AIMED FOR PLUSNET SUPPORT - SPEED

Ok - here one aimed at our resident plusnet chap. I would have raised a
ticket but..... (1) I needed a clear straight answer (2) I did not want an
arguement (3) The flaming I will get here will be smaller than that from a
ticket.......

Speed - how it's defined and why it's not reached.

Lets say I have el-cheapo plusnet broadband at 512ds/256us on a solwise
router (plusnet supplied via insight).

Would it indicate a problem when running an ftp server the max speed out is
never more than 21.000kbps and a 1meg file can take an hour to move? Why
would this be so when Winmx can throughput at 29.000kbps.

How does the kbps relate to the 512/256 figures? If I were to
increase/upgrade to a 1meg or 2meg circuit (exchange is next door -
liiterally) what speeds could I expect to achieve with my little ole ftp
server and winmx.

I appreciate these are bandwidth hungry - but my buddy on ntl's slower
service actually gets notably better throughput that is making me beg the
question 'is this a plusnet issue'. Any other factors that govern such speed
(winsock etc).

Answers greatfully received - I was away from school the day basic speed's
were discussed :-)

On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 15:00:16 +0100, "Jik Ronson" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Answers greatfully received - I was away from school the day basic speed's
>were discussed :-)

Hi Jik,

I'm sure there will be a few people who can explain the technicalities
of DSL speed in relation to issues like Contention, MTU changes and
other such things. In short though, under normal circumstances you
should get the same sort of download speeds for all the services you
use and your problem may well warrant a Contact Us ticket to allow us
to investigate if there are any problems on your line.

Really, all I can do is point you to some resources that might help us
pin this down:

ADSLGuide (PlusNet) Discussion on MTU Values:

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthre...&Number=711232

Our Support Page about MTU Values:

http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?bvIkeqvfDEk%3D

Both of the above may be negated shortly due to changes being made as
we speak on BTs network. This might be worth a try though as a lot of
people who have seen speed problems on DSL have found a solution with
this.

You can also use the following links to provide us with more
consistent information about the problem:

ADSLGuide Speed Tester:

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.asp

Our Own Speed Tester:

http://speed-test.plus.net.uk/

The overall results from the speed testers should give us a decent
indication of the speeds your connection is capable of. This rules out
that you are simply experiencing slower speeds caused by the available
bandwidth at the other side of the link.

In general, I would say customers can expect on any of our products to
see something like the following:

512K - 59 KB/sec Down, 29.5 KB/sec Up
1MB - 118 KB/sec Down, 29.5 KB/sec Up
2MB - 238 KB/sec Down, 29.5 KB/sec Up

That is very general, and the actual speed is dependent on many
factors. Those are the sort of speeds I have personally seen when
testing our ADSL lines though.

Finally, if you have any more questions, they might be as more
appropriate to the plusnet.service.customer-feedback newsgroup, which
we monitor more frequently than here, and which is guaranteed flame
proof :-)

Regards,

Ian
--
| Ian Wild Unmetered & ADSL solutions
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet Technologies Ltd. @ http://www.plus.net
+ ------- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -------

On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 15:51:07 +0100 and in article
<(E-Mail Removed)>, PlusNet Support Team
said...
> Finally, if you have any more questions, they might be as more
> appropriate to the plusnet.service.customer-feedback newsgroup, which
> we monitor more frequently than here, and which is guaranteed flame
> proof :-)

No flaming? Where's the fun in that? heh
--
CB

Ian Wild said:

<snippy-snip>

> In general, I would say customers can expect on any of our products to
> see something like the following:
>
> 512K - 59 KB/sec Down, 29.5 KB/sec Up
> 1MB - 118 KB/sec Down, 29.5 KB/sec Up
> 2MB - 238 KB/sec Down, 29.5 KB/sec Up
>
> That is very general, and the actual speed is dependent on many
> factors. Those are the sort of speeds I have personally seen when
> testing our ADSL lines though.

) Good to see my speed figures tally!

> Finally, if you have any more questions, they might be as more
> appropriate to the plusnet.service.customer-feedback newsgroup, which
> we monitor more frequently than here, and which is guaranteed flame
> proof :-)

Absolutely!

Stephen.

"Jik Ronson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsUvUa.50095$(E-Mail Removed)...

> How does the kbps relate to the 512/256 figures? If I were
to
> increase/upgrade to a 1meg or 2meg circuit (exchange is
next door -
> liiterally) what speeds could I expect to achieve with my
little ole ftp
> server and winmx.

With current adsl, it's usually 256K outgoing speed no
matter what you're incoming speed is, so theoretically you
should see 30Kb/s outgoing on your ftp, but there are many
other factors that may affect your speed, contention, link
speed along the connection path, etc etc.

>
> I appreciate these are bandwidth hungry - but my buddy on
ntl's slower
> service actually gets notably better throughput that is
making me beg the
> question 'is this a plusnet issue'. Any other factors that
govern such speed
> (winsock etc).

maybe the folk downloading from your ftp are the ones with
the problem?. There are so many factors involved, it's
impossible to give reasons for your slow outgoing speed,
maybe it's time to raise a ticket with Plusnet and let them
check things out for you.

