Difference between revisions of "Speed"

Revision as of 20:46, 27 September 2021

Internet service is provided to NCF members with an "up to" speed for both download and upload. This means that the actual speeds delivered may be less than the maximum "up to", for reasons that are out of NCF's control. There are many factors that may affect the actual speed of your connection, and this article will try to address the main ones.

How much speed are you getting?

A speed test result from speedtest.ncf.ca

We experience internet connection slowness in a variety of ways, with some of the most common being websites that are slow to load, streaming media (video or audio) that repeatedly pauses or is interrupted, noticeable freezing or lag during online gaming, or video conferencing that is garbled or choppy. Experiencing slowness on your internet connection can be frustrating, but there are many different possible causes of that slownes that may not be related to the actual speed of your connection. To help narrow down the underlying cause, the best course of action is to take a speed test to provide some accurate data.

Cable

For cable internet connections, your connection speed is best measured by running a speed test.

- Shared connection

- Device limitations

- Sign-up for speed faster than what you need, to give you

DSL

For DSL internet connections, your connection speed can be measured in two ways:

Your line profile speed, which your DSL modem detects and records in its line stats. Line Stats shows you how to find out what your modem records the line profile as.
Your actual achieved speed, which you can determine by running a speed test.

Line Profile Speeds

Why might your line profile be set below the maximum? Because your distance from Bell's DSL equipment or the quality of Bell's copper lines to your house cannot support a higher speed. DSL signal degrades with distance from the DSL equipment and distances over 5 KM tend to be very marginal for DSL signals. Even shorter distances can result in service instability and loss of connection at higher speeds. The cure for this is to slow down the speed to prevent disconnections

You can get some idea of your distance from the DSL equipment and whether distance is an issue for your location, by checking your line attenuation. If the attenuation is high then you are far from the DSL equipment and a lower profile is probably called for to prevent frequent disconnections.

You can see your stats as seen by NCF here. Note the date on that page that says when they were collected. The line profile speed is not necessarily the same as your speed attained.

Achieved Speeds

You will rarely see your line profile speeds reflected exactly on a speed test. There is a service "overhead" on all DSL speeds that means that actually achieved speeds are usually limited to about 85% of the line profile speed. For example, if you have a 10 Mbps download line profile speed this will mean you should see speed test download results around 8.5 Mbps. Similarly, for actually achieved upload speeds on a 800 Kbps upload line profile expect to see the speed test providing an upload speed result around 680 Kbps.

How to do a speed test

speedtest.ncf.ca.

To find the speed of your internet connection, try a speed test website and wait for the test to complete. Ideal test conditions are:

A proper test of your connection should use a wired Ethernet connection.
- If you test both Ethernet and WiFi and find a significant difference in speed then that is due to the losses and interference involved in Wi-Fi.
With only one device on your network using the internet connection.
With background internet applications and processes like cloud services (for example, iCloud, Google Drive or torrents) stopped.
With only the tab for the speed test open in your web browser.

It is normal for the download speed to be much faster than the upload speed. This is intentional, so that you are able to download big files quickly. Normal, good results for 6 Mbps service would be something like 5.2 Mbps download, and about 600 Kbps upload.

If your results are not as good as you would expect, try Troubleshooting DSL or Troubleshooting Cable for ideas on what to check to improve the performance of your connection.

Speed tests:

Note: Because different test servers are located in different geographical places their results are not comparable to each other and testing the same connection on different speed tests will provide different results. If you use a speed test to monitor your connection over time, then always use the same test.

What if the speed test shows slow speed?

For DSL internet connections, if your DSL plan provides up to 10 Mbps download speeds, and you receive speed test results greater than 8 Mbps in real world conditions, that is normal and you are receiving expected speeds. If you are receiving download download speeds in the range of 5 Mbps or lower then that may indicate a problem.

For cable internet connections, since the cable infrastructure is shared among all subscribers to cable internet in the immediate area, speed test results may vary wildly depending on the time of day you conduct the tests. This is because the more the cable infrastructure is being used, the slower it is for everyone who is using it.

The following factors may cause or contribute to slow speed with your internet connection:

Network Congestion

If you receive expected speeds in the morning and late at night, but experience slower speeds in the evenings and on weekends then the likely culprit is network congestion.

NCF has investigated DSL network congestion problems in the past and has corrected issues between the NCF network and the Bell Network at the aggregation point. NCF increases its aggregate DSL bandwidth on regular basis to remain ahead member demand, but slowdowns may still occur on the internet beyond NCF, as this article explains.

Other Users

When you performed the speed test were you the only person using your internet connection? If other people are using your connection to watch a video, stream audio, or play an online game, that activity will consume connection bandwidth and provide a slower (and inaccurate) speed test result. The best the accurancy, ensure you are running a speed test when you are sure no one else is using your internet connection.

