Netspace ADSL

I'm looking for some tips from some of the Netspace veterans for optimizing my connection. I ran the Oz Broadband Speed Test (http://www.ozspeedtest.com/bandwidth/) and only got 1200k on my 1500k connection. Once shaped it's only pulling 40k instead 64k.

at speeds that low id be questioning ur phone line as opposed to the service.

Download something from the netspace FTP site and tell us what speeds you get. Make sure there's nothing else using the line too.

I wouldn't be to concerned about the results form that mob.

Test run on 19/05/2009 @ 03:27 PM

Mirror: Netspace
Data: 600 KB
Test Time: 1.45 secs

Your line speed is 3.36 Mbps (3361 kbps).
Your download speed is 420 KB/s (0.41 MB/s).
Graph.


thats my test from them
My plan is the home 1500 30gb flat rate from netspace :lol: somthing seems a miss.

this is what i get on speedtest.net http://www.speedtest.net/result/476726740.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Hence the reason I suggested getting something from NS direct.

Check your filters, also how far from the exchange are you?

Internode speedtest :)
http://www.speedtest.net/result/476926352.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Beefy you mean no other downloads on the line or no other devices?
Downloaded a roughly 3 meg file from Netspace ftp at about 152k

Munch i'm not sure a 600k download is an accurate test of a 1500k connection.

I have no idea where the exchange is....

http://www.speedtest.net/result/477456948.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Munch i'm not sure a 600k download is an accurate test of a 1500k connection.

Im fully aware that's inaccurate i was trying to make u feel better about ur dud result. :)

speetdtest.net are usually pretty well on the ball though.

Beefy you mean no other downloads on the line or no other devices?
Downloaded a roughly 3 meg file from Netspace ftp at about 152k

Then you're pretty much getting peak performance. Good speed for a 1500k connection is 155-157 kbps, so you're not far short of that.

EDIT: My speedtest was a little disappointing.. Then I remembered there's a couple 2mbit video conferences happening atm -
http://www.speedtest.net/result/477487358.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

152k download speed on 1500 dsl, that sounds fine to me.

1500 would max out at 160k per second anyway (or thereabouts).
edit: lol i just repeated the above post. will teach me to not fully read threads..

geez i wish my phone lines were as good as yours, my speedtest on dsl2 is a bit over 4mbit.. i reckon its gotten worse since we moved here, could swear 18months ago it was 5 or 6mbit


edit2: may aswell post one aswell
http://www.speedtest.net/result/477511028.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
WEEEAAAAAK

Things you got to take into consideration, how far are you from the exchange? what are you sync'd at in your modem?

Iceman is with these guys, he gets routing issues every few days lol.

edit
Not bad for wireless lol..

http://www.speedtest.net/result/459960774.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

yeah im not worried by my speed as i know im borderline out of range as it is (about 4.5kms from exchange.. probably further, the cable isnt coming straight here lol)
so am glad to be able to get that speed at all. guessing with my 'speed drop' my line has either degraded in weather, or im just forgetful and it was that speed all along lol

Then you're pretty much getting peak performance. Good speed for a 1500k connection is 155-157 kbps, so you're not far short of that.

yer I've got it bloody good i get 168 through steam 8)

we're gettin an entire new phone line put through the house in about 6 hours lol. we've had nothing but issues with our current line and westvic. Netspace are who we've decided on for Phone and Internet. once we're up and running i'll post my speed test

Did another test during offpeak
http://www.speedtest.net/result/478109236.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
It's mostly just annoying that 300k of my connection has vanished, but once i'm shaped it's a problem. 40k is slower than I would get on dialup!

Burnouts i've already been asked my distance to the exchange, and I don't know. Perhaps someone could tell me where it is?

Did you not pay attention to anything in the thread?

You're getting pretty much the max speed out of your connection. You're not 'missing' anything. The speedtest is a crock.

