Does 1gbps FTTH Suffer from Contention?

captainneutron

Does 1gbps FTTH Suffer from Contention?

Hi, I got Digiweb Lightning BB 500 Installed last week. FTTH via openeir.

Installation went well etc. However I noticed the speeds can be erratic.

Now I have yet to test this on my PC via ethernet as I am waiting on a long enough cat 6 cable to reach my PC.

However I have tested it via microsoft edge thru my xbox one x using fast.com and speedtest.net. It seems to fluctuate between 140 - 300. (rarely it hits the actual 500)

Also wifi seems to vary around same speeds. Have gotten to 480 a handful of times. But thought as it was fibre to the home that speeds should be consistant at least. I understand that wifi can be affected by many variables.

I have been using the stock fritzbox 7530 and I own a TP-Link AX50 also, both showing same results.

Also I know the speeds I am getting are still fast enough, but I am paying for 500mb, and if its a case of speeds are erratic I will cancel and go back to standard 100mb BB

Any ideas?

advertsfox

Wireless to an Xbox via it's web browser is never going to yield accurate results. You need to test regularly with an ethernet cable to a laptop / PC that supports gigabit ethernet (ideally via Speedtest.net for the historical data) with nothing else connected to the network. Might I recommend moving your desktop if at all possible or borrow a laptop with a gigabit port. Disable the wireless on your router, make sure no bandwidth heavy applications are running (Windows Update, Steam, torrents etc.) and start testing.

captainneutron

Hi, I should have noted that the connection on the xbox was wired.

But that is sound advice, thanks very much. Will try get my hands on a laptop, not possible to bring PC closer. Saying that I have a 10m cat 6 cable on it way to me today.

Thanks again

B_ecke_r

have a look at Deco M5 they solved my issues almost completely.

ED E

There's 2.5Gbps on the strand you're on. Thats for you and 30 neighbours if its full.


Practically though you should be able to burst to 500 no problem on the last mile. Its more likely that Digi have a constrained 10G link further up the network.

captainneutron

So i have replaced all cables in network with cat 6 inc the cable from ONT to router. I have the wifi off and my PC connected to router.

This is the results;

I know its still good but not 500mb


DATE /TIME PING
ms DOWNLOAD
Mbps UPLOAD
Mbps DISTANCE
mi LOCATION /SERVER PROVIDER
04/22/2021
8:18 PM
1
325.13
48.86
< 50
Cork
Cork Internet eXchange
+ 3 more
Digiweb

captainneutron

I seem to get different results based on which speed test I use;

Below results is from speed test in the chrome browser

436.2

Mbps download

48.6

Mbps upload

Latency: 8 ms
Server: Dublin
Your Internet connection is very fast.

Your Internet connection should be able to handle multiple devices streaming HD videos, video conferencing and gaming at the same time.

WLad

I've just come through the same thing after months of over and back. Basically it was an issue on BTs backhaul network which they eventually fixed for me. Mine was erratic as well and was even worse at 9pm every single night. After they fixed it its been rock solid 460Mbps all day every day

My advice is start the ball rolling with them but get ready for giving them plenty of speed tests (always using wired) and for it to take a long time.

ED E

[Without visibility into their nets] It seems like several ISPs have gone from selling avg ~50Mb packages to lets say average ~500Mb packages (we don't know the mix of 150/300/500/1000Mb) without any prep work. Now this doesnt mean customers are going to use 10x the data, they wont, but they will use some amount more. Streams that defaulted to 720p will now default to 4K etc.

So ideally they'd have provisioned more capacity from the national networks as they started to redline but seems like some aren't. A customer shouldn't have to harass the ISP into fixing their own network. IMHO just cancel and change provider, save your sanity.

WLad

ED E wrote: »

[Without visibility into their nets] It seems like several ISPs have gone from selling avg ~50Mb packages to lets say average ~500Mb packages (we don't know the mix of 150/300/500/1000Mb) without any prep work. Now this doesnt mean customers are going to use 10x the data, they wont, but they will use some amount more. Streams that defaulted to 720p will now default to 4K etc.

So ideally they'd have provisioned more capacity from the national networks as they started to redline but seems like some aren't. A customer shouldn't have to harass the ISP into fixing their own network. IMHO just cancel and change provider, save your sanity.

My issue was across two separate providers FYI. From what I've seen if it's the same backhaul provider you might have the same issue. Not sure how that works though.

ED E

WLad wrote: »

My issue was across two separate providers FYI. From what I've seen if it's the same backhaul provider you might have the same issue. Not sure how that works though.