P.

"Stephen Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:9JwUa.52133$(E-Mail Removed)...
"You'd probably get even LESS flaming if you posted it to one of PlusNet's
own newsgroups! ;-)"

But they tend to be biased for one thing, and I'm not entirely sure there is
a problem - it may be basic understanding that is more appropriate to the
broadband group to answer.
>
"Are you talking kiloBYTES or kiloBITS? A 1MB file taking an hour?! That's
much much worse than conventional dial-up access! Are you sure your figures
are correct?"

Sadly it is in fact correvct - and yes, I had equal speed on my old modem. I
can't say if it's kilobits or bytes. Don't take my word for it - try logging
into my ftp server and see what you get from it (ftp://81.174.224.81) user
and password: altdj
>
"A 512/256 connection is 512kbit download, 256kbit upload, which
> theoretically equates to a maximum of 64K/sec download, 32K/sec upload."

These are the figures I wanted - thanks - the clarification is there. I'm
just trying to workout how 256k upload relates to 32k/sec. That may sound
idiotic - I'd just like to know how it's arrived at.

"Upgrading to a 1Mb or 2Mb connection would not help your upload speed -
that would stay at 256kbit. (AFAIK for ADSL anyway)"

Thanks for that Steve. I wondered if the upload grew in steps thus 512/256
1m/512 2m/1m. but I think you are correct - after all can't allow people too
much power can we :-)

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 08:41:11 UTC, "Jik Ronson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> These are the figures I wanted - thanks - the clarification is there. I'm
> just trying to workout how 256k upload relates to 32k/sec. That may sound
> idiotic - I'd just like to know how it's arrived at.

It's 256Kbits/sec. So 256 Kbits/sec is the raw speed. There are 8 bits
in a byte, so raw speed is also 32Kbytes/sec. But this ignores protocol
overhead (TCP/IP packet headers, other control packets, etc.). So you'd
expect rather less than that....29Kbytes/sec sounds reasonable.

> Thanks for that Steve. I wondered if the upload grew in steps thus 512/256
> 1m/512 2m/1m. but I think you are correct - after all can't allow people too
> much power can we :-)

Nothing to so with that...that's how ADSL is defined. The A in ADSL
stands for Asymmetric (NOT Asynchronous as soem would have you believe).
And, as everyone (!) knows, the word asymmetric means (in this context)
that the speed is not the same in both directions. There is one upload
channel of 256Kb/s, and multiple download channels each of 256Kb/s. You
bought two download channels so you get a down/up of 512/256. If you buy
four download channels, you'll get 1024/256.

As for your speed...it could be a bottleneck in the network near you. It
could be contentton because you have loads of kiddies sharing p0rn 24
hours a day. It could even be PlusNet...but that's not the only possible
reason. Or it could be a badly configured PC or network in your house.

--
Bob Eager
rde at tavi.co.uk
PC Server 325*4; PS/2s 9585, 8595, 9595*2, 8580*3,
P70, PC/AT..

"Bob Eager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:176uZD2KcidF-pn2-(E-Mail Removed)...
"could be contentton because you have loads of kiddies sharing p0rn 24 hours
a day"

I'd never share my porn - i'm too selfish......

Thanks for the explanation - clear as day now. Just a little sad that I can
increase my download speed by upgrading but not my upload speed :-(. I'd
have happily paid for 2meg if I'd got 1meg up but it seems that the upload
speed stays constant at 256. I kinda took the view that it was asymetrical
so as long as the download was double the upload the technology could cope.
Damn.

"Jik Ronson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
> "Bob Eager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:176uZD2KcidF-pn2-(E-Mail Removed)...
> "could be contentton because you have loads of kiddies sharing p0rn 24
hours
> a day"
>
> I'd never share my porn - i'm too selfish......
>
> Thanks for the explanation - clear as day now. Just a little sad that I
can
> increase my download speed by upgrading but not my upload speed :-(. I'd
> have happily paid for 2meg if I'd got 1meg up but it seems that the upload
> speed stays constant at 256. I kinda took the view that it was asymetrical
> so as long as the download was double the upload the technology could
cope.
> Damn.
>

If your willing to invest in equipment, then you could get 2 512K lines, and
bond the uplink. However, the downlink would not be bonded, but this would
give you a full 512K upload. This assumes that your RADSL connection is not
dropping back to 64k upload due to noise or anything like that. The same
can be achieved with a linux box as well, but that takes a bit more
configuration.

--

Martin

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 09:26:38 UTC, "Jik Ronson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> have happily paid for 2meg if I'd got 1meg up but it seems that the upload
> speed stays constant at 256. I kinda took the view that it was asymetrical
> so as long as the download was double the upload the technology could cope.

Andrews & Arnold have been trying out bonded ADSL...not cheap since you
need more than one phone line and also some extra (not cheap)
hardware...but probably more than you want to do.

--
Bob Eager
rde at tavi.co.uk
PC Server 325*4; PS/2s 9585, 8595, 9595*2, 8580*3,
P70, PC/AT..