So you reckon getting 40k on a 64k connection is getting the most out of it? That's 2/3 of the speed. That's dialup on a really shit phone line. It struggles to handle 2 people surfing the net. We could say the speed test is wrong for my shaped speed, but way the net runs backs it up. Fine i'm getting the most out of my un-shaped time and the advertised speed is a crock, but i'd still like it to be usable when I am shaped.

lol you should see our speed when shaped then..

i think we'd be jealous of an 33.3k dialup modem

infact we are borderline capped atm (on both peak and offpeak.. its been a busy month lol), so i might be able to run a test under those conditions in a youtube vid or two

So you reckon getting 40k on a 64k connection is getting the most out of it? That's 2/3 of the speed. That's dialup on a really shit phone line. It struggles to handle 2 people surfing the net. We could say the speed test is wrong for my shaped speed, but way the net runs backs it up. Fine i'm getting the most out of my un-shaped time and the advertised speed is a crock, but i'd still like it to be usable when I am shaped.

How did you come to the conclusion of 40k when capped? Using the same speedtest that obviously doesn't indicate your true line speed?

And when you're capped... you're being penalised for blowing your limit. You're not going to have much luck with one person browsing the net, let alone two. If the plan doesn't suit you and you keep blowing cap, then change to a different one.

Who said anything about the advertised speed being a crock?!? You're getting 152KB/s from your connection. That's a good solid speed for a 1500kbps connection. Some people will always get more, some will get less, but that's generally where you should be.

Capped downloading you should get somewhere between 5kb/s and 12kb/s..

Your actual transfer speeds will likely be a bit slower than a speedtest shows. Why? Because on a normal Internet connection your transfer speed is decreased by:

* Variable speed quality influenced by latency and jitter.
* Physical signaling overhead (e.g. The advertised transfer speed of a T1 line is 1,536 Kbps however 192 Kbps is usually tied up in the T1 line signaling protocol so the best you'll ever get is 1,344 Kbps)
* Layer 4 transport and transmission protocol maintainence/overhead. Amazingly, these below processes can eat up to 10% of your transfer speed.
o Handshaking negotiation procedures between you and the place you are transferring the file such as "slow start" described technically in RFC 2001.
o TCP overhead, error checking and sending of protocol headers (e.g. Each IPv4 header is 160 bits, each UDP header is 64 bits, etc. )
* If you are not transferring files over the Internet (TCP/IP) then these things will impact you less.

There you are.

Burnouts i've already been asked my distance to the exchange, and I don't know. Perhaps someone could tell me where it is?
For a 100% report contact any ISP and ask, or you can use this it will give you a good idea.

http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/detailedsummarystart.php


Estimated Cable: 5209 m

:(

Who said anything about the advertised speed being a crock?!? You're getting 152KB/s from your connection. That's a good solid speed for a 1500kbps connection.152 x 8 = 1216, which is about what the speed test you've labelled as dodge indicated. Just because it's common to only get 1200 on a 1500 connection doesn't make it any less crocklike. They advertise 1500 but no one ever get's it, that'd have to be the definition of a crock. Overstating a product has become commonplace in many areas of business, but that doesn't make it right.

EDIT: For interests sake, i'm apparently 1983m from the exchange. Though the map is marked with a direct line from the exchange to my house, which seems unhelpful. They don't lay phone lines that way....

152 x 8 = 1216, which is about what the speed test you've labelled as dodge indicated. Just because it's common to only get 1200 on a 1500 connection doesn't make it any less crocklike. They advertise 1500 but no one ever get's it, that'd have to be the definition of a crock.
Do you have any conception of how network traffic works?

Ok, so you've got your 1216kpbs there. That's bare traffic alone. You haven't taken into account all the TCP protocol traffic, routing hops and traffic there, ACK / handshake traffic, other Layer 4 traffic...

There's a thing on network connections that people call 'overheads'. It's all the other little bits and pieces of things that travel back and forth across the network besides bare traffic.

What people generally do is accept that there's going to be 15-20% of their TCP connection taken up by overhead traffic. Higher speed connections are usually closer to the 15%, while low speed connections (eg: ADSL) are closer to 20%. So, with that 20% of overhead, you're looking at a 1460kbps connection you've got there. Oh noes, you're missing 76kbps... Put that down to distance and line attenuation and be happy with the fact that you still get 150kb/s downloads.

