Spark: Gigafibre speeds in Dunedin?

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#2278557 17-Jul-2019 18:44

Hibino:

You are so lucky...

I was able to get 930mbps down back 2 or 3 years ago when gigatown first introduced, and the speed drops as more and more people installed fibre on my street(or in Dunedin?) Now I will be pretty happy to see above 300mbps down :-(

This is _NOT_ the reason. Chorus make the data publicly available about PON port utilisation and it's not a problem anywhere in the country. It _MIGHT_ be an issue with your ISP not maintaining handovers but honestly for a top tier ISP, that's very unlikely as well.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Hibino

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#2278578 17-Jul-2019 19:36

Talkiet:

This is _NOT_ the reason. Chorus make the data publicly available about PON port utilisation and it's not a problem anywhere in the country. It _MIGHT_ be an issue with your ISP not maintaining handovers but honestly for a top tier ISP, that's very unlikely as well.

Cheers - N

Thank you! I guess this is not normal for a gigabit fibre then.

From above posts I assume Spark will only take speed test result with HG659b, so I pull it out from storage and pluged it in with only 1 ethernet device on speedtest.net. The result is 240mbps down and 440mbps up. I'll go for an online chat with them now...

Talkiet

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#2278582 17-Jul-2019 19:57

Hibino:

Talkiet:

This is _NOT_ the reason. Chorus make the data publicly available about PON port utilisation and it's not a problem anywhere in the country. It _MIGHT_ be an issue with your ISP not maintaining handovers but honestly for a top tier ISP, that's very unlikely as well.

Cheers - N

Thank you! I guess this is not normal for a gigabit fibre then.

From above posts I assume Spark will only take speed test result with HG659b, so I pull it out from storage and pluged it in with only 1 ethernet device on speedtest.net. The result is 240mbps down and 440mbps up. I'll go for an online chat with them now...

I'm not convinced it's the service that's causing the issues.

It's 99.x% likely to be something to do with your home network / PC / OS / software. At one stage I wrote out a list of all the things I could think of or had seen affecting throughput at gig speeds, but it was so long and was added to all the time it wasn't actually proving helpful.

As an example, I have a PC here that reliably gets 930/550, but my work issued i5 laptop with 16G ram only gets 650ish. My Surface Pro 3 gets ab out 400 (when connected through a USB3 GigE adaptor). All of those are on the same connection and there's nothing wrong with any one of them.

I've seen Antivirus software, browser extensions, parental control software, drive syncing software, bad drivers, laptops that run sh1tty eth chipsets, bad switches, faulty Cat5 cables, routers using CPU forwarding, wrong MTU settings, "network optimiser" software, and many more all have major impacts on throughput.

Out of the literally dozens of issues that I have seen with unexpected gig throughput that have been escalated to me (which is only a small fraction of the tricky issues), only 2 turned out to be network issues.

Sorry I haven't reviewed the rest of the thread recently, but have you tested the throughput using a machine that you have tested (not are confident in, not think is good enough - but have tested) at another location and was able to achieve 700-900Mbps down?

I know this isn't a clear or happy answer sorry - but it's what the historical evidence I have seen supports.

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Talkiet

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#2278584 17-Jul-2019 20:00

Also @hibino , I just noticed the results you have pasted look like they are from the speedtest.net site, not the windows client. That's the first thing to try changing.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Hibino

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#2278595 17-Jul-2019 20:42

Talkiet:

Also @hibino , I just noticed the results you have pasted look like they are from the speedtest.net site, not the windows client. That's the first thing to try changing.

Cheers - N

Thanks for the advise. I installed the Speedtest app from windows store and the test result is the same. I tried to find another computer that has 1gpbs ethernet port but out of luck... The only other computer with ethernet port is a 5 years old laptop and it only got 100mbps ethernet.

I have talked to Spark through online chat. Surprisingly after I showed them that both my EA8500 and HG659b is the same result they didn't even try to point out other possibilities and quickly scheduled a tech visit for me. So I will just wait and see what happens when the tech arrives. Cheers.

hio77

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#2278606 17-Jul-2019 21:15

Hibino:

I have talked to Spark through online chat. Surprisingly after I showed them that both my EA8500 and HG659b is the same result they didn't even try to point out other possibilities and quickly scheduled a tech visit for me. So I will just wait and see what happens when the tech arrives. Cheers.

