125M : I was disappointed with 60Mb broadband...

[HDFootyMan]

...until today:




I bet everyone starts hammering the Preston server now.

[Zee]

same happens here, some days are very, very bad, some are ok, and some are great it happens.

[HDFootyMan]

Originally Posted by Zee

same happens here, some days are very, very bad, some are ok, and some are great it happens.

Until now, SpeedTest.Net has always used the Coventry or Birmingham servers for me. Even speed tests at http://www.vmspeed.com/ were maxing out at 30Mb.

[Gadgie]

We are the same here in Fife, we were getting a more consistent service when we were on 10Mbs

Now since this new router has been installed, we are struggling to get even that?

[HDFootyMan]

Originally Posted by Gadgie

We are the same here in Fife, we were getting a more consistent service when we were on 10Mbs

Now since this new router has been installed, we are struggling to get even that?

Are you using the SuperHub for Wireless? Everything I've read (and seen, 2 members of my family have got 'hubbed' up with VM broadband) suggests that the SuperHub isn't great at wireless and you'd be better off using your existing router while putting the Hub into modem-only mode.

[Gadgie]

Yea! that was the issue to begin with, then our lad came and changed the settings.

This did improve the signal a good bit, then we realised that our main problem was the poor Internet signal coming into the house.

When we were on 10Mbs we got that 24/7, which was great, but since they installed this so called "super-hub" we are lucky if we get the 10Mbs we had before

[munrobasher]

Originally Posted by HDFootyMan

http://www.vmspeed.com/

Useful link - didn't know about that one and gives me a some more ammunition that general speed sites like speedtest.net are giving bad results right now.

vmspeed gave me a respectable 40Mbit/s (I'm on 50Mbit/s) but speedtest.net is only showing 5Mbit/s.

Unless VM have transparent proxies out there that are overloaded.

Cheers, Rob.

[qasdfdsaq]

VM don't use transparent proxies anymore, nor would that have anything to do with it.

Routing and capacity along those routes is the problem, in a way every router works like a transparent proxy.

[munrobasher]

VM don't use transparent proxies anymore, nor would that have anything to do with it.

Yes it could if all HTTP traffic was being routed via the proxy server and that server was slow but all other traffic went around it.

I assume that transparent proxies contain a cache of pages requested by other users (via HTTP) and if I ask for the same page, I get the copy from the proxy cache and not from the host web server. If the "Is this page already in the cache? No, okay pass though to the host web server" operation was slow, then it could theoretically slow down all HTTP requests. I know that proxies are designed to actually speed things up but they could go bad. They are one of those great ideas let down by the detail (pages not refreshing fast enough when you press F5 is the usually problem).

A bit more anecdotal evidence for just HTTP traffic being slow - I downloaded a TV program via uTorrent and it ran at full speed. At the same time, speedtest.net was reporting slow.

I'm not saying it's a transparent proxy causing the problem (esp. as you say they are not used by VM) but that *something like that* could be doing *something* with HTTP traffic alone which would explain the symptons.

As Microsoft File Transfer and torrents manage to run at fill speed suggests to me that it's not my local loop that's over contended. Equally, it suggests that whatever route is been taken to the target servers is also not overloaded so VM's core network is not overloaded.

However, as has been said, it could be the route to the speedtest sites that is overloaded.

Cheers, Rob.

---------- Post added at 10:08 ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 ----------

Speedtest.net to Preston reports slightly faster at 12Mbit/s this morning. Speedtest.net to London 50Mbit/s. vmspeed.com also 50Mbit/s.

I think that kind of answers my original suggestion that it was either a) poor throughput/response to/from the test sites or b) some kind of HTTP throttling.

Those results do point the finger very much at (a). Whether it's overloaded Preston speedtest server or infrastructure is moot as I can rest assured it's not VM at fault, at least not locally ;-)

Cheers, Rob.

---------- Post added at 10:09 ---------- Previous post was at 10:08 ----------

PS. I actually refer to another post I made here, not this one.

[qasdfdsaq]

Since the Preston server is on VM and is connected to VM's infrastructure, that would suggest VM is at fault.



Incidentally I see no problems with the Preston server this morning so ironically it looks like only VM customers have problems with VM's own server. Epic.

(P.S. HTTP is one of the few protocols VM don't fiddle with.)

[munrobasher]

61MB/s upsteam - are you on a leased line?

Cheers, Rob.

[qasdfdsaq]

No, OVH provide cheapo servers, that's from a 100/100 datacentre connection in France.

[Jinxey]

Originally Posted by Gadgie

Yea! that was the issue to begin with, then our lad came and changed the settings.

This did improve the signal a good bit, then we realised that our main problem was the poor Internet signal coming into the house.

When we were on 10Mbs we got that 24/7, which was great, but since they installed this so called "super-hub" we are lucky if we get the 10Mbs we had before

Sounds very simular to my connection when I upgraded to 60 from 10. Was very lucky to get above 10 during peak hours, now its a little better... usually get 20 or 30, but with high pings. Currently, during a non peak hour I have maxed out about 40. Highest I have had is 53 in modem mode, so will be trying to invest in a decent wireless router this month!

My results on 60mb connection:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1917008976.png

Below is from vmspeed
Download Speed: *52401* kbps (6550.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: *2925* kbps (365.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: *9* ms
26 April 2012 16:48:54

[HDFootyMan]

Okkkayyy.....maybe SpeedTest.Net have upgraded the Coventry server, either that or VM had network issues before this week. Even at 3am on Sunday morning, I was getting 30Mb. Now: