How is bandwidth counted?

Sly

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 17, 2004
Messages
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When you sign up for a 1.5mbps plan. Do you expect your download to be 1.5mbps and you upload to be 768kbps (The typical DSL split).

Or is it 1mbps upload and 500kbps download? (1mbp+500kbps=1.5mbps)
 
even less. with a 3mb/sec connection I used to get about 300kb/sec down i think it was something like 128 up.
 
If you sign up for a 1.5 plan you usually get 1500 kilobits down and 768 kilobits up. You get a 5 plan, it's 5000 kilobits down and say 1000 kilobits up. It all depends on how your ISP provisions their DSL lines. But when they say it's a "25 plan" they are talking about the download.

I have a 25 VDSL line and I get 25000 kbps down and 2000 kbps up. (Downloads max out around 2.8 MB/s.)
 
When I had Comcast it was a typical 20/10 account. However the upload and download speeds were proportional to each other. For instance if I was using half my upload I'd then only get half my download speed.

If i was uploading at 5mpbs, I'd only be able to download at 10mbps. Weird.

Now that I have fios.... i never even notice bandwidth troubles so I couldnt even tell you. I consistantly get 20/7 on my 15/5 plan.
 
When I had Comcast it was a typical 20/10 account. However the upload and download speeds were proportional to each other. For instance if I was using half my upload I'd then only get half my download speed.

If i was uploading at 5mpbs, I'd only be able to download at 10mbps. Weird.

Now that I have fios.... i never even notice bandwidth troubles so I couldnt even tell you. I consistantly get 20/7 on my 15/5 plan.

Most FTTC and FTTH set ups are symmetrical up/down speeds. So you wont get the variation.
 
The providers don't care about upload speeds as end users don't really notice. 25Mb downloads? Sign me up! Oh, 128k upload?

The advertised speed is download. They want you to see the large number and want it.
 
The providers don't care about upload speeds as end users don't really notice. 25Mb downloads? Sign me up! Oh, 128k upload?

The advertised speed is download. They want you to see the large number and want it.

It's mainly DSL providers and I don't know why. I know for a fact they can handle a much higher upload. We have a symmetrical 25/25 VDSL line at one of our locations and it's awesome. Cable ISPs seem to be better in giving you a better upload speed.
 
I've also noticed that DSL doesn't account for the TCP/IP overhead so your 3Mb connection is usually only 2.8Mb where as most Cable companies account for that at the cap. Therefore a 10Mb connection is generally 11 - 12Mb depending on where you're downloading.

At least this is what I've noticed with AT&T/Bellsouth and Cableone.

For example. When I had my 6Mb connection through AT&T/Bellsouth I'd get ~700KB download speeds, but on my 10Mb Cable connection I routinely get 1.1MB to 1.2MB connection speeds.

However my DSL was a lot more consistent with it's speed than my Cable; also a lot more reliable.
 
My 25/2 DSL connection is rock solid. No downtime in 2+ years and no slowdowns ever. Shaw on the other hand is a POS here and you NEVER get your provisioned speeds with them.
 
You have to ask.

A 100mb ethernet port usually has 200mbps of throughput, or 100 each way.

Sometimes a manufacturer will state the WAN can support 150mbps, but that includes up and down.

DSL is a best effort service and they count packets not actual data. So 768kbps connection can only transport approx 640kbps of data.

In short, you always need to ask.
 
My 6 Mbps usually gets a little over 5.5Mbps typically and my 768Kbps upstream is usually 768 on the money.
 
that is only your guaranteed speed INTO your ISP's network, once it leaves them you aren't guaranteed anything and they wont do jack.

when u get 1.5mbps that is the download speed, they should have another speed which would be the upload unless it is the same both ways.
 
My ISP advertises my connection as 15/5, which means 15Mbps download, 5Mbps upload.

I actually get 25.74/23.71 on speedtest, but I won't complain because I like getting megabytes of data faster than I can count them out loud.
 
When you sign up for a 1.5mbps plan. Do you expect your download to be 1.5mbps and you upload to be 768kbps (The typical DSL split).

Or is it 1mbps upload and 500kbps download? (1mbp+500kbps=1.5mbps)

depends on where you are looking. I know I was yelling at my work about that.

Most of the time they are listing the download speed. However due to the fact that the government stated that in order to be called high speed broadband you have to have 5Mbps combined between upload and download you will have a few that might try to give you crazy packages where it is the combination. We almost did that when we were starting to work on plans for our higher ADSL packages and VDSL. Want to say it was going to be 12Mbps (10 down, 2 up), 25 (20 down, 5 up), 35 (30 down, 5 up), 45 (40 down, 5 up), and 60 (50 down, 10 up) or something like that. I bitched about how I thought that was a bullshit way to advertise our service and that as a customer I would cancel our service and go else were to know that the numbers were being setup to lie to people. I went to the site of every major large Telco around us and showed management how they are listing download speeds and don't normally mention upload. Now are packages for higher speeds are 10 (10 down, 2 up), 20 (20 down, 3 up), 30 (30/4), 40 (40/5) and 50 (50/6). However if our old GM could be hell bend on twisting the way that a package is represented, i'm sure that a few others have done the same.

It's mainly DSL providers and I don't know why. I know for a fact they can handle a much higher upload. We have a symmetrical 25/25 VDSL line at one of our locations and it's awesome. Cable ISPs seem to be better in giving you a better upload speed.

ADSL as a service can't offer as high for the upload speeds. it is just how it is designed. ADSL has a max speed (before lose of overhead) of 8Mbps down, 968kbps up. that is it. Jump to ADSL2+ and you get a max down of I think 32Mbps, up slightly increased to 1Mbps, unless you use ADSL2+ Annex M. That takes some channels from the download side and moves them to the up. Giving you a max of 28Mbps for the down and 3.5Mbps for the up.

first gen VDSL was about the same in that as ADSL2+ Annex M but a little better on the down. 55Mbps max for the down, 3Mbps for the up.

VDSL2+ gives you higher speeds, there are different profiles each one with its own max speeds. But it is more symmetrical. max being 100/100 with profile 17a in the USA. for the few places that 30a can be used they can get a little higher.

So short of VDSL2+ its the technology that is holding you back. When it comes to the VDSL2+ technology, I would guess that it is just a thought that they haven't been the symmetrical before so why start now. I know our numbers were selected to best allow us to offer the same speeds at higher end of ADSL2+ and lower end of VDSL2+

I've also noticed that DSL doesn't account for the TCP/IP overhead so your 3Mb connection is usually only 2.8Mb where as most Cable companies account for that at the cap. Therefore a 10Mb connection is generally 11 - 12Mb depending on where you're downloading.

At least this is what I've noticed with AT&T/Bellsouth and Cableone.

For example. When I had my 6Mb connection through AT&T/Bellsouth I'd get ~700KB download speeds, but on my 10Mb Cable connection I routinely get 1.1MB to 1.2MB connection speeds.

However my DSL was a lot more consistent with it's speed than my Cable; also a lot more reliable.

ADSL isn't TCP/IP that is why you notice more of a hit. ADSL is ATM traffic. so you have about a 13% overhead from that. Also it is a set limit. So your 6Mbps is locked at 6Mbps, on the cable most likely even though you have 10Mbps they would have it set to be a little bit burstable, so you might get 12 - 14Mbps if not very many other people are on at that time. But if not bursting, you would still have much less overhead with the 10Mbps of per TCP/IP instead of the 6Mbps of TCP/IP on top of ATM. Fun part is when you try to emulate ADSL over VDSL equipment. VDSL is pure TCP/IP so you don't have that overhead, but then you try to do ADSL over that, and you have TCP/IP instead of a ATM packet inside of a TCP/IP packet. So you end up with another 1 - 2% of overhead.
 
that is only your guaranteed speed INTO your ISP's network, once it leaves them you aren't guaranteed anything and they wont do jack

That's a strange thing. If it's about line quality, then shouldn't there be some sort of randomness to your bandwidth test? Right now, no matter how many times i try speedtest, i always get 1.03 exactly. If the line was bad enough that i'm losing 1/3rd of my bandwidth, then it should be *about* 1/3rd and not *exactly* 1/3rd every time.

And here's another thing that's odd. Every time i call up the ISP, i always inquire what kind of data plan i'm listed on their computer. Just in case i'm put on the wrong one. This last time, i got passed to three departments, on the third guy, i heard him type something on the keyboard and asked me to check speedtest (From his mumbling i gather he was checking if mine was the one he was looking at).

He said "Is it about point eight mbps?"

I checked speedtest again and it was *EXACTLY* 0.80.

He said "Yeah, so this should be the correct one... i'll get back to you while i talk to our techs."

That was two days ago. Haven't heard back from them yet. I'm still on 1mbps.


But c'mon! He called it at exactly 0.80. Not 0.81 or 0.79. It's 0.80!!! Wouldn't that mean i'm getting ZERO data loss???

He's got full control of my bandwidth right at his keyboard. Is there any possible hardware limitation or something that's keeping me from getting 1.5mbps? If it was congested traffic, my bandwidth should vary throughout the day, but i'm *always* getting 1.00-1.03mbps.

Or does he just not want to type in 1.5 on his computer?
 
Last edited:
*double post* my connection's acting up. go figure.
 
My ISP advertises my connection as 15/5, which means 15Mbps download, 5Mbps upload.

I actually get 25.74/23.71 on speedtest, but I won't complain because I like getting megabytes of data faster than I can count them out loud.

they likely give you a temp boost then throttle it down, also ISP are well known for caching speedtest sites to give the appearance of faster results, find some file download site and download a big image.
 
ADSL isn't TCP/IP that is why you notice more of a hit. ADSL is ATM traffic. so you have about a 13% overhead from that. Also it is a set limit. So your 6Mbps is locked at 6Mbps, on the cable most likely even though you have 10Mbps they would have it set to be a little bit burstable, so you might get 12 - 14Mbps if not very many other people are on at that time. But if not bursting, you would still have much less overhead with the 10Mbps of per TCP/IP instead of the 6Mbps of TCP/IP on top of ATM. Fun part is when you try to emulate ADSL over VDSL equipment. VDSL is pure TCP/IP so you don't have that overhead, but then you try to do ADSL over that, and you have TCP/IP instead of a ATM packet inside of a TCP/IP packet. So you end up with another 1 - 2% of overhead.

Makes sense now. Thanks for the info.
 
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