Why do I not get 8 Meg

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 11:57

I know I am going to sound greedy here. I found out the other night that Plusnet put me onto MaxDSL over two weeks ago. They failed to tell me so I wasn't able to follow their recommendations to reboot my router every day to improve the chances of getting a good connection.

My Draytek router connects at:

Down: 8128000
Up: 448000
SNR: 7.0 (sometimes 9.0)
Att: 22.0 (sometimes 18)

Also my exchange is just down the road. We are talking about 500 metres at most.

All the speedtests tell me I get 5.5 Mbps at best. (downloading around 750 KB/s (ish) at most. Never better.

I know that is really good. Me more than most, I had to run my own campaign to get broadband in my area, waiting over 2 years for it and living with 5 KB/s on a modem all that time. So I know I should appreciate that speed.

I just expected living so close to my exchange I would get a full 8 Meg out of it. Why don't I ? and is there anything I can do to improve it ?

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 12:21

NathanE said:
750KB/sec is about the maximum really. The overheads increase exponentially.

To be honest I'm surprised you managed to get that speed on Plusnet...

Well I live in a small town, with only about a 6000 population, and like I said, I live very close to my exchange.

It's slightly more comforting to know that I am getting somewhere near maximum. Why is it advertised as 8 meg then

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 12:59

So you all think I should be thankful for 750KB/s and close the ticket I have open with Plusnet demanding they give me the other 2.5Mbps ?

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 14:09

LOL - went to close the ticket and thay had just this second replied...

PlusNet Support said:
Due to overheads on the line is is not possible to achieve the full 8mbit. The speed will be a maximum of around 7.1.
Please continue rebooting your equipment and this should ensure that the lines fastest speed is achieved.

Ah well. Thanks for all your replies.

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 14:27

tolien said:
Baaaaad advice.

Why Tolien ? - hang on I'll quote their technical support help pages...

PN Technical Support Pages said:
Should I expect teething problems when I first get 8Mb?
In the first 14 days following your upgrade, you will see your speeds vary, and commonly may experience disconnections and some instability of your connection. This is perfectly normal and if possible you should be prepared for it.

Tests are carried out during this period to see what speed your line can support. It's important that you frequently make new connections to the Internet during this 14 day period so these tests can take place.

It’s a good idea to disconnect your modem or router when doing this – this will force your equipment to reconnect. The simplest way to do this is to switch your equipment off, and then on again. If you’re using a router, make sure you switch the power to your router off and on again. After 14 days, your speeds will stabilise at the fastest speed your line can support.

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 14:42

Cool - thanks Tolien.

Now then...

Trust Plusnet (lying, changing TOCs every few weeks, annoying ISP) or Tolien (resindent OcUK networking guru).

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 15:24

axer said:
For a start, it isnt advertised as 8mbit, its advertised as up-to 8mbit...

So if you bought a car off me that I told you goes up-to 100 mph, would you be happy at the fact it only manages 60mph ?

I accept their are overheads, and the conection will only in reality get to 7.1 Mbps, but mine manages only 5.5Mpbs, despite the fact that I live very close to my exchange. Hence my question.

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 17:07

tolien said:
Poor analogy.
Not great either, but here's a better one: if you were paying a share of the price of a car along with another 49 people, would you expect to be able to drive it more than 1/50 of the time?

Ok - I agree with you, what i was trying (badly) to explain to axer, is that although I know its advertised as "up-to" 8 Meg, and due to my connection details shown above, I expected to get somewhere near 8 meg.

tolien said:
Congestion and/or a sticky BRAS cap are two possibilities.
Your distance from the exchange is irrelevant - you're synching at 8Mbps...

You mean in my case it's irrelevant ? - so its congestion or BRAS. Or do you mean distance is irrelevant for everyone, so long as line quality is there ?