Just updated to Warpspeed 100Mbps. Speedtest results.

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Just updated to Warpspeed 100Mbps. Speedtest results.

sub

358 posts

Ultimate Geek

#115843 9-Apr-2013 08:12

Last week I upgraded to WarpSpeed 150, primarily for the extra monthly traffic, but as part of this I was moved to the faster 100Mbps down + 10Mbps up connection.

The engineer visited yesterday to swap my old Surfboard cable modem for one of the new Cisco ones.

At the end of the install, he asked me to check the internet. I headed to the http://speedtest.telstraclear.co.nz/ and ran the test. I obviously got much better results than previously, but it wasn't 100Mbps. Instead it got about 85Mbps. I asked if that was normal. He commented that was normal and will come down to my router etc. I thought fair enough - it is going through a router and a switch to get to the PC I tested from. It was the best test I could do in a hurry.

Later that day I tried to take this extra equipment out of the equation by trying a laptop (two in fact) connected directly to the cable modem. Even then I was still getting a maximum of 85-88Mbps.

Is this normal? I'm curious what other WarpSpeed users get on http://speedtest.telstraclear.co.nz/

I know I'm never going to get real world downloads going at this speed, but I'm still curious if this is normal.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

6019 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#795348 9-Apr-2013 08:12

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.

coffeebaron

6235 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#795358 9-Apr-2013 08:20

Overheads = approx 15%

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Broadband troubleshooting and master filter installs.
Starlink installer - one month free: https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-32845-88860-71
Wi-Fi and networking
Cel-Fi supply and installer - boost your mobile phone coverage legally

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

timmmay

20591 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#795359 9-Apr-2013 08:22

I suspect it's normal. You'll never get every bit that's theoretically possible. It could be your computer, the TCP stack, anything that can't quite keep up, maybe the cable modem isn't perfect, etc. 85Mbps is pretty good.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79314 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#795360 9-Apr-2013 08:30

It's normal and it will depend on many factors. First it will be your router. What model is it? Some routers have limit in the number of packets it can process and that will be the first impact you will see.

I have a Cisco SRP521W here and it won't go over 85 Mbps but I've seen other reports of 100 Mbps with newer, faster routers.

zaptor

745 posts

Ultimate Geek

#795367 9-Apr-2013 08:46

I hit 100/10 down/up from the wired PC - it hovers around the high 90's sometimes.
Then again the highway to the PC is 1Gbps all the way.

sub

358 posts

Ultimate Geek

#795370 9-Apr-2013 08:50

freitasm: It's normal and it will depend on many factors. First it will be your router. What model is it? Some routers have limit in the number of packets it can process and that will be the first impact you will see.

I'm using an Apple AirPort Extreme, but as I mentioned I also tried bypassing the router entirely by connecting directly to the cable modem, but it made no noticeable difference.

I have a Cisco SRP521W here and it won't go over 85 Mbps but I've seen other reports of 100 Mbps with newer, faster routers.

Ok - as long as others are getting the same, then I'm not worried.

elmesg

18 posts

Geek

#795838 9-Apr-2013 20:56

Couple of observations I made with speedtest on a WarpSpeed plan.

1. When running it from an older laptop it just didn't cut it - the processor couldn't keep up and I got consistently poor results compared to my desktop.
2. I initially had an old Netgear FVS336g as my gateway - couldn't get over 35Mb/s from my much newer desktop...
3. Bought a new Netgear WNR2000V3 and now get 93-96Mb/s consistently across all three TCL hosted speedtest servers.

All tests done via wired Ethernet, not wireless.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#795843 9-Apr-2013 20:57

1) was the older laptop running XP?

elmesg

18 posts

Geek

#795848 9-Apr-2013 21:05

johnr: 1) was the older laptop running XP?

No - I'd upgraded it to Windows 7. But it was a Compaq NX7010, Pentium M 2Ghz (bought in 2004) and flash always ran like a dog on it. It's now a boat anchor.

mercutio

1392 posts

Uber Geek

#795872 9-Apr-2013 22:07

elmesg:
johnr: 1) was the older laptop running XP?

