What Speed Should I Be Getting From My Connection

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photoman

217 posts

Master Geek

#12795 5-Apr-2007 15:58

I have a broadband connection with Orcon and am using a NetGear DG834G v2 router. I've never really bothered checking my speed before until I started noticing people's signatures with the SpeedTest info.

Anyway, I checked my speed on SpeedTest and also on the NZDSL site and the figures have varied from just over 1mbps to around 1600mbps. I then went into the routers setup and it says my download speed was something like 7100+ (can't remember the exact figure and am currently in work).

So, can I assume that the 7100+ figure the router is showing is the theoretical speed I can achieve and the 1000-1600 figures are the actual speeds. Even when I run the tests one after another, the figures vary widely. I have tried both the wired and wireless connection to the router and that doesn't make any difference to the results.

BTW I also downloaded the latest firmware upgrade for the router.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29771 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#67832 20-Apr-2007 10:09

heh heh i've found that too :) i dont know why :( so long as it seems fast i'm ok. when it gets slow i tear my hair. but i've found the best way to discover your real speed is to download something from say windows or sony and see what you get as the super sites have very very fast speeds and what you are getting shows your real speed :) i think

xcubed

194 posts

Master Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#67837 20-Apr-2007 11:30

The 7100kbps connection speed shown on your router is the speed of the link between your ADSL router and the DSLAM at the local telephone exchange. This figure is probably correct, as the ADSL standard used in New Zealand supports a maximum connection speed of about 7Mbps.

Note that the speed of this link doesn't represent the actual attainable speed between your computer and a web server in the US (for instance), as there are a large number of links in between.

PS: your units are a bit out of whack. A connection speed of 1600Mbps would equate to downloading a 200MB file in one second! :-P

photoman

217 posts

Master Geek

#67872 20-Apr-2007 14:36

xcubed: PS: your units are a bit out of whack. A connection speed of 1600Mbps would equate to downloading a 200MB file in one second! :-P

Now that speed would do nicely! I posted the original message at work, so the numbers were from memory. Having read the post again, it should have read kbps and not mbps.

Either way, at least I now know the reason for the discrepancy.

Steve112

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#70578 13-May-2007 14:24

1. check your plan to see that it is not on a speedcap.
if not then
2. blame telecom.

The 7100 on your ADSL router is your actual Sync speed and that is correct as the max speed for ADSL1 is roughly about 7.6mbps. In a normal network environment you should be getting 7.00mbps with no problems, however in NZ at the moment 99% of ISPs including Orcon are using telecom's ATM-based backhaul which is overloaded and still supported by old switches meaning the threshold of your connection will low as ADSL is a shared bandwidth.

So this tells you people like you who live close to the exchange (im assuming) even tho your line can support upto 7.00mbps you will not be able to download anymore than what you already are getting until the backhaul is upgraded.

photoman

217 posts

Master Geek

#71127 18-May-2007 12:15

Steve

Don't have a speed cap, and since I have no idea where the exchange is, I can't blame Telecom. It was just the big difference in speeds that prompted me to post the question.

Gollam

47 posts

Geek

#71492 21-May-2007 12:11

Hi

What I have done in the past is to use several different speed test sites both here and overseas over a period of a week or so to get an idea of what your average speed is like. There are several speed test sites in NZ (Google for them) which should give you a fairly reliable average for your speed around NZ. If it differs hugely from what you are paying for - blame Telecom!!

Cheers

Golam