How's your Internet speed?

It is certainly faster to ping local.

 

Yeah it will be, as long as your not losing any packets then it's ok.

 

HOLY BAJESUS!?!?!?!?!?

http://www.pingtest.net/result/29027001.png

I think I need to look into that!!!

 

Thank **** for that ...

http://www.pingtest.net/result/29027178.png

Second test came up clear as did CMD ping tests to google, MG and my local ISP.

And a third test to Canberra rather than Sydney like the first two were.

http://www.pingtest.net/result/29027252.png

Which suggests most of the jitter is along the way to the Sydney server rather than locally.

 

The Pingtest.net results got me thinking ...

Did speedtest.net results to Brisbane (closest), then Sydney (next closest), then Canberra (farthest).

This result (Brisbane), at first I got 6 down so I retested then i got 8 down so I retested and for the next 4 tests i got 12.6 consistently.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1048154536.png

This is the Sydney test, with the results being consistent for 3 tests.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1048156592.png

This is the Canberra test, again after 3 tests with conistent results this is what I get.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1048157462.png

Which supports my suspicion. But doesn't explain it. My ISP is located in Sydney, which is where I get my worst rate, Brisbane is the closest which is where I get decent rates, and Canberra is the farthest at which I get my best rates, and get a smaller ping than Brisbane!?!?!?!? WTH LOL ...

(I tried to edit my previous post to include this but apparently the 10 minutes had expired.)

 

I see some insanely fast speeds posted in this discussion. My DSL is rated at 1.5Mb/s download and 512Kb/s upload; the actual speeds are quite close to those numbers. When I see some of the speeds posted here, I have to ask, do you folks with these extreme speeds feel you really need such speed? Why?

I'm thinking about upgrading my DSL to 3Mb/s since I've recently seen a promotion on my ISP's website which indicates I may be able to actually lower my monthly phone bill just a slight bit and yet get the faster Internet plus unlimited long distance calling by committing to their service for a certain time period.

Speeds higher than 3Mb/s (up to 10Mb/s) are available but I can't justify the cost. And, that's why I'm curious about the thinking of people of have these very fast speeds. I guess, in some cases, having the very high speed service is available in your area for an amazingly reasonable price. But, if that's not the case, why pay for such extreme speeds?

Most major news media websites design most of their streaming video and audio content to be playable by viewers with a basic DSL speed of 768Kb/s. If the web developers go too far beyond that, they know they'd be limiting the number of viewers and they want to avoid that.

So, for typical web surfing and email, why pay for a service faster than about 1.5Mb/s? Even an occasional download of a fairly large software program does not justify the cost of a faster service because of the infrequency of such downloads for most users. If were to download a full Linux distro such as Ubuntu, that could take up to two hours, I guess, but I rarely have a need to download something that large. A relatively small software download, such as Paint.NET, a 3.5MB file, would not take more than 15 seconds even with my current service.

 

In my case I have no choice but to go with the 7.5MB/S as it has a cap of 40 GB and is the second lowest tier and if I went to a 2.5MB/S then the cap is 3GB/month which I can easily blow through in a few days. I watch and download lots of videos, betas and Linux distros plus I have a lot of folding traffic. 2.5 would be fine for my needs if the cap were higher as paying $8/GB of overuse is not fun to pay! I think most normal folks don't need that much speed or bandwidth unless one watches HD movies over the net.

 

Oh, you mean a monthly limit on bandwidth usage by your ISP, right? I see what you mean; a higher bandwidth limit goes with a higher speed service. My ISP has no limit on bandwidth uasge, AFAIK, so that's not an issue in my case.

 

I do download a lot of video but the main reason i have the highest package available to me is that ther are 4 people in this house who use the connection and ther is nearly always someone staying over who has a lappy with them, and i always have at least 2 computers running.

So the long and short of it is my network would be choked on anything less than a 20Mbps so having the [supposed] 50Mb package is a nice redundancy so it doesn't affect my work.


Although if i could i would pay for more, even though i don't need it, the day i can have a 1Gbps broadband line will not come quick enough

 

I'm the same as Augi and have a similar situation as ~Q~, plus all of my games that I play are Digital Downloads, so I really don't like waiting for the things to come down

Did I mention I don't like waiting for downloads?

Oh and not to mention the brag factor lol ...

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1156477469.png

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1157722953.png

this is via wireless when wired i can get up to around 14mbps.

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1158975309.png

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1159144711.png

 

Tried a server halfway across the country with little difference.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1159152088.png

 

Sorry for the delayed reply. :-o

I am on ADSL2+ with http://www.spin.net.au and I don't think I've ever been quoted Max/Min expectations. As you are aware, it all depends on how far you are (and how much traffic) one is from the relevant exchange.

2.6 kilometres (for me) AFAIK, traffic unknown.

I'll be looking for a better ISP deal soon, as I joined them a long time ago and deals, and pricing, have improved since then. I've been more than happy with Spin but I think negotiating with them should result in a better deal. (I hope)

Bazza

===

 

Here in The States, I did a beat down on Comcast and cut my rate by almost 50%.

The trick is to call your current ISP and start off with...

"I just received an offer from (name of local ISP competitor) offering me a much better deal. Since I've been with your company for a long time, I'd like to see what you can do to keep me as a customer"

It's likely you'll be transferred to your ISP's "retention" department. Their job is to keep you from jumping ship to a competitor. Be warned: If the ISP offers other services (phone, cellular, TV), you'll likely get pressure to sign up for a bundle of services. If all you want is ISP, politely stick to your guns for the best deal.

In my case, I dropped the price from the regular rate of $54.99/month to $29.99/month for the next 12 months (same speed). Towards the end of the call, the retention agent reminded me to call back this October (the 12th month) to do the process over again to keep the rate from going back up.

The extra $300 in my pocket was well worth the 15 minutes.

 

Thanks heaps, gman863.

I'll try the "script" you suggested. :-D
Just gotta make sure I can find a "better" deal to hit them as an alternative. :-D

Bazza

 

Keep an eye out for junk mail, newspaper ads, etc. from the competition, or go to the other ISPs' websites for the new subscriber offers. Your current ISP likely knows what they are; you just have to ask if they will meet or beat them.