# Broadband - actual realised speed



## legend99 (12 Jan 2007)

Lads,

What actual speed can you expect from eircom home plus...2Mbps down/256k up is the max obviously....would you be guaranteed 1Mb down 200 up???


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## colm (12 Jan 2007)

If the service is 2 megs I'd be expecting near enough to that


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## DrMoriarty (12 Jan 2007)

You can check your actual speeds here.


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## ClubMan (13 Jan 2007)

I'm on _UTV _2Mbps down/256Kbps up and get c. 1.6Mbps/166Kbps in practice. You never get the full nominal rate due to various factors.


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## colm (13 Jan 2007)

What are you testing in on?


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## legend99 (13 Jan 2007)

and what speed would I need to ensure that webcam/video streaming will work ok? Trying to decide whether to sign up to Eircom 2Mbs which is 48:1 contention or 3Mbs which is 24:1 but 20 euro a month more expensive...


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## ClubMan (13 Jan 2007)

colm said:


> What are you testing in on?


If you mean me then I use the _Irish ISP _test link mentioned above.


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## sherib (14 Jan 2007)

I'm on _Utvs_ ClicksilverPlus (3Mb). Check shows 2.54Mbps down and 315kbps up (Quality of Service 94% but it's often a bit better than this). Never get the full 3Mb for reasons ClubMan has previously explained.

_Eircom _charges €48.40 for 3Mb compared to _Utv's_ €34.49 (50 cents more if Talk excluded).  Both have contention of 24:1.


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## bankrupt (14 Jan 2007)

legend99 said:


> and what speed would I need to ensure that webcam/video streaming will work ok? Trying to decide whether to sign up to Eircom 2Mbs which is 48:1 contention or 3Mbs which is 24:1 but 20 euro a month more expensive...


 
Both should be fine - check the upstream speed too if you are also going to be sending video.


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## legend99 (15 Jan 2007)

I assume that we can expect the basic speeds on offer to be increased within the next 12 months?


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## SkippyOD (16 Jan 2007)

Achieving 85% of the download speed is a good connection. Speedtest.net is very useful in measuring your speed and recording it so that you can monitor it over time.


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## legend99 (16 Jan 2007)

sorry i meant that i assume eircom will up the exchanges to say be offering 2, 4, 6 megs packages at some stage soon enough


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## Sn@kebite (16 Jan 2007)

yes speedtest.net and speedtest.ie are good enough, but legend99 it's really depending on what server you're downloading from i.e. if you're downloading a file from a slow server you'll only get a slow D/L speed. And you will never get an exact 2mbit/s down stream anyway the isp rounds-up the speed. the highest you'd ever get, is around 1.8mbit/s and upload speed is also rounded-up. But eircom wouldnt be trying to scam you if that's what you're asking in the first post

And 200kb/s upload is almost the max speed possible out of a 256k upload. the highest i ever get is about 218K


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## ClubMan (16 Jan 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> And you will never get an exact 2mbit/s down stream anyway the isp rounds-up the speed. the highest you'd ever get, is around 1.8mbit/s and upload speed is also rounded-up. But eircom wouldnt be trying to scam you if that's what you're asking in the first post


That is not quite correct. It's not a case of the _ISP _"rounding up/down" the speeds but rather the stated speeds being the theoretical maximum limit which will never be reached even on a perfect line due to protocol overhead including packet retries, timeouts etc. And it's certainly not a "scam".


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## Sn@kebite (16 Jan 2007)

ClubMan said:


> That is not quite correct. It's not a case of the _ISP _"rounding up/down" the speeds but rather the stated speeds being the theoretical maximum limit which will never be reached even on a perfect line due to protocol overhead including packet retries, timeouts etc. And it's certainly not a "scam".



oh yeah that 2 but i wasnt going too far into detail. What i basically trying to say is that, when you buy a new HDD for 320GB for example. that's 320,000,000,000 bytes. (i think Giga is billion. open to correction) and if you calculate that only adds up to about 299GB so it's roughly done. and meta data etc... Just to save confusion. 
So when you buy a 2048K (2mbit) connection that's 2048,000 bits. And my guess is it's probably rounded up or down to a more even number. And of cource there's the overheads & ping/pong to server etc.. that i thought would go without saying.


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## legend99 (17 Jan 2007)

1 Gig = 1024 Meg
1 Meg = 1024 bits


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## Sn@kebite (17 Jan 2007)

legend99 said:


> 1 Gig = 1024 Meg
> 1 Meg = 1024 bits



I'mpretty sure 1 Meg = 1024 bytes (but not sure)


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## ClubMan (17 Jan 2007)

1Meg is meaningless.