If you don't have any encryption on your Wi-Fi, it is open to others outside your residence connecting to it and using your bandwidth. For the reason, we recommend you always encrypt your Wi-Fi traffic, which you can do by choosing the encryption type in your modem's Wi-Fi settings.

Wireless

Speeds seen when speed testing via Wi-Fi are almost always slower than via wired Ethernet connection, unless the device connected wirelessly is very close to the router. This is due to possible sources of wireless interference from other wireless networks, or materials and appliances in the vicinity. Each version of the wireless specification is faster than the last, so devices that support Wi-Fi 6 will be faster than Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4 devices. Even with an "N" protocol wireless router a laptop being used for a speed test a floor above the router will typically see half the expected speeds. With "G" protocol wireless it may be one quarter the expected speed, or worse, if there is interference from other nearby networks.

If you are not getting good speed on your wirelessly connected device then try connecting it to the router with an Ethernet cable and see if that makes a differnece. See WiFi for more information on troubleshooting WiFi performance

Modem

Any modem should provide comparable speeds on the same line, unless the modem is starting to fail. One possible sign of a failing modem is loss of speed, especially once it is warmed up and has been running for an hour or two.

Poor ventilation for a modem can cause it to overheat and slow as well, so ensure that your modem has good airflow around it.

For members receiving DSL internet service, if you suspect your DSL modem may be the issue contact our HelpDesk to arrange to borrow a loaner DSL modem to take home and test your connection with.

Web Browser

Running a speed test on an older web browser will often provide slow results, because the browser itself is out-dated and slow. Make sure your web browser is updated to its latest version to ensure that your web browser isn't limiting your speed test results.

Some browsers don't necessarily work well or fast and can produce slow results, particularly some versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Try a better browser:

Apple Safari for macOS
Brave for Linux, macOS, and Windows
Chromium for BSD and Linux
Gnome Web (formerly called "Epiphany") for Linux
Google Chrome for BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows
Midori for BSD, Linux and Windows
Mozilla Firefox for BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows
Mozilla SeaMonkey for BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows
SRWare Iron for BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows
Vivaldi for Linux, macOS, and Windows

Operating System

An aging or malfunctioning operating system will not provide accurate speed test results. Microsoft Windows, in particular, can slow down over time and can turn in poor results.

This can easily be tested by running a speed test on another device and comparing speedtest results, or booting up another operating system and testing using that. A simple, RAM-based operating system, like Puppy Linux is easy to boot into RAM and, with its included Firefox browser, can conduct a speed test. If the result is faster than normal, then the operating system is probably the culprit.

Computer Hardware

It is also possible that your computer's network or wireless card is failing and producing slow speeds. The easiest way to test this is by using another device to conduct a speed test and then compare the results. Different devices connecting the same way and using the same speed test should see similar results.

If nothing works

If none of these hints manages to resolve unexplained slow speed, then your next step should be Troubleshooting.

External links

The bandwidth bottleneck that is throttling the Internet, by Jeff Hecht, Nature

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 ==What if the speed test shows slow speed?==
-If you are on a profile with up to 10 Mbps download and you are seeing speed test results above 8 Mbps in real world conditions that is normal. If you are getting download speeds in the range of 5 Mbps or lower then that may indicate a problem. It could be due to any one of a number of problems:
+For DSL internet connections, if your DSL plan provides up to 10 Mbps download speeds, and you receive speed test results greater than 8 Mbps in real world conditions, that is normal and you are receiving expected speeds. If you are receiving download download speeds in the range of 5 Mbps or lower then that may indicate a problem.
+For cable internet connections, since the cable infrastructure is shared among all subscribers to cable internet in the immediate area, speed test results may vary wildly depending on the time of day you conduct the tests. This is because the more the cable infrastructure is being used, the slower it is for everyone who is using it.
+The following factors may cause or contribute to slow speed with your internet connection:
 ===Network Congestion===
-If you get expected speeds in the morning and late at night, but experience slower speeds in the evenings and on weekends then the likely culprit is network congestion. NCF has investigated network congestion problems in the past has corrected issues between the NCF network and the Bell Network at the aggregation point.
+If you receive expected speeds in the morning and late at night, but experience slower speeds in the evenings and on weekends then the likely culprit is network congestion.
-Today NCF increases its DSL bandwidth on regular basis to stay ahead member demand, but slowdowns still occur on the internet beyond NCF, as [http://www.nature.com/news/the-bandwidth-bottleneck-that-is-throttling-the-internet-1.20392 this article] explains.
+NCF has investigated DSL network congestion problems in the past and has corrected issues between the NCF network and the Bell Network at the aggregation point. NCF increases its aggregate DSL bandwidth on regular basis to remain ahead member demand, but slowdowns may still occur on the internet beyond NCF, as [http://www.nature.com/news/the-bandwidth-bottleneck-that-is-throttling-the-internet-1.20392 this article] explains.
 ===Other Users===