ADSL Speeds?

S

ScorpionSoul

Newcomer
First, I apologize if this is in the wrong section. If so, mods feel free to move it.

Now more to the point. I recently moved off base (US military stationed in Japan) and had a 24Mbit ADSL line hooked up. My understanding of this was that a 24Mbit line would average out to around 3MB/sec (8 bits per byte). On base, my 1.5Mbit line got me around 160-180KB/sec. If my logic, or understanding of how this all should work is incorrect, please let me know.

Now the problem is that this 24Mbit line is only yielding around 40KB/sec downloads. I checked my system again and again to make sure the problem wasn't with me, then called the tech support. So he shows up, checks my system against their local server for a speed test, and the result shows a line speed of .35Mbit. He tries it again with his own computer and gets the same result. Their final diagnosis is that the slow speed is due to my distance from their servers. However, a buddy of mine lives about a mile from here, pretty much the same distance from the servers as I am, yet he gets the expected speeds of 2 to 3MB/sec downloads. I asked the rep at my ISP if there could be a problem with the phone lines, causing the severely degraded line speeds, and he said no... the problem is the distance, and they won't check the lines.

If my buddy wasn't getting considerably higher speeds, I would just take this guy's word for it and suck it up... but there's no way that 1 mile between me and him should justify getting .35Mbit speeds from a 24Mbit line.

What do you think?
 
The speed you download depends on the speed of the upload at the other end.
Personally i have given up trying to understand what the real speeds are, i'm on 4Mb and in theory i should only get max 500KB. Well, i've been getting much higher speeds at times, in the region of 1MB, which is pretty much impossible... And other things just crawl at 1KB sometimes.. Go figure...
The difference between urs and ur friend's speed sounds a hell of a lot though... :?
 
london-boy said:
The speed you download depends on the speed of the upload at the other end.
Click to expand...

Correct, though I've made comparisons based on previous download speeds on my old line. For example, I'm a paid subscriber to FilePlanet, so I have access to their high-speed servers. I downloaded a game patch last week before I moved and maxed out my connection at around 175KB/sec. I tried downloading that same patch on this new line and got 40KB/sec.

Another thing I forgot to mention, which leads me to think it might be a problem with the phone lines is that the phone is extremely quiet. If there's any background noise at all, I literally have to strain to hear what the person on the line is saying. If I turn the receiver volume up it's a bit better, but then it sounds like I'm screaming into my own ear. That's been tested with more than one phone, also.

I'm on a waiting list for a 100Mbit fiber optic line (sometime in January), so this should eventually turn out alright.. but in the meantime, I'd like to get the service that I'm paying for.
 
ScorpionSoul said:
london-boy said:
The speed you download depends on the speed of the upload at the other end.
Click to expand...

Correct, though I've made comparisons based on previous download speeds on my old line. For example, I'm a paid subscriber to FilePlanet, so I have access to their high-speed servers. I downloaded a game patch last week before I moved and maxed out my connection at around 175KB/sec. I tried downloading that same patch on this new line and got 40KB/sec.

Another thing I forgot to mention, which leads me to think it might be a problem with the phone lines is that the phone is extremely quiet. If there's any background noise at all, I literally have to strain to hear what the person on the line is saying. If I turn the receiver volume up it's a bit better, but then it sounds like I'm screaming into my own ear. That's been tested with more than one phone, also.

I'm on a waiting list for a 100Mbit fiber optic line (sometime in January), so this should eventually turn out alright.. but in the meantime, I'd like to get the service that I'm paying for.
Click to expand...

TELL ME ABOUT IT!!! (see the Software Forum)...

100Mb is scary. my 160Gb HD is already getting filled up with a 4Mb line, i can only imagine the situation with 100Mb...
 
The numbers the ISP quote are your theoretical max in MegaBits... and there are 8 bits in a byte. So divide by 8 to get the speed in Mega/Kilobytes you can download. l-b, if software claims you are getting 1MB/sec it's lying. Download speeds are calculate sometimes by how much you have and how long you have been downloading... If you have a "Save as" box open IE starts downloading before you choose the location. Thus when it first does its maths it thinks it got 5 seconds worth in one second.
 
sytaylor said:
The numbers the ISP quote are your theoretical max in MegaBits... and there are 8 bits in a byte. So divide by 8 to get the speed in Mega/Kilobytes you can download. l-b, if software claims you are getting 1MB/sec it's lying. Download speeds are calculate sometimes by how much you have and how long you have been downloading... If you have a "Save as" box open IE starts downloading before you choose the location. Thus when it first does its maths it thinks it got 5 seconds worth in one second.
Click to expand...