Here's some homework reading for both of you 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte

Note that most people (even those who should know better) are not that precise when it comes to distinguishing between _SI _(multiples of 1000) and "binary" (multiples of 1024) prefixes for units of information (e.g. they say 1kB when they actually mean 1KiB) and some are simply wrong (e.g. they say 1Meg which is largely meanigless but above probably means 1Mbps - but is that multiples of 1024 or 1000... ).


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## Sn@kebite (17 Jan 2007)

ClubMan said:


> 1Meg is meaningless.
> 
> Here's some homework reading for both of you
> 
> ...



Clubman, 1Meg is only meaningless if you are a robot.
             In every day language ppl call one meg a megabyte. never a begabit.
Like when ppl say i bought a new 320 GiG HDD, the mean gigaBYTE never GigaBIT.

And as far as you're homework lesson is concerned, i already know what i need to know about computers.
Perhaps a note to you is to not be so serious in life. We dont think like machines.


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## legend99 (14 Feb 2007)

ClubMan said:


> I'm on _UTV _2Mbps down/256Kbps up and get c. 1.6Mbps/166Kbps in practice. You never get the full nominal rate due to various factors.



finally up and running with the 2mpbs package from eircom. My speed tests are ranging from 1.02 to 1.6 upload and 40 kbps to 200 kbps upload. Those lower end figures strike me as being fairly low...but the line attenuation figure is as high as 50db


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## ClubMan (14 Feb 2007)

I generally get around 1.6Mbps down/200Kbps up on _UTV's _2Mbps/256Kbps package. _D7 _probably about a mile and a bit from the _Crown Alley _exchange in case that matters.


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## ajapale (14 Feb 2007)

I test speeds at this site: [broken link removed]



> *hosting365 offer the only independent hosted download speed check that is*:
> Hosted in an independent data centre
> Directly connected (peered) with all Irish ISP's, Wireless and broadband providers
> Ensures the most accurate data


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## ClubMan (14 Feb 2007)

1.66Mbps/213Mbps just now with that tester.


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## Sn@kebite (15 Feb 2007)

yeah same here: 1.7Mb dwn / 210K up rarely changes only at about 6pm or so otherwise alway fast. Bout 1.2 kilometers from local exchange.


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## legend99 (15 Feb 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> yeah same here: 1.7Mb dwn / 210K up rarely changes only at about 6pm or so otherwise alway fast. Bout 1.2 kilometers from local exchange.



tests this morning showing download of 897, upload of 70. on the 2 megs down/256 up.....that is not so good


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## ClubMan (15 Feb 2007)

Sounds like you could actually be on a 1Mbps/128Kbps package even if they ostensibly have you on the 2Mbps/256Kbps package. Has happened to somebody I know on _UTV_!


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## legend99 (15 Feb 2007)

ClubMan said:


> Sounds like you could actually be on a 1Mbps/128Kbps package even if they ostensibly have you on the 2Mbps/256Kbps package. Has happened to somebody I know on _UTV_!



No, on the 2mbps package alright...some tests last night showed 1.1 to 1.2 range.


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## ClubMan (15 Feb 2007)

OK - probably due to contention ratio and more users being on at the time or something?


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## legend99 (15 Feb 2007)

ClubMan said:


> OK - probably due to contention ratio and more users being on at the time or something?



I'm guessing its distance from the exchange as well as contention. Just hope that it seems to stabalise at a higher rather than lower figure!


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## ClubMan (15 Feb 2007)

The maximum (?) download throughput of c. 1.2Mbps *might *be explained by distance from the exchange. However the variability (e.g. 897Kbps-1.2Mbps) might be explained by contention ratio and other users sharing at the same time. Or course there could be other explanations for both!


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## Sn@kebite (15 Feb 2007)

legend99 said:


> finally up and running with the 2mpbs package from eircom. My speed tests are ranging from 1.02 to 1.6 upload and 40 kbps to 200 kbps upload. Those lower end figures strike me as being fairly low...but the line attenuation figure is as high as 50db



How do you know that it's 50db attenuation?



legend99 said:


> tests this morning showing download of 897, upload of 70. on the 2 megs down/256 up.....that is not so good



For me _rain_ and _wind_ & especially _Frost_ seems to affect the sync speed. Tested this morning around 11.30am and was down to 1.4Mb dwn / 162K up that's pretty slow for me. (Could be due to today's weather?)


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## zag (15 Feb 2007)

snakebite - I'm not sure if you are serious or not, but your explanation reminds me of the BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell) stories of long ago.  When users would ring up to complain of slow network speeds and disturb his afternoon snooze he would refer to his well thumbed book of excuses . . .

