Sponsored Links

Fast4/BT Speedtester question

I did a BT speedtest last night because the speeds for Fast4 were atrocious. After performing stage one (thanks to Zen, is the connection between Me > BT > EurISP (Fast4)/Thus (Your Communications) > Internet) I got the following:
IP profile for your line is - 7000 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8096 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 343 kbps

This test was not conclusive and further testing is required.

Please wait whilst you are redirected to undertake a second test.
Note the IP Profile is 7000Kbps and the DSL Downstream Sync is 8096 (I'm on a interleaved line)

Using the bt_test_user login as instructed and after a bit of messing about with Firefox (it didn't want to play) I managed to do stage two (which is the connection between Me > BT > EurISP (Fast4)/Thus (Your Communications)) and I got the following result:
Assured Rate IP profile on your line is - 7000 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6203 kbps

Your service was found to be performing poorly. Please raise a fault with your service provider, stating that the BT Performance Tester tool indicates poor service throughput performance after the first test.
Again, note the IP Profile of 7000Kbps.

What do the results mean? Why is there a difference of 5860Kbps between tests? The obvious thing to see is that the problem lies between EurISP/Fast4/Thus and the Internet, and I am being swayed to a number of conclusions. Hopefully the more technically minded people can see what is wrong.

Thanks in advance.
 
Had you logged out of your Fast4 before doing the second one If so you were directly on BT's network and not on any part of Fast4's network.
 
Had you logged out of your Fast4 before doing the second one If so you were directly on BT's network and not on any part of Fast4's network.
I used the bt_test_user login as instructed by the BT speedtester. The test refuses to run using my Fast4 login.

EDIT: Reading about the bt_test_user@ispdomain.com, the test goes as far as the Home Gateway on the BT Network.
 
Last edited:
Sponsored Links
Just did a few tests on thinkbroadband.com

Turns out everything which is not going through Port 80 (HTTP) is throttled.

Port 80 test = Everything normal (websites load etc. as well).

Normal test on 81xx port = Very slow (less than 0.1Mbps).
 
Test2 (bt_test_user@your_ISPs_domain ) connects you to the home gateway.

The HG is the edge of BT's network and normally (with your normal login) your connection would be passed onto your ISP's own BT central(s), then through the ISP's network and from there to your ISP's transit providers and on to the internet.

It could be the ISP's fault (eg not renting enough centrals or transit capacity for the packages they offer). Given the costs involved to provide "unlimited" far exceed the price you ISP charges, this is very likely.

Or I suppose the other possibility is it could be something or someone leaching all the bandwidth from your end :- ie your PC is riddled with spyware trojans and/or someone using your wireless connection to donwload the internet. As the connection is blocked while using the test logins, this traffic would stop. However I suspect you would have noticed if your router stats were clocking up a 40 megabyte per minute odd download :D

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/equip2.htm

contention.gif
 
Last edited:
To be completely fair though, even at 343 kbps you could still download about 100 Gigabytes per month.

Edit: sorry I was forgeting your real world speeds are much lower than the BT speedtest.

If you want decent speeds you should be looking at ISPs with sensible limits that don't attract insatiable downloaders, and for a genuine one month (no exit penalty) contract.
 
Just did a few tests on thinkbroadband.com

Turns out everything which is not going through Port 80 (HTTP) is throttled.

Port 80 test = Everything normal (websites load etc. as well).

Normal test on 81xx port = Very slow (less than 0.1Mbps).

fast4 are throttling both port 80 and port 8080 ! I,m connected to 96 seeders ansd am only getting 1.2kb/s DL speed, it usually get between 700kb/s and 750kb/s DL speed
 
Sponsored Links
I don't know about port 80, but I could be confident in saying that with a number of speed tests on port 8095 and downloads on port 21 being much slower than the port 80 tests/downloads on the same websites, then there is a fault. One customer of EurISP (Fast4's reseller) is having the same problems, so it is either down to EurISP or Thus (Your Communications).

It's looking sadly likely that traffic management has creeped in somewhere. :(

However, this doesn't answer the original question I set out.
 
Got the answer tonight. I posted this in the Fast4 forum, but as its relevant, I'll post it here too:

I have been made aware that EurISP had planned maintenance this weekend and that the traffic management may have been implemented by them during this work. This explains the poor speeds and terrible speeds on ports other than 80 this weekend. I have also been told that the traffic management should no longer be implemented.
 
according to the ppl l spoke to this wasnt the issue, conflicting responces, then again sometimes the left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing... which explains allot of what BT does
 
Sponsored Links
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6027)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2440)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules