Internet and networking Gurus

[Reido]

Hi guys

Moved house on the 6th, Guys from Chorus came around to check my internet was getting connected to the right place etc.
Got connetected at 15.3mbps, says so on the invoice they left me. woohoo.

Had that speed for a week, then suddenly it drops down to 4mbps.. called vodafone and they tell me thats the line speed and basicly tell me im lying about have 14-16mbps connection before.
The did some tests or what ever and told me thats all I can get.

So currently my connection speed is jumping around between 2 and 6mbps.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Cheers
Reido

[steve_t]

I'd ring Chorus and ask. I guess all they need to say is that more equipment was loaded into the same cabinet as yours and now the connection rate is lower.

Also, if you use www.speedtest.net, you'll generally get a lower number than if you use the ookla speed tester on the telecom website. Scammers

[Scuba_Steve]

Hi guys

Moved house on the 6th, Guys from Chorus came around to check my internet was getting connected to the right place etc.
Got connetected at 15.3mbps, says so on the invoice they left me. woohoo.

Had that speed for a week, then suddenly it drops down to 4mbps.. called vodafone and they tell me thats the line speed and basicly tell me im lying about have 14-16mbps connection before.
The did some tests or what ever and told me thats all I can get.

So currently my connection speed is jumping around between 2 and 6mbps.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Cheers
Reido

Problem = Vodafone, get off them as fast as poss IMO. Mate had the same probs every time he rang up they put him through excessive "tests" bumped up his speed for a week then it always dropped back down. They kept saying "it's the line speed" "that's all you can get" (despite the fast weeks) finally convinced him to switch companies, he's never had a problem since...

[steve_t]

Problem = Vodafone, get off them as fast as poss IMO. Mate had the same probs every time he rang up they put him through excessive "tests" bumped up his speed for a week then it always dropped back down. They kept saying "it's the line speed" "that's all you can get" (despite the fast weeks) finally convinced him to switch companies, he's never had a problem since...

Oh shit, is that true? I'm thinking of changing to Vodafone from Telecom this month cos Telecom give you way less for the same $$ and I also have Sky so want the subsidy from Voda. I only get 4-6mbps anyway and was hoping a move to Voda would make this faster!

[Reido]

Vodafone had been great up intill now.

Im on their naked broadband, $65 for 60gb or $95 for 120gb. which is perfect for my flat...

However im pissed about this...

Im pretty sure im stuck in a contract for another 12 months. And theres not much around to match pricewise.

Im not using speedtest, just looking in the router for the connection speed.

[steve_t]

Oops. Just spotted that speedtest.net also uses Ookla

[Scuba_Steve]

Oh shit, is that true? I'm thinking of changing to Vodafone from Telecom this month cos Telecom give you way less for the same $$ and I also have Sky so want the subsidy from Voda. I only get 4-6mbps anyway and was hoping a move to Voda would make this faster!

yep 100%, 1st we thought (due to it starting at decent speed but dropping after about a week) it was his router, so tried resetting, no luck. Brought a new one, still no luck. Went through months of ringing up only to have them put him through massive diag tests just to up his speed for the week following to have it drop again a week later always using the same "it's the line" excuse. Eventually after months of doing this over & over (might have been a 12month contract delay too?) we finally convinced him to switch companies (he's now on Orcon FWIW) & he's never had a problem since, speed has stayed high where it should be.

Tho if your only getting 4-6 you might not notice too much speed diff (I think he got down to 2mbps tho), he also had massive lag (if your into gaming) so that might still be a prob. Vodafone jumped all over the place, Think it took a world trip everytime it wanted to go somewhere

[SMOKEU]

If you can get Telstra cable broadband in your area, then do it. I get a constant 15mbps, no matter what time of day I test it. It's expensive, but the service is excellent.

[iYRe]

2 things affect your connection speed on ADSL, generally;

1. Distance from the exchange or DSLAM (the telecom equipment - sometimes in roadside cabinets). Not the distance by road or as the crow flies - the length of the cable.
2. Things causing "noise" on the line (induction, insulation faults, etc).

Make them get the line looked at.

First thing you should ALWAYS do when having speed/connection issues if you are not a gazillion miles from the DSLAM, is remove any thing else plugged into the phone lines, change your filter if you have one.

Then get the line tested and so forth.

