[Snap] WOW! Got International Bandwidth!?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › [Snap] WOW! Got International Bandwidth!?

SamF

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#112538 12-Dec-2012 00:00

Got this Speedtest result just now to the US:

That's the fastest I've seen to the US EVER! Results repeated to a number of other servers on the east coast of the US. Admittedly it's pretty much as off peak as it's going to be right now, but still, I'm impressed!

1 | 2 | 3

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#731003 12-Dec-2012 00:14

I wonder if it's related to the 200,000 Telecom subscribers who aren't currently connected - more bandwidth for everyone else :-)

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sidefx

3639 posts

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#731011 12-Dec-2012 00:26

Yeah I've been seeing some pretty impressive speedtests to parts of the US west coast for a while. Looks like east coast too now.... they almost look too good to be true... (actually I'm pretty sure these are way too good to be true... 37Mbps with latency at 400ms??)

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Electric Kiwi | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

Lorenceo

893 posts

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#731027 12-Dec-2012 01:46

Snap's caching system was interfering with speedtest.net test images for a while, may be related. If not though, nice speeds.

SamF

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#731402 12-Dec-2012 14:07

Well, it's still looking pretty sweet at 1pm!

Again, probably pretty low traffic at present. I'll try again at 8pm!

Weird that the upstream is so bad. It's not like there's heaps of traffic going from NZ!?

gehenna

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#731413 12-Dec-2012 14:27

Latency seems to fluctuate quite a bit, that's a killer.

sidefx

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#731416 12-Dec-2012 14:34

I'm pretty sure caching is interfering with this. Maybe someone who works more on networking could weigh in, but it was my understanding that latency affects what maximum throughput will be possible (depending on TCP window sizes)

IIRC with latency at 200ms only 2.5Mbps should be possible (at default windows TCP windows sizes) Speedtest.net is limited to 4 threads for testing... so in theory you should only ever see 10Mbps with latency at 200ms? Or maybe 20Mbps - not sure if these calculations are round trip as ping is.... regardless I just can't believe we're seeing national rates at pings of 400ms as I did above.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Electric Kiwi | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

SamF

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#731577 12-Dec-2012 20:15

@sidefx. While it is true that latency limits throughput depending on TCP window sizes, later versions of Windows have both larger default window sizes and the ability to dynamically adjust them. I have adjusted my Max TCP window size to match my Internet bandwidth so I may be getting better speeds than some.

Speeds are still pristine at 8pm!

Check out the consistency too!

Lorenceo

893 posts

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#731583 12-Dec-2012 20:27

Provided that you have it enabled, try some IPv6 tests. As far as I can tell Snap's caching system only messes with IPv4 traffic.
The Dreamhost speedtest.net server in Los Angeles supports IPv6.
Another one to try which is v6 only is: http://ipv6.proof.ovh.net/

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#731584 12-Dec-2012 20:28

Has anybody tried downloading an actual file to see if the speeds hold up? Speediest can be interfered with by various factors that make it seem faster than reality. an actual file download cannot.

mercutio

1387 posts

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#731612 12-Dec-2012 21:06

sidefx: I'm pretty sure caching is interfering with this. Maybe someone who works more on networking could weigh in, but it was my understanding that latency affects what maximum throughput will be possible (depending on TCP window sizes)

IIRC with latency at 200ms only 2.5Mbps should be possible (at default windows TCP windows sizes) Speedtest.net is limited to 4 threads for testing... so in theory you should only ever see 10Mbps with latency at 200ms? Or maybe 20Mbps - not sure if these calculations are round trip as ping is.... regardless I just can't believe we're seeing national rates at pings of 400ms as I did above.

latency and packet loss together alter speed. you should be able to get 10 megabytes/sec with 200 msec latency which a 2 megabyte window. linux seems to default to 3 megabyte window given a resonable amount of ram. not sure what windows defaults to. (in linux it's the third field in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_rmem divided by two) - i'm keen to know how to find out what windows is set to.

SamF

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#731631 12-Dec-2012 21:45

Tested just now downloading a file from a US server - 4megabytes / sec no problem!

mercutio

1387 posts

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#731639 12-Dec-2012 22:13

SamF: Tested just now downloading a file from a US server - 4megabytes / sec no problem!

how many threads?

sidefx

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#731643 12-Dec-2012 22:18

I'm still not convinced I'm afraid. I'm suspicious of some sort of transparent caching.

Below are results downloading a file from kernel.org (from mirror on East coast US) I alternated between downloading a file I've down a number of times in the past and ones I haven't done before. I'm quite consistently getting around line rate on files I've downloaded previously when testing and around 1MB/s for ones I haven't. If you look near the end I also hit a couple of files extra times and in each case the 3rd time I download the same file it suddenly comes down at line rate.

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 21:55:07-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80980207 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.1'

100%[==========================================================================================>] 80,980,207 3.61M/s in 21s

2012-12-12 21:55:28 (3.64 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.1' saved [80980207/80980207]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 21:55:34-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80986468 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2.2'

100%[==========================================================================================>] 80,986,468 1.33M/s in 78s

2012-12-12 21:56:53 (1012 KB/s) - `linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2.2' saved [80986468/80986468]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 21:56:55-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80980207 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.2'

100%[==========================================================================================>] 80,980,207 3.06M/s in 21s

2012-12-12 21:57:17 (3.60 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.2' saved [80980207/80980207]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 21:57:43-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80986468 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2.3'

100%[==========================================================================================>] 80,986,468 3.98M/s in 21s

2012-12-12 21:58:05 (3.67 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.3.tar.bz2.3' saved [80986468/80986468]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 21:58:08-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80977750 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,977,750 710K/s in 99s

2012-12-12 21:59:47 (797 KB/s) - `linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2' saved [80977750/80977750]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 21:59:56-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80980207 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.3'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,980,207 3.84M/s in 21s

2012-12-12 22:00:18 (3.65 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.3' saved [80980207/80980207]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:00:23-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80981090 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,981,090 674K/s in 97s

2012-12-12 22:02:01 (812 KB/s) - `linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2' saved [80981090/80981090]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:02:06-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80980207 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.4'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,980,207 3.85M/s in 20s

2012-12-12 22:02:26 (3.77 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.4' saved [80980207/80980207]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.5.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:02:49-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.5.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80185645 (76M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.4.5.tar.bz2'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,185,645 932K/s in 86s

2012-12-12 22:04:16 (906 KB/s) - `linux-3.4.5.tar.bz2' saved [80185645/80185645]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:04:23-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80980207 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.5'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,980,207 3.94M/s in 20s

2012-12-12 22:04:44 (3.79 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.5' saved [80980207/80980207]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.4.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:04:49-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.4.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80195603 (76M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.4.4.tar.bz2'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,195,603 917K/s in 84s

2012-12-12 22:06:13 (931 KB/s) - `linux-3.4.4.tar.bz2' saved [80195603/80195603]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:06:19-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80980207 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.6'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,980,207 3.79M/s in 21s

2012-12-12 22:06:40 (3.73 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.4.tar.bz2.6' saved [80980207/80980207]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.3.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:06:46-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.4.3.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80196014 (76M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.4.3.tar.bz2'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,196,014 1.25M/s in 94s

2012-12-12 22:08:21 (831 KB/s) - `linux-3.4.3.tar.bz2' saved [80196014/80196014]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:11:47-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80977750 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2.1'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,977,750 998K/s in 89s

2012-12-12 22:13:16 (889 KB/s) - `linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2.1' saved [80977750/80977750]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:13:20-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80977750 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2.2'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,977,750 4.00M/s in 21s

2012-12-12 22:13:41 (3.68 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.2.tar.bz2.2' saved [80977750/80977750]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:13:47-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80981090 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2.1'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,981,090 753K/s in 1m 40s

2012-12-12 22:15:29 (787 KB/s) - `linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2.1' saved [80981090/80981090]

simon@goldie:~$ wget http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2
--2012-12-12 22:15:34-- http://149.20.4.69/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2
Connecting to 149.20.4.69:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80981090 (77M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2.2'

100%[============================================================================================================>] 80,981,090 3.80M/s in 21s

2012-12-12 22:15:55 (3.76 MB/s) - `linux-3.5.1.tar.bz2.2' saved [80981090/80981090]

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Electric Kiwi | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

SamF

1512 posts

Uber Geek

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#731644 12-Dec-2012 22:20

I used 10 threads, but the point is that I can actually get that kind of speed using my single Internet connection.

Nope, definitely no caching from the server I was downloading the file from! I also doubt that anyone has cached this particular file from this particular server anywhere (if you're talking ISP caching). Also, it was quite large - 2.5GB so that also makes it much less likely to be cached.

mercutio

1387 posts

Uber Geek

#731645 12-Dec-2012 22:25

sidefx: I'm still not convinced I'm afraid. I'm suspicious of some sort of transparent caching.

Below are results downloading a file from kernel.org (from mirror on East coast US) I alternated between downloading a file I've down a number of times in the past and ones I haven't done before. I'm quite consistently getting around line rate on files I've downloaded previously when testing and around 1MB/s for ones I haven't. If you look near the end I also hit a couple of files extra times and in each case the 3rd time I download the same file it suddenly comes down at line rate.

1 megabyte/sec is reasonable on a high speed connection for uncached international content.

Sure I'd love to get consistent line rate everywhere, no packet loss, no delays, etc etc, but it's reasonably comparable to what a lot of other people around the world experience.

If the caching actually caches stuff that you want to download, and you get fast speeds then surely it's a good thing, and it's working as intended.

1 | 2 | 3