I'm posting this because I'm bemused and confused. I don't think Telecom is conspiring to keep upload speeds down, more likely just incompetence, but.......
I decided to upgrade my venerable Thomson 510i ADSL modem to an ADSL2+ model. We're 4.5km away from the DSLAM (according to Telecom) so I wasn't expecting too much improvement. This is how my upgrade has unfolded, all speeds stated are from the connect speeds reported by the modems.
1) The Thomson 510i ADSL 1 typically got 4.5 to 5M down and 600 to 800k up.
2) First I tried a Thomsom 536v6 (based on "Broadcom chipset is best" views from forums) with Telecom firmware locked in (these ex-Telecom freebies are cheap to buy off auctions). This was interesting - speeds now in the range 5.5 to 7M down, 320 to 500k up! I seemed to have swapped upload for download speed. I thought maybe that was the compromise I had to live with.
3) As I wanted to reconfigure the speedtouch to work better with a new wireless router, which meant getting rid the Telecom locked-in firmware, I replaced it temporarily with a Linksys AG300. "Anything Linksys ADSL is a terrible performer" the forums all seemed to say..... Download was now 5-6M, but upload 900k+ every time!
4) With the Linksys in place, soldering iron in hand, I set about connecting to the jtag port on the 536v6 as described in instructions off the web, and nuked the firmware lockdown on it. The stupidity of locking firmware like this is not my subject here but boy, mutter, mutter mutter........ Anyway, with my 536v6 now running a generic version of the latest firmware (two releases on from Telecom's), I got downloads still 5.5-7M, but uploads 900k+ from this same 536v6 modem. Well, it could be the newer firmware, rather than Telecom throttling the upload speed, couldn't it??????
The story doesn't quite end here though. One night about 7pm (peak traffic time probably) and with the 536v6 having connected that morning at 7M down and 945k up I thought I'd run some web based speed tests to see what real life throughput was like.
Somewhat stunned by the upload results, I repeated the tests over and over, same outcome:
- Telecom Broadband Speed test (the one on their web site), down 5.8 to 6M, up 380 to 400k.
- 4 other speed test sites (two variants of Flash testers - one the same as Telecom's, one different, and trying Wellington and Napier servers when allowed a choice) gave me consistent results; 5.8 to 6M down, 780 to 800k up.
So....what IS going on here? Superficially it looks like Telecom have got a thing about keeping upload speeds down and even expectations of upload speeds down.
Anyone got any thoughts of how this might not be so? Have I missed something important?
Cheers,
res