One of my favourites (and one I used myself for a long time) was "The solar flares are pretty bad at the moment, there must be a major inbound solar wave at the moment.  This would be reversing the polarity on the wire and causing the slowness.  Please contact Jodrell Bank and ask them to confirm when the wave is due to pass.  After that time network service should be back to normal."  I paraphrase somewhat.

z


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## ClubMan (15 Feb 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> How do you know that it's 50db attenuation?


The _DSL _router browser based admin control panel (possibly in the advanced section) should give such details if I recall correctly.


> For me _rain_ and _wind_ & especially _Frost_ seems to affect the sync speed.


On _DSL_? Doesn't sound plausible to me to be honest.


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## Sn@kebite (15 Feb 2007)

zag said:


> One of my favourites (and one I used myself for a long time) was "The solar flares are pretty bad at the moment, there must be a major inbound solar wave at the moment.  This would be reversing the polarity on the wire and causing the slowness.  Please contact Jodrell Bank and ask them to confirm when the wave is due to pass.  After that time network service should be back to normal."  I paraphrase somewhat.
> z





ClubMan said:


> On _DSL_? Doesn't sound plausible to me to be honest.



Well I 'm definitely not having a laugh.

If you look here http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070207131207AAjh5WM at _answerers_ 2 & 5 they complain about wind, wet etc.. (probably more down the post)
And that's probably what happened to me. 
I know for a fact that _moisture _ affects it because the eircom guy left the cable loose under my roof and the winds in November knocked it into the gutter. And when the gutter filled with water from the rain, the DSL was lost completely. When i lifted it out and left it to dry for a few hours, Miraculously my connection came back. I didn't bother with the CS of eircom cause they're no help. But this happened to me twice and since then i've properly secured it to the wall with clips and my connection hasn't dropped since, only slowed down.
As i said this may be a total fluke, but i'm definitely serious and no irony intended.

I'm sure I started a thread long ago asking ppl was the weather at fault for dropping my _DSL_ (my dsl light wouldn't even blink. like when it tries to connect to the _isp_) then i posted that i lifted the line out of the gutter and it solved the problem.


PS- I was actually helped by an Australian telephone company on their forum, That's how i went to check for water in the gutter in the first place.
Ironic how an Australian would know more about the effects of bad weather on a telephone line more than an Irish person would... LoL.

Here's where i go for help on DSL: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/
This country is terrible for help. Maybe we're just arrogant, i don't know.


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## bankrupt (15 Feb 2007)

ClubMan said:


> On _DSL_? Doesn't sound plausible to me to be honest.


 
Moisture affects road-side cabinets and old cable joins that are not weather-proofed properly, it can be sufficient to drop sync on a poor/distant connection.


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## ClubMan (15 Feb 2007)

Fair enough. I stand corrected.


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## zag (15 Feb 2007)

snakebite - in fairness, I'm not sure I would qualify the cable sitting in a puddle of water as being directly weather related.  If you leave anything electrical in water you will find performance diminishes.

I'm not saying the slowness experienced isn't necessarily weather related, but there are some more obvious potential reasons that would spring to mind first.  I know it has been mentioned before but shared bandwidth can explain a lot.  All you need is a few peers downloading a couple of movies or something from fast feeds on the internet and available bandwidth through any of the possible bottlenecks on the link between you and eircom and eircom and their upstream links will be reduced.  Internet performance is transient and one thing I learned long ago is that taking snapshots of performance is really only of use in the medium term.

z


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## Sn@kebite (15 Feb 2007)

zag said:


> snakebite - in fairness, I'm not sure I would qualify the cable sitting in a puddle of water as being directly weather related.  If you leave anything electrical in water you will find performance diminishes.
> 
> I'm not saying the slowness experienced isn't necessarily weather related, but there are some more obvious potential reasons that would spring to mind first.  I know it has been mentioned before but shared bandwidth can explain a lot.  All you need is a few peers downloading a couple of movies or something from fast feeds on the internet and available bandwidth through any of the possible bottlenecks on the link between you and eircom and eircom and their upstream links will be reduced.  Internet performance is transient and one thing I learned long ago is that taking snapshots of performance is really only of use in the medium term.
> 
> z



Ok that covers the slowed speed. But it doesn't cover the fact that the DSL light didn't even start to blink and stay on.

I don't know why you sound so convinced i'm deliberately not believing you. Because i do. It's just that i tried all that and nothing worked.


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## ClubMan (15 Feb 2007)

Sn@kebite said:


> If you look here http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070207131207AAjh5WM at _answerers_ 2 & 5 they complain about wind, wet etc.. (probably more down the post)
> And that's probably what happened to me.


Those answers relate to things like satellite/wireless broadband and not wired (_DSL _or cable) broadband by the way.


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