For more information, jfgi (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=adsl+overheads)

What does it say in your router? sync speed?

just for some lulz

http://www.speedtest.net/result/479796662.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

blew my cap on bloody TF2 updates, now i cant play the friggin thing anyway

edit: thats actually pretty good i guess.. must just feel slow by comparison lol

The Principal Of The Thing
Of course I'm aware there's overheads, which ISPs clearly deliberately leave out of their calculations when determining line speed. I'm simply saying it's misleading to market something at a value it can never achieve under real conditions. Like how you buy your shiny new 500gig HDD and it only holds 465gig. Sure we know there's reasons, but that doesn't make it alright. What do consumers care about overheads? If they were straight with consumers they'd market it for what it is, which seems to be a 1300k connection at best. I just get annoyed when businesses fudge their numbers or don't give it to you straight just to make their product sound better. Surely i'm not the only one annoyed by dodgeyness??

The Technical Bits
I didn't expect to get the full 1500, I just wasn't expecting to lose so much as i've never had a connection at this speed. After the 56kbps loss on my 256 account I wasn't expecting to lose 300kbps, it seemed a lot. Anyway as I said i'm mostly concerned with my shaped time. I only wanted to know if there was a way to optimize it to squeeze a bit more out, even an extra 10kbps would be nice....For example apparently using pppoa rather than pppoe cuts your overheads, and someone said something to me about determining your optimal MTU size, another overhead cut. I have no idea if these things will make a noticable difference or if there's other tricks, but at 40k even a 10k increase is a bonus. I realise the speed thing that determined this doesn't account for overheads, but using your 20% still puts the 64k connection at 52k under ideal conditions. Assuming that website burnouts suggested is accurate, is 1983m a large distance as far as ADSL is concerned? If I could find sync speed anywhere in my router I'd tell you.

Yes I know using headings is a bit secondary school but I was trying to clarify things.

The Principal Of The Thing
Of course I'm aware there's overheads, which ISPs clearly deliberately leave out of their calculations when determining line speed.
They are not deliberately leaving anything out. They say the line speed will be 1536kbps. IT IS 1536kbps. What you choose to use it for is up to you. The line is still capable of transferring that much raw data.

I'm simply saying it's misleading to market something at a value it can never achieve under real conditions. Like how you buy your shiny new 500gig HDD and it only holds 465gig. Sure we know there's reasons, but that doesn't make it alright. What do consumers care about overheads? If they were straight with consumers they'd market it for what it is, which seems to be a 1300k connection at best.
It IS something that is achieved under real conditions. Your line IS doing 1536kbps. You've got to drop the notion that a 1536kbps line does a straight conversion to KB/s. It's simply not the case. Most consumers wouldn't know how to work out the theoretical max that their line should be... and those that can should simply know better than to expect an 8:1 conversion.

The HDD thing is part marketing ploy, part simplification. Again, most consumers wouldn't know that 1GB = 2^30. They simply know it as 1000MB. Also again, those that know better know why it's like that. It's not a big deal.

I just get annoyed when businesses fudge their numbers or don't give it to you straight just to make their product sound better. Surely i'm not the only one annoyed by dodgeyness??
ISPs aren't fudging numbers. They are giving you exactly what you asked for.

The Technical Bits

With your shaped time... instead of doing the speed test, do the FTP test again (though pick a non-NS FTP, so you're not bypassing the shaping). Again, that's a better way to determine what speed you're really getting while shaped. You should be getting about 6KB/s from that. Doing the fine tuning / using PPPoA / changing MTU might give you <1KB/s more, but it's really not worth it.

2kms won't have much impact on the connection either. Dirty / noisy lines might drop it a little, but if you've got a solid connection (which you seem to have), then it's not really an issue.

The main trick? Don't get shaped. Pick a plan that suits your needs. If it costs more, so be it. At least you won't have to worry about missing .5KB/s when you're shaped.

2kms is a good distance. being too close can be bad aswell (as in, next door to the exchange i mean..), but that distance is probably close to optimal for adsl.


i think penny arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/1/) sums it up nicely :)

ROFL.

heh, another bot chirps in with a human-esque reply..
which could be answered with my penny arcade post above lol.

guess theres a few mods here that cant wait for the new forums to come online fully..

LOL bots are funny some times.

yes contact your ISP because u have a broadband connection.
and ask them for a refund so u can get laser liposuction.

ROFL.