Typical 10mb download rate?

[bohboh]

Hi All

I was recently upgraded to 10mb from 4mb and have spent the past two days checking out the speed on various speed test sites.

Namely:

www.speedtest.net
www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk
www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html
www.broadbandgenie.co.uk
www.numion.com

Out of all of them, only numion gave results that would say i was on 10mb, they were between 8 and 9.5.

The others ranged between 4.5 and 5.5mb.

Firstly, what is the typical speed of a 10mb line taking into account overheads etc? Secondly, are these speed sites reliable? wont they be affected by how busy they are?

Virgin wont do anything since numion is saying that i am on 10mb, so as far as they are concerned the line is fine and the matter is closed, i asked for an engineer but it will cost me £25.

What can i do to confirm whether i am on 10mb, and what can i do to improve it? if at all anything... Thanks

[denluk]

Hi and welcome

I use the following and seems to give me reliable results

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...speedtest.html

Just one tip, If you are downloading large files, get yourself a download
manager like REGET, these split the files into several seperate chunks
and allow you to get round the max single connection issue that seems to exist with using broadband.

[bohboh]

Thanks.

The site you gave me actually reported 8mb+ , so maybe i am on 10mb.

REGET, is that the same as http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/ ?, FDM i already use.

Suppose i shouldnt complain, they did this for free having received a line transfer request from BT (which i cancelled but BT had already put a request for in), Virgin then called and offered a free upgrade from 4 to 10, then eventually 20mb.

[nfs6600]

Originally Posted by bohboh

Virgin wont do anything since numion is saying that i am on 10mb, so as far as they are concerned the line is fine and the matter is closed, i asked for an engineer but it will cost me £25.

What can i do to confirm whether i am on 10mb, and what can i do to improve it? if at all anything... Thanks

From what you have said your speed is fine. It's bound to vary no matter what site you go on. Its enver going to say 10mb all the time. I can't see why you would want a tech, and £25 IMO is not enough

[Sirpingalot]

Originally Posted by nfs6600

From what you have said your speed is fine. It's bound to vary no matter what site you go on. Its enver going to say 10mb all the time. I can't see why you would want a tech, and £25 IMO is not enough

How can it not be enough? Unless you work for VM of course, then I can understand...

And I wouldn't advise using FDM as it can be associated with the likes of Malware and Viruses. I use Orbit download manager -

http://www.orbitdownloader.com/

[nfs6600]

Originally Posted by Sirpingalot

How can it not be enough? Unless you work for VM of course, then I can understand...

And I wouldn't advise using FDM as it can be associated with the likes of Malware and Viruses. I use Orbit download manager -

http://www.orbitdownloader.com/

Because it costs more than that to send a tech out. Whether I work for VM or not has no reflection on what I think. If someone wants a tech out when there is no fault, why should they get it for free? If you run a business selling say, computers, would you goto a customers home for free because they wanted you to go there? No you would not. Companies are meant to operate to make a profit, not offer services for free

[Sirpingalot]

I can sympathise with parts of that, however, I do believe that if the customer feels there is something wrong a tech should be sent out even if it's just for the customer's peace of mind.

[bohboh]

Well, i wasnt suggesting that the tech should come out for free. I wanted to know if there was a way of me testing the speed myself to confirm that there is an issue.

I agree, that if a tech comes out and it isnt an issue with the line then its only fair to charge otherwise calls for onsite tech support would be non-stop.

At the same time, my questions generally went unanswered which is why i had to ask this forum, if call centre staff had answers to simple questions such as "are these sites a reliable way to test speed?" and "what should i approx be expecting for a 10mb after overheads?" then i wouldnt have asked for a tech since it suggests to me that no clear cut answer means they dont know therefore a problem with the line.

[Zee]

I usually get 1.1MB/s

[S.O.F.T.]

must be sunday
Sun, 6 May 2007 17:20:12 UTC

1st 512K took 6125 ms = 83.6 KB/sec, approx 689 Kbps, 0.67 Mbps
2nd 512K took 5688 ms = 90 KB/sec, approx 742 Kbps, 0.72 Mbps
3rd 512K took 5687 ms = 90 KB/sec, approx 742 Kbps, 0.72 Mbps
4th 512K took 5203 ms = 98.4 KB/sec, approx 811 Kbps, 0.79 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 746 Kbps, 0.73 Mbps
10 meg yeah ok

---------- Post added at 18:25 ---------- Previous post was at 18:23 ----------

why sunday i dont understand it can`t be capping cos i`d have 5 meg

[SnoopZ]

bohboh check your modem config:

http://192.168.100.1/ username/password both root.