No - I'd upgraded it to Windows 7. But it was a Compaq NX7010, Pentium M 2Ghz (bought in 2004) and flash always ran like a dog on it. It's now a boat anchor.

it really should be fine, my laptop can do hundreds of megabit/sec on speedtest.net and it's a core2duo 2 ghz or something. that's with ethernet obviously. the speedtest.net application itself seems to behave sluggishly even on fast computers. and winscp can only do like 200 megabit on it even when connected at gigabit, so i'm sure there are applications that could get cpu bound, but i think it's unlikely that speedtest.net should be.

shrub

775 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#795874 9-Apr-2013 22:12

just out of curiosity what router is vodafone giving out with warp speed?

mercutio

1392 posts

Uber Geek

#795896 9-Apr-2013 22:50

shrub: just out of curiosity what router is vodafone giving out with warp speed?

they dont' give a router with cable. you need to provide your own if having more than one computer or wanting wireless. at least that's how it used to be.

they also don't like not having a windows computer.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#795898 9-Apr-2013 22:59

elmesg:
johnr: 1) was the older laptop running XP?

No - I'd upgraded it to Windows 7. But it was a Compaq NX7010, Pentium M 2Ghz (bought in 2004) and flash always ran like a dog on it. It's now a boat anchor.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11814_na/11814_na.HTML
Integrated 10/100 NIC

I've got warp and I can pull 98mbit UDP traffic with no issue, but that is though a gigibit network and router.

The eth port on the Cisco modem is Gigibit, but if you're only connecting to a 100mbit card on your computer then that will limit you.

The eth card is 100mbit at layer 2 at most, where as iirc the VF Warp service is 100mbit at layer 3, so it's actually running faster than 100mbit... DV if you're about you might like to correct me.

I wouldn't assume that a 100mbit eth card in a computer will actually run at 100mbit, and most of the 100mbit routers and switches in my network won't run anywhere near close.

The Gbit routers in my network will only move around 300mbit throughput depending on packet size. Just because it's a Gbit interface doesn't actually mean it will move a Gbit.

HTH

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

mercutio

1392 posts

Uber Geek

#795901 9-Apr-2013 23:11

DonGould:
elmesg:
johnr: 1) was the older laptop running XP?

No - I'd upgraded it to Windows 7. But it was a Compaq NX7010, Pentium M 2Ghz (bought in 2004) and flash always ran like a dog on it. It's now a boat anchor.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11814_na/11814_na.HTML
Integrated 10/100 NIC

I've got warp and I can pull 98mbit UDP traffic with no issue, but that is though a gigibit network and router.

The eth port on the Cisco modem is Gigibit, but if you're only connecting to a 100mbit card on your computer then that will limit you.

The eth card is 100mbit at layer 2 at most, where as iirc the VF Warp service is 100mbit at layer 3, so it's actually running faster than 100mbit... DV if you're about you might like to correct me.

I wouldn't assume that a 100mbit eth card in a computer will actually run at 100mbit, and most of the 100mbit routers and switches in my network won't run anywhere near close.

The Gbit routers in my network will only move around 300mbit throughput depending on packet size. Just because it's a Gbit interface doesn't actually mean it will move a Gbit.

HTH

Gigabit switches on the other hand tend to be able to do over 900 megabit. And the cable modem acts more like a switch than a router. (it bridges)

You can still usually get more than 85 megabit with full duplex 100 megabit ethernet. I get 112 megabytes/sec on gigabit, which would be ~900 megabit. And 100 megabit full duplex should be able to do 11 megabytes/sec.

That said those speed test applications are terrible.

DoomlordVekk

129 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#795905 9-Apr-2013 23:33

DonGould:
The eth card is 100mbit at layer 2 at most, where as iirc the VF Warp service is 100mbit at layer 3, so it's actually running faster than 100mbit... DV if you're about you might like to correct me.

For these exercises, the difference in throughput at L2 or L3 isn't big enough to really worth worrying about.

The Ookla software that a lot of the speedtest sites use is different sized .jpg images of basically random noise. The biggest from memory is ~31MB, and it is a simple timing exercise to see how long it takes upload or download these files.

It's easy to throw LOTS of UDP or random data at an interface and call it a speedtest but it also negates all the normal TCP handshaking, windowing etc that goes on, which ultimately controls the throughput of a TCP connection.

TCP depends on errors, to determine what actual window size of data can be kept in flight, given current network conditions. TCP/IP is really the cockroach of the network protocol world, it'll continue to work, albeit badly and at the cost of goodput, in almost all network impairment condidtions.

"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." Donald Porter – British Airways

The views expressed here are my own and are not reflective of other organisms or organisations.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5