such like, is that the case?

I often get back late and use the net after midnight, it seems slower initially I'd have expected it to be faster but the priorties seem to kick in then, is that the simplified explanation?

No, you should never be penalised for "not being a gamer" as HTTP traffic is also prioritised.

You shouldn't be noticing slowdowns on ports 81 and 8080 as it should all be treated as HTTP. Is there any reason why you would be trying to use those ports rather than plain 80?

I tried to use these ports as it's including in the testing options within TBB meter and it has been mentioned before about testing.

See this advice, 'Check with the further test files, e.g. the ones on TCP ports 81 and 8080 in case its a traffic management issue'

What do other people see when running this test tool, do they get pretty stable readings, ie if they are on a 4mb connection then it follows pretty much the same conistent speed, be it 3000 or 3500 or whatever?

What would you say if it's quite clear I am noticing slowdowns on these ports if its not something that you would expect.

Further tests there come back with normal 1100, which I think is poor when ip profile at 2500, port 81 = 263 and port 8080 = 744

Have a look at the latest graph why would there be so much periods of what appears to be zero activity, seems to be too many black holes and the yo yo behaviour I spoke about.

http://img50.imageshack.us/my.php?image=plusnetlowspeeds01nl1.jpg

Edited by deleted (Tue 02-Dec-08 18:34:48)

The test files are HTTP requests but using different TCP ports, so what the management makes of these not sure

The future may see other files using different protocols too

Further test carried out, shows noteable difference, normal performance acceptable but once the 81 test is carried out it's all downhill as the graph shows.

However even look at the consistency of the normal test, far better than previous, should this not be the way a test should look always, or is it normal to have drop downs to zero speed and so much fluctuations.

http://img75.imageshack.us/my.php?image=plusnetport81exampleoj7.jpg

I think it's fairly safe to ignore the results for port 81 and 8080 as it doesn't seem to be indicative of the experience that you're actually getting.

Just rely on port 80 like normal speed tests will give you. The tests you're running seem to be making you think you're getting a poorer service than you actually are.

No the vat majority of my tests are not on other ports, I merely done these to show there is a difference and as mentioned traffic management can go wrong?

However that one stable test I showed you is one of very very few, I could have hosted a stack that have up and down / dropout.

An expanation as to whether such behaviour is normal or not would be good.

I would test it elsewhere to compare but will not be able to for around 4-5 weeks perhaps.

So guess this means TTB meter is a waste of space and not accurate?

We'll take a bit more of a look at what's happening with those test results from our side and come back to you when we've got an answer.

Regards,

Ian

Are you using a Speedtouch 585v7 router by any chance?
I ask because I know Plusnet now supply those and I've recently had poor throughput result from a newly supplied one although on a different ISP.
The solution was simply to reset the router to factory default.
Note: One symptom of the problem with the router was a incorrect and very low report of the Rwin setting from the following site.
http://www.speedguide.net/sg_tools.php > tcp/ip analyzer.

Nigel

http://www.farina1.com/compare.jpg

First block 20MB port 80 file, second port 81 and third port 8080 done at 19:44 today. Machine itself was busy running other stuff but mainly CPU bound rather than internet connection.

Links to the files for download without using tbbmeter
http://download/thinkbroadband.com/20MB.zip
http://download/thinkbroadband.com:81/20MB.zip
http://download/thinkbroadband.com:8080/20MB.zip

I was using a Netgear DG834Gv2, then got a v4, Plusnet supplied a BT Voyager 2110 to eliminate any problems with my own equipment

Hi there,

You could always wireshark capture the speedtest traffic to see if it's getting prioritised correctly by the system?

Interesting - looking at packet headers to count TCP/UDP etc is on the list and should be possible to build something like this into the app