Under Operation Config you should see one of the following:

20mbit
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 768000

10mbit
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 512000

4mbit
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 4096000 bps
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 400000 bps

2mbit
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 2048000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 200000

[nfs6600]

Originally Posted by Sirpingalot

I can sympathise with parts of that, however, I do believe that if the customer feels there is something wrong a tech should be sent out even if it's just for the customer's peace of mind.

That's a waste of company resources though. I understand where you are coming from, but as a company it's not justified. I agree 100% with providing great customer service, but I revert back to my point about operating with a profit.

What they should have told the user is a £25 callout charge if there is nothing wrong on VM's part. However if the customer insists on a tech regardless, £25 call out charge outright

---------- Post added at 18:38 ---------- Previous post was at 18:35 ----------

Originally Posted by bohboh

At the same time, my questions generally went unanswered which is why i had to ask this forum, if call centre staff had answers to simple questions such as "are these sites a reliable way to test speed?" and "what should i approx be expecting for a 10mb after overheads?" then i wouldnt have asked for a tech since it suggests to me that no clear cut answer means they dont know therefore a problem with the line.

I've found them to be very reliable when I want to test my speed. The majority all gain results in the same region of eachother.

I generally get at least 9.5mb. If its peak time I would expect to get around 8 - 9mb. But as Ive said in previous posts, my performance has been great since day one. I also live with the reality that its "upto" unlike some forum users

[Sirpingalot]

Originally Posted by nfs6600

That's a waste of company resources though. I understand where you are coming from, but as a company it's not justified. I agree 100% with providing great customer service, but I revert back to my point about operating with a profit.

What they should have told the user is a £25 callout charge if there is nothing wrong on VM's part. However if the customer insists on a tech regardless, £25 call out charge outright

---------- Post added at 18:38 ---------- Previous post was at 18:35 ----------



I've found them to be very reliable when I want to test my speed. The majority all gain results in the same region of eachother.

I generally get at least 9.5mb. If its peak time I would expect to get around 8 - 9mb. But as Ive said in previous posts, my performance has been great since day one. I also live with the reality that its "upto" unlike some forum users

Hmm...after thinking about it, yes, I'd honestly have to agree.

[bohboh]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

bohboh check your modem config:

http://192.168.100.1/ username/password both root.

Under Operation Config you should see one of the following:

10mbit
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 512000

Cor blimey, where did that web page come from??!!? didnt know you could do that...

Yes, the settings are set to 10mbit. At least that confirms that the upgrade has happened, and i am getting good rates from numion and the http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...speedtest.html test page.

Methinks all is well.

Thanks everyone.

Originally Posted by bohboh

Well, i wasnt suggesting that the tech should come out for free. I wanted to know if there was a way of me testing the speed myself to confirm that there is an issue.

I agree, that if a tech comes out and it isnt an issue with the line then its only fair to charge otherwise calls for onsite tech support would be non-stop.

At the same time, my questions generally went unanswered which is why i had to ask this forum, if call centre staff had answers to simple questions such as "are these sites a reliable way to test speed?" and "what should i approx be expecting for a 10mb after overheads?" then i wouldnt have asked for a tech since it suggests to me that no clear cut answer means they dont know therefore a problem with the line.

The most reliable 'speed test' is to download a large file from a corporate site like Microsoft. Virgin Media call staff don't have the training to answer questions about speed tests & would, I imagine, be discouraged from giving out more than the 'up to 10Mb/s' reply for the other question - that doesn't mean you have a fault.

You only have to see some of the threads on here accusing VM staff of 'lying', because they have tried to give an answer to questions like 'what speed you should get' to see why they are wary of giving any more than the standard 'up to' reply.

Not to say that is a good thing, but there are too many variables to consider to be able to give a definitive reply to a question like that.

Regarding the technician, if he visits & finds you have a working connection, with power levels nominal, there is nothing he can do to improve your speed, especially if any slowdown is due to oversubscription in your area.

You say at least one of the tests you did reported you had near 10Mb/s - that means you have a working 10Mb/s connection, any 'real world', as opposed to speed test, slowdown from that, will be due to network issues, which a faults tech will be unlikely to be able to resolve, anyway.

Bottom line is that you can't rely on speed tests to give an accurate idea of your speed, it is only a snapshot.