Internet DSL Speeds

[drepouille]

When our old (now retired) FM serviceman was helping to wire our new stake center for Ethernet back in 2003, I don't think he really understood the concept of "twisted pair". At either end of each cable run, he untwisted enough wire for him to attach an RJ-45 connector. Many of these were rather sloppy, leaving far too much wire untwisted. After messing around with it for about a year, the FM finally hired a professional to come in and redo most of what the FM's guy had done. That greatly improved the speed and reliability of our Internet service.

[lajackson]

Each time I have visited the meetinghouse over the last two weeks, I have "reset" the 3M line and gotten service up to 1.8M, which is all the company can physically deliver due to distance from the office. Each time, service has dwindled down to 200-100k within a day. You can actually see it on the usage charts at the Technology Manager site.

I finally authorized the provider to provision the line at 1.5M instead of 3M, which they said would provide a more stable service. When they went through the process of making the change, they came back and said they would only provision the line for 750k. I told them to leave everything the way it was.

We are looking for a new provider.

[drepouille]

Our stake has a few meetinghouses out in the corn fields of Iowa. One ward has to reboot the DSL modem every Sunday morning, which is difficult, because the equipment is in the attic over the Primary room.

[lajackson]

The saga continues. We found a provider who can deliver 25M which will solve our problem if we can get it through the firewall and into the meetinghouse computers. Check it out here.

Just wanted to close the loop on this topic. Thanks for all of your advice and help.

[lajackson]

Two very basic mathematical questions. To simplify, these are all download Mbps values.

If the Network Usage screen says that 73 users are occupying 9M of bandwidth and the speedtest says there is 16M of bandwidth, it follows that I have approximately 25M of service from my ISP, correct?

If the speedtest shows 25M of service when I am standing under the WiFi access point in the foyer, and the speedtest shows 7M of service when I am standing out in the parking lot, it follows that the slower speed is a result of my distance from the WAP and can probably be calculated in terms of the number of parking spaces I am away from the door, correct?

Just trying to increase my technical knowledge here. Try not to complicate me too much with your answers. And thanks.

[russellhltn]

If the Network Usage screen says that 73 users are occupying 9M of bandwidth and the speedtest says there is 16M of bandwidth, it follows that I have approximately 25M of service from my ISP, correct?

To the extent that you trust the tools to measure accurately and that it does reflect the conditions at the exact moment you did the speed test - yes.

If the speedtest shows 25M of service when I am standing under the WiFi access point in the foyer, and the speedtest shows 7M of service when I am standing out in the parking lot, it follows that the slower speed is a result of my distance from the WAP

Assuming no changes in network usage by the other users of the system, yes. Is your laptop able to give you a speed rating with your WiFi link? Some will give you an indication without having to "stress test" it. A good strong signal will give you full rated speed (54 Mbps), while it shows a derated speed as the signal gets weaker.

[Mikerowaved]

If the speedtest shows 25M of service when I am standing under the WiFi access point in the foyer...

If you want a more accurate BW measurement from places like speedtest.net, you should be on a wired connection with the building empty. Measurements over wireless will be skewed by a lot of additional baggage needed to support the 802.11 protocol and, as you pointed out, as the signal gets weaker, the PC and access point will negotiate slower and slower speeds until communication is no longer possible.

[lajackson]

Thanks for your answers, Microwaved and russellhltn. I'm just trying to get a feel for my new-found powers. [grin]

We have some purists who are never satisfied. I wanted to validate that when they come up to me and say "I only see 16M and we are supposed to be getting 25M," I can say that the members are using the other 9M, and if they want to stick around until everyone goes home, they will get their cherished 25M reading.

Another tacky approach (that they never accept) is when I say I will turn off the WiFi and they can check again.

It's all good. I try to stay ahead of the crocodiles.

[russellhltn]

"I only see 16M and we are supposed to be getting 25M,"

"That's 25M shared with 200 of your closest friends." <grin>

[harddrive]

Russellhtn

That all depends on your carrier about the bandwidth being shared. There are a few carriers that do give you the full bandwidth all to yourself.