If you were actually sent a Scheduled Technician visit notification, i would heavily suspect there was issue with the optical showing on the tests.

I do highly suspect it comes back to the statements @Talkiet has stated above though...

Without looking at the individual service and testing it from our end the Spark folk here can only comment on the normal situation - Which is actually Chorus (and the other LFC's) are damn good at providing full speed and it's the Router, Computer or Test Methodology at fault.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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

Hibino

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#2278631 17-Jul-2019 22:44

hio77:

If you were actually sent a Scheduled Technician visit notification, i would heavily suspect there was issue with the optical showing on the tests.

I do highly suspect it comes back to the statements @Talkiet has stated above though...

Without looking at the individual service and testing it from our end the Spark folk here can only comment on the normal situation - Which is actually Chorus (and the other LFC's) are damn good at providing full speed and it's the Router, Computer or Test Methodology at fault.

Thanks for the info. Yes I have received an confirm SMS and a case number. Not too sure when the tech will come but I will post an update once it happens.

I don't have much equipment can do the tests except switching between the EA8500 and HG659b and different Cat5e cables, which makes no differences in test result :-(

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Hibino

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#2278668 18-Jul-2019 08:48

I received a SMS says my problem has been fixed at 6:40am. I did some speed test few minutes ago and shows no differences. This time I reset the HG659b as the representative suggested yesterday, and the result is 299mbps down 340mbps up. I'll go for another online chat now.

Batman

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#2278670 18-Jul-2019 08:53

Have you restarted your ont and router

hio77

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#2278727 18-Jul-2019 09:53

Hibino:

I received a SMS says my problem has been fixed at 6:40am. I did some speed test few minutes ago and shows no differences. This time I reset the HG659b as the representative suggested yesterday, and the result is 299mbps down 340mbps up. I'll go for another online chat now.

Please DM me that reference number, I'll clear up the confusion.

99% sure there has just been a bit of communication confusion here.

6.40am also concerns me, as it shouldn't have sent that till social time.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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

Hibino

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#2278734 18-Jul-2019 10:12

The online chat says Chorus replied "Wholesale External Status: Completed - fibre analyzer show line is clean and stable, two way traffic with no discards" asked me email her my speedtest results. Then she said she will forward the results to Chorus. I'll wait and will update when anything come back from the support.

Batman: Have you restarted your ont and router

Yes I have :-(

Please DM me that reference number, I'll clear up the confusion.

Done, thank you

hio77

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#2278815 18-Jul-2019 11:37

Have explained the confusion in DM.

Past here i'd try the recommendations @talkiet has made.

Network side, i can't see any issue at all.

I would also check for background processes.

I have a few beast machines, but even those get tugged down sometimes.

If i look at something more realistic, My work laptop... Fresh reboot with background process cleared pulls 970mbit.

but if it's after i've spent a day working, Plulled up all my day to day stuff, it's more like 400mbit, worse if i've got some large queries going on..

This is nothing against the machine, It's a low power vpro, speedtests dont always turbo up.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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Hibino

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#2278889 18-Jul-2019 12:49

hio77:

Past here i'd try the recommendations @talkiet has made.

I found that there is a gigabit ethernet port on the surface dock so I connected my surface through the surface dock to the router, the test result is same as my desktop, can not go over 300mbps down but always max out the 450mbps up(I think max upload is 400mpbs from gigatown plan?). Both of my desktop and surface got no browser extension(it shouldn't matter since I am using the speedtest app), no anti-virus software(except the windows defender come with windows 10), there is no other devices on the network(especially with HG659b after reset all wifi SSID changed back to default) and are using different cat5e cables. I am not sure if there is anything else I can do to figure out why the download can not get faster. Maybe I should try find a machine with Win7?

hio77

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#2278947 18-Jul-2019 13:08

What version of Surface? and what dock exactly? sounds likely a USB2.0 to Gbit interface...

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

Hibino

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#2278965 18-Jul-2019 13:23

hio77:

What version of Surface? and what dock exactly? sounds likely a USB2.0 to Gbit interface...

It is the first gen surface book, and the surface dock is this one:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/p/surface-dock/8QRH2NPZ0S0P/1187

I just received an email from Spark says they are going to post me a new HG659b for the testing. I actually still got a brand new HG659b, I'll try to find it and do the test again. After the test will let Spark know there is no need to waste money sending me another HG659b

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