Speed Test Results

[timeless]

@djreynolds's

while l agree the adds should be removed, with google and google adsence its a hard situation, if they were to remove everything ppl complained about they would need a whole secton dedicated to it, all adsence is.. is a word based search kinda depending on the meta keywords and other stuff on the page youll get the best advert that matches.. sadly fast4s current keywords seem to match speedtests the best at the moment, until a better match is found speedtest.net cant do much about it, unless google do something which is doubtful unless someone finds a good reason to start a lawsuit to get them to remove it from the database.

 

[Mel]

I complained to speedtest.net, providing links to this forum. They replied....

Ads served on Speedtest.net are done by Google AdSense automatically. We don't control them unfortunately. I am sorry if an advertiser is not being honest.

I will be sending my complaint to the ASA here:_ http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/

 

[Mel]

I just found a spare filter, so tried using it, into test socket - same deal. At least i have eliminated any fault at my end.


Here are current line stats:

Operational Mode ADSL G.Dmt
Upstream 448 kbps
Downstream 7616 kbps
Noise Margin (Upstream) 22.0 db
Noise Margin (Downstream) 13.5 db
Attenuation (Upstream) 15.0 db
Attenuation (Downstream) 29.5 db

afaik noise margin is a rough indication of distance from exhange. I read that 13.6 db is 1 km, which is almost exactly the distance i am from mine. All my rates appear to be pretty good, so no real reason i can see of a problem that way..? (except downstream noise margin could be better...)

Something i read which helps explain the rates, to myself and anyone else interested:

What is an ideal attentuation and noise margin figure?

The following may help. It is not my research but was posted some weeks ago by someone whom I neglected to identify.

Noise Margin (AKA Signal to Noise Margin or Signal to Noise Ratio)
Relative strength of the DSL signal to Noise ratio. The higher the number the better for this measurement. In some instances interleaving can help raise the noise margin to an acceptable level.

6dB or below is bad and will experience no synch or intermittent synch problems
7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions
11dB-20dB is good with little or no synch problems* (but see note below)
20dB-28dB is excellent
29dB or above is outstanding

Attenuation is a rough guide of line length. SNR is determined by a variety of factors. Noise margin should be the difference between the current SNR and the SNR the modem requires to retain a sync with an acceptable error rate.


A 6db noise margin is perfectly acceptable on ADSLMax. BT's dslam sets a target margin of 6db by default, the 6db target margin is raised if BT's line monitoring equipment determines your line is unstable at the current sync rate, it may also enable interleaving.

The maximum target margin set by BT is 15 db. If you router reports a higher Noise margin than 15db then either your line is very good and synced at the maximum rate (usually 8128 on fast path or 7616 on interleave) or the SNR has improved since the router synced.

see http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/showthread.php?t=25197&highlight=handbook

 

[zag5]

I will be sending my complaint to the ASA here:_ http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/

Thanks for the link Mel, I've registered my complaint.

 

[Pistoleer]

omfg im pissed off now. For those wonderin about my continuing speed issue (over last couple of pages on this thread) - BT (after faffing about) say no prob at exchange...after saying that there was... im still capped at exactly 1.5MB/s though... (and neither they nor I can run a line check either - they say they will keep trying to and report back to me tomorrow)

Then when i say that the noise is likely from the adsl they say oh we wont test anything to do with broadband.. go to your ISP.. :s

So ive reported another fault with fast4 (the last time BT said there wasnt anything wrong that they could see)

the oddest thing.... EVERY time i powercycle router or switch it out to try a different router entirely... i can not reconnect... until i change encapsulation method....

ie.. only PPPoE works time A... then next time B only PPPoA works.... then time C its back to only PPPoE working.... wtf? All along, no matter what, i get almost exactly 1.5MB/s speed.

edit - feckin great.. now my ip profile is going down.. was 6.5 couple of days ago. now..

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 5500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 7616 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1279 kbps

 

[timeless]

now you know how l felt =_= it still capped, l hoped my profile might have been reset when l transferred ISP but its stayed the same... so going to have to sort it by contacting support.

 

[Pistoleer]

..............................................
!!!!!!!!!!!!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!
Ok.. 2 weeks ago, in this thread, i mentioned that my speed seemed capped at 1.5MB/s like this taken 30 mins ago:



That started a real search into what was happening... i ripped my hair out, spending a couple of hours most evenings testing and retesting multiple routers, getting new filters, new cables etc etc Nothing worked... BT said they couldnt see a problem at their end and it was my hardware...

omfg

At my wits end i was about to ask Paul at fast4 to get BT engineer out to check my line to exchange... but that fee puts the fear of god in me, so i wrack my brains and think beyond the hardware..

I check back and see the date this particular speed issue happened (wasnt happening to other fast4 users so i knew it was a problem related to me) which was about the 10th October. Then i checked different apps that i had installed around that date....

omfg

With all the speed issues we had been having with fast4 i had installed a number of bandwidth applications to monitor my speeds and bandwidth....

I just uninstalled all of them at once so i cant pinpoint the one to blame.. BUT.. after uninstalling and rebooting i now get..



OMFG! The speeds i should have been getting all along!

