How fast can I get?

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PSLog

222 posts

Master Geek

Topic # 16355 5-Oct-2007 17:01

Hi
I'm living in Rotorua and am on a Woosh 2M/128k plan.
When I do a speed check I regularly get results between 900kb and 1100kb
I'm thinking of seeing if I can bet a better plan but am not sure if it is worth my while paying for a faster connection if my line is not capable of delivering.
Is there any way of determining if I would get faster speeds if I signed up for a faster plan?
Thanks
Mark

chakkaradeep

799 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Reply # 89677 5-Oct-2007 17:40

Is there any way of determining if I would get faster speeds if I signed up for a faster plan?
Mark

The only way is to ask and believe your ISP

Regards,
Chaks

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Zimsar10

210 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

Reply # 89678 5-Oct-2007 17:45

PSLog: Hi

I'm living in Rotorua and am on a Woosh 2M/128k plan.

When I do a speed check I regularly get results between 900kb and 1100kb

I'm thinking of seeing if I can bet a better plan but am not sure if it is worth my while paying for a faster connection if my line is not capable of delivering.

Is there any way of determining if I would get faster speeds if I signed up for a faster plan?

Thanks

Mark

It depends on the following factors:

* Possibly the most important being, you distance from the exchange/cabinet (you can ask your ISP to contact Telecom & ask them to measure the length of the cable from your house to the exchange/cabinet
* Quality of the cabling where you live
* Quality of the cabling in your house
* Quality of your Router, if you have a Freebie Modem/Router given to you by your ISP, then I would advise getting a new one, something like a Linksys AG241 or a Netgear Router would be good & will ensure you get the best possible performance

I would also change ISP if I were you, Woosh are not known for giving good quality speeds/performance & their latency is generally very very high. I would go with TelstraClear PDQ or Orcon if I were you.

PSLog

222 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 89679 5-Oct-2007 18:01

So, it seems there is really no way of measuring the capability of the existing set-up until you sign up (for x months) and test it in practice.
I'm surprised that there is not some objective method that could be employed by the lines company to give a definitive answer.
Oh yeah. Sorry. I was forgetting that the lines company is Telecom.

Mark

Zimsar10

210 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

Reply # 89681 5-Oct-2007 18:17

PSLog: So, it seems there is really no way of measuring the capability of the existing set-up until you sign up (for x months) and test it in practice.

I'm surprised that there is not some objective method that could be employed by the lines company to give a definitive answer.

Oh yeah. Sorry. I was forgetting that the lines company is Telecom.

Mark

Like I said Mark, a good place to start is contact Woosh & ask them to contact Telecom on your behalf to measure how far away from the exchange you are, this will give you an indication of what you might be able to obtain speed wise.

Generally anything less than 3-3.5km (at a stretch) should perform around the 5Mbit mark, providing you have good quality cabling in your area, in your house & a good quality Router as I mentioned above.

PSLog

222 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 89689 5-Oct-2007 19:28

OK. I'm just over 4km from the exchange.
It seems to me that information doesn't help me determine whether I will get better than 1Mb if I buy a full speed plan: EVEN if I upgrade from my M1122.

Can I draw ANY conclusions from the fact that I get 1Mb (on average) from a 2 Mb plan?
Does it show that my line/router combination has reached it's limit?
Or is it normal to get a lot less speed that you are paying for (and therefore if you pay for more speed you should expect to get an improvement)?

I guess if I asked Woosh (as suggested by another) they may have the technology to test the line between their servers and my router for speed?

Mark

Zimsar10

210 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

Reply # 89693 5-Oct-2007 19:39

PSLog: OK. I'm just over 4km from the exchange.

It seems to me that information doesn't help me determine whether I will get better than 1Mb if I buy a full speed plan: EVEN if I upgrade from my M1122.

Can I draw ANY conclusions from the fact that I get 1Mb (on average) from a 2 Mb plan?

Does it show that my line/router combination has reached it's limit?

