I’ve been getting more an more frustrated lately with the speed of my internet connection. For example, when I was doing an Ogre release recently with the help of 2 other team members, we all started uploading at the same time. My colleagues were complaining that their uploads were going slower than usual, to which I asked how fast that was – and it turned out it was about 15 times higher the best speed I normally get – and they were used to getting about 20-25 times my top speed. 
One lives in Canada, the other in China, and both pay much less for their internet connections than I do, yet get massively higher speeds than I do. However, this was upload speed of course, and I’m still stuck on ADSL – however I’ve also gotten really annoyed with sites using streaming media lately (particular GameTrailers.com which uses non-persistent files which you can’t ‘build up’ to avoid the horrible lurching at times) so it seemed like I needed to compare some download speeds.
Here’s a rather swish site I found for comparing your broadband speeds with others: www.speedtest.net. Here’s my result:
Now, that’s pretty damn terrible. I have a 1Mb ADSL here but of course apart from off-peak you never actually get that – and this was most certainly on-peak (after school sort of time). More tellingly, my speed is a pathetic 1/6th of the UK average, and I know for a fact that I’m paying much more than the UK average.
The trouble is that I live on a small island with limited connectivity to the backbone of course. But what really annoys me is that our local providers are always harping on about how they’re investing heavily in the infrastructure and are offering a 21st century solution worthy of the massive banking sector here,and that this just knocks on to consumers too. And that we have a great deal on unlimited broadband whilst all those cheap deals we compare to have download limits. To which I say ‘poppycock’ (and yes, I do get a small amount of pleasure at being able to use that word).
The lack of download limits is not a get-out clause which makes all your plans suddenly competitive with everything else out there. Personally, I’d be extremely happy with a decent 8Mb connection and a download limit of a few tens of gigs per month – I don’t download a massive amount, I’m not a file sharer and I don’t download pirated films and games all the time. I just want it to be fast when I use it. Which compared to every other civilized nation it seems, it’s not. We’re clearly being totally ripped off – I’ve had broadband for 5 years now and it’s only twice as fast as it was when I first got it and about as expensive, whilst everywhere else in the world it’s increased by up to a factor of 16 whilst still dropping in price. Shameful.
It almost makes you want to get in a boat with a big reel of fibre and start rowing.
March 13th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
It could be worse; I live in a rural area of the United States and the closest available land-line broadband is 60 miles away. Which leaves a wireless ISP which charges probably about as much as you’re paying (plus a $200 installation fee), but for a (capped, but unguaranteed) 256Kbps connection. As I understand it, it’s fed by an 8Mbps wireless link winding through 4 or 5 different towns and has at least 2 subscribers with guaranteed 2Mbps connections, and the remaining bandwidth might be severely oversubscribed. The length and number of the point-to-point links (said 60 miles) might also explain why it suffers from high packet loss and downtime at least a handful of days each month. And then there’s the solution that almost everybody around here uses, 56K modem.
But I’m sure that with the move to fiber some cities are starting to make, refurbished DSL or cable-internet equipment will soon become available for our local phone office or cable company, and in a few years I’ll be able to use this mecca of the internet I have been hearing so much about, this “YouTube”
March 13th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
My speeds are:
To NY:
Dn: 4510 kb/s
Up: 368 kb/s
ping 30ms
Your upload is even better then mine…
My speeds to the rest of the world:
To Moscow: ~200/200 kb/s ping 200ms
To London: ~4500/360 kb/s ping 40ms
To Hong Kong: ~2000/47 kb/s ping 500ms(!)
March 13th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
“could be worse”: just so you know, the problems with your wireless link aren’t inherent to wireless ISPs, you just got stuck with a crappy ISP. I used to run a very large WISP covering hundreds of square kms, the only reason for you to see ongoing packet loss problems is incompetance. The length and number of links you described isn’t a problem, they must have just done a crappy job setting them up.
Every time one of our competitors went bankrupt and we went to do fresh installs for their old customers, we saw all sorts of horrible shoddy setups. Rusted out connectors with no sealant, using crappy lmr400 cable everywhere, underpowered amps, wobbly unstable antennas, etc. So, if you are lucky, a good WISP might come in to your area and put the crappy one you are stuck with now out of business and you could have good internet access.
March 14th, 2007 at 12:14 am
@tau: no, that was my download speed, my upload speed is about 200.
March 14th, 2007 at 10:33 am
It could even be worse. You could stay in South Africa and pay R 594.00 (~$ 79.16) for a 384 Kbps ADSL with a 3GB download limit and is shaped. If I had to get a 1Mbps ADSL without a download limit it would cost R 2800 (~$ 373.62) and that’s still shaped, prioritising HTML and email :”(. Don’t even talk about ping times.
March 14th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Row yourself on over to North America, specifically Canada, Steve. Row, row, row yer boat, gently cross the Atlantic!
March 14th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
If your Avg and Max is identical IMO it means your provider is capping the speed. It seems they could easily give you more.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Have to agree with trevor on this. I use a “1meg” wireless connection in what is supposed to be a high saturation area. This costs me 600 ZAR a month for a 3 gig cap and blocked ports. I’m lucky if I get 384K and my average ping to europe is 500ms. Try game on that :S
March 16th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Argh I could always cry when people complain about their crapy internet. I’m stuck here with a single channel ISDN line with 7kb/s up and down.
March 16th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Sorry guys, it’s clearly all relative.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:26 am
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