The gigabit experience... (LOL!)

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Well, I've been ... waiting... salivating... for gigabit internet.

Finally, I got my upgrade, around 3am.

At first, I wasn't sure. I did a speedtest. got 277Mbit/sec down, and 280Mbit/sec (approx) up.

I thought, hey, that's faster than my previous 150/150 upgrade I got last week, that one scored 150/170 on speedtest.

So, I did another couple of speedtests, seemed like the limitation was my router, and not the connection. (Was wondering if they provisioned me for 300/300, if they couldn't do gigabit.)

So, my Asus AC68R, running Shibby Tomato 140, I found the CTF (cut-through forwarding, AKA "Hardware NAT"), and enabled it. (I was not using MultiWAN, or QoS currently.)

Now, (drum roll please), I get:
http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6554256157

(That's 800Mbit/sec down, and 750Mbit/sec up. Not too shabby. Still not "perfect", but I would be content to leave it at that, actually.)

So, I figured, lets go to distrowatch.com, and download some lightning-fast Linux distros.

Well, that might have been a bit optimistic. The fastest that any one distro downloaded, was at 5Mbytes/sec, which equates to 40Mbit/sec. Could have easily done better than that on 150/150 service.

Ah well, so that's what it's like to have gigabit service. Like using a Ferrari to pick up milk. At least, now, I can claim I have the "Ferrari of internet". :)
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
For Linux distros it'll depend how you're downloading them but normally for me anyway the torrents are far too well seeded for me to get good speeds. And unless you're downloading from a server with a ton of excess bandwidth (like steam servers) Most servers on the internet simply won't have the upload bandwidth to satiate your download speeds. And for torrenting most torrent clients aren't configured for speeds like ours. And further with how many seeders are on most Linux distros you're more likely to connect to 20-30 slow seeders anyway.


The internet requires adequate bandwidth on both sides AND in between you and the server and most servers simply can't sustain anywhere near 1gbps to a single client connection. And the servers that CAN usually can't manage to deliver those speeds because some link between you and the server is congested.


I've gotten 80MB/s on a torrent with 4 seeders.
I've gotten 114MB/s on a star citizen update
I've gotten 110MB/s downloading GTA5 on steam.

There are places out there that can deliver decent download speeds, but most can't.
 

Gryz

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2010
1,551
203
106
Benchmarking in itself is an art. Not many people know how to do proper benchmarks. Nor how to interpret the result. And nobody seems to understand all the limitations you need to take into consideration.

E.g. I've seen many people benchmark the speed of their harddisks, in stead of the network.
The TCP implementation does matter, especially if the RTT of the TCP connection is higher.
Few people seem to understand that available bandwidth to different destinations is unrelated to your own local bandwidth.
Small files don't show any real information. The download is over before TCP slow-start has found the optimal speed of transfer. I'd guess you need a benchmark with a transfer that takes at least a minute over your local line.

Want to really know the speed of your local connection ? There is only one way, and that is to log in on your router and see what the actual speed of your uplink is. (This might be harder if you have a separate modem and router. You'll have to log into the modem, if that is possible at all).

I would think that downloading a torrent would be the best test. Files are big, so a transfer takes at least several minutes. Many senders, so if they are all slow, together they can still fill your local connection. TCP implementations matter less. Together the senders will try to fill the pipe. At full speed, your link can do around 100 MB per second. So find a torrent that is 10 GB in size. With many many seeders (say at least 20 you connect to). Then you might see your local link being used to capacity.

All said by the guy who has a 6.2 Mbps/876 Kbps DSL connection. :)
Congratulations.
 

Pick2

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2017
1,058
1,507
91
I remember My first modem , a Hayes 300 baud with my Apple ][+. I wouldn't have known what to do with a 6.2 Mbps/876 Kbps DSL connection back then. :)
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
So find a torrent that is 10 GB in size. With many many seeders (say at least 20 you connect to). Then you might see your local link being used to capacity.
This won't work unless he's on a private torrent tracker with seedboxes or similar. I have 1gbps and with public torrents even 100 random seeders will probably only give ~20-30MB/s.
You need 3-5 seeders all with 500mbps+ connections. That should get you 80-100MB/s+

And that's assuming you've configured your client properly. I use deluge with Itconfig plugin and high performance seed presets and I see 50-80MB/s on torrents regularly. Before configuring my client properly I'd struggle to see more than 30MB/s no matter who was seeding or what their upload speeds were.
 

Gryz

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2010
1,551
203
106
That could all be true, I don't know. I only have a 6 Mbps connection.

I do sometimes download a torrent while I am away from home, on my android tablet, on a 50 Mbps connection. It seems the simple tablet has no problem filling the 50 Mbps. Every time. I was assuming torrents would do any speed, as long as you find enough seeders (or peers) to send simultaneously.

I just realized that the stuff I'm downloading is mostly in files of ~250-300 MB each. On a 1 Gbps link, it would take 3 seconds to download that. Mmmm, I'm starting to get jealous. :)

Of course I know 6 Mbps is considered slow these days. (I work for a company that has recently announced a product that does 6 TeraBits per second on a single linecard (12 Tbps if you count both directions)). 6 Mbps is quick enough for most of the stuff that I on the net. (And I do a lot on the net). But when I realize what does numbers mean in the real world, it does start to sting a little. Unfortunately the ISPs in my country are mostly interested in stealing customers from each other. I can chose between DSL and ... nothing else. My ISP knows I'll stay his customer, so they don't care. Pfffff.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
https://medium.com/speedtest-by-ookla/are-you-gigabit-ready-a1e531eee61

Is there any way to improve my connection speedtests, from 800Mbit/sec to 940+Mbit/sec?

I already enabled CTF forwarding in my AC68R running Tomato. And in front of that, is a FIOS Quantum Gateway router, which is good for at least 940Mbit/sec down.

I don't know if the limit is the site, that I'm testing on, or the Cat5e cable running from one room to another, or what.

 
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mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
https://medium.com/speedtest-by-ookla/are-you-gigabit-ready-a1e531eee61

Is there any way to improve my connection speedtests, from 800Mbit/sec to 940+Mbit/sec?

I already enabled CTF forwarding in my AC68R running Tomato. And in front of that, is a FIOS Quantum Gateway router, which is good for at least 940Mbit/sec down.

I don't know if the limit is the site, that I'm testing on, or the Cat5e cable running from one room to another, or what.



My honest guess is that even with CTF your router simply can't handle full 1gbps WAN throughput.

Most routers can't.

This was done using the G1100 FiOS router. It might not have the best features, or wireless range. But it does at least offer full speeds for wired devices.
0dKsI7H.png



You should also try testing several other servers, if NONE of them can break 850mbps, i'd bet $$ it's simply your router isn't up to snuff. Or potentially your client device, but most modern desktops shouldn't have too much difficulty, so i'd lean towards the router.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
You should also try testing several other servers, if NONE of them can break 850mbps, i'd bet $$ it's simply your router isn't up to snuff. Or potentially your client device, but most modern desktops shouldn't have too much difficulty, so i'd lean towards the router.
Well, I had a speedtest, where my upload hit 938Mbit/sec, so I'm guessing that the router actually CAN handle 940Mbit/sec up and down, but the site just had some of its bandwidth used by other speedtestr's.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
Well, I had a speedtest, where my upload hit 938Mbit/sec, so I'm guessing that the router actually CAN handle 940Mbit/sec up and down, but the site just had some of its bandwidth used by other speedtestr's.
I rarely have problems hitting 900+ on both up and down at all hours of the day to multiple speedtest servers.

It could just be you're on a crowded node. After all it is still GPON based which is 2.2gbps down and 1.2gbps up shared between up to 16 other customers.

Testing to your Somerville server and I get 750mbps down and 930mbps up with 12ms ping. So it could be the server.
 

Burner27

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2001
4,444
48
91
To Virtual Larry: Now that you can claim to have 1Gbps service, has it really made that much of a difference to say 'hey that was worth it'? I am not giving you flak, I just was curious of your opinion.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
I can't speak for VL, but when I upgraded to gigabit my bill went down $50 a month. So in that sense, it was certainly "worth" it. Saving money and getting more is always good.

For me it makes a decent difference in performance coming from 150mbps and allows me to download without having to worry if someone else is currently streaming something or already downloading.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
To Virtual Larry: Now that you can claim to have 1Gbps service, has it really made that much of a difference to say 'hey that was worth it'? I am not giving you flak, I just was curious of your opinion.
Honestly? No, not at all. I mean, if I had a large family, sure, 100Mbit/sec for each person, that would work out well. But it's just me, here, and 1Gbit/sec is WAAAY overkill. It seems same or maybe even slightly slower than the 150/150 service was.

And my bill didn't go down $50, it went up $45. (I didn't pull any tricks to sign up for it, just used the online account service configurator.)

Debating whether I should keep the service, and push VZ for adding a $40-50 discount for 24 months, to make it equivalent to a new customer signing up for gigabit, or just dropping VZ altogether, and then re-signing-up in two months, and getting the pre-wired new customer discount (which is generally slightly cheaper than a regular new customer discount).

I've still got the Comcast service for $9.95/mo too. I could probably get along with that service, full-time, if I had to. They bumped that service from 10/1 to 15/2 (speedtest at 17/3.5) for free recently. Nice of them. :)
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,679
14,934
126
Honestly? No, not at all. I mean, if I had a large family, sure, 100Mbit/sec for each person, that would work out well. But it's just me, here, and 1Gbit/sec is WAAAY overkill. It seems same or maybe even slightly slower than the 150/150 service was.

And my bill didn't go down $50, it went up $45. (I didn't pull any tricks to sign up for it, just used the online account service configurator.)

Debating whether I should keep the service, and push VZ for adding a $40-50 discount for 24 months, to make it equivalent to a new customer signing up for gigabit, or just dropping VZ altogether, and then re-signing-up in two months, and getting the pre-wired new customer discount (which is generally slightly cheaper than a regular new customer discount).

I've still got the Comcast service for $9.95/mo too. I could probably get along with that service, full-time, if I had to. They bumped that service from 10/1 to 15/2 (speedtest at 17/3.5) for free recently. Nice of them. :)


host my plex server then :colbert:
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
Honestly? No, not at all. I mean, if I had a large family, sure, 100Mbit/sec for each person, that would work out well. But it's just me, here, and 1Gbit/sec is WAAAY overkill. It seems same or maybe even slightly slower than the 150/150 service was.

And my bill didn't go down $50, it went up $45. (I didn't pull any tricks to sign up for it, just used the online account service configurator.)

Debating whether I should keep the service, and push VZ for adding a $40-50 discount for 24 months, to make it equivalent to a new customer signing up for gigabit, or just dropping VZ altogether, and then re-signing-up in two months, and getting the pre-wired new customer discount (which is generally slightly cheaper than a regular new customer discount).

I've still got the Comcast service for $9.95/mo too. I could probably get along with that service, full-time, if I had to. They bumped that service from 10/1 to 15/2 (speedtest at 17/3.5) for free recently. Nice of them. :)
Yeah I can't see a single person really NEEDING gigabit unless they've got some very peculiar hobbies. Great for a house of 4 heavy internet users though.

The new customer price of $69.99 is too enticing not to consider canceling and signing back in 60 days.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Yeah I can't see a single person really NEEDING gigabit unless they've got some very peculiar hobbies. Great for a house of 4 heavy internet users though.

The new customer price of $69.99 is too enticing not to consider canceling and signing back in 60 days.
This is FiOS right? I'm moving in November and the new apartment will have options of Comcast and Fios. Finally I get to try Fios!

They have other packages too with tv but I'm honestly thinking of just doing the Internet only for $69. So tired of Comcast everywhere I've lived, even have my own modem but for FiOS I guess I will need to rent one.

I'd consider buying one but I have no idea what service will be offered when I move again.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
This is FiOS right? I'm moving in November and the new apartment will have options of Comcast and Fios. Finally I get to try Fios!

They have other packages too with tv but I'm honestly thinking of just doing the Internet only for $69. So tired of Comcast everywhere I've lived, even have my own modem but for FiOS I guess I will need to rent one.

I'd consider buying one but I have no idea what service will be offered when I move again.
FiOS doesn't use a modem, and you can use whatever router you want if you're only doing internet only service.

If you have TV service you need their router (or you can buy a standalone MoCA bridge and use your own router).


You have an ONT at your house that converts the fiber into ethernet. Then you plug the ethernet cable into the WAN port on your router. That's it.
 

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
You don't need to use the FIOS gateway. They'll force it on you initially but other than the first week or so (before my moving truck arrived) I have never had their gear connected in 5+ years of continuous service. I've received and returned three during that time due to service changes/upgrades, and never paid a rental fee.

And yes the gigabit service is awesome. I've had it since the day it was launched in the NYC area as 750 mb, got ~940 symmetrical from the very beginning. I'm now paying just $64.99/mo, though I have no clue how. I was thrilled to pay $180 for it so $65 is just absurdly cheap.

Viper GTS
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Sounds simple. Currently I have an Asus nt66r wireless router that I use for wifi around the apartment.

I think I may just do the internet option first as I rarely ever watch TV. I made sure the Comcast rep didn't sign me up for a one year contract last time I called to complain about the usual 6 month price hike they do. They have done that before in the past and told me it wasn't a contract only to find out later when I had to move that it actually was a one year contract.

Although if I do get their tv option from FiOS I will actually have hd cable this time around as compared to just a regular cable box so I didn't have to pay Comcast extra for HD.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
Sounds simple. Currently I have an Asus nt66r wireless router that I use for wifi around the apartment.

I think I may just do the internet option first as I rarely ever watch TV. I made sure the Comcast rep didn't sign me up for a one year contract last time I called to complain about the usual 6 month price hike they do. They have done that before in the past and told me it wasn't a contract only to find out later when I had to move that it actually was a one year contract.

Although if I do get their tv option from FiOS I will actually have hd cable this time around as compared to just a regular cable box so I didn't have to pay Comcast extra for HD.

I have FiOS TV currently because it was the only way to make my bill cheaper.

I was paying $135/month for just gigabit internet, but then I signed up for a Custom TV package, and Digital voice and it lowered my bill to $95/month.

The Custom TV package is actually pretty decent, I chose the package with news channels and no sports channels (because there is an extra tax on TV plans with sports channels that is around $5 a month).

It lets me log in to NBC online and similar news sites so I can stream their content online, I don't actually have any TVs hooked up for the "real" FiOS TV service.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Actually I see that their gigabit internet is offered in triple play but I don't see it for Internet only.

Prices I see for the address I entered for Internet only are $39 for 50/50,
$64 for 100/100, or $74 for 150/150.

For gigabit I would need to select a two year agreement with custom tv and phone for $74 for the first year or the same price but with hbo included.