Or is it normal to get a lot less speed that you are paying for (and therefore if you pay for more speed you should expect to get an improvement)?

I guess if I asked Woosh (as suggested by another) they may have the technology to test the line between their servers and my router for speed?

Mark

If you are indeed over 4km from the exchange, then there really isn't much hope of you ever getting anything higher than 2.5-2.7Mbit MAX. It's a simple fact, the further away you are from an exchange, the slower your speed & you are nearly at the absolute limit of what ADSL1 will do.

PSLog

222 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 89701 5-Oct-2007 19:57

If you are indeed over 4km from the exchange, then there really isn't much hope of you ever getting anything higher than 2.5-2.7Mbit MAX. It's a simple fact, the further away you are from an exchange, the slower your speed & you are nearly at the absolute limit of what ADSL1 will do.

I am confused. My posts have consistently said that I am getting 1Mb on a 2Mb plan.

From your post I am encouraged that I MAY be able to get 2.5-2.7Mb
but
on the other hand it seems I'm really lucky that I can get broadband at all.

I'm sorry but I cannot figure out how I am supposed to draw any useful conclusions from your post.

My original post was aimed at finding out if there were any objective tests that can be done to determine a reasonable expectation of bandwidth given my location (and, as it transpires my router) - ie something that avoids my having to make decisions on woolly information.

Zimsar10

210 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

Reply # 89703 5-Oct-2007 20:02

I am saying that the MAX anyone could get would be 2.5-2.7Mbit at that distance from the exchange. You are currently speed limited to a theoretical MAX of 2Mbit, but if you went onto a plan "that goes as fast as your line allows" then you could expect upto 2.5-2.7Mbit MAX, it MAY improve a little if you also had MAX upload.

Kapich?

rck

138 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

Reply # 89792 6-Oct-2007 10:33

Your router will tell you what the max attainable rate is, this is based on the handshake process between the DSLAM and your router when it connected. If you are on a 2M plan you will be shaped to a maximum of 2M at the RAN but your physical connection through to the DSLAM itself is not affected by this. I.E. the max attainable rate your modem is telling you is the highest you can get, actual throughput will be lower due to tcp overheads etc.

PSLog

222 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 89829 6-Oct-2007 15:33

Ahh! Thank you rck

My router reports
DSL bit rate
Max near end 1280 far end 480
Actual near end 1248 far end 160.

I am getting on average around 900Mbits on a 2Mb plan (reported by the ISP's bandwidth checker).

From the above is it possible to deduce what might be the effect on actual Mbits if I were to upgrade to a 4Mbit plan?
Would I get much closer to the theoretical maximum of 1280?

Mark

Zimsar10

210 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

Reply # 89849 6-Oct-2007 18:29

PSLog: Ahh! Thank you rck

My router reports

DSL bit rate

Max near end 1280 far end 480

Actual near end 1248 far end 160.

I am getting on average around 900Mbits on a 2Mb plan (reported by the ISP's bandwidth checker).

From the above is it possible to deduce what might be the effect on actual Mbits if I were to upgrade to a 4Mbit plan?

Would I get much closer to the theoretical maximum of 1280?

Mark

First of all, you will never get your MAX attainable rate. Why would you want to go on a 4Mbit Plan? Most people with ADSL these days are on a "as fast as line will allow plan".

As I mentioned earlier, having a MAX upload will also help to boost your speed a little, however, as I said before, you are so far away from the exchange you are never going to get anything higher than 2.5Mbit, unless of course you move.

Also, I don't think read what rck wrote, he said "actual throughput will be lower due to tcp overheads etc".

firewire

84 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Reply # 89878 6-Oct-2007 23:08

It also depends on the noise level. Higher levels of noise cause corrupted packets which has the effect of lowering throughput. The throughput will also be lower coz of OSI overheads and also if you're on UBS since an L2TP header is appended to a standard TCP/IP packet being that it is a point to point link between telecoms ATM switch and the target ISPs LNS machine.