The apps i uninstalled are:

DU Meter
Bandwidth Controller
Bandwidth Monitor
NetStumbler (to find wireless connections)

I guess i could reinstall each one at a time and test but i dont want to right now

So, im posting this in case anyone else is in this freak position or hears of someone in a similar situation. It wasnt fast4's fault or BT's in this case. Maybe some of ye may be able to explain why i was affected this way (maybe there is some self limiting feature in one of them that i didnt know about..but that would be a rather silly feature; or a conflict of sorts) but at least i finally worked it out. Thank frank.

EDIT - it was Bandwidth Controller - even without setting up 'rules' or actively running the app it limited me to 1.5MB/s for some screwed up reason *gibber*
*flops*

 

[mrzoot]

well done at least its sorted

'bandwidth controller' sounds like it might be the culprit

 

[Pistoleer]

well done at least its sorted

'bandwidth controller' sounds like it might be the culprit

It is.. I just reinstalled it and got the same issue



The thing is that i didnt even make any 'rules' for it... ie there should have been no actual bandwidth shaping going on...
I had forgotten about that app tbh as i wasnt using it..but it had installed things in the background that even if i didnt see the app it was still doing things

Cheers

 

[SgtStupid]

You daft barsteward

Funny thing is even though I don't have any crappy software installed and I just tested my broadband and it's slower than yours

 

[Pistoleer]

Argh, Anyone else with severe speed and latency issues this evening?



Latencies avg of 700...

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                                      WinMTR statistics                                   |
|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
|                            home.gateway -    0 |   31 |   31 |    0 |    1 |   16 |    0 |
|                   c7304.hath.eurisp.net -    0 |   31 |   30 |  641 |  699 |  781 |  719 |
|                         212.248.155.117 -    0 |   31 |   30 |  640 |  699 |  766 |  703 |
|                           212.248.197.6 -    0 |   30 |   30 |  656 |  710 |  875 |  719 |
|                          212.248.197.22 -    0 |   30 |   29 |  656 |  713 |  860 |  750 |
|                     r1.the.uk.c4l.co.uk -    0 |   30 |   29 |  656 |  700 |  750 |  703 |
|               tengu-wolverine.c4l.co.uk -    0 |   30 |   29 |  656 |  795 | 1063 |  797 |
|                     www.njpservices.com -    0 |   30 |   29 |  641 |  699 |  750 |  688 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
   WinMTR - 0.8. Copyleft @2000-2002 Vasile Laurentiu Stanimir  ( stanimir@cr.nivis.com )

Bah. after a few resets of the router etc, still no go.

 

[mrzoot]

definatley the same problem as me, disconnections all weekend but it did not seem to be causing any speed problems till today

have started a new thread about the problem with my results in

 

[djreynolds]

OH YEAH.....

http://www.speedtest.net/result/197136872.png

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                                      WinMTR statistics                                   |
|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
|                         room101.myplace -    0 |   46 |   46 |    0 |    2 |    5 |    0 |
|                   c7304.hath.eurisp.net -    0 |   45 |   45 |  688 |  780 |  922 |  797 |
|                         212.248.155.117 -    7 |   45 |   42 |  703 |  791 | 1016 |  782 |
|                           212.248.197.6 -    3 |   45 |   44 |  688 |  791 | 1000 |  766 |
|                          212.248.197.22 -    3 |   45 |   44 |  703 |  804 | 1016 |  782 |
|                     r1.the.uk.c4l.co.uk -    5 |   45 |   43 |  704 |  810 | 1125 |  797 |
|               tengu-wolverine.c4l.co.uk -    3 |   45 |   44 |  719 |  815 | 1047 | 1047 |
|                   peggy.njpservices.com -    7 |   45 |   42 |  719 |  791 |  938 |  813 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|

 

[Pistoleer]

ffs. Ok cheers guys, yer replies let me know not to waste any more time trying to resolve the problem as it lies with "Fast4". Ticket sent as well. Here is hoping they acknowledge and fix this problem quickly this time... 2 months to go before i can 'get out of jail free'.

edit - omg... i ring their new 'system status line' - which has Paul's recording telling us there are no problems...and to ring support if we have a problem. I ring support and it is shut. *breaths into a paper bag*

 

[timeless]

wonder how many customers are left at Fast4 now

 

[Mel]

wonder how many customers are left at Fast4 now

They've still got those "Not Fast Enough" ads running on www.speedtest.net so I wouldn't be surprised if they've got as many new customer signing up as paying to leave.

 

[timeless]

which reminds me the ASA is slow to reply this time, l had to get the case opened a third time before someone said they would look into it.. the first person just kept on blowing me off saying they dont deal with advertising on their own site however this time (due to an out of office reply to my email) l found someone who wanted to deal with it.

 

[paul316]

The BTspeed test is tediously slow. Might have to leave it online overnight!!

But am sure Fast4 have another excuse.

 

[Mel]

I was reading a pdf on their site the other day and I think it said something along the lines of that they are supposed to notify you of the progess after 15 days. If a complaint isn't rejected out of hand, then it could take 85 days and longer in some cases.

I still haven't heard a thing about my additional complaint about the speedtest.net ad, so I guess that complaint has been ignored.

 

[paul316]

That advert on Speedtest.net is a complete and utter sick joke and should be taken down. If do see it again, I shall write off about it as well.