Would it be worth upgrading my HFC connection for a month or so to speed up some large backups?

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › Would it be worth upgrading my HFC connection for a month or so to speed up some large backups?

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#262199 9-Jan-2020 19:55

I've had to change my online backup service provider so will be uploading a couple of Terabytes of data to the new one (mostly from a decade of pics and vids).

I've currently got an UltraFast HFC 200 connection, so I think my upload speed is around 20Mbps, which would pretty much mean a month of uploading.

If I called up Vodafone to upgrade my plan to a faster speed connection for a month or so, would that entail new hardware etc, and would any additional speed be worth the effort?

1 | 2

197 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 50

#2389318 9-Jan-2020 21:11

I’m in the process of backing up 6TB to Backblaze. While I can get 270 Mbps upload on the Spark Speedtest (over wifi), I can’t get that much to the Backblaze server in the US. Maybe consider if you can utilise the speed (Wi-Fi vs ethernet cable), and if your backup provider will take higher speed uploads.

coffeebaron

6304 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3566

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2389320 9-Jan-2020 21:15

Can you move to a fibre connection? I was uploading to OneDrive over a Voyager connection and getting close to 400Mbps.

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

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#2389343 9-Jan-2020 22:08

There's fibre nearby, but it'll take more than a month to go through the scoping etc to get it installed as I'm on a private lane with several other properties, by which time the upload would be done :)

I was just wondering whether a soft upgrade of my existing HFC connection was possible or worthwhile - if it doubled my speed I would only need to have it at the higher speed for a month, as standard maintenance incremental backups wouldn't be an issue.

If I needed new hardware to increase the speed or if the max speed was only 10Mbps faster than my current connection, it probably wouldn't be worth the effort though.

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#2389345 9-Jan-2020 22:11

Also I'm not sure how easy it is to get Vodafone to let me swap from my HFC to a fibre connection, as I'm sure they would prefer to keep me on HFC if possible, but that's something I'll look at later in the year :)

ajw

1968 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 369

#2389375 9-Jan-2020 22:47

tieke:

Also I'm not sure how easy it is to get Vodafone to let me swap from my HFC to a fibre connection, as I'm sure they would prefer to keep me on HFC if possible, but that's something I'll look at later in the year :)

Glad I stayed on HFC as they always give me a good price when I re-sign.

michaelmurfy

meow
13579 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10910

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2389378 9-Jan-2020 22:54

Colleague of mine phoned up - got upgraded to Gigabit from 200Mbit and his bill comes out as less per month.

I don't think they do 200Mbit on HFC anymore. It is either 100Mbit or Gigabit.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

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.

ajw

1968 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 369

#2389379 9-Jan-2020 22:57

And if you want phone as a option they only offer VOIP on a HFC connection.

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#2389380 9-Jan-2020 23:17

ajw:

And if you want phone as a option they only offer VOIP on a HFC connection.

All good - my phones have been VOIP with Worldxchange for the last decade, although that of course now makes them Vodafone too.

Hammerer

2480 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 802

Lifetime subscriber

#2389424 10-Jan-2020 08:16

I used to do backups on 20mbps and I just used local options for data security until the first backup completely uploaded after a week or two.

We later got a cable modem upgrade when we moved from 20 to 100 mbps upload. The upgrade required a 12 month commitment which is why you probably won't be able to get it for a month.

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/ultra-fast-hfc/

we expect you'll get download speeds of up to 700-900 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 90-95 Mbps.

Linux

12173 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8469

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2389507 10-Jan-2020 09:43

ajw:
And if you want phone as a option they only offer VOIP on a HFC connection.

@ajw That is good then

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#2389519 10-Jan-2020 09:55

Hammerer:

The upgrade required a 12 month commitment which is why you probably won't be able to get it for a month.

You were right about this - the customer support rep I spoke to said that they couldn't just do a month or two, although they could upgrade me to the Max plan at my current price on a new 12 month commitment. They also said that this probably wasn't worthwhile if my major reason was upload speed as the upload speed probably wouldn't really increase unless I was on fibre. Looks like I'll have fibre to premises in a month or so thanks to a neighbour's request, so will wait until then and make the switch I suppose.

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#2389520 10-Jan-2020 09:58

Hmm - this morning after uploading around 130GB overnight I see that my current connection speed according to the Vodafone Speedtest is 27/0.3 Mbps, as opposed to last night's 200/20ish (Same PC, same wired connection etc).

Do Vodafone traffic shape if you max out your upload connection for too long or is it just coincidence?

Linux

12173 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8469

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2389521 10-Jan-2020 09:59

No traffic shaping is done

timmmay

20858 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5350

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2389522 10-Jan-2020 10:01

Suggest you just try prioritising your upload, if your service allows that. Of those 2TB I guess the most valuable information like documents and insurance is really small, there's a bigger set of things like family photos, then a large set of stuff that's not really that important.

Of course you need to have a local backup, ideally offsite, so not having cloud backups as well shouldn't expose you too much. You have to test your local backups regularly to ensure they work.

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#2389528 10-Jan-2020 10:25

timmmay:

Suggest you just try prioritising your upload, if your service allows that. Of those 2TB I guess the most valuable information like documents and insurance is really small, there's a bigger set of things like family photos, then a large set of stuff that's not really that important.

Of course you need to have a local backup, ideally offsite, so not having cloud backups as well shouldn't expose you too much. You have to test your local backups regularly to ensure they work.

I agree about the prioritisation - my general documents drive was the one I uploaded to Crashplan overnight, and now I'm adding the 1.5TB photos and videos drive to gradually upload. Both drives are also already backed up with Google Backup and Sync as a secondary online backup - the standard photos and videos with that option are re-encoded, but it's better than nothing :)

Also nightly and weekly local backups are automatically made onto a separate hdd in the same machine in case of local drive failure, as well as monthly backups onto portable hard-drives which I rotate off-site. And whenever I outgrow a system harddrive I store the old one until I do some pruning - finally got around to clearing out a decade's worth of old drives with duplicate data on at the end of last year.

So my backup regime is probably pretty excessive but it's unlikely I'll lose more than a month's data with local backups, and hopefully less thanks to online.

1 | 2