# Is This a Good Broadband Speed?



## chrisalv14

I used two websites to check my broadband speed.

*WEBSITE NUMBER 1:*






*WEBSITE NUMBER 2:*






_btw. im on the 20mb Virgin Media service._

Many thanks.


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## lovely?

sorry, im at school and i can't see your speed pic. could you post the numbers?


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## chrisalv14

lovely? said:


> sorry, im at school and i can't see your speed pic. could you post the numbers?


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## Zatharus

While no broadband ISP that I know of will guarantee their speeds to the max, you may want to call on that.  If you are paying for a 20mb download pipe, getting 8mb instead is horrible.  

Now, it is possible (however unlikely) that you are being capped from the test site.  Keep testing around.  If you consistently see around 8mbps, call your provider.  It is likely something is screwy on their end.  Also, it would be worthwhile to investigate the capabilities of your modem.  Some old cable/dsl modems could only handle up to 10mbps anyway.  What model do you have?


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## chrisalv14

Zatharus said:


> While no broadband ISP that I know of will guarantee their speeds to the max, you may want to call on that.  If you are paying for a 20mb download pipe, getting 8mb instead is horrible.
> 
> Now, it is possible (however unlikely) that you are being capped from the test site.  Keep testing around.  If you consistently see around 8mbps, call your provider.  It is likely something is screwy on their end.  Also, it would be worthwhile to investigate the capabilities of your modem.  Some old cable/dsl modems could only handle up to 10mbps anyway.  What model do you have?




My Virgin Media Modem Model is: E08C013.00
- Same one as this one:


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## Zatharus

chrisalv14 said:


> My Virgin Media Modem Model is: E08C013.00
> - Same one as this one:



Hmmm...ok, I doubt modem bandwith limitation is a problem then.  Just to clarify further though, which model is this?  You mentioned E08C013.00, but is there any other identifier on the bottom sticker?

Have you tried testing at different times of the day?  You very well could be congested with local traffic.


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## chrisalv14

Zatharus said:


> Hmmm...ok, I doubt modem bandwith limitation is a problem then.  Just to clarify further though, which model is this?  You mentioned E08C013.00, but is there any other identifier on the bottom sticker?
> 
> Have you tried testing at different times of the day?  You very well could be congested with local traffic.



it says ambit so im guessing the model of the modem is a:
Ambit E08C013.00 Modem.

I will try the speed test everyday to see the differences.


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## Zatharus

chrisalv14 said:


> I will try the speed test everyday to see the differences.



Try it at different times throughout the day if you can.

While you are at it, log into the unit and post what your downstream and upstream statistics are.  I would still recommending calling your ISP to bring it to their attention that you are getting less than half the bandwidth you are paying for.


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## TFT

I have much the same package as you but with Karoo, it's an up to 18000 kbps ADSL2+ and my figures are very similar to yours. Because I am 2 miles away from the local exchange with copper wires connecting that is the reason for mine. I have a friend living quite close to the exchange and he gets very close to 18000 kbps. 
All connections to the exchange is fibre optic but from there out it is the old copper wire, perhaps you are in a similar situation.


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## Zatharus

TFT said:


> I have much the same package as you but with Karoo, it's an up to 18000 kbps ADSL2+ and my figures are very similar to yours. Because I am 2 miles away from the local exchange with copper wires connecting that is the reason for mine. I have a friend living quite close to the exchange and he gets very close to 18000 kbps.
> All connections to the exchange is fibre optic but from there out it is the old copper wire, perhaps you are in a similar situation.




Good point.  However, I thought Virgin Media operated on a cable system which would not be affected by distance from the hub in the same manner as DSL.


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## TFT

Zatharus said:


> Good point.  However, I thought Virgin Media operated on a cable system which would not be affected by distance from the hub in the same manner as DSL.



You could well be right, never thought it could be cable.  Living out in a small village where cable doesn't exist I tend to forget what's available to others.


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## PabloTeK

Ah the good old sticks ay Dave. For an evening those speeds are fine for cable. Virgin's network is actually pretty full so 8mb is fine. I can't even get 8mb at 03:00 in the morning!


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## TFT

PabloTeK said:


> Ah the good old sticks ay Dave. For an evening those speeds are fine for cable. Virgin's network is actually pretty full so 8mb is fine. I can't even get 8mb at 03:00 in the morning!



 Yeah I like it out in the ol hillbilly country with only the sheep for company


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## Zatharus

TFT said:


> You could well be right, never thought it could be cable.  Living out in a small village where cable doesn't exist I tend to forget what's available to others.



I hear you.  Glad you can get DSL out in the boondocks.  Much better than Satellite.  



PabloTeK said:


> Ah the good old sticks ay Dave. For an evening those speeds are fine for cable. Virgin's network is actually pretty full so 8mb is fine. I can't even get 8mb at 03:00 in the morning!



Yeah...with shared networks, it can be a crap shoot at times.  I agree.  8mb is no slouch.




TFT said:


> Yeah I like it out in the ol hillbilly country with only the sheep for company



Not the ones that climb trees I hope...


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## Aastii

Just a quick question here related to all of this:

I am on virgin 20MB too seeing similar speeds, highest i have seen is just under 10MB but it is because of the copper wire and distances.

However on my systems i never actually get 8-10MB download speeds, all of the 4 systems get max 1.3mb/s. Ofcourse this can be due to the servers we are downloading from but to give you an idea, steam, cnet, avast!, rarlabs...all give 1-1.4mb/s on each system.

When only 1 system is on (most of the time that will be mine which is hard wired to the router) it still only gets 1.4mb/s.

Is this because the servers only allow 1.4mb max for each user or is it being shared amongst the systems on the network even though not all of the systems are on? Or could it be a setting in the router?


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## Zatharus

Aastii said:


> Is this because the servers only allow 1.4mb max for each user or is it being shared amongst the systems on the network even though not all of the systems are on? Or could it be a setting in the router?



It is probably a combination of both.  Remote servers can only output so much.  Consider that with something like Steam, you are sharing that server's upload bandwidth with all the other people pulling data from it.  They very well may be capping the amount of bandwidth you can use to make the overall experience better for every user.  Also, on cable broadband systems (as apposed to DSL), you share bandwidth with all the users on your "neighborhood" hub.


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