Line speed

steloide

Can anyone tell me how do network providers test their lines for speed.
I have had problems with Vodafone since I signed up. The max my line can carry is 9Mbs or so I have been told, so even if I was getting 5-7 Mbs that wouldn't be so bad. It varies depending on time of day between 1-3 Mbs.
It crawled to a stop Sunday, Monday and last night down to 0.01 Mbs download but worked up to 3Mbs during the day!
The reason I ask about line speed is that when I ring up to complain I am told to turn the router off then turn it back on again, sometimes I am told to reset the router. From the Vodafone side they have set the dns to Google's server and changed the channels yet I'm told it's an internal problem!
I use speedofme.com to test my line. I have stripped my 6 year-old house down to eliminate any interference. Can I do anymore?

lawred2

steloide wrote: »

Can anyone tell me how do network providers test their lines for speed.
I have had problems with Vodafone since I signed up. The max my line can carry is 9Mbs or so I have been told, so even if I was getting 5-7 Mbs that wouldn't be so bad. It varies depending on time of day between 1-3 Mbs.
It crawled to a stop Sunday, Monday and last night down to 0.01 Mbs download but worked up to 3Mbs during the day!
The reason I ask about line speed is that when I ring up to complain I am told to turn the router off then turn it back on again, sometimes I am told to reset the router. From the Vodafone side they have set the dns to Google's server and changed the channels yet I'm told it's an internal problem!
I use speedofme.com to test my line. I have stripped my 6 year-old house down to eliminate any interference. Can I do anymore?

never heard of speedofme

try ookla - http://www.speedtest.net/

see are the results any different

steloide

lawred2 wrote: »

never heard of speedofme

try ookla - http://www.speedtest.net/

see are the results any different

Thanks. I should have said. Speed of me uses html5 and I find it clean and really honest. The results are usually half the speed of ookla which would correspond to browsing issues or streaming issues I'm having.

lawred2

steloide wrote: »

Thanks. I should have said. Speed of me uses html5 and I find it clean and really honest. The results are usually half the speed of ookla which would correspond to browsing issues or streaming issues I'm having.

Sky/Eir said our line could support 70Mb

Ookla says 69Mb... Must try speedofme when I get home. See does it differ.

steloide

lawred2 wrote: »

Sky/Eir said our line could support 70Mb

Ookla says 69Mb... Must try speedofme when I get home. See does it differ.

Do and post up the results. 70Mbps must be nice. I suppose that's what I get for living out in the sticks.

ED E

What echange OP?

steloide

ED E wrote: »

What echange OP?

I dont know? Probably the farthest away from it. Why do you ask?

Johnboy1951

From the Vodafone side they have set the dns to Google's server and changed the channels yet I'm told it's an internal problem!

If you are testing over a wifi connection then run an ethernet cable from PC to router and test again.

ED E

steloide wrote: »

I dont know? Probably the farthest away from it. Why do you ask?

Because which exchange it is can have a huge impact. The nearest town/townland you're in will be your exchange.

steloide

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

If you are testing over a wifi connection then run an ethernet cable from PC to router and test again.

I have never connected straight to the box. Its not in a very convenient spot. I took a speed test this morning Wirelessly beside the router and i got 4.12Mbps.

steloide

ED E wrote: »

Because which exchange it is can have a huge impact. The nearest town/townland you're in will be your exchange.

Mullingar.

lawred2

steloide wrote: »

I have never connected straight to the box. Its not in a very convenient spot. I took a speed test this morning Wirelessly beside the router and i got 4.12Mbps.

you could have all sorts of wireless interference

Johnboy1951

steloide wrote: »

I have never connected straight to the box. Its not in a very convenient spot. I took a speed test this morning Wirelessly beside the router and i got 4.12Mbps.

Until you concede to do the speedtest wired up you cannot eliminate interference in you house as the cause.

Doing speedtests wirelessly is pointless.

steloide

lawred2 wrote: »

you could have all sorts of wireless interference

Like i say earlier.......I stripped the house of all interference 2.5 and 5Ghz any thing that could generated power, inductance.

Johnboy1951

I tried speedof.me and it reported a download speed somewhat higher than ookla, but crashed when checking the upload speed.

I guess it does not do slow upload speeds very well?

ED E

steloide wrote: »

Like i say earlier.......I stripped the house of all interference 2.5 and 5Ghz any thing that could generated power, inductance.

If you're living within 2.8km of the center of mullingar then you probably cannot trust wireless at all. If you have any other houses within 15m of your house it doesnt really matter what you do internally.

Test with a cable, and if its good that way then go and buy a 5Ghz capable router.

