Broadband Speed

[jenonnet]

How can I tell if my 1mb cable broadband is running at the right speed? I have gone onto different sites to get a speed check but I don't really understand the results. My oS is Windows XP Pro and my ISP is ntl. All I want to know is if it is running at the speed it is supposed to run at. I've just had an upgrade but it doesn't seem that much faster than the 300kbps I had before. Can someone please tell me how I can find out in language I can understand. The first test I did was at ADSL and the results were: Downstream actual speed 148 Kbps, Upstream Actual speed 28 Kbps. The second site was bandwidthplace.com and the results were: 532.5 kilobits per second. The third site was numion.com, which said Throughput 5580 Bps and Throughput 45 kbps. The last one was dslreports.com which gave me download speed of 951 kbps and upload speed of 42 kbps. I don't understand any of this. Please can someone help. Thanks in advance.

[Nemesis]

You can try http://reviews.cnet.com/Bandwidth_me...-7254_7-0.html

Its always worked well for me.

[jenonnet]

[SIZE=2]Thanks, I followed your link and did the speed test, the results are as follows:

Connection Type Connection Speed Faster Providers
28.8 Kbps Dial-up 28.8k

33.6 Kbps Dial-up 33.6k

53.3 Kbps Dial-up 56k [/size]

75.6 Kbps - You 75.6 kbps

384.0 Kbps DSL/Cable 384k Find ISP

768.0 Kbps DSL/Cable 768k Find ISP

1500.0 Kbps Cable/DSL 1.5Mbps Find ISP

1544.0 Kbps Full T1 1.544Mbps Covad

3000.0 Kbps N x T1 3.0Mbps Bandwidth.com

6000.0 Kbps T3 6.0Mbps Bandwidth.com

15000.0 Kbps T3 15Mbps Bandwidth.com

30000.0 Kbps T3 30Mbps Bandwidth.com

I still don't know what this means. Is it running at the right speed or not?

[norin]

do you have Dial-up or broadband? your speed is that of just above 56k [basic dial-up speed]

and for further reference please do not double post in the forums. we need to help out and try to keep the forum clean. thank you.

[jenonnet]

Hi Norin
I have cable broadband, not dial up. My ISP has just supposed to have upgraded me to 1MB broadband. Do I need to speak to them about this? If so, what can I tell them to avoid them fobbing me off with jargon?

[norin]

are you sure it's 1MB and not 1Mbps?

1MB = 1 MegaByte [MegaBite however you wanna spell it]

1Mbps = 1 MegaBit per second

with 100Mbps as i have my average speed is about 188-200 KB/s [KiloBytes per second] so i am guessing your connection as it is just above 56k speeds would range in between 18-25 KB/s

are you using DSL? if you are do you know how far away you live from their Central office? you can have DSL upto 15,000 ft away from the central source. the farther away you get the less of a connection you will have.

[JamesO]

To answer your specific question, it does not appear you are getting your 1 MB download consistently. Matter fact, you are only slightly above dial up for the some of the tests.

Your 1 MB cable service should be running close to the 1 MB speed. However, cable providers do not guarantee the speed at all times. You should check during peak and off peak times to see if your speed changes much. You may see big differences at different times of day. I assume peak periods would be between 1600 and 2400 local time.

It sounds like from your previous posts your speed is not so good. You are not running at the "advertised" speed, but this "advertised" speed may not be guaranteed! Maybe your cable modem service has bad signal levels? Maybe your provider has not proplerly configured your service for the new upgraded rate.

When did you get the cable service installed, recently? Did it run poorly before? Why did you get it upgraded, slow downloads?

Do you have friends in the area that have a similiar service you can compare downloads speeds with?

I know in the US a properly set up cable modem service is typically capable of 1.5 MB downloads or faster. Could be higher if you purchase premium service, some offer 4-5 MB download for a higher monthly service charge.

I use the following links for download speed tests which appear accurate on a good quality link:

http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

Your post should actually be put in the Networking Forum under Modems DSL/Cable/Satellite. Not sure why you posted under Mozilla/Firefox Browser?

Maybe one of the admins will move it to the correct location.

JamesO

[Nemesis]

Youre definatly not getting what you pay for there. Id definatly be making a call to your ISP, cable company, or whatever. Im getting 2 mbps easily from my provider with many subscribers on the line.

[gkintrng]

I was having a similar problem with my DSL. I did a little digging and found a program called TCP Optimizer. It's freeware and I used it to adjust my computer settings. I now have all the bandwidth promised.

