Comparing Orcon and "Spark" Fibre in AKL. Any Pingtest results please? :)

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Comparing Orcon and "Spark" Fibre in AKL. Any Pingtest results please? :)

Insinnergy

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#151546 28-Aug-2014 18:05

Hi all,
First post so be gentle. ;)

Short Version:

I'm looking for some Auckland PingTest.Net volunteers to kindly post their Ping and Jitter to their
- default local server
- the Sydney server
- and the LA (USA West) server.
Ideally someone on each ISP. Fibre would be great but VDSL or ADSL welcome also.

Long version:

I'm based in Albany on the North Shore and looking at moving from VDSL to Fibre.

I'm trying to work out if there's a significant difference in backhaul speed / network congestion / trans-pacific ping times between Orcon and "Spark" (sigh at the name). Or any other ISP you fine people can suggest.

I've scoured these forums, and researched the best ways of trying to compare useful metrics, I've reviewed TrueNet, Okla and various forum posts and am still pretty stumped for anything definitive. I realise that peering tends to muck up metrics, and that it's tough to get a useful comparison. Still I'd like to try and see if anyone could help out. (Or if there's really no difference)

At the end of the day what matters to me more is latency to AUS and USA (West Coast and Central), and general bandwidth. Since fibre seems to have a ton of bandwidth it's really down to good latency and low jitter.

Here's mine:

Pingtest.Net from Albany on Vodafone 30/10 Fibre was:
Vodafone AKL: 6ms (1ms jitter)
Telstra SYD: 28ms (1ms jitter)
Los Angeles: 168ms (1ms jitter) and if you subtract the Local ISP from this: 168ms - 6ms = 162ms across the Pacific.

Pingtest.Net from Takapuna on Telecom ADSL 2+:
Telecom AKL: 24ms (6ms jitter)
Telstra SYD: 40ms (6ms jitter)
Los Angeles: 146ms (5ms jitter) so subtracting the ms to get out the gate: 146ms - 24ms = 122ms across the Pacific (which seems a bit too low, so probably a bad way to calculate it... ah well.)

If anyone else would be happy to do the same tests and post them here, or can give any comparison advice, I'd appreciate it.

Hopefully looking for at least one person on Telecom Fibre, and one on Orcon Fibre, plus any one else who wants to contribute.

Thanks :)

PeterReader

6018 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#1117432 28-Aug-2014 18:05

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

These links are referral codes: Sharesies | Mighty Ape

quickymart

13932 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1117591 28-Aug-2014 22:07

Are you a gamer (hence the low ping query)?

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1117618 28-Aug-2014 23:11

Southern Cross quote latency between Takapuna and San Jose (via Hawaii) at 123ms.

So if you get those results for Telecom I would suggest they have the best route to whatever you are testing to.

If you are that serious though why not actually test to the servers you want to use the most. Good old ping and traceroute will work well.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1117624 28-Aug-2014 23:24

Snap 100/50 UFB, Auckland
server -ping - jitter
voda-akl 7, 2,
telstra-syd 26, 0
aeroconnect-LA 139,4
VodaDE-Germany 282,1
telin-Singapore 217,1
Ookla-sthKorea 251,1

My router is the Ubiquity edge router lite. Which supports hardware accelerated routing on PPP internet connections. But I haven't enabled it yet. Thinking I need to enable it and see if there is any difference in the results. It still supports about 200Mbit even without hardware acceleration so any difference will only be in ping times, not download speeds.

Also 1 of the reasons I chose Snap was due to them having the best ping results in the comparisons I found.

Insinnergy

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1117640 28-Aug-2014 23:50

quickymart: Are you a gamer (hence the low ping query)?

Gamer and also Trader. Latency and a solid connection is reasonably important.
Primary targets would be servers in LA/San Fran and Chicago.
More interested in the comparison between the two though.

Thanks for the postings... any Orcon Fibre peeps out there?

Insinnergy

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1117642 28-Aug-2014 23:56

chevrolux: Southern Cross quote latency between Takapuna and San Jose (via Hawaii) at 123ms.

So if you get those results for Telecom I would suggest they have the best route to whatever you are testing to.

If you are that serious though why not actually test to the servers you want to use the most. Good old ping and traceroute will work well.

Yes so far Telecom even on ADSL look solid to the USA.

The problem is I ideally want someone on Telecom Fibre to confirm the same pings (god knows how they route things internally)...
And someone on Orcon Fibre to compare numbers with.

Not having direct access to either connection as yet, I'm hoping a few forum lurkers might have one of those connection combinations and be happy to post some quick test results.

Should be interesting to see numbers from any fibre-providing ISP...
Or possibly very uninteresting and all very similar.

:)

Ooops, in case it wasn't clear above:
I apparently can't post links yet, but the Testing site I'm referring to is pingtest.net a top-of-the-page menu option from the speedtest.net site.

Insinnergy

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1117948 29-Aug-2014 13:29

Thanks @Aredwood.
Snap is looking pretty good in comparison, so far.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

hio77

12999 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lizard Networks

#1117991 29-Aug-2014 14:40

Insinnergy: Thanks @Aredwood.
Snap is looking pretty good in comparison, so far.

snap are pretty good.

for a sizeable amount of international connectivity, you will go across Global Gateway, which Spark will also run you across.

on snap vdsl, i generally have very consistent pings, with next to no jitter. (from my testing probe in NL, i see a max of about 6ms jitter all day assuming im not maxing the connection and causing an increase.)

between Spark and Orcon, ild go Spark personally... but if your bringing snap into the mix, all votes go there!

having dealt with their network guys myself for an issue i have, I can say, they are very quick at identifying an issue, and resolving it as fast as they can.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.