12Phase

It's calculated based on known line length and the type of cable used as far as I am aware.

They know the length of line installed and may also use electrical resistance to calculate it too. The local exchange is able to so a lot of electrical tests automatically.

They have a lot of data on the network. It's not as dumb as you'd think sometimes.

ED E

Its the lines capacitance that's read to determine length and thus speed viable. the MTAU does this monthly or bimonthly for OpenEir.

12Phase

Quality of eir's lines varies a bit depending on the exact specs of the cable used but they are actually pretty decent by international standards as they used pretty good quality gear.

The issue here tends to have been crazy long lines due to low density housing rather than bad wiring.

steloide

12Phase wrote: »

Quality of eir's lines varies a bit depending on the exact specs of the cable used but they are actually pretty decent by international standards as they used pretty good quality gear.

The issue here tends to have been crazy long lines due to low density housing rather than bad wiring.

I reckon the lines are good alright but congestion is the culprit here.
do they have boosters along the line?

ED E

steloide wrote: »

I reckon the lines are good alright but congestion is the culprit here.
do they have boosters along the line?

You're probably seeing wireless congestion which isnt eirs problem. MGR is a regional hub, holds a larger rack of RAS units and is very very unlikely to be congested.

You can't boost ADSL.

ED E

12Phase wrote: »

Quality of eir's lines varies a bit depending on the exact specs of the cable used but they are actually pretty decent by international standards as they used pretty good quality gear.

The issue here tends to have been crazy long lines due to low density housing rather than bad wiring.

They over spec'd during the P&T/TE days but maintenance has been lackluster which is were issues come in.

steloide

ED E wrote: »

You're probably seeing wireless congestion which isnt eirs problem. MGR is a regional hub, holds a larger rack of RAS units and is very very unlikely to be congested.

You can't boost ADSL.

So is it a myth that later in the evening when people get home and go on the interweb the the things slow down?

12Phase

steloide wrote: »

So is it a myth that later in the evening when people get home and go on the interweb the the things slow down?

And you can repeat ADSL/ADSL2+ with a loop extender that is basically a repeater placed half-way along a long route. I'm not sure if Eir ever deployed that. There are pole-mounted devices that are as small as 2 ports (2 lines)

That's possibly down to two different grades of backhaul.

You still have some very small exchanges that are offering ADSL that isn't on the Next Generation Network (NGN). So you have backhaul capacity issues, lower speeds and slow peak times.

steloide

12Phase wrote: »

And you can repeat ADSL/ADSL2+ with a loop extender that is basically a repeater placed half-way along a long route. I'm not sure if Eir ever deployed that. There are pole-mounted devices that are as small as 2 ports (2 lines)

That's possibly down to two different grades of backhaul.

You still have some very small exchanges that are offering ADSL that isn't on the Next Generation Network (NGN). So you have backhaul capacity issues, lower speeds and slow peak times.

So basically I need to network my whole house. I never ran the cables when I was building but I do have RG6 throughout the house. Surly that would work?

ED E

12Phase wrote: »

And you can repeat ADSL/ADSL2+ with a loop extender that is basically a repeater placed half-way along a long route. I'm not sure if Eir ever deployed that. There are pole-mounted devices that are as small as 2 ports (2 lines)

Eir have only ever Mux'd the voice spectrum on the notorious carrier lines (they block DSL).

steloide wrote: »

So basically I need to network my whole house. I never ran the cables when I was building but I do have RG6 throughout the house. Surly that would work?

You don't.

A. Use 5Ghz
B. Use Homeplugs

12Phase

steloide wrote: »

So basically I need to network my whole house. I never ran the cables when I was building but I do have RG6 throughout the house. Surly that would work?

Test your speed from an ethernet port on the back of the ISP's modem/router. If that's slow, you've a problem with the line or connection.

If it's a problem with the line, it might be resolvable - check for crackles on the phone and also check the stats on the modem (you can get these on the admin pages of the modem, or you can phone the ISP and they will have them from their end).

If you're on an exchange with a slow connection to the outside world, there's very little you can do other than keep lobbying the local TDs and writing to the papers and so on. There are still a few of these kinds of setups around.

If you get an OK connection from the ethernet port on the modem, then you need to just go about sorting out your WiFi.

As above: 5GHz might help, more so if there's interference on the local airwaves. Installing a better router might help, you can use HomePlugs (or if you want to, install actual ethernet wiring) to get around internal obstacles like masonry or stone walls which will block radio signals.

In a lot of larger Irish houses (especially sprawling bungalows) you will need more than one access point (WiFi router) if you want signal everywhere.