Thanks for that Adam. I'm no network engineer, and I'm sure your
math is spot on. But this is a user group, not a standards forum. I
think most of us realise there 1.5Mb, 8Mb and 24Mb (see - I got the
caps right this time) speed broadband plans commonly available these
days. If I write 1.5Mb or 1.5MB when talking about broadband, I
figure most end users will know what I'm talking about.
I wasn't multiplying by 8/10/whatever. I've noticed that my 1.5Mb
from Westnet shows up as around 150 in the OS X Activity Monitor ...
therefore I figure 150KB/sec is close to 1.5Mb. I know this is only
a rough approximation, and if I was a network engineer ... well, I
woudn't be for long :) Network engineers get messed up about other
things, but not packet crunching.
Since iiNet don't advertise a 20Mbps service, I figure you are on the
24Mb plan, same as me (but with better packet conversions). So I
think you are saying you can download (reaches for slide rule, damn,
no slide rule, makes another crude estimate) say 20Mb, or around 80%
of the theoretical 24Mb. But you're saying that only with Bit
Torrent or similar P2P software can you get to that sort of level.
The level I am seeing at home (say 15-20% of the maximum) is a long
way off that (even allowing for my inevitable mathematical errors).
So, before you cheerfully correct my conversions again, lets move the
discussion away from packets. Is it the case that the upper ends of
ADLS2+ (lets say 20-24Mb) are only available to the p2p / 'file
sharing' crew? And the mere mortals who just use browsers & email are
*usually* (and by that I mean typical, day to day use) going to get
speeds around 2-4Mb? Because browser & email traffic is always going
to be single stream?
If that is the case, what is the point of trying the faster products,
why not just get the best value 1.5Mb plan of the day?
Anyway, I'm no packet-hound, just interested in this as the user
level. What are the fastest speeds people are getting on ANY plan
without BitTorrent etc? Anyone getting lots more than 4Mb?
Glenn.
PublicityShip.
On 02/01/2007, at 2:04 PM, Adam Hewitt wrote:
Firstly your numbers are all kinds of messed up. To change kbps
into Mbps you multiply by 8, not 10, and its Mbps not MBps
(megabits vs megabytes). I guess you are using 10 to take into
account packet headers etc, however you use this conversion when
going from Mbps down, not the other way around.
Without getting into really fine detail there is a limit to the
speed you can get with a single tcp stream. Therefore you really
need to be sending multiple streams in order to receive your full
connection potential. This is the reason why bittorrent works so
well (when there are enough people to download from) because you
are downloading a single item from multiple (sometimes hundreds) of
tcp streams. You can increase the amount possbile in a single
stream by modifying your TCP Window Size however I am not sure how
to do this in OSX
I am on 20Mbps ADSL2+ with iiNet and I have been able to download
at >2MBps (yes MB) using multiple tcp streams over ftp. I could
probably get faster than that by adjusting the tcp window size or
increasing the number of threads, but 2MBps is quick enough for me.
Adam.
On 02/01/2007, at 1:48 PM, Glenn Nicholas wrote:
Hi everyone, happy new year!
Since there have been a number of posts on ADSL recently, thought
I'd post my experience of the Westnet upgraded 8MB service.
I use iiNet ADSL2+ at home (Shenton Park, around 4.5km to exchange
in Subiaco). The peak speed I see *occasionally* is around 400KB/
sec (as reported by Activity Monitor), which is around 4MB/sec.
But more often than not it is between 1-3MB/sec. I don't keep
records, but it does seem that the speed has been slowing down
(ie. less 4Mb peaks, and more often 1.5MB).
At the office (Shenton Park, 4km to Subiaco Exchange), I was on
the 1.5MB Westnet plan, and I used to see 150KB/sec on Activity
Monitor, exactly as expected. I've upgraded to the new 8MB plan
as of 1/1, but am only seeing 160-170KB/sec at peak (ie.
~1.6MB-1.7MB). I've asked Westnet if there is anything I need to
tweak, but suspect it will come down to 'it depends on distance
and link to exchange'. Suggests I either pay extra for 1.6-1.7MB,
or downgrade to 1.5MB.
I double checked this using two Australian based speed test sites,
which both confirmed around 1.2MB. The links to the speed test
sites are available on Westnet (go to Help, then How fast is
broadband ADSL).
Would be nice to actually get something faster than 2-3MB. But
not keen on trying Amcom unless there was a good reason to expect
it would be any different.
Regards,
Glenn Nicholas.
PublicityShip
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