Whats all the figures mean ???

Hi
Have been using DSL for years, but to tell the truth have never really understood it

Have recently gone from AOL to Entanet as the traffic shaping in the evening was
crazy, was actually down to a max of .5 from 8 MB using AOL.

What I do not understand is the figures thrown at us, like :
My latest test today :
IP profile for your line is - 6500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 7616 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6230 kbps

IP profile for my line is 6500 Kbps,,, so what is the 7616 Kbps about ?
In my modem it says 7616 Kbps,,, but the max I ever get using the
thinkbroadband tester is 6. dead..........

Have found Entanet to be OK so far, when they are working properly, they
had a few probs a few days ago and my speed was very slow, but in the
main they are OK,,, just I do not understand why I only get a max of 6
at best. I was getting more with AOL, cannot remmeber the exact figures
but it was more than 6.

Other strange thing with Entanet is, after 11 in the evening it slows
right down, have been on the phone to them and they say thats when
everyone starts there big downloads. Now I can understand that, but
with all the ISPs I have ever had in the past it has never happened
before. In fact every other ISP I have ever used actually gives the best
speeds after 11 in the evening, feels like Im sharing my line with the
yanks

Thanks in advance for any answers

Look here

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/adslmax_explained.php

Your line is probably interleaved.

Thanks for the response

So does that mean, looking at the figures. If I Sync at 7616 kbps
I should be getting 6.5 if I was not Interleaving, and because of the
Interleaving im on 6.0
Just trying to understand the figures

Why would I be Interleaving ?
Do not remember ever complaining about the line !
Only to AOL about there throttleing in the evenings.

Thanks again

Edited by Barny (Fri 04-May-07 12:24:51)

In reply to:

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after 11 in the evening it slows right down

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this is because they have tariffs with potentially unsustainable off-peak allowances like 300 GB/month (= 2M flat out off-peak). The 11pm is the heavy users being polite and avoiding the previous 10pm crash when they all got stuck in.

With other ISPs not using peak/off-peak like AOL most of the users are in bed by then so as you say it is often quiet.

Interleaving explained.
Its usually enabled automatically by BT's monitoring systems if a line is unstable/erroring.

Interleaving is largely irrelevant to your question as it's taken account of in the 7616kbps figure. The reason why you're only getting 6230kbps is (a) because BT are throttling your rate to 6500kbps, and then (b) there are some computer protocol overheads (TCP protocol to be precise) on top of that.

However he throttle itself is not as bad as it seems, because the 7616kbps figure does itself include an ADSL protocol overhead (ATM to be precise) of around 10%.