Is 4mb better than 10mb??!

u768211 · 08-03-2007, 20:43

Hi - have just set up my new SACM 250 - and got my 10mb working.

Obviously went in and did some speed tests, and I have to say that I am surprised (disappointed) at the results. I have had some speeds near 10mb, but the average result seems to be sub 2mb. I don't think this can be due to over subscribed UBRs as I used to get fairly consistent results with my 4mb connection via the STB.

For example here are the past 8 results on each

4 mb 10 mb
3880 1265
3939 2294
3938 4468
3940 2165
1994 3856
3933 5333
3935 2401
3927 9389

Any idea what is going on? Is it just that the modem is cr*p?

Seems odd that I am getting slower speeds with 10mb than 4mb!? (modem conencted straight in to pc, not via wireless yet)

Should I just ask to downgrade to speed up my connection?

Thanks.

sodium1 · 08-03-2007, 20:49

hope you find what the problem is mate, i have got the same thing happening here...where do you live in the uk...i am in stoke on trent

u768211 · 08-03-2007, 21:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by sodium1

hope you find what the problem is mate, i have got the same thing happening here...where do you live in the uk...i am in stoke on trent

I am Watford. The odd thing is that 4mb was fairly stable at 4mb, so I am really surprised tosee 10mb dropping below 2mb!

sodium1 · 08-03-2007, 21:36

i have no idea why its so unsettled.......maybe the engineers are working on the network somewhere....i have even tried switching off and restarting the 250 modem

awibble · 09-03-2007, 07:55

how are you connecting to the modem?

Ive had loads of problems with my BB speed, (now resolved) and basically this is what faults got me to do.

Connect directly to the modem via ethernet
Restart the modem and the computer
goto http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blu...42/demo/win32/
Download the zipfile and the exe file at the same time and when the speed gets pretty constant (usually a few seconds) add both the speeds together.

That should give you a good idea of what speed you are getting.

u768211 · 09-03-2007, 09:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by awibble

how are you connecting to the modem?

Ive had loads of problems with my BB speed, (now resolved) and basically this is what faults got me to do.

Connect directly to the modem via ethernet
Restart the modem and the computer
goto http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blu...42/demo/win32/
Download the zipfile and the exe file at the same time and when the speed gets pretty constant (usually a few seconds) add both the speeds together.

That should give you a good idea of what speed you are getting.

Thanks for the advice.

I am connecting directly by ethernet - modem to pc. So should be maxed up. The odd thing is I am occassionally getting 10mb speeds, but this is only one in 10 tests, the other results are normally sub 2mb..... so it seems to be intermittent? (spelling?)

Locky · 09-03-2007, 13:25

tests mean nothing most servers cant even support 10 meg on 1 thread so try a download manager to smewere such as microsoft i am sure you will max out on that

Horace · 09-03-2007, 14:22

Some of the speedtest.net servers give me close to 10Mbit results, others don't even come close and it's usually because of packetloss somewhere along the route.

Multi-threading helps I think, because the most common cause of packetloss, particularly over long routes is congestion and / or badly maintained routers. It's like having ten postmen trying to deliver a letter and a few getting delayed by a nattering neighbour, out of the ten postmen a couple will get through and deliver your giro (or whatever the DHSS use these days) on time. It looks as though your connection is running at full speed because your network connection is getting filled with all the connections that made it despite the fact that a big percentage are still delayed and dropped. Also, problems occur when the path isn't wide enough to accommodate ten postmen and they spill onto the road and get knocked over(the modem crashes or reboots) which happens with my 120 and probably most other cable modems with the exception of the 250.

Ideally, a speed test should give the option of opening multiple connections for a more "real world" result since in our over-congested internet its rare to get full speed over a single connection. I'm pretty sure that's the reason why Bit Torrent is so successful since it jams so many connections down your pipe it appears to be giving amazing download speeds compared to downloading a file over http.

p.s. sorry for the oversimplified explanation network boffins but it's the best I could do with my limited knowledge.

jerryl · 09-03-2007, 14:46

i used to have 1meg, i had constant 1meg and really low ping rates, but when i changed to 4meg everything got worst and the speed is less than 1meg and i get high ping rates

gargoyle · 09-03-2007, 15:30

I had 10mb and good only get 4mb which was tested by telewest, when it was telewest. Best speed I could ever achieve on a single thread was 4mb, so down graded to 4mb.

Only time I ever achieved any where near 10mb was when I used a download manager and had 8 threads open at the one time.

u768211 · 09-03-2007, 17:32

Thanks for the explanations guys - re threads etc.

What I do not understand is why did I used to get consistently good speeds on 4mb, but now I am on 10mb I am not even getting those results?

It suggests to me that the speed is being impacted by the change from STB to modem, or from the cable now being split? - so the threads explanation doesn't really work does it?

Rik · 09-03-2007, 17:51

As far as im concerned the only accurate way to test my 10MB connection is to connect to Giganews European Server

1.18MB/s all the time.

Hmm i feel a Linux ISO download coming on!

SnoopZ · 09-03-2007, 18:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rik

As far as im concerned the only accurate way to test my 10MB connection is to connect to Giganews European Server

1.18MB/s all the time.

Hmm i feel a Linux ISO download coming on!

I couldn't agree more, as i do that with Newshostings servers.

RXP · 09-03-2007, 21:24

Giganews speed test: http://www.giganews.com/performance.html

Locky · 09-03-2007, 22:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rik

As far as im concerned the only accurate way to test my 10MB connection is to connect to Giganews European Server

1.18MB/s all the time.

Hmm i feel a Linux ISO download coming on!

yeah i limit mine to 1 mb/s with 5 connections that is about 80 gig of linux iso's a day lol