NBNCO

[LP]

Our old telstra ADSL 2 speedtested at 3 mb/s.

Our new TPG NBN is usually 95mb/s +

That's normal for NBN FTTP connections, the media outrage is mostly sponsored by Telstra wanting to defend it's copper monopoly and justify Malcolm's backflip!

What the NBN is genuinely piss-weak at doing is getting the real message out!

The other stupid fact, fibre has so much potential if it isn't choked by the ISP lack of provisioning, the main problem the NBN has is that ISPs refuse to purchase enough CVC(connectivity virtual circuit). The ISP wants to pay as little as possible for bandwidth, and CVC purchase determines the ISP's capability during peak periods. It's all about minimising expenses and maximising income, buy the bare minimum acceptable and sell it for as much as possible!

Our government is gutless, most countries have rules about the minimum levels of service and provisioning an ISP can provide, but not Australia or the USA, it's all about shareholder profit here and there!

[DJC]

You live near Geelong?

I'm with iiNet with their "Rocketfast Cable". Because that's fast broadband I don't have to get the NBN.

Are you familiar with Curlewis Winery Jim?  Well, that’s not us but we’re very close 

NBN has just advised that Fixed Wireless access is now available in our area.  The brochure provided is non-committal on internet speeds and does point out that we may have to look at alternatives if we can’t receive a good quality signal.  Why am I not surprised?

[LP]

Are you familiar with Curlewis Winery Jim?  Well, that’s not us but we’re very close 

NBN has just advised that Fixed Wireless access is now available in our area.  The brochure provided is non-committal on internet speeds and does point out that we may have to look at alternatives if we can’t receive a good quality signal.  Why am I not surprised?

In general, unless you are very close to the exchange tor transmission tower, there won't be much difference between fixed wireless and ADSL2/2+ performance. Typical 4G broadband pegs at about 10Mbs/1Mbs for the average user, which is about the same as ADSL2/2+ at an average distance from the exchange.

NBN Fixed Wireless is based on LTE / 4G and can exceed 20Mbs but is still sensitive to distance and weather. If you are close enough to the transmission tower you could get 50Mbs/5Mbs, but most likely you should get about 20Mbs/5Mbs, both these figures are likely to exceed ADSL2/2+.

The advantage of wireless is that it's not affected by the condition of the copper, the disadvantage is that it's affected by obstacles like buildings,  large trees, tin roofs and weather, in particular large line of sight trees when it's windy and wet, because the wet shimmering leaves cause reflections that create multiple pathways between the antennas, called jitter. To overcome that jitter the rate of data transmission has to be reduced so bandwidth fails dramatically.

If you are interested in learning more take a look at this thread on Whirlpool, some of it is obsolete but it's a good general outline.

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/highlights_...n___thread

[cookie2]

Just tested my broadband earlier and clocked it at 18mbs. It seems fine for everything I want to do including streaming video (Netflix, AFL Live app etc.). Is this comparable to what others are getting? I'm not on NBN, just a normal cable broadband bundle.

[LP]

Just tested my broadband earlier and clocked it at 18mbs. It seems fine for everything I want to do including streaming video (Netflix, AFL Live app etc.). Is this comparable to what others are getting? I'm not on NBN, just a normal cable broadband bundle.

NBN Fibre or HFC(Hybrid Fibre Coaxial)?

Regardless, for both the rate is controlled by the deal from your ISP.

Typically a 25Mbps plan is the minimum speed plan, and that will give you about the speeds you report. As I understand it they will be forced to upgrade you to 50Mbps without increasing your contract fees in the near future, some legislative change by the Feds. At that time you should find a speed boost to around 33Mbps which is typical.

The main difference from speed variations is noticed during live broadcasts, as live broadcasts are not normally compressed to the same level as replays or movies. Usually after broadcast the servers archive and compress the broadcast, they will then stream more reliably, that happens about 24hrs after an event. I believe one problem we have in Melbourne is that both Ch.7 and Ch.9 have chosen to anchor their servers in Sydney, which is why we are affected by bandwidth issues in Victoria.

Check the www.whirlpool.net site out, it will have a forum thread specific to your own provider and you can get better more specific advice there.

If you want to you can use www.speedtest.net to examine your speed, and at the end of the test fill in the details to get results relative to other users in your area, and also relative to those using the same ISP.

[cookie2]

@LP Yes, as I said its non-NBN cable atm, I think it was the cable previously installed a few years ago by Telstra. The speed reading I quoted was measured via speedtest.

[Thryleon]

Food for thought.

We have come a very long way in 15 years.

I understand change can seem glacial, but in that time we have gone from token "broadband" adsl connections, which delivered not quick speeds and needed to be lucky to get it, to broadband in almost every home.

[cookie2]

Food for thought.

We have come a very long way in 15 years.

I understand change can seem glacial, but in that time we have gone from token "broadband" adsl connections, which delivered not quick speeds and needed to be lucky to get it, to broadband in almost every home.

I think South Korea may have come a bit further, along with some other Asian countries.

[LP]

@LP Yes, as I said its non-NBN cable atm, I think it was the cable previously installed a few years ago by Telstra. The speed reading I quoted was measured via speedtest.

Yes, broadband over cable TV Telstra/Foxtel or Optus can be fibre or HFC, technically there is no difference between this and NBN equivalents, it's the actual equipment attached at either end that matters and how they manage the service. NBN HFC is really the new version of the Foxtel cable, in some regions I believe NBN take over the old Foxtel cable connections if they previously existed, but I'm not 100% sure about this as I believe they are scheduled for replacement.

Actually, I'd think 18Mbps is a little slow if you are on Cable(TV), but they do also throttle that service subject to system load. So you might find no problem streaming yet get a larger slowing of  file download speed during streaming, they can pick and choose speeds for different protocols using ACLs or proxy delay pools. On your home Router this would be QoS, which is a variant of traffic control for voice and data.

I believe the Foxtel / Optus type connections give priority to streaming content over other downloads. If you wanted to learn about that search for Squid Delay Pools, but I wouldn't do it to yourself voluntarily! ;D

[cookie2]

Yes, broadband over cable TV Telstra/Foxtel or Optus can be fibre or HFC, technically there is no difference between this and NBN equivalents, it's the actual equipment attached at either end that matters and how they manage the service. NBN HFC is really the new version of the Foxtel cable, in some regions I believe NBN take over the old Foxtel cable connections if they previously existed, but I'm not 100% sure about this as I believe they are scheduled for replacement.

Actually, I'd think 18Mbps is a little slow if you are on Cable(TV), but they do also throttle that service subject to system load. So you might find no problem streaming yet get a larger slowing of  file download speed during streaming, they can pick and choose speeds for different protocols using ACLs or proxy delay pools. On your home Router this would be QoS, which is a variant of traffic control for voice and data.

I believe the Foxtel / Optus type connections give priority to streaming content over other downloads. If you wanted to learn about that search for Squid Delay Pools, but I wouldn't do it to yourself voluntarily! ;D

Thanks for all of that. I get good enough performance most of the time, so bottom line I guess is that the service is adequate. And suffice to know that line speed/performance is only a part of the full picture as far as overall performance is concerned.