speedtest to east coast US servers (slow...)

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sub3

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#290115 21-Oct-2021 18:17

I'm a Vodafone UltraFast HFC customer, and can regularly get 750-850mbps down, 100mbps up, against speed test etc. For normal day to day stuff it's great - multiple TVs doing netflix/neon/youtube simultaneously + browsing etc.

I'm currently doing work for a company in Washington DC, and discovering just how crappy my internet connection is to servers in that part of the world. Unfortunately the project I'm currently working is related to video streaming, and my internet connection is just not able to keep up. I'm on wired network.

I'd be really be really interested to see the speedtest results you guys get for the same same server. On speedtest.net select Baltimore MD, Comcast as your server, and your connections to single (rather than default multi), then run the test.

Are there any network guys here that could help me figure out where the bottleneck is?

For comparison, here is what I'm getting. (for the record, I can get much faster download speeds with multiple connections enabled, but that doesn't really equate to the work I'm doing, and not a useful comparison).

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#2798905 21-Oct-2021 18:51

You're not the first to notice, there are past threads on disparate speeds from select international destinations:

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=274607

timmmay

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#2798929 21-Oct-2021 19:40

Single stream performance is limited by TCP latency.

2degrees 100/20 fiber. First test said "cannot connect". Here's the second.

Multiple threads did much better, as expected

Here's US West Coast, single thread

KiwiSurfer

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#2798937 21-Oct-2021 20:11

Not that great on Vocus either.

Out of interest I did a traceroute to the server.

Quite a lot of hops even for that sort of distance.

gaddman

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#2798952 21-Oct-2021 20:25

I'm testing on a remote host and can't easily test via web interface so this will be multithreaded, but this is a 1G HFC connection:

$ /usr/bin/speedtest -s 1775

Speedtest by Ookla
Server: Comcast - Baltimore, MD (id = 1775)
ISP: Vodafone New Zealand
Latency: 223.58 ms (8.66 ms jitter)
Download: 857.23 Mbps (data used: 1.3 GB)
Upload: 77.51 Mbps (data used: 129.6 MB)
Packet Loss: Not available.
Result URL: https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/24fba0bd-b90a-4001-b44c-83dee77b94a3

Speedtest.net result 857down / 78up

sub3

31 posts

Geek

#2798954 21-Oct-2021 20:27

How much do you get when you switch it to single connection? This is multi connection. There is a small toggle button a couple of inches below the Go button.

sub3

31 posts

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#2799006 21-Oct-2021 20:28

Ah sorry - just saw you were testing from the command line. Not sure what the single vs multi is there.

Spyware

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#2799007 21-Oct-2021 20:28

Speedtest by Ookla

Server: Comcast - Baltimore, MD (id = 1775)
ISP: Spark New Zealand
Latency: 206.25 ms (0.46 ms jitter)
Download: 640.98 Mbps (data used: 963.6 MB)
Upload: 228.76 Mbps (data used: 391.8 MB)
Packet Loss: Not available.
Result URL: https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/39f02727-79ad-4ac9-940f-1655bad60ae1

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

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sub3

31 posts

Geek

#2799008 21-Oct-2021 20:30

Spyware:

Speedtest by Ookla

Server: Comcast - Baltimore, MD (id = 1775)
ISP: Spark New Zealand
Latency: 206.25 ms (0.46 ms jitter)
Download: 640.98 Mbps (data used: 963.6 MB)
Upload: 228.76 Mbps (data used: 391.8 MB)
Packet Loss: Not available.
Result URL: https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/39f02727-79ad-4ac9-940f-1655bad60ae1

That was multi connections. What do you get if you switch to single connection?

gaddman

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#2799019 21-Oct-2021 20:37

As for hops, Comcast taking the scenic route?

sub3

31 posts

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#2799023 21-Oct-2021 20:40

Looks like it 😁

yitz

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#2799026 21-Oct-2021 20:42

sub3

31 posts

Geek

#2799031 21-Oct-2021 20:49

Strangely my phone, connected to vodafone 4G seems to have the best single connection speed test so far. I wonder why the vodafone mobile would be so much better for these servers compared to vodafone HFC?

gaddman

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#2799032 21-Oct-2021 20:54

What are your speeds and packet loss like locally? If you're hitting congestion / packet loss on your wired connection that you're not on the mobile connection then it's understandable (with single thread) that you're gonna get rubbish speeds at such high latency.

yitz

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#2799082 21-Oct-2021 22:11

Turning on TCP BBR algorithm in Linux can help on high latency connections.

Back in the day Comcast used to traffic shape but I'm not sure if they still do today, also with eyeball ISPs sometimes interconnection links are run hot, refer to the Netflix traffic saga. I assume the other end is an on premise business grade connection on shared cable broadband access? Consider colocation at a datacentre or move to cloud.

michaelmurfy

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#2799097 22-Oct-2021 00:52

If you're using Windows can you please do this? It has been one of the most common reasons to seeing slow speeds especially to higher latency destinations.

Open up the Command Prompt or Powershell under Administrator mode and type the following:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

Then reboot - see if this improves your speed.

Don't include any Speedtests from Windows unless if you've done this. Or better yet, boot from a Linux live distro and try from there. Windows TCP tuning is complete rubbish on many configurations and especially so if you use a Realtek network card (at all - just needs to be there as the drivers mangle with the TCP tuning). Also please ensure that any Speedtests are taken on Ethernet only.

This is what I get on Windows 11:

vs Linux on the same host:

Just because you see a bad result in a Speedtest it doesn't mean things are performing badly for you - even on 2degrees the Comcast route doesn't look right but speeds are fine and from a quick test on a Vodafone connection I can confirm speeds seem to be fine there too (remote so a bit harder) therefore the problem may be simply on your end as TCP tuning is hard.

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

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