Acceptable speed for a Gigabit Fibre Connection

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denemc

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#190793 12-Jan-2016 15:24

I'm in Dunedin and got Gigabit Fibre installed in October. I 've been fighting Vodafone since then as we haven't been getting an acceptable speed. Speed tests show we are getting 250mbps down and 475 up. That's right, we are getting faster up than down.

We have spent countless hours on the phone with Vodafone techs, and they have finally said they don't know what's wrong and are telling us that 1 gigabit is a theoretical maximum. I understand this, but to me 250mbps is not acceptable, given that I know people on my exchange are getting 890-900 I would expect that I should be able to get close to this.

Vodafone are refusing to do anymore. We have done extensive testing disconnecting everything from out home network but the PC doing the test and we are using the vodafone provided router which is rated to over 950mbps. Interestingly when Chorus did the install they left without testing.

Should I accept that 250mbps is all we are going to get?

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#1468503 12-Jan-2016 15:24

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.

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johnr

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#1468514 12-Jan-2016 15:28

I take it you are only testing over Ethernet and how are you testing?

denemc

13 posts

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#1468517 12-Jan-2016 15:30

Yes testing with a gigbit capable ethernet port.

johnr

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#1468519 12-Jan-2016 15:31

What is the speed of the PC Ethernet port and have you tried another PC to make sure that is not the issue?

denemc

13 posts

Geek

#1468521 12-Jan-2016 15:33

We only have one pc with a gigbit ethernet port so haven't been able to test with another machine.

It's interesting that it can get 450 up, but only 250 down, which sort of indicates it's not the PC slowing it down.

dylanp

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#1468524 12-Jan-2016 15:35

johnr: I take it you are only testing over Ethernet and how are you testing?

Sounds odd. I wonder if some of this might come down to the difference between write and read speeds on a disk? Presumably all the speedtest data is kept in ram...?

johnr

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#1468526 12-Jan-2016 15:35

I have seen PC's do odd things, What speed do you get over WiFi then? You really need to test with another PC as the issue might not even be the internet connection

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denemc

13 posts

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#1468529 12-Jan-2016 15:37

I can't remember the exact speed we got over 5ghz, but it was not faster than the wired connection. I'll see if I can borrow a laptop from someone that has a gigabit port.

jnimmo

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#1468535 12-Jan-2016 15:41

I think you would need to test with another computer before worrying about it any further (also try different web browsers).
I tried Speedtest a laptop (about a year old) over gigabit ethernet, directly connected to a business fiber connection and was only able to get a couple of hundred megabits; using a different computer was able to get 800+. I guess it was to do with either the drivers, NIC, CPU or web browser.

I know it is frustrating knowing you aren't getting the theoretical maximum, however in real life it won't make any difference - would suggest you just pretend you have a 200/200 connection for the price the rest of us get a 30/10 :)

semigeek

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#1468550 12-Jan-2016 15:50

Which part of Dunedin are you in?
We get about 850-900 down and about 400 up.

denemc

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#1468551 12-Jan-2016 15:52

I'm in Tainui

Jase2985

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#1468587 12-Jan-2016 16:33

i would try different PC/Laptop and a different router to rule those out, then if its still a problem it would be back in Vodafones court

timmmay

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#1468592 12-Jan-2016 16:37

Can an average PC saturate a 1Gbps connection? It would obviously need a bunch of threads. Having a few PCs running speed tests at the same time would be interesting.

I suspect the problem is your equipment, and 250mbps seems more than adequate. If you can't swap out your equipment (router/switch/PC) to verify it's working right then I think you have to accept it.

RunningMan

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#1468593 12-Jan-2016 16:39

denemc: We only have one pc with a gigbit ethernet port so haven't been able to test with another machine.

It's interesting that it can get 450 up, but only 250 down, which sort of indicates it's not the PC slowing it down.

Just because a PC has a gigabit port doesn't mean the rest of it is capable of saturating that connection. Your PC may simply be too slow to handle that volume of data.

Also, how are you actually measure this speed, and to/from where?

michaelmurfy

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#1468613 12-Jan-2016 17:17

RunningMan:
denemc: We only have one pc with a gigbit ethernet port so haven't been able to test with another machine.

It's interesting that it can get 450 up, but only 250 down, which sort of indicates it's not the PC slowing it down.

Just because a PC has a gigabit port doesn't mean the rest of it is capable of saturating that connection. Your PC may simply be too slow to handle that volume of data.

Also, how are you actually measure this speed, and to/from where?

Just what I was thinking. For example, just because I have a really good wireless access point, an Edgerouter etc it doesn't mean I would get the full 200/200 on all my devices. If I connected my Chromebook to my Gigabit ethernet network I found that the peak throughput of the Ethernet on there would be around 300mbit.

I've seen some nasty implications of Ethernet on some devices - for example, seen many cases where "Gigabit Ethernet" was simply an internal Gigabit to USB 2.0 chip which means it maxes out at 480mbit (assuming the USB bus is not saturated) on some cheaper laptops.

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