[TelstraClear] 1Mbps max per connection?

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BigBadaboom

151 posts

Master Geek

#25308 18-Aug-2008 12:15

Sorry if this is a FAQ, but I'm finding that I only get a max of
1Mbps for each connection on TC/Paradise. Paradise CS have
told me several times that they do not limit connections in any
way, but the maximum I can get with download tests or online
speed tests is 1Mbps.

If I download a torrent tho, I can get much higher speeds (due to
the multiple connections per download obviously).

I'm on one of the 10Mbps plans, so its not the plan at fault.

Are Paradise lying, or is their some router (DD-WRT on a WRT54GL)
or OS (Windows XP) configuration at my end I'm overlooking?

Paul

digitalepsilon

41 posts

Geek

#158969 22-Aug-2008 15:00

Check out doppleganger's post here, as well as the speed calculator link here. Though the thread is about 25Mbit plans on TCL, the responses apply equally to your query on a 10Mbit plan.

doppleganger:
... I should point out that BANDWIDTH DOES NOT EQUAL SPEED. Just because your 1 download isn't going at 25mbps, or whatever, doesn't mean you're not getting the bandwidth you're paying for.

The main point of all of it is that ping is a crucial limiting factor (for me, anyway) in saturating a high bandwidth connection. The only way I can completely saturate my 10Mbit connection on international downloads is via 10 or 20 concurrent connections to USA newsgroup servers. Very rarely does my download speed drop below 1100KBytes/sec when I do that which keeps me more than happy.

Hope this helps.

JonC

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#158978 22-Aug-2008 15:45

Downloading from fast local servers, I've had really fast speeds. For example, downloading iTunes from apple.com just today, I was getting up to about 880KBps (=7Mbps). This was a straight-forward download in my browser with no multiple connections.

BigBadaboom

151 posts

Master Geek

#159011 22-Aug-2008 17:10

Well, I tell a lie. Obviously things have changed recently. I should have tested again before posting that.
I just did a test to LA and got over 2Mbps.

I should have pointed out that I was talking about international connections. TCL kept pointing me to NZ speed tests (eg www.nzdsl.co.nz) which usually go above 1Mbps. Frinstance I just got 9741kbps down, 2005kbps up to a Chch server at speedtest.net.

However till today, every test I ran (I usually go for Californian sites to minimize the ping) consistently returned 996kbps-1004kps down and around 768kbps up. I never ever got > 1Mbps. The consistentency and repeatability of the results convinced me that there was a hard limit in place.

Looks like it might have been removed (or raised) now.

Belsamber

22 posts

Geek

#160167 27-Aug-2008 14:58

BigBadaboom: The consistentency and repeatability of the results convinced me that there was a hard limit in place.

Looks like it might have been removed (or raised) now.

Sorry, but you didn't read digitalepsilon's post did you?

The speed that a single TCP session can attain is directly related to your ping time. Visiting the WAND calculator in his post, shows that the maximum speed for one TCP session with 140ms ping time (what I get to the LA speedtest.net server) ~ 1Mbps. TelstraClear don't limit you per connection, but TCP does. It's inherent.

Could be that the speedtest server just started opening more than one TCP session... That's tuneable in the Ookla software that most of them are based on.