We had been having problems with our DSL speed today. We discovered (obviously) that most of the problem was that my son was watching Netflix on our TV (through an app directly on the tv, not through a game console), which was sucking up most of our bandwidth.
But, while testing things out, we checked our Transceiver Statistics. We are getting about 3300 mbps download, but after running two different speed tests (speedtest.net and bandwidthplace.net), it seems we only ever really get about 1.5 - 1.6 mbps. This was after turning off the Netflix stream, by the way. This is basically our normal speed.
At any one time, we have 2 laptops and 2 Android phones connected to our network through a Beklin wireless router, as well as a desktop connected to the Belkin router through an ethernet cable. The tests have been consisten regardless of the number of computers running at the time, as long as they aren't doing anything with a real network load.
I don't think it's a problem with the router, because we can copy files between the computers at about 4 megabytes per second (36 megabits per second). Althought the WiFi connection says it's running at about 130 megabits per second. Maybe that's an issue with disk speed, I don't know...
Anyway, is there anything weird going on, or is it a symptom of outside network load that our speed tests are roughly half the value we see on the Transceiver Statistics for the modem?
Here is the full details from our Westell modem Transciver Statistics:
.
| Transceiver Revision: 7.1.254 | ||
| Vendor ID Code: 4 | ||
| Line Mode: G.DMT-Mode | ||
| Data Path: Interleaved | ||
| Transceiver Information | Down Stream Path | Up Stream Path |
| DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec) | 3328 | 512 |
| Margin (db) | 7.0 | 12.0 |
| Line Attenuation (db) | 42.0 | 18.5 |
| Transmit Power (db/Hz) | 14.0 | 11.0 |
Solved! Go to Correct Answer
The transceiver stats only measure the speed of the connection between your DSL Modem/Router and the Central Office Equipment. You can get the full 3mbs downlink speed with losses a lot higher than 42db I have seen it above 60db and still providing 3mbps.
However the link between your modem and the Central office is only small part of the total path between your computer and whatever internet site you are connecting too. Speed tests measure end to end, as opposed to only a small part of the message path. As a result speed tests almost always show lower performance than transceiver stats.
The best analogy is Verizon effectively only provides the on and off ramps to the Internet Superhighway. Just because the local ramp is clear is no assurance there aren't traffic jams elsewhere on the highway. The problem with most speed tests is you have no idea how your traffic was actually routed, and what constraints may be placed on it by parts of the network that Verizon has no control over.
The transceiver stats represent the best possible case. The reality is there is no shortage of issues upstream from the central office, either on, or off the Verizon network that can restrict your actual speed to considerably less than 3mbps. It is unlikely that your wiring inside the house is an issue, if it was, you would be seeing a downlink speed at less than 3mbps.
However your uplink speed seems slow. The nominal uplink for the 3mbps tier of DSL service is 768kbps, not 512kbps.
Ok, so after some reading, I think the problem is that my Line Attenuation of 42db indicates that I am a bit far from a central office, so even though I COULD be getting 3328 Kbs/Sec, the loss of signal due to my distance only getes me about 1.5 - 1.6 mbs/sec.
Although Line Attenuationmight also be a problem with the actual house wiring, right? The house is from the 70's, and the phone wiring is original, so I'm not sure how good the wiring is.
Does that about sum it up?
The transceiver stats only measure the speed of the connection between your DSL Modem/Router and the Central Office Equipment. You can get the full 3mbs downlink speed with losses a lot higher than 42db I have seen it above 60db and still providing 3mbps.
However the link between your modem and the Central office is only small part of the total path between your computer and whatever internet site you are connecting too. Speed tests measure end to end, as opposed to only a small part of the message path. As a result speed tests almost always show lower performance than transceiver stats.
The best analogy is Verizon effectively only provides the on and off ramps to the Internet Superhighway. Just because the local ramp is clear is no assurance there aren't traffic jams elsewhere on the highway. The problem with most speed tests is you have no idea how your traffic was actually routed, and what constraints may be placed on it by parts of the network that Verizon has no control over.
The transceiver stats represent the best possible case. The reality is there is no shortage of issues upstream from the central office, either on, or off the Verizon network that can restrict your actual speed to considerably less than 3mbps. It is unlikely that your wiring inside the house is an issue, if it was, you would be seeing a downlink speed at less than 3mbps.
However your uplink speed seems slow. The nominal uplink for the 3mbps tier of DSL service is 768kbps, not 512kbps.
Alright, so it sounds like this is the best i'm going to get, although I might want to call about the upload speed.
I've been thinking it's time to move on to cable to see if we can get better speeds, since FiOS isn't coming our way any time soon, as far as I can tell.
If you're getting 1.5Mbps on an idle 3Mbps connection that needs to be fixed. I can help with that if you'd like 🙂 You're probably suffering from Juniperitus (A symptom where a person on a Litespan remote is unable to achieve their rated line speed when on a Juniper ERX router). Your line is having an issue with noise, though. At your distance you should be able to do 3-5Mbps. Proper sync for your line should be 3360kbps down, 864kbps up. If you can get that addressed we'll go from there.
See if the speed is any higher at your NID when you connect the modem to the test jack found inside of most modern NIDs. Improvement of stats there may also result in attenuation going down a little bit. See this FAQ for info on what a NID is: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/1317
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