There are only a few national networks (Eir, BT, ENET[MANs], ESB, CIE...) but not all reach out to everywhere - eg the ESB's network is primarily a ring around the coast with a bridge through the midlands. So your options to reach all handoff points are limited.

Really a retail ISP is mostly a label placed on Eir + Eir or Eir + BT. There used to be BT hardware in LLU setups but thats now a very small number of ADSL lines.

If BT are making a dogs dinner of things Eir are a safe bet much as I hate to say it.

allanroche

ED E wrote: »

There are only a few national networks (Eir, BT, ENET[MANs], ESB, CIE...) but not all reach out to everywhere - eg the ESB's network is primarily a ring around the coast with a bridge through the midlands. So your options to reach all handoff points are limited.

Really a retail ISP is mostly a label placed on Eir + Eir or Eir + BT. There used to be BT hardware in LLU setups but thats now a very small number of ADSL lines.

If BT are making a dogs dinner of things Eir are a safe bet much as I hate to say it.

That's really interesting, I never knew that. So a question on that, if you were to join an ESB/SIRO provider the backhaul they use could be fine for one person but terrible for another based on location around the country? Sorry if I misunderstood, just trying to learn about it.

daraghwal

ED E wrote: »

There are only a few national networks (Eir, BT, ENET[MANs], ESB, CIE...) but not all reach out to everywhere - eg the ESB's network is primarily a ring around the coast with a bridge through the midlands. So your options to reach all handoff points are limited.

Really a retail ISP is mostly a label placed on Eir + Eir or Eir + BT. There used to be BT hardware in LLU setups but thats now a very small number of ADSL lines.

If BT are making a dogs dinner of things Eir are a safe bet much as I hate to say it.

I know some people that have Pure Telecom and the Speedtest network comes up as eir with no issues and have seen on here some people with BT Ireland coming up on Speedtest. Would this just be Pure using BT or eir for backhaul depending on where they are in the country? If it’s coming up as eir would I be correct assuming they’re using 100% of the eir network and it would be as good as if someone was with eir?

TheDriver

I'd say that depends if ftth is siro (BT) or eir (eir).
Sky and Vodafone seem to have issues in certain locations with backhaul but they would have a lot more customers than all the BT supported ones combined plus BT would prob support a lot of business which would use bandwidth during the day.

ED E

allanroche wrote: »

That's really interesting, I never knew that. So a question on that, if you were to join an ESB/SIRO provider the backhaul they use could be fine for one person but terrible for another based on location around the country? Sorry if I misunderstood, just trying to learn about it.

With SIRO the handover points are all/some(?, did they agree colos in the end?) new sites so chances of better connectivity from your last mile up there is probably good. If they build it fresh you hope they'll do it right. Its old installs where they have some old crap infra that they didnt bother upgrading thats the pain point.

* They're probably all eir, just an example

daraghwal wrote: »

I know some people that have Pure Telecom and the Speedtest network comes up as eir with no issues and have seen on here some people with BT Ireland coming up on Speedtest. Would this just be Pure using BT or eir for backhaul depending on where they are in the country? If it’s coming up as eir would I be correct assuming they’re using 100% of the eir network and it would be as good as if someone was with eir?

Speedtest shows two names, on the app sometimes just one.


If it shows one its just the server offering, that's basically random. If its two then one is your ISP. White label ISPs (Three Business for ex) will often show the "real" ISP in these tests.
In the picture above Cox is the test server, Hurricane are the ISP. NB: Hurricane are huge but you'll probably have never heard of them.

TheDriver wrote: »

I'd say that depends if ftth is siro (BT) or eir (eir).
Sky and Vodafone seem to have issues in certain locations with backhaul but they would have a lot more customers than all the BT supported ones combined plus BT would prob support a lot of business which would use bandwidth during the day.

SIRO isnt BT I think, SIRO is ENET/?.

BT and Eir are the big boys, Vodafone is chasing (they have their own facilities at least), Sky are nothing in Ireland, just rented space from BT.

sky-78-17-111-999.bas512.cwt.btireland.net
BSkyB Broadband Ireland  (last octect changed, obvious)

^ A Sky connection in Galway resolves to BT in Citywest.

Again, you've got the ability to vote with your feet. Sign up with a provider (SIRO or OE based, doesn't matter), if it works great. If its slow just move provider within the cooling period. "It will get better, we're working on it" is probably a lie, don't wait.

TheDriver

I think SIRO have both ENET and BT as backhaul providers. Pure has an agreement with both AFAIK