How to measure broadband bandwidth usage?

Netmeter is good - freeware and can be downloaded at http://readerror.gmxhome.de/
It gives you totals and reports on daily, weekly and monhtly basis and can also project your use based on what it's seen so far

Actually I've just see that you on a mac so maybe not useful. This look right http://www.juggysoft.com/ridge.html

[This message was edited by Harvey on Sat 27 November 2004 at 17:10.]

Thanks, Harvey, I'll try that. I had searched on VersionTracker but got nowhere.

John

PlusNet do provide a usage device that keeps a totally of the amount of data that you have moved during the accounting period.

However that is not much use untill you actually get on to PlsNet.

I was quite surprised at the small quantity of data I was moving a month, just doing web surfing - a bit of email, software downloading, the odd radio listen again and a photo website maintenance

So far I am on track to use less than 2gb a month

Derek

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Derek, do you have the 2Mb package? That's the one I'm going for. Is it truly 4x faster than a 512Mb package, or does it fall short of its promise?

Pipex have been fine - in fact, were it not for the fact that they're a bit pricy, I'd be happy to stay with them. How do PlusNet fare in terms of reliability and availability?

John

John

I am on the PlusNet 2mb package, I have an Apple G5 and a home brew AMD based OS/2 machine connected to ADSL via a Vigor2500V ADSL Router

I have just run a speed test at the ADSL site
here is a PDF view of the results page

speed test url

I have also just downloaded a 9599kb file to the Mac in 42 seconds - so you can work out the results tht I am getting.

Looking at the ADSL site speed test I am getting just less than 4 times the download speed of a 512 kb connection.

As you know speeds can vary according to load etc

Before the latest router arrived I was using the Alcatel Frog and a Vigor2200USB router to drive the modem. This was OK up to 1mb speeds but defintely throttled back the 2mb by about 25%

Hope this helps

Derek

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John

You also asked about reliability and availability

I am very pleased with them. they have a good problem reporting system, if they have problems they are open about them and report them to the users. The suppport people are helpful and useful.

I am pleased with the service that they give.

I have been with them since last March (at 512 only went to 2mb in the last two weeks.) and I have not knowingly been cut off

The staff at PN respond to questions on the ADSL GUide forums and are very reasonable.

CF to BTOPenwoe they are a pleasure to work with, They give me 250mb of web space, easy access to creating and hosting my domain and myriad of email addresses.

From what I can see their web site is very open ie not IE constrained.

Give them a go!

Derek

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Curiously enough, I just tried your speed test link and my 512Kb ADSL returned a rate of 386Kb/s (i.e. 48.3Kb/s) which makes me want to swap to your service ASAP!!! It appears that I'm not even getting the average 512Kb DSL download rate, but I have to admit to not being aware of this. Could be due to the time I performed the test (2230pm).

I will swap to PlusNet 2Mb as soon as I'm definitely past my 1 year tie-in with Pipex.

John

quote:

---

Direction Actual Speed True Speed (estimated)
Downstream 1601 Kbps (200.1 KB/sec) 1729 Kbps (inc. overheads)

Upstream 142 Kbps (17.8 KB/sec) 153 Kbps (inc. overheads)

---

A week or so ago I helped JN setup his 1mbps connection.

Using my Netgear DG834 we got these figures:-

quote:

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Direction Actual Speed True Speed (estimated)
Downstream 928 Kbps (116.0 KB/sec) 1002 Kbps (inc. overheads)

Upstream 242 Kbps (30.3 KB/sec) 261 Kbps (inc. overheads)

---

I was surprised to see that his downstream figures are easily twice that of a good 512kbps service. Your downstream speeds are 72% better than his.

As you can see his "actual" upstream speeds are exactly 100kbps *better* than yours (should be the same). The "estimated true speed" is actually slightly higher than the theoretical limit of 256kbps. There is definately something wrong with your figure. This shouldn't be too surprising as PlusNet are going through a bit of a capacity crisis at the moment, and have had to impose stringent restrictions on their heaviest users.

Give it another couple of weeks and I hope to be able to report how the 2mbps Pipex service performs. Activation request was released to BT today!

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Top Cat:
Curiously enough, I just tried your speed test link and my 512Kb ADSL returned a rate of 386Kb/s (i.e. 48.3Kb/s) which makes me want to swap to your service ASAP!!!

---

Why??

Your service is supposed to be 1/4 as fast as his, and it is.

Several of my friends are on Pipex, and they get very good performance from it.

quote:

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It appears that I'm not even getting the average 512Kb DSL download rate, but I have to admit to not being aware of this. Could be due to the time I performed the test (2230pm).

---

Take a look at Pengbo's tweak page.

quote:

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Why Tweak?

For one reason or another the default settings for ADSL connections in the UK are sub optimal. Changing them ever so slightly can produce major improvements in speed. There is one reported instance of speeds going from somewhere in the 220Kbps range to 460Kbps plus. No it isn't a universal panacea to all speed problems but since it's so easy to do it can't hurt to try it.

---

quote:

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I will swap to PlusNet 2Mb as soon as I'm definitely past my 1 year tie-in with Pipex.

---

Whoa there - try the above first. Pipex are supposed to be one of the best, and they're certainly not suffering the capacity issues that PlusNet are at the moment.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

BTW, more info re the PlusNet capping (of V. heavy users) can be found on the Register .

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

Another easy place to measure actual speeds is www.pcpitstop.com . They reckon if you are getting 85% of your theoretical speed then you are doing ok. The site also has some tweaks to optimise your PCs performance.

The PlusNet capping story is not as heavy handed as it seems. Aproximately 3% of the users were each moving vast quantities of data a month, 140gb comes to mind, PN are moving all these users on to one pipe so as to protect the 97% of reasonable users. They are not capping users.

Derek

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quote:

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Originally posted by Derek Wright:
PN are moving all these users on to one pipe ... They are not capping users.

---

Derek,

whilst it is true that they have not explicitly capped these users, the effect is the same - they have limited the total capacity available to that group of users, and they must fight amongst themselves for it.

The more basic question is why they did that? The answer is that they had capacity issues, and they could either buy more capacity or "persuade" the heaviest users to move to other ISPs.

I would also suggest that both you and TC, go to The Broadband resource exchange checker. If the VP status is amber or red, then there are capacity issues at your local exchange. The page will also list if there are any improvements scheduled.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

Martin

The local exchange has a VP status of Green

I have also run the plusnet spped tests they are at
PlusNet download speeds

The last 7 tests were run from the OS/2 machine the others wre run from the Mac apart from the very last reading at the bottom of the list that was obtained on the OS/2 machine.

I am using a MTU setting of 1500 on the Mac and have not touched the default setting of the Router.

In the ADSLGUIDE speed test text it says "There are issues with some Java implementations which may lead to inconsistent test results such as with some Linux systems."

Whether this also implies that OSX which is FReeBSD based also can have inconsistant results.
On the Mac forum on the ADSLGUIDE web site I have seen comments about the results for the Mac not being handled correctly. This could also explain a discrepancy.

I have just rerun the ADSLGuide speed tests and obtained upload speeds of 220/237 and 221/238 which are at the lower end of the expected speeds.

Interestingly in the ADSLGuide ranking of the top fastest ISPs, PlusNet consistantly appears and this month is number 6 on the 512 speeds.

Why did PlusNet handle the very high usage users in the way that they did - because they were taking a disproportionate amount of the available resource and were costing more than the incoming revenue

To get a fuller story read the posts on the ADSLGuide PlusNet Forum. The Register Story is only at the headline level.

Derek

<< >>

The plusnet thing to me boiled down to a small percentage of users expecting leased line contention and bandwidth for £40 a month.

Plusnet (and a lot of other ISPs) don't help themselves by advertising an uncapped service and then complaining when people use it as such.

In Plusnets favour, at least they tried to do something about it rather than just booting the users, which I think a lot of other ISPs would have done.

Paul

Well, my exchange has a green status, but we only have 1 DSLAM, whatever that is. I take it that, regardless of how many DSLAMs we have, if it's at a status of green I should be okay for faster broadband speeds?

I'm still keen to try PlusNet. My bandwidth usage won't be all that high - I'm guessing 2Gb per month will probably be enough more often than not - but I would like faster downloads.

John

TC,

ADSL is just one form of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).

A DSLAM is a DSL Access Module - it transmits & receives DSL signals, and transfers the data to the network "backhaul" from the exchange which ultimately connects out to the ISP's network infrastructure.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

TC,

as threatened, my stats on Pipex's 2mbps service:-


Downstream
1850 Kbps (231.3 KB/sec) (1998 Kbps inc. overheads)

Upstream
238 Kbps (29.5 KB/sec) (257 Kbps inc. overheads)

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

I use Global Internet (part of Brightview) ADSL 512MB. They also offer 1MB at £29.95/month with unlimited downloads etc. I beleive they can also offer connection to MAC o/s users.

I'm using a wireless connection which may (or not) be affecting the performance and am getting (according to Netmeter) max of 59.2KB/s downloads and 31.4KB/s uloads.

Does this sound reasonable to expect or am I missing out big time?????

Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......

Martin,

I'd have been tempted by the Pipex 2Mb if it weren't so darned pricy. I don't have the enormous bandwidth requirements of some (I am guessing 2-4Gb Max/month) so a 'lite' version makes much more sense.

Does the fact that my exchange only has one of these DSLAMs matter, do you think? I'm not entirely sure, even after reading your description...

John

quote:

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Originally posted by Top Cat:
I'd have been tempted by the Pipex 2Mb if it weren't so darned pricy.

---

John,

I think it would be fair to say that Pipex is a premium service. I've always known it was expensive, but I'm always drawn to high performance!

quote:

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I don't have the enormous bandwidth requirements of some (I am guessing 2-4Gb Max/month) so a 'lite' version makes much more sense.

---

Pipex don't do a Lite 2mbps service, so that does make some sense.

I wonder what you're actually using the connection for? If it's just web browsing, I wouldn't say mine feels any faster than JN's 1mbps service.

I see that Wanadoo (ex-Freeserve) are now offering 1mbps connections as standard. Since BT charge them by the MB, it doesn't really matter how fast the connection is (you might just use your limit up faster). I'm not recommending them (anyone that spends that much on TV advertising must either be more expensive, cutting corners, or non-sustainable).

quote:

---

Does the fact that my exchange only has one of these DSLAMs matter, do you think? I'm not entirely sure, even after reading your description...

---

No.

A DSLAM provides ADSL service to a certain number of phone lines. The capacity restriction is simply in the number of households that can have ADSL. Beyond that limit, any further orders will be put on hold until more ports can be installed.

The link from the exchange to the wider internet (the "backhaul") has a certain capacity. I think the Red/Amber/Green thing on the exchange status page relates to whether this capacity is regularly taxed, or has lots in reserve. This would depend on whether a lot of the households in the area are regularly using a lot of bandwidth.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

What about NTL TopCat?

I know the rep they have had in the past but they have been exemplory for me in the last year, they even answer the phones in a reasonable time.

If I had to moan I would say its getting and engineeer out, but to date I never needed an engineer.

You can get 750l service at a good price, and with your normal phone line in the price plus some TV channels it works out quite attractively.

(I find people never account for the BT phone line hire, and broadband you are looking at will need to factor another tenner for this)

hey Gary good news
Thw word is that 2005 Q1 NTL are upping 300k subs to 1mb and 750k subs to 2mb. Bad news is a standard $25 admin fee for some guy to hit a few keys and a monthly cap; 5gb and 30gb respectively. Still seems a hot deal unless you're constantly downloading some heavy linux distros or swedish movies.

Hi Gary,

Would look into cable if I had cable in my street, but they've no plans to do my street (my mate works high up in Telewest), and even if they wanted to, they might have difficulties due to the fact that my street is largely listed (including my house, sadly) which means that cable would have to come in extremely discreetly and I know from prior experience that that's not Telewest's forte*.

I'm going with PlusNet as they seem to be a decent outfit and I admired the way they handled the bandwidth hogs. I'm having to migrate firstly from Pipex 512:50 -> PlusNet 512:50 and then 'upgrade' - sadly incuring a fifteen quid upgrade fee - but by the end of Jan I should be at 2Mb:50.

Martin: I use my broadband for remotely administering a server, getting and putting files (mainly backups) to said server via ftp, web, occasional downloads but mainly light use. Frequent, but light, I'd say. I reckon on a busy month I might reach 5Gb transfer.

(As an aside, my server (on an 8Mb ISP pipe) has only once transferred over 10Gb in a given 30 day period. It serves around six websites which in total serve nearly 200,000 pages each month. I reckon I don't surf anything close to that much, so ought to come in well under 5Gb even on an indulgent month.)

Then again, if I were into the old Swedish art cinema (illicit styley) then that might change a bit...

Just out of curiosity, for those who have high bandwidth requirements (e.g. 10Gb/month+), what kinds of things do you do to rack up those sorts of figures?

John

* there is a tale of a Telewest engineer routing the incoming cable directly through the blue plaque ("Suchandsuch lived here, 1738-62" - that kind of thing) on a historic building. So, not so kindly regarded by Historic Scotland these days

TC - welcome to PlusNet - I have been very satisfied with them.

To help tweak your Mac you might want to get hold of RMAC - which eables you to change the MTU and other settings (RFC1323) without having to dig into the infrastructure

By changing these I have improved my transfer speeds

Derek

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