Advertised V Actual speed results

[leydar]

Hi,
I've just come from a very confusing support call to IBB. I will be looking for more information elsewhere but I'm still within the seven day initial cancellation period so opinions would be gratefully received. I have the Ripwave plus box which offers 1mb download speeds. Using the irishisptest I've clocked it at 92k maximum (in the kitchen, at the window, plenty of ethernet cable).

When I told the technical support guy this he said that it was a normal speed for a 1mb line. He asked me what I was expecting and I answered that I had hoped it would be closer to, well, 1mb. Am I nuts here? Should I content myself with this or am I entirely misinterpreting the readings? I'll do the various traceroutes and pings suggested here when I get home (assuming I have a connection). In the interim what speeds should I reasonably be expecting with a 1mb 40:1 connection in Dublin city centre? When I told him I was getting 92k could he have misinterpreted this?

Stephen

[leydar]

Ok so maybe I've been really spoilt in the past with contention ratios. Is that what I'm ignoring in this calculation? The offering has contention of 40:1 so at worst case I could be seeing 1024 / 40 = 25.6kps. In that sense the 92k would be considered good? Is that the case?

Stephen

[leydar]

Alternatively when I said 92k could he have assumed I meant kiloBYTES rather than kiloBITS? Nuts, maybe I should ring back and clarify...

Stephen

[Krlll]

8 bits in a byte so
1Megabit = 125 KiloBytes
Thats why teh tech guy asked what you expected.
92K isnt that bad for a 1Megabit line

[leydar]

Sure but 92 kilobits on a 1 megabyte line isn't great. I think I'll just cancel and go with ntl.

Stephen

[mickoneill30]

For something to compare against. Here are my results from this site.
I've a 3Mb Breeze connection.

Down 2955 kbps (361 KB/s)
Up 2810 kbps (343 KB/s)

I'd consider that pretty good for my connection. So your 95KB/s is not too bad (as long as that's a big B in the KB/s and not Kb/s).

Run the speed test when you're logged in and copy and paste your results into this thread.

[leydar]

92kb/11.5(ish)kB... I had planned on screen grabbing yesterday but the connection failed and the pub beckoned. I'll try it again this evening and call to cancel if the connection is as poor.

Stephen

[leydar]

Just to let you know. Having had a few days of no connection at all I've cancelled IBB. They were quite nice about it as it happens. If you cancel within seven days there's no charge. They will pick up the modem themselves as well. They offered to pick it up from where I work because it didn't suit me to be at home waiting.

I'm going to give NTL a day in court now. They are partering with Chorus the weekend of the 20th Oct so I'm getting TV/3mb bb installed the following Saturday morning. They said it would be between 9:00am and 1:00pm. What's more they'll give me a call prior to this so that I can make sure I'm home. I went with NTL mainly because of the poor wireless experience, lack of permission to stick up an aerial and an unwillingness to hook up the landline. Their cap on the 3Mb offering is 30Gb a month which, well, I can live with.

Stephen