The speed that you connect is negotiated by your ADSL router and the DSLAM. If you are using an ADSL2 router you should in theory be able to connect at up to 24 MB/S. If your splitter is faulty, it causes "noise". If you have an insulation fault in your cable (a green connector or joint, an earth, loop, or short circuilt (HRLoop for those in the know)) it causes "noise". If you have power or radio induction, then these can also cause "noise' (noise is a generic term from the old days, fwiw).

If you were able to connect fast, and then over time your speed has slowed, it suggests there is an insulation fault which is degrading due to the circuit now being active (its gone from being a dead cable to having a constant 50v DC on it now, which then goes up when the phone rings).

Hope that helps.

(edit: the ISP has no control over the speed that you connect, only throughput once connected - vodafone, orcon, telecom, slingshot, and a few others have their own equipment in some exchanges, but mostly it is still Telecom DSLAM's that you connect to)

[Scuba_Steve]

Vodafone had been great up intill now.

Im on their naked broadband, $65 for 60gb or $95 for 120gb. which is perfect for my flat...

god thought that sounded cheap... Seems someone has an on-account cell

[steve_t]

Do all NZ ISPs have the same contention ratio? Obviously this will affect speed too

[iYRe]

Do all NZ ISPs have the same contention ratio? Obviously this will affect speed too

I think so - or pretty close.

These things affect the speed you can browse at, but nothing much to do with the speed your router connects at.

If you are next door to the exchange, you could get 24 mb/s, because line conditions allow. But you have a sucky ISP, so actual download speeds are .5 mb/s.

I connect to my DSLAM at 14MB/s most of the time, but I have never managed more than 6mb/s downloading - at least, any time i have checked anyway.

ISP = responsible for internet bandwidth
Telco = responsible for connection speed.

[Gremlin]

Im not using speedtest, just looking in the router for the connection speed.

Ok, so you're looking at the line stats in the modem? It will report the theoretical maximums possible, but you won't achieve that.

Now if that does change (and I've had a churn before, went from a high speed to a low speed, just with change in ISP) then it's the ISP, but there's nothing you can really do about it, other than change ISP.

This assumes you've done isolation tests etc as per iYRe's post.

[yachtie10]

im with vodafone and they have just mucked be about for the second time

but pretty cheap so there fast becoming just like like telecom to me
Are you on there red network or a standard customer?

I have never got gret performance (even before i went to vodafone) as I am a good dsitance from the exchange. But when the performance got really bad in december, I chased them up about it.
15th december
Got the usual runaraound from the monkeys on the help desk and then saying it would take 2 days for chorus engineer to have a look. I got a call from a chorus engineer an hour later (I was a bit pushy). Who basically said I wasnt connected in the right place and should have been moved to a roadside cabinet ages ago. he said he needed Vodafone to request the change before he could do it.
16 December
Talked to vodafone and that will now take 7 working days as thats how long chorus takes. Was asured that I wouldnt be disconected until they were fixing it.
19th december 9am
Conection goes down and wont reset. Rang Vodafone and they assured me I hadnt been disconnected (yeah right) and they would monitor it and look into it and give me a vodem if they couldnt fix it.
20th december
talk to a new person was told it would be fixed on 28th december and I should wait for that. Got a quite pissed at them and got nowhere.
21 december find out they closed my original call as a fault and made it a move/change call. this annoyed me a lot so wanted action from a manager. Got a $100 credit and a vodem which i had to use until 6pm on the 28th december.

So i wouldnt recomend vodafone and i certainly wouldnt sign up a contrat with them.

I can go on about other shit but i have probably bored you already

Vodafone provides a cheap solution but always blames you or chorus for the issues.
I now get a 6.5Mbps on there speedtest but less than 1 Mbps up
Talk to another

[avgas]

If you are using an ADSL2 router you should in theory be able to connect at up to 24 MB/S.

I think you will find its 24 Mb/s
Not 24 MB/s which equals 192 Mb/s.........also you will probably find if a DSLAM is split up over a street these speeds are significantly lower when everyone uses it.

VDSL is great if you can afford it.......but to be honest most can't.

To the OP, chances are they gave you a good burst when they connect you because they 'dedicate' your line on DSLAM when they are doing config testing.......this all changes when your just a schmuck like everyone else. So expect a dramatic speed drop. To be honest anything over 4 Mb/s is good in NZ.