That's wht i suspected, but when a 5MB file downloads in 4 seconds and a half, then i get worried.. in a good sense... :devilish:
 
sytaylor said:
The numbers the ISP quote are your theoretical max in MegaBits... and there are 8 bits in a byte. So divide by 8 to get the speed in Mega/Kilobytes you can download.
Click to expand...

...so the 3MB/s was correct. To be getting 100th of that there must be something wrong. Can you view any stats from your modem/router? It should tell you your connection speed regardless of the download rate. It should also give you noise and signal ratio stats that may indicate if you have a problem with your line. 24Mb lines may require you to be very close to an exchange and an extra mile may be all that is required to put a serious dent in your connection speed. However, 100th :oops:

Try the forums on ADSLGuide, they are very helpful and have a lot of experience in these things.
 
ScorpionSoul said:
...and had a 24Mbit ADSL line hooked up.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you have a 24Mbit ADSL connection? That sounds awfully high and seems way beyond the theoretical max you could get over a standard phone-line. How near are you to your exchange, because normally the further you are away from the exchange the lower your speeds. Also, what contention ratio do you have? What kind of modem do you have (does it support those speeds)? For instance, if it's a USB1 modem the max speed you could possibly attain over USB is 12Mbp/s.
 
Just a small note, 24Mbit line speed is not ADSL - that tops out at 8Mbit/s downstream speed. Above that, it's VDSL, and 24Mbit requires quite short distances - like max 1km from the base station. Maybe less.

40kbytes/s though is very VERY slow, there has to be something wrong there. ADSL can maintain that speed for like 6km or so. Bitch at your ISP until they check out your line.
 
Whether it's actually an ADSL line or not, I'm not sure.. didn't know ADSL capped at 8Mbit. Either way, whatever it's technically called, it is a 24Mbit line, and should be yielding at least 2MB/sec speeds.

I'm not exactly sure the distance to the exchange... somewhere around 5 or 6 Km. Either way, though, I'm making my comparisons between my line and my friend's line. The main exchange is pretty much centrally located downtown. There's a highway that heads straight out of town towards an expressway. At one particular set of lights, if you make a left, my house is a quarter-mile or so. If you make a right, his house is about a quarter-mile or so in that direction. We're pretty much exactly the same distance from the exchange, yet he gets the advertised speeds and I get shit.

On a side note, however, it has increased to around 60-80KB/sec over the last day or two.

As for my modem... I have no idea what the specs for it are, but it's the modem they provided when I purchased the line. I've never had to buy my own modem before, but I suppose I could give that a shot if they're not too expensive. Otherwise, my fiber optic line will be installed in a month or so, so I could just live with it until then.
 
ScorpionSoul said:
Whether it's actually an ADSL line or not, I'm not sure.. didn't know ADSL capped at 8Mbit. Either way, whatever it's technically called, it is a 24Mbit line, and should be yielding at least 2MB/sec speeds.

I'm not exactly sure the distance to the exchange... somewhere around 5 or 6 Km. Either way, though, I'm making my comparisons between my line and my friend's line.
Click to expand...

24Mbit is only possible if the exchange is within a 1,500 meters, with ADSL2 and 5,000 meters to the exchange max speed is most likely around 800Kbit.
 
Well, 5-6 kilometers is WAY too far for 24Mbit over phone line. Your friend must be connected to some other base station which is closer, because AFAIK it's just not technically possible to maintain that kind of speed over such a long distance. You can get 512kbit over quite some distance, which approximately fits the figures you're reporting...
 
Ok, I ran the tweak test at DSL reports again, then realized that the "my line speed" settings that you input to get recommendations don't allow a line speed of 24Mbit input to their formula.

So I read the FAQ's to manually figure the RWIN, and applied that setting using a tweak tool and am now getting download speeds around 75KB/sec, which is much better. Still not anything resembling great, but it's a major improvement over the speeds I was getting before.

One more thing I can think to try, but I don't know how to do it. According to the FAQ's, the MSS (Maximum Segment Size) requested should be 1452, using WinXP PPPoE, but yet every test I've run is showing it being set at 1414. I looked all through the FAQ's, but couldn't find a way to change this setting. Anyone know how I might do this, or if it would even be worth the effort to change?

Thanks to all of you for all your help so far.. I really appreciate it!
 
What's the point of faffing about with these settings anyway? You're on unmetered broadband. Just let the download finish in its own good time goshdarnit. That way you won't risk screwing anything up either. :)
 
london-boy said:
100Mb is scary. my 160Gb HD is already getting filled up with a 4Mb line, i can only imagine the situation with 100Mb...
Click to expand...

200Gb HDD only about £80, time for an upgrade? ;)
 
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