BT FTTP - Slow speeds with own router

philjayj · 19 Jan 2022 at 18:20

I've just had BT FTTP 900/110 installed to replace my VM connection. Speeds with the BT Hub are OK - a bit unstable and never stay at the top end. I'm putting this down to it being 24 hours since installation and hopefully it will improve soon.

My main issue though is I want to use my Meraki MX router instead of the BT Hub. I've already tried swapping the BT Hub for the Meraki but my speeds drop like a stone. They go right down to 350 down and 0.35 (yes, 0.35!) up.

I've even connected my laptop direct to the ONT and I get the same speeds - 350/0.35 - which leads me to think it's not the Meraki causing the issue.

What do you think? Any ideas?

Cheers

the-evaluator · 19 Jan 2022 at 19:21

It's very odd that you're getting OK speeds with the BT router but not OK when connected to the ONT. Can you quantify what 'ok' means though. With FTTP you should get full speed straight away, there's no training period like to get with VDSL.

Chances are that your Meraki isn't the problem on the basis that when connected to the ONT the speeds are poor but it's very unusual that speeds are OK with the BT router and not OK when connected to the ONT.

ChrisD. · 19 Jan 2022 at 19:24

I presume when on the BT router you are using a cable from the testing device to it? Have you tried another device at all?

Caged · 19 Jan 2022 at 19:43

What MX model is it? Meraki boxes are hard capped at the speeds they quote you on the spec sheet.

philjayj · 20 Jan 2022 at 12:00

How strange, I've been doing all my speed tests on speedtest.net, but I've just tried Fast.com, Google's speed test and broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk, all of which give me waaayyy better results - like full speed up and down. So it appears the issue is with Speedtest, but why? How?

Caged said:
What MX model is it? Meraki boxes are hard capped at the speeds they quote you on the spec sheet.

It's an MX105 so well capable of 900/110.

Update: I've just downloaded a server .iso from Microsoft and I was getting 503Mbps down. I've also just downloaded another .iso from a hosted server and I'm getting 750Mbps. As for upload, I'm sending another Windows .iso to a hosted server and getting 109Mbps up.

So up to now, my issue is with Speedtest. What do you think?

Rangler · 20 Jan 2022 at 15:27

Bo BT use mini jumbo frames.?

Also if BT enforce PPPoE then check your routers CPU utilisation, some routers have very poorly implemented PPPoE code causing a CPU bottleneck.

the-evaluator · 20 Jan 2022 at 16:23

philjayj said:
So up to now, my issue is with Speedtest. What do you think?

Sure sounds like it.

I find the Tele2 tests to be very reliable.

ChrisD. · 20 Jan 2022 at 16:32

the-evaluator said:
Sure sounds like it.

I find the Tele2 tests to be very reliable.

Never tried them, seems decent. I generally use nperf.

Code:

Resolving speedtest.tele2.net (speedtest.tele2.net)... 90.130.70.73
Connecting to speedtest.tele2.net (speedtest.tele2.net)|90.130.70.73|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 10737418240 (10G) [application/zip]
Saving to: ‘/dev/null’

/dev/null            31%[=====>              ]   3.12G   101MB/s    eta 79s

the-evaluator · 20 Jan 2022 at 16:39

I usually use a private iperf server. I've used nperf in the past but have never really it found all that reliable.

Have you tested your upload to Tele2?

ChrisD. · 20 Jan 2022 at 16:45

No, I get an error with their wget upload command.

the-evaluator · 20 Jan 2022 at 17:06

Hmm, so do I unless I use a really small test file. Their FTP server doesn't seem to be working either.

I've had good results with speedof.me in the past, but it's giving figures all over the place today. What results do you get from https://speedsmart.net ? Their download test only gives me about 500Mbps, but the upload figure is good.

It doesn't seem like your FTTP connection actually has a problem though.

Turn · 20 Jan 2022 at 18:30

the-evaluator said:
What results do you get from https://speedsmart.net

Not with BT, but...

915Mbps Down
960Mbps Up
5ms

ChrisD. · 20 Jan 2022 at 18:31

the-evaluator said:
What results do you get from https://speedsmart.net ?

