What is my connection speed ? 3

[kwunder]

I have an ongoing issue with BT (UK). I was on a 2mb connection, but was upgraded to an "up to 8MB" connection. I was told that I would get in the region of 5MB in reality. (BT have tested the line and say it is good for 5MB.)
Problem is, each time I do a speedtest on a number of "free" connection speed testing sites, I get a reading of anywhere between 800 kbits/sec to 1500 kbit/sec. (Should I be getting around 5000kbits/sec ??) I have tried this at all hours of the day & night, yet it hardly varies. Here's the thing.
If I try to download a sizable file, such as Windows Media Player from M$, I get a d/l speed reading of nearly 300 kb/sec which seems to fly.
Am I wrong in assuming that this 300 kb/sec is near enough a 3MB connection ?
I use a Netgear wireless ADSL Firewall Router (DG834Gv2) and when I go to its internal settings, it says "Connected - Downstream Connection Speed = 5120kbps"
Does that mean I am getting a 5MB connection ?

Sorry if its a bit over complex, but don't know how else to get it down in words !

Cheers

 

[matrixx1]

that's your transfer rate..not your dowloand speed....i'm not sure how accurate this will be since you're not in the us..but try this one:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

 

[matrixx1]

sorry i just re-read your post..and yes your downstream connection speed is showing 5mb...the other test are your transfer rate..which is the amount of data transferred per second...which is different from your download speed....understand?

 

[kwunder]

Sorry, not really.
Can you explain ?
Many thanks and appologies for the way I have put the question down. I wrote it and can't understand it myself !!!!

 

[JamesQB]

Some of the confusion is down to the difference between bits and bytes. 8 bits = 1 byte. You've been moved onto a line that should be good for 5Mbps (Megabits per second) or 5120Kbps. That's 0.625MBps (MegaBytes per second) or 640KBps, as 5120Kb is 640KB (5120 divided by 8 to convert bits to Bytes). Notice lower-case b for bits, and upper-case B for Bytes.

A speedtest result of 800Kbps = 100KBps. A result of 1500Kbps = 187.5KBps. The maximum figure there is close to what you'd get on a 1.5Mbit connection. As a comparison, I'm on an ADSL line rated at 1Mbit. That's 1024Kbps which is 128KBps. So in theory I should be able to download and do speed tests and get a 128KBps transfer rate, or if it gives it in bits, a 1024Kbps rate. In fact, distance from the exchange and other factors means I often get a rate of 110KBps maximum. Close enough for me.

If you were taking full advantage of a 5Mbit connection, you'd be getting around 5000Kbps tranfer rate or >600KBps. The rating of a line and what you actually get are two different things. As shown by my line being rated as a 1Mbit but in fact I don't ever get quite that high with my transfer speeds. You clearly aren't even getting close though. In fact, you're not even as close to the 2Mbit line you originally had as I'd expect you to be, and would want myself. Seems you're approaching the limit of a 1.5Mbit line at best.

The download at 300KBps (not bits) indicates a tranfer rate at that time of 2400Kbps or >2.3Mbit. Not really approaching what you'd expect from a 5Mbit connection, but better than you'd ever get on a 2Mbit rated line, of course.

I use

http://www.testmy.net

for download and upload speed tests. Seems pretty accurate. Do the Smartest, it's the best option.

 

[kwunder]

Hi JamesQB
I've run the Smartest as suggested and I'm getting 716kbps and 1.5 stars out of 5
That sounds LOW to me. However, my modem still says I'm connected at Downstream 5000kbps and Upstream 448kbps.

 

[JamesQB]

Hi kwunder,

I've just done a SmarTest for my 1Mbit connection and here are my results:

[small]:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 750 Kbps about 0.75 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Download Speed is:: 92 kB/s[/small]

About usual for me with a 1Mbit line. But more than you're getting, which isn't right.

I've found testmy.net to be quite accurate and with my previous ISP in the UK, they insisted I only use that particular speed test site when complaining to them about low speeds. When complaining to BT, maybe you could request that they provide you with a URL for doing a speed test that they consider to be reasonably accurate and so will take more notice of the result?

Apparently, you can expect to lose around 13% of your stated line speed due to ATM/TCP overheads. So to work out what transfer rate you should expect to get, you can deduct 13% from the stated line speed. My 1Mbit connection which is 1024Kbits (1Mbit = 1024Kbits, 1Kbit = 1024 bits) when changed to KBytes gives a line speed of 128KBps. If I deduct 13% I get 111KBps which is about the transfer rate I get under normal circumstances.

In your case 5120Kbps = 640KBps. 640 minus 13% = 556KBps. You're getting 89.5KBps (716Kbps). That's only 16% of the maximum transfer rate you should reasonably expect on a 5Mbit line.

My modem shows connected at downstream 1024Kbps and upstream at 320Kbps. Which, taking into account the 13% loss, I do actually get. If I introduce some noise into the phoneline by connecting a telephone without a microfilter attached, my downstream speed shown in the modem drops considerably, as the error rate increases, etc., effectively slowing the line down, but I don't know how it shows a lower speed, because unfortunately I don't know how the modem detects line speed. It doesn't seem to just be a preset signal from the ISP telling it what the line speed should be, because it lowers if the noise margin on the line is bad. Maybe someone else can enlighten me on this matter?

Found this link: "This site is a speed test site run by BT Wholesale to allow new ADSL users to test their connection, and also to verify whether any slow downs in service are down to the BT network, or your ISPs network."

http://www.speedtester.bt.com/

You can also do the tweak test below and see if your PC needs a bit of tweaking:

http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks

Follow the guidelines they give afterwards for your setup and see if that improves anything. Your speeds do seem to vary a great deal... maybe it's just the speed test sites under load or your connection has a high contention ratio and is suffering from varying load?

 

[kwunder]

Hi JamesQB

I have just downloaded "Downoad Accelerator Plus" to see what that can achieve. I tried to d/l a 35MB file (so as to give it time to get up to strength) and it was registering at around 475kbps and the d/l was like a rocket. BUT, is this truely representative ? I know it is downloading separate chunks from separate sources, but at the end of the day, I was getting a high d/l rate ???

I have just tried the dslreports tweak test.
The test starts, but when I click the results button, nothing happens. I'll try again later.

BTW, BT had already recommended ONLY using

http://www.speedtester.bt.com/

I found it to give similar results to the others.

Thanks

 

[rlshoe]

Test it here.

http://miranda.ctd.anl.gov:7123/

Russ Shoemaker

 

[plshlpme]

your modem tells you your sync rate is 5mbit...
even though your on the 8mbit plan they can only give you what your line will support.

they probably felt that anything above the 5mbit level would create sync issues and would degrade your service..

your probably connect via pppoe.. so there will be some overhead due to the authentication that will take away from what you can download too...

i have a 5mbit connection and i usually top out at around 500 kbytes/sec.