Here's the link for the download.

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

After you run it post your speeds from the link nemesis sent you.

Hope this helps. I know I was pretty upset over the whole affair

[JamesO]

When you have really dismal performance, you should be performing Ping tests and Trace Routes to see if there is high latency and/or lost packets in the link somewhere. You need to perform a Trace Route and find the first hop at the ISP provider to you can separate a connection problem between the ISP and you and a problem further upstream in the ISP's network.

The ISP may have over committed their bandwidth to the end customer and/or their Tier 1 provider.

JamesO

[jenonnet]

Thanks for the advice guys. I posted my thread in this forum as it seemed the only one that linked to the browser I'm using and I didn't think the network forum was right as I'm not networked to any other pc.
I've had my cable broadband for about 5 years now but only on the lowest speed, as the others cost too much for me. I upgraded when my ISP offered free upgrades for the same price per month as the lower speed. They advertised it at 1MB speed, it also has a limit of the amount of downloads you can do a month so I reckon it should be pretty fast, as the slower ones don't have limits on them. The other speed I had been running at was very slow and became slower recently, so the upgrade came at the right time.
I don't understand about pinging and DSL and I don't know how far away from my ISP's central office I am either. I'm better at the software side of things, not the technical stuff!
I'll try TCP Optimizer and then post my results again.
Thanks for your time.

[jenonnet]

I've ran TCP Optimizer and then went to dslreports.com and bandwidthplace.com to do speed tests again. Dslreports said that I am running at 278kbps down and 32kbps up. Bandwidthplace said I am running at 98.8kilobits per second. It seems worse now than before. Can anyone help?

[gkintrng]

If it seems worse try a different setting at the top a the optimizer. the first time I ran it i had it set to dialup. Mine did get worse. Then I reran it using the different DSL settings and that got it.

[dai]

i use this one
http://www.tcpiq.com/tcpIQ/LineSpeed/

[JamesO]

I have never used any of the TCP optimizers, however, I do not think they will yield a large speed improvement, except on links with high latency like dial up and satellite.

I think before you bet the farm on a TCP tweak to solve your problem, you need to look into your signal level in your link verify that your ISP is not over subscribing service.

Un-tweaked 860 kbps DSL links I have tested yield almost 800 kbps downloads on speed test.

JamesO

[jenonnet]

Thanks for the link, I tried to use TCPIQ speed test but it wouldn't work, it just kept telling me it had missing details and no matter what I did it wouldn't give me the test results.
I guess I'll just have to contact my ISP and try to sort it out with them. At least I now know that my speed isn't right and it's running far too slow.
Thanks for the help guys.

[boshic00]

Hi Jennonet,

You should contact NTL and state that you are experiencing latency on your internet connection. State that you have been to a number of speed test sites, including DSLReports, etc... and that they report your download speed to range from 75kbps to 300kbps.

The NTL rep may ask you to perform a speed test to a site of their choice as the sites you have mentioned before tend to reside in the US. The rep will probably have you power cycle your modem, bypass a router if you have one, etc. The rep should check your signal strength and may have you access the modem to give him some diagnostic info.

If after all the testing your speed has not improved ask that they dispatch a tech to your location with a new modem. Or, if he states it is your computer that is the problem ask them to send a tech with a laptop to test, if the tech has the same results ask that they replace the modem. (Note: If they do dispatch a tech at your request and the issue turns out to be your computer you will probably be liable for the cost of the dispatch)

Let us know what happens.

[jenonnet]

Hi Boshicoo
Thanks for the advice. I rang NTL and spoke to a technician. Still no luck. He said that my broadband is running very slow when my PC is on but running at the correct speed when switched off. He told me it was spyware on my system that's causing the slow broadband speed. I run SpyBot Search & Destroy regularly and also Adaware, but I ran them again just to make sure. SpyBot only found one item, which I deleted. Adaware found 3 items, which I deleted. I then went to bandwidthplace.com and did another speed test. It is running at 67.8kbps. I give up! I don't know what to do next.

[dai]

i just spent the last 3 days sorting mine out 3 modems later back up to speed
[faulty modem]
follow greyknights instructions here[faulty modem]
http://www.greyknight17.com/spyware.htm
if they do not find anything post back here

[gkintrng]

Why don't you run Hijackthis and post your log on this forum. I'm no HJT guru but there are alot of them here. I'm sure if it is adware/spyware problem or anything like that these guys can definately help.