Only 500 Mbps down but full upload. That's from a VM though, will try tomorrow on a proper client.

Edit, from a VM located on VMC on AWS in London for a laugh.

the-evaluator · 21 Jan 2022 at 08:45

It's for reasons like this that I use a private iperf server, I can be as sure as is reasonably possible that the result I'm getting is accurate as the iperf server is sitting on a 10Gbps internet connection.

ChrisD. · 21 Jan 2022 at 08:49

the-evaluator said:
It's for reasons like this that I use a private iperf server, I can be as sure as is reasonably possible that the result I'm getting is accurate as the iperf server is sitting on a 10Gbps internet connection.

Exactly. Speedtests aren't the most reliable way of testing internet speed. They offer a quick idea about it, but nothing will test it like downloading a Steam game or uploading to Backblaze etc.

philjayj · 21 Jan 2022 at 17:46

the-evaluator said:
What results do you get from https://speedsmart.net?

I just tried Speedsmart - I'm getting between 600 and 800Mbps down depending on what server I choose, and 112Mbps up regardless of server.

the-evaluator said:
It's for reasons like this that I use a private iperf server, I can be as sure as is reasonably possible that the result I'm getting is accurate as the iperf server is sitting on a 10Gbps internet connection.

I've just done an iperf test on to an Azure server I have. These were the results...

Code:

PS C:\temp\iperf> ./iperf3.exe -c XX.XXX.XXX.XXX -p 5201 -ub 1G

Connecting to host XX.XXX.XXX.XXX, port 5201
[  4] local XX.XXX.XXX.XXX port 60258 connected to XX.XXX.XXX.XXX port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Total Datagrams
[  4]   0.00-1.00   sec  96.1 MBytes   806 Mbits/sec  12305
[  4]   1.00-2.00   sec   112 MBytes   943 Mbits/sec  14382
[  4]   2.00-3.00   sec   112 MBytes   944 Mbits/sec  14398
[  4]   3.00-4.00   sec   112 MBytes   941 Mbits/sec  14365
[  4]   4.00-5.00   sec   111 MBytes   934 Mbits/sec  14255
[  4]   5.00-6.00   sec   112 MBytes   939 Mbits/sec  14328
[  4]   6.00-7.00   sec   112 MBytes   936 Mbits/sec  14281
[  4]   7.00-8.00   sec   112 MBytes   943 Mbits/sec  14396
[  4]   8.00-9.00   sec   111 MBytes   930 Mbits/sec  14188
[  4]   9.00-10.00  sec   112 MBytes   942 Mbits/sec  14366
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Jitter    Lost/Total Datagrams
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   926 Mbits/sec  1326.177 ms  140681/141156 (1e+02%)
[  4] Sent 141156 datagrams

Just tried Speedtest again and getting awful results. Fast.com are giving me really good ones.

Caged · 21 Jan 2022 at 17:49

Are you using the Speedtest Windows app or the website? The Windows app has been doing very weird things for me recently, showing sub-1Mb uploads for example.

philjayj · 21 Jan 2022 at 18:16

Caged said:
Are you using the Speedtest Windows app or the website? The Windows app has been doing very weird things for me recently, showing sub-1Mb uploads for example.

I've used both, same poor results.

the-evaluator · 24 Jan 2022 at 08:14

philjayj said:
112Mbps up regardless of server.

From that we can take that your upload is good.

philjayj said:

Code:

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Jitter    Lost/Total Datagrams
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   926 Mbits/sec  1326.177 ms  140681/141156 (1e+02%)
[  4] Sent 141156 datagrams

And that tells me that your downstream is also good.

philjayj said:
Just tried Speedtest again and getting awful results. Fast.com are giving me really good ones.

Fast.com is a steaming pile of cow poo. On numerous occasions I've had it tell me that I have a > 2Gbps internet connection which I don't. My internal network was only 1Gbps at the time.

So whilst you're getting odd results from various speed tests, there doesn't seem to actually be a problem with your FTTP.