Speed Tests

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hachi

51 posts

Master Geek

#23376 26-Jun-2008 22:17

I'm new to broadband, and I'm wondering what decent speeds would be.

I live 1.5 KM from the exchange,
I'm on FS/128 Telecom broadband plan
and also because of an issue of the only phone jack in the house upstairs, and there's only a place for the computer downstarts, there is a 4M+ phone extenstion line between the jack and the router (D-Link G604T) - on this I was recommended that I place the router upstairs and get a 5M CAT5 cable to replace it.

My SpeedTest.net reports a ping of 407 MS,
I live in Dunedin and the closest test ping is in Wellington
My speeds reported as 1835kb/117kb

This normal, or should it be better?

Cheers,
Joseph

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#140790 26-Jun-2008 22:41

hachi: because of an issue of the only phone jack in the house upstairs, and there's only a place for the computer downstarts, there is a 4M+ phone extenstion line between the jack and the router (D-Link G604T) - on this I was recommended that I place the router upstairs and get a 5M CAT5 cable to replace it.

Definitely replace the long phone extension with the Ethernet cable! It will make a difference, especially with the 4m long cord just increasing attenuation in the line.

hachi: My SpeedTest.net reports a ping of 407 MS,
I live in Dunedin and the closest test ping is in Wellington
My speeds reported as 1835kb/117kb

I think that the download can be better, being only 1.5km from the exchange - a ping time of 407ms is incredibly high as well...

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tr3v

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#140791 26-Jun-2008 22:51

Give http://www.isposure.co.nz a whirl. It has produced some interesting results for me, and gives a comparison of others in my region.

cyril7

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#140882 27-Jun-2008 12:10

What are your reported line conditions, ie, check the Status page in the modem and post what attenuation/noise/sync speed etc it reports. At 1.5km you should have 6-7Mb/s (on ADSL1) if not better.

You are better to not use long flat type line cords, these have no twist therefore have an illdefined impedance and also prone to pickup of noise etc. You would be better of installing the modem at the closest point to the demarc and run an ethernet cable from there as others have suggested.

Cyril

hachi

51 posts

Master Geek

#140982 27-Jun-2008 20:32

Argh, this translates terribly from the modem
Item	Downstream	Upstream	Unit
SNR Margin	9	27	dB
Line Attenuation	37	18	dB
Data Rate	4320	160	kbps

I think I'm going to go for the ethernet cable, under $10 for a 5M one at PB Tech, this should be what I'm looking for?

http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=ITPCAQ105BL

hachi

51 posts

Master Geek

#140985 27-Jun-2008 20:38

According to isposure, my average is 1.99mb, whereas the average for the same plan etc on Telecom is 3.34mb.

I'll go for the ethernet and see what happens from there.

Cheers again,
Joseph

s.joseph

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#140987 27-Jun-2008 20:40

hachi:

I think I'm going to go for the ethernet cable, under $10 for a 5M one at PB Tech, this should be what I'm looking for?

http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=ITPCAQ105BL

Sure is.

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cyril7

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#141049 28-Jun-2008 16:23

37dB represents the loss of a 2.6km cable not 1.5km, so if you really think its 1.5km (and often the cable route is more convoluted than you think) then there is a big issue with bad joints or something of that nature. The real big issue is 9dB noise margin, this is bad, should be 12-15dB to get a stable connection.

A good 1.5km line should have an attenuation of around 21dB. I suggest that you get your line tested to find out why the loss is so high and why the noise is so bad. But before you do this you need to confirm its not a wiring issue in your home, to check this you need to connect the modem to the point closest the demarc with all other onward house wiring disconnected, this will require pulling the wires from the rear of the jack. Also check you have back to base alarm connected.

Cyril

hachi

51 posts

Master Geek

#141051 28-Jun-2008 16:39

I'm lead to believe its around 1.5 Km. The exchange is that far by road. The Telecom line follows the mainroad (with Telecom ground access several places along the way) which according to my dad is one mile from my house, to a few hundred metres pass the exchange. Also, there has been a box installed 100M up the main road from me.

Also, the situation with the jack is that this is the only one in the house. All that is plugged into it is the router going through a filter, and one telephone going through a filter.

cyril7

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#141054 28-Jun-2008 16:58

Sounds like you need to have the line checked then. Even it were a 2.5km line that would match that 37dB you should still expect 6-7Mb/s on ADSL1, at 1.5km you should readily be able to get 7.6Mb/s which is full ADSL1 speed.

Cyril

Bung

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#141069 28-Jun-2008 17:47

I am 1.5k from the local exchange on ADSL2+ modulation getting 7.6M/160k line speed. My speed tests through isposure and others never vary much from 3.2Mbps on Xtra. According to the isposure comparison all the other Xtra users on this exchange also get the same 3.2Mbps day or night apart from a dip about a week ago when we all went down. Is this limitation of Windows, the upload speed or an arbitrary cap by Telecom? Is hachi's download limited to around 2M by something like a Conklin?

cyril7

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#141085 28-Jun-2008 18:32

Typically a 160k upstream speed will limit TCP downloads to around 4.5Mb/s, therefore a 3.2Mb/s is likley to be something else, however there are many variables and potential points of speed limiting. Conklins can have 1-4 E1's (2-8Mb/s) feeding them, so depending on how well fed YMMV.

Cyril

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Bung

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#144616 8-Jul-2008 14:03

I've just been rung by Telecom with the offer of a free ADSL 2 Thomson modem giving "better performance" (locked in for 12 months) even though the current D-Link 502T already appears to be on ADSL2 . I asked why I should care about line speed when the download speed was already much less. The xtra speed test done at while on the call gave the same 3200kbps that I'm getting through Isposure and the Telecom caller brushed that aside with anything over 1000kbps is OK. They sure aren't trying very hard.

eXDee

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#144741 8-Jul-2008 16:10

Those modems are made by alcatel iirc, and it would seem that almost anything would be an improvement over the dlinks (for some people, others find them okay)
But its not worth being locked into a 12 month contract. No way.

bbman

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#145783 9-Jul-2008 22:01

its $99 to get out of the contract, the cost of the modem, its only 12 months and to be honest its unlikely any of the other players will have kit in your exchange before Telecoms ADSL2 is completed.

I suggest you sign up get the Thompson modem and get a line check or even ask for your line to be put on another PORT and see if that helps. What have you got to lose, $99 bucks for a modem that will work on any iSP using ADSL on ULL lines.

From my experience the internal wiring is often the prob, as some one suggested above place the modem at the closest jackpoint to the demarc or even wire a new jackpoint and splitter at demarc and run it from there with ethernet. IF you do the splitter your self it will cost you bugger all, just do it right!

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richms

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#145803 9-Jul-2008 22:33

By the time you add up the cost of the splitter, going to get it, replacing sockets, adding another one for the adsl and scotchlocking the cables in all the inbetween jacks, paying $149 is a better deal, particually if you have several jacks to change over to 2 wire ones.

Richard rich.ms

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