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Re: NBNCO

Reply #15 –
@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.
Reality always wins in the end.

Re: NBNCO

Reply #16 –
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.

"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: NBNCO

Reply #17 –
Quote from: Thryleon on
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.
Reality always wins in the end.

Re: NBNCO

Reply #18 –
Quote from: cookie2 on
@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
The Force Awakens!

Re: NBNCO

Reply #19 –
Quote from: LP on
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.
Reality always wins in the end.

Re: NBNCO

Reply #20 –
Cookie, 18mbps for cable is pretty slow, however, depending what you use internet for you may not notice speed differences.

My brother and I live in opposite sides of Glen Waverley - he has Optus cable, I have Telstra cable.  Optus speeds are much slower as they don't buy the bandwidth and let it "get full".  He gets 18 mbps regularly and is affected at peak times.  I do speed tests and don't drop below 33mbps.

There are other factors that affect speed as well, including what junk is sitting on your machine chewing up memory and CPU space.

Equipment does make a difference - my brother has a new modem and top end cable through his house, so it doesn't slow things down too much.  It is fine for him and he is downloading films a lot.

Re: NBNCO

Reply #21 –
Quote from: dodge on
Cookie, 18mbps for cable is pretty slow, however, depending what you use internet for you may not notice speed differences.

My brother and I live in opposite sides of Glen Waverley - he has Optus cable, I have Telstra cable.  Optus speeds are much slower as they don't buy the bandwidth and let it "get full".  He gets 18 mbps regularly and is affected at peak times.  I do speed tests and don't drop below 33mbps.

There are other factors that affect speed as well, including what junk is sitting on your machine chewing up memory and CPU space.

Equipment does make a difference - my brother has a new modem and top end cable through his house, so it doesn't slow things down too much.  It is fine for him and he is downloading films a lot.

Thanks D. That statement made me think about it a bit. The first test I did (18mbps) was on my Android tablet via my wifi range extender. I then tried on my Android phone and got 5Mbps via the range extender. Tried that again direct to the modem and got 22Mbps! Then tried on my W10 laptop direct to modem and got 37Mbps!  Finally tried the Android tablet again direct tp modem and got 36 mbps. So I guess the lesson is clear! This is on Telstra cable broadband (non-NBN) btw.
Reality always wins in the end.

Re: NBNCO

Reply #22 –
Quote from: cookie2 on
I think South Korea may have come a bit further, along with some other Asian countries.

Are any of them firstly on their own continent,  secondly even half the size with similar population density, and thirdly coming from as far back as we were where dial up was still a thing in the year 2000?
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: NBNCO

Reply #23 –
Quote from: cookie2 on
Thanks D. That statement made me think about it a bit. The first test I did (18mbps) was on my Android tablet via my wifi range extender. I then tried on my Android phone and got 5Mbps via the range extender. Tried that again direct to the modem and got 22Mbps! Then tried on my W10 laptop direct to modem and got 37Mbps!  Finally tried the Android tablet again direct tp modem and got 36 mbps. So I guess the lesson is clear! This is on Telstra cable broadband (non-NBN) btw.

Your WiFi has the same constraints as Wireless NBN, it's affected by reflections, line of sight obstructions, etc., etc..

Generally in a house having the WiFi router antenna as high as possible is a good idea. On some modem routers the antenna are detachable and you can purchase after market antenna that has extension cables. Keep in mind, you might have foil lagging/insulation, metal stud walls, fridges, TV's ovens or microwaves in your line of sight which cause interference and reflections. Newer modems and hardware switch to 5GHz  band from the 2.4GHz wireless band, many do both to maintain support for older devices, to eliminate some of these interference effects 5GHz is excellent. Newer phones, tablets and PCs will support 5GHz by default.

Another issue is how many devices you have connected at once, even if they are not all being used they influence the WiFi router stability. The Telstra TV and other similar boxes are good for about 8 to 16 devices maximum, this is because the routers use a version of those ACLs I discussed earlier but they do so on very low powered CPU hardware. If you have many devices and want better performance you can plug a more commercial grade AP  into an wired port and support many more devices. It's amazing when you start adding up phones, tablets, laptops, TVs, game consoles, PVRs, eReaders, etc., etc, how many smart devices you can have, people often underestimate the count.

That reminds me, game consoles have a huge impact on performance, they want low latency connections so they aggressively keep live connections, and if they are running off WiFi they hog the WiFi with thousands of requests even though they are not using that much WAN bandwidth on average. If possible put game consoles on a wired connection, it's a cheap and easy way to try and improve performance.

Depending how old your WiFi router is you could look at an upgrade to 802.11ac, but it's only worth doing so if your devices also support the same level of protocol. I think if you are only using the Telstra TV Box they are doing upgrades anyway as part of renewing the subscriptions, you should ask your local Telstra shop about this because I know the old Telstra TV boxes are not going to be compatible with many new Apps. I think they re doing this deliberately to force people to upgrade.

If the Range Extender you talk about is a Wireless Extender / Booster, they always diminish overall performance because they open a dedicated connection to the main router and consume a lot of the available bandwidth. Think of it as adding extra hoses to a single tap. If you can you it will always be better to connect a Wireless AP (Access Point) to a wired port and place the Wireless AP in a more central location.

Finally, do not bother spending too much money trying to get your WiFi working at the same speed as your wired Ethernet connections. It is possible but hardware to do so it usually outside of domestic budgets and it requires a lot of tuning to make it happen reliably, you have to know about things like aggregation and edge routing.
The Force Awakens!

Re: NBNCO

Reply #24 –
@LP
Thanks LP. I'm reasonably happy with the service I get for what I need. I don't think it would be worth any major investment to try for improvements atm. I was just curious as to what is actually going on.
Reality always wins in the end.

Re: NBNCO

Reply #25 –
Quote from: cookie2 on
@LP
Thanks LP. I'm reasonably happy with ExpressVPN and the service I get for what I need. I don't think it would be worth any major investment to try for improvements atm. I was just curious as to what is actually going on.

Seems about right to me too. That's what I'm getting as well with the basic plan. It's enough for most users imo. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have better Internet.