A little experiment

[NewsreadeR]

Original idea at thinkbroadband.com :: Are you Congested or Capped?


BT effectively rent Sky, ADSLMAX, which Sky then rebadge as Connect. What this little experiment does is try to prove or explain how much the internet is been throttled or controlled by Ellacoya's, which is known as Traffic Shaping

This should hopefully also prove that if you are experiencing slow speeds during peak hours, that either your Exchange is experiencing congestion or in fact you are being Traffic Shaped.

Ok, the easy part, try and download this file - Right click on and then save as:

http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blu...s/ig3-demo.exe (this is a game demo)

Watch the speed on this download for a few minutes, this allows for the connection to get to its fastest speed.

After a few minutes, record your speed. (Just cancel, and then delete the file once it has finished downloading) or cancel the download if it is very slow.

Once you have recorded that speed, we need to try and download the exact same file using FTP, - Right click on and then save as:

ftp://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blue...s/ig3-demo.exe

This is exactly the same file, on exactly the same website.

Repeat the exercise of downloading and then record the speed that you reach after a few minutes.

Then post your results below in the form of:

Sky Connection: Connect / Base / Mid / Max (use the one that you are on)
Exchange: The name of your exchange ( do not put your phone number)
Http Download speed: (This will be the figure from your first download)
FTP Download speed: (This will be the figure from your second download)

Explanations:

If your exchange is congested your download speed for both files should be roughly the same. ( unless you are on Base, Mid or MAX - which you should always expect to be roughly the same) Remember that Congestion is BT's fault and not Sky, as BT provide the hardware.

If on Connect your second result (FTP) is a lot faster than your first result (HTTP) this will possibly indicate Traffic Shaping from BT or Sky. ( We know Sky do on Connect)

We have been trying this as a test and on MAX, we have experienced exactly the same speeds for HTTP and FTP, which to me proves that MAX is not being shaped. Also bear in mind that LLU products do not tend to suffer from contention.

Also bear in mind that BT possibly shape the traffic before it even gets on to Sky's Network. Sky / Easynet do not deny that they use Ellacoya's

This is not a conclusive test, but should help to show you the differences in products that Sky offer.

Also please only post in this thread in the above format, so we can keep all the data in one place.

[NewsreadeR]

Sky Connection: Max
Exchange: Marshalls Cross
Http Download speed: Approx 790KB/sec
FTP Download speed: Approx 770KB/sec

[peterco]

Sky Connection: Mid
Exchange: Alloa (ESALL)
Http Download speed: 746KB/sec
FTP Download speed 732KB/sec


pete

[newskyBOd]

i know i have been capped because of the distance from the exchange but at 3 times the speed of my previous isp and unlimited and no throttling its fantastic

Down Up
SNR (dB): 6.4 13.0
Attn(dB): 48.0 31.0
Pwr(dBm): 19.6 10.4
Max(Kbps): 6944 1152
Rate (Kbps): 6336 768

[Alan b]

Sky Connection: Connect
Exchange: Foxhall
Http Download: 745kb/sec
Ftp Download: 637kb/sec

[Keiran2K8]

Sky Connection: Max
Exchange: Redditch
Http Download speed: 949kB/
FTP Download speed: 1.4mB/

EDIT - Retest! Just PC Connected.

[Luffer]

Sky Connection: MAX
Exchange: Hailsham
Http Download speed: 1.34MB/s
FTP Download speed 840KB/sec

[dtr44]

sky connection : max
exchange : wshal
http :1102kbps
ftp : 1125 kbps

[Limey_13]

Sky Connection: Max
Exchange: Welwyn garden City
Http Download speed: Approx 850KB/sec
FTP Download speed: Approx 850KB/sec

[dholdi]

Sky Connection: Max
Exchange: Ribbleton
Http Download speed: Approx 1.37MB/sec
FTP Download speed: Approx 1.36MB/sec