In the UK we are probably being ripped off silly by our ISP`s, i am on 2 meg broadband and i know for a fact that i have never got near that speed yet.

Test your speed here, lets see what the results are.

Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

 

Supposed to be 8Mb with BT.

Only records 2.2Mb, a quarter of what it should be.



Does that mean I should only be paying 1/4 of the price?

 

7943 download. Is that good?

 

Strange - Using this test I get an upload of 381 kb/s and a download of 4267 kb/s on a BT line with "up to 8mb".

However, last night using the Gadget Shows web site (On TV - The Gadget Show) testing broadband speeds I got 372 upload but only 2160 download.

Huge difference in the two sites...........


Who is right?

 

Isnt your connection only guaranteed to the POP of the ISP, plus throw in the contention ratio too?

We had a customer who get a service from Easynet, which is reportedly 4Mb uncontended Lease Line, but they are getting 4mb download, 1Mb upload this is point to point VPN to another of their sites which has 2Mb uncontended

so they should have got at least 2Mb upload, this has been tested using very expensive speed testing software run every single evening from 7pm to 9am, and at peak usage times during the day

Using speedtest.net the speeds reported where approx the same, the difference with the software I used is that it is all logged and produces very nice graphs/reports etc, plus you can also specify what kind of traffic is sent from point to point

 

2711kbbs paying for 3meg with talk talk so ok

 

I said it once and I'll say it again speed test sites are ****e!!

 

2meg connection with actual speed just under 1meg sh*te.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/201941611.png

TX.

 

3945 / 362

15ms ping

Package = Virgin Cable 4Mb/s, £25 pm

 

As posted on the other thread, I never used to get above 8 on there but I knew I had consistent good solid 20.
Shock horror now...

 

steve

 

Thats from work. As above though the best test is a download from a decent server. Ive got 8mbit DSL with PIPEX at home and speed tests dont show it fast but ive seen over 850KB/sec with UTorrent and when downloading a 400mb patch last night for BF2142 I was getting a consisten 656KB/sec which is just over 5mbit so Im happy with that tbh.

Simon

 

There are so many factors involved in a speed test web site and you will never show your true speed !!

Download from newsgroups or a popular torrent to see full speeds!!

 

Download 3986
Upload 355

AOL 4MB Broadband so thats correct

 

Just tried this again.
5.6Mb this time, so it all depends on general usage.

tried it also on the Gadget Show site and also got about 5.6

 

In my opinion you will get differing results at different times of the day, you hear stories of how ISP`s throttle the connection at peak times as i`m positive i have experienced this when downloading and getting really poor download rates along with using internet and getting really slow browsing where pages hang.

 

Vodafone 8Meg B/band......

Getting just under 7Meg - quite a distance from the exchange too

Oh yeh - £25 inc mobile and landine calls. No line rental either

Dan

 

What it says on the tin: Virgin 4Mb

 

Of course they throttle - it's called contention ratios. Look in your T&Cs. Every ISP does this because there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. Therefore, depending on what you pay, your line will be subject to anything from 20:1 to 100:1 contention ratios. Even if you were to buy a leased line, providers will still sell the same bandwidth several times over as they know that it is rare for any customer to use their full bandwidth for 100% of the time.

If an ISP was to absolutely guarantee up and download speeds for each customer, they would have to provide a huge amount of bandwidth at every exchange - you would certainly be paying a huge amount more per month than you are now! This isn't ISPs ripping you off, it's simple economics. If you have a very cheap line, the chances are you will have a very high contention ratio and you are therefore more likely to suffer performance degradation at peak times.

You also have to understand how TCP/IP works. It has no concept of bandwidth and will simply fire as much data down a line that it can. Therefore you need artificial means (bandwidth management, contention rations, Quality of Service) to control how much bandwidth is actually used.

 

10Mb line, 10k install costs, 17k per annum based on a 3 year contract, less than 3 years the price goes up

That is guaranteed 10Mb bandwidth no contention too

But again only to the Point of Presence on the ISP, something most people dont realise

 

Meant to be fast here-10mb minumum, actual speed 1.6!!!!

 

Read Chris L's post. You will always have a contention ratio of sorts. ISP's do not provide full bandwidth for every customer they connect just in case they all want to use the full amount at the same time. Obviously with the money your paying the actually ratio is a lot lower and problems only occur if everyone connected to the same Edge Router uses all their bandwidth at the same time - ISPs gamble on the fact that this is very unlikely to happen.

Your also paying for a decent SLA like 4hr repair times and in some cases 100% availability so that if your line does go down at you can claim credit.

It does amaze me that people moan about paying £15 a month for an "up to" 8mb line and complain they cant use the full 8mb. I just think back to the 56k modem days and thank my lucky stars things have moved on so fast

Simon

 

True - but even private or leased line bandwidth is over sold. It's common practice by all providers. I worked for a major global networking company for nearly 5 years and it is certainly done - despite what they might tell you. BT and like have been doing it for years too.

 

I'm on BT 8Mb. Speedtest results seem to vary massively between the companies providing the speedtest service.

Both run 2 mins apart. Speedtest 4.5Mb, Think Broadband 6.5Mb.

I'm not sure the speeds of WiFi, but the results below are from a Mac Mini wired to my router so any Wifi issues are ruled out. My PC's are USB WiFi and I never see anything quicker than 2Mb !

Speedtest.net


ThinkBroadband
thinkbroadband :: Broadband Speed Test

 

I know, the prices I quoted are roughly what we have charged, however we do the same service over radio for quite a bit cheaper and faster speeds than 10Mb too

We are an ISP

 

slow at 2mb for me paying for 6

 

FFS just moved to 3 broadband & I get this



Miles worse than previous one. Depends on area where I am upon connection I suppose? In York tonight.

TX.

 

hmm.. am I being ignored here??

Download two files from M$ and see the speed

 

i`m with bt, usually get speeds up to 4mb, mostly on the evenings i get around 1.5mb, although i have just done a quick test and got 745kbs, but i am downloading a HD film from xbox live in the living room, what i think is total quality, is that the apartment above me has just had some new people move in, and they have signed up with talktalk

i assume they have a maxdsl account (up to 8mb)
the wireless network is unsecured, i can log on and my download speeds jump up to 5.5mb lmfao

BT have told me that 4mb is the max for my line, then how come the chaps upstairs are getting 5.5mb? LOL

 

Because BT are full of sh*te.... worst ISP i have ever been with and always